It’s often hard putting together trust in the pursuit of justice.
After dealing with cases involving trust between partners, the Blue Bloods gang had to face even more issues in how to trust things to work out.
Danny had a reunion with Sonny Le, a local gang leader he’d clashed with before. Danny had hoped Sonny could turn over a new leaf, but the man tested that belief on a case.
Frank and Mayor Chase (Dylan Walsh) once more clashed over a cop’s behavior which had Moore again worried he was being cut from Frank’s inner circle.
Erin had to face how her rekindled romance with ex-husband Jack (Peter Hermann) might cause problems in her campaign.
Meanwhile, Jamie was thrown that a new investigation hit pretty close to home.
Thus, Poetic Justice had each of the Reagans seeing just how far trust could go when compared to their jobs.
An old face makes a return
On the street, a man (Ari Brand) was surrounded by a gang as Sonny Lee (Alex Duong) beat him down.
Mayor Chase was walking with his entourage when he met a man who’d been harassing him. The man was arrested and led off.
Frank watched the video of the arrest as the man was Stokes, an off-duty police officer who’d already been released. Frank figured that was it, but Moore warned him the public might not want the officer showing what it’s like to have a camera shoved in your face.
Frank wasn’t looking for a fight with the mayor, “but I won’t back down from one.”
Danny and Baez talked to the beating victim, Sam Isaac, who had no idea why he’d been attacked. He identified Sonny with Danny recognizing the man.
Jamie met with Fleming, who was concerned about Jamie having a conflict on a case. He played an audio tape between Malcolm Argus (Matthew Piazzi), a known drug dealer, telling an accomplice about a cop working on a specific date and sector. Among the names working there with Eddie and Badillo.
Danny and Baez saw a video of Sonny leading his gang in the beating. Anthony dropped by to talk about Erin, with Danny ready to walk right on the spot. Anthony said Jack wanted Erin to meet billionaire Warren Bradford to help Erin’s campaign.
The issue was the pair were with two known mob figures at lunch, the last people someone running for D.A. would want to be associated with. Danny told Anthony the problem was Jack defending lots of people like this.
Jamie brought Eddie to a room to show her Argus’ photo and she quickly realized this had to be about his job. He was evasive as she said she didn’t know the guy.
Chase wanted Stokes fired, with Frank saying that wasn’t his job and there was no real grounds for getting rid of a cop. If anything, Stokes just proved his point on how it felt being filmed and harassed all the time.
Frank admitted he didn’t like Stokes’ method but understood his actions. He said there was nothing to do, but Chase was intent on punishing Stokes.
Baez teased Danny on his attempts to get Sonny on a different path. They found him at a park as cops surrounded the place to arrest him and his gang.
In the car, Sonny said the victim had this coming. They stopped as they saw someone lying on the ground, only to realize it was a trap as Sonny’s gang rode up on motorcycles to whisk him off.
Frank vs. the Mayor Round 27
Danny was irate about losing Sonny as Baez said they could find him. When Sonny called, Danny yelled at him as Sonny said his crew had just overreacted. He also said Isaac deserved the beating for attacking Vietnamese women in Sonny’s neighborhood.
Danny wanted Sonny to come in and tell him this in person, but Sonny said he’d already sent an email on this.
Jamie confronted Fleming on how he wanted to help but thought this was all a test for him. He figured Fleming didn’t want him there and was concerned this was also a set-up.
Fleming revealed that he was the one who wanted Jamie in the unit, as he’d recognized his talents for years. He knew Eddie wasn’t dirty but wasn’t sure about Badillo.
The email was affidavits from the victims, with Danny impressed Sonny put this together himself and even supplied a video of Isaac beating a woman.
Moore had to say, “I told you so,” as Chase had taken his complaint to the civilian review board to fire Stokes. He was upset that Frank had made a one-day story into a week-long one. Sid and Baker backed up Stokes and when Moore warned them of losing this fight, Frank asked, “who said anything about losing?”
Anthony was following Jack in hopes of seeing him with a new mobster. Instead, he saw Jack and Erin kissing outside a diner.
Baez suggested Danny’s words had affected Sonny helping the police. He gave them another hand in the form of Isaacs bound and gagged by a car as Danny and Baez mused on Sonny’s style.
The pair had no luck finding anyone in the neighborhood willing to talk to them as Danny figured some local gamblers could be a good bet.
Anthony was waiting in Erin’s office as he’d actually had the photo of her and Jack framed. She wasn’t happy about him staking Jack out as he warned her about Jack’s connections. He said that the moment Erin declared for D.A., people even worse than him would be looking into her life.
He threw down the photos of Jack and the mobsters as he said, “you should know who you’re getting into bed with.”
Eddie told Jamie that Badillo had arrested Argus nearly a half-dozen times in the past, which had Jamie interested.
Danny talked to the gambling circle on Sonny, which only produced laughter. He left his card as a pack of cops broke up the gambling group and would stay that way until Sonny was found.
While the civilian board found in favor of Chase, he knew they had no real authority to fire Stokes. Frank said that he liked Chase, but they had to be “separate but equal-ish.”
Frank pointed out that firing Stokes would cause beef with the police unions Chase wouldn’t want. He was going to suspend Stokes and he’d met the man but disagreed with him breaking Frank’s golden rule: “two wrongs don’t make a right.
Erin makes a tough choice
Sonny decided to turn himself in to get Danny to back off.
Erin met Jack, who realized they weren’t having dinner and this was a breakup. He wanted to make the most of what they had as Erin showed the photo of them together and told him about Anthony.
Erin knew Anthony was right that Jack’s connections would cast a shadow on her campaign. He insisted they could make it work, but Erin told him sorry and walked away.
Sonny was already arguing he never planned an escape and it might even be kidnapping. He also pointed out the media would love a story about the local Vietnamese kid seeking justice for the man attacking his neighborhood.
Sonny said he appreciated Danny looking out for him, he just had to do it his way. Danny understood but he couldn’t let Sonny skate on an assault charge.
He did introduce FBI agent Tommy Wong (Roger Anthony), who said if Sonny became an undercover operative, the charges would be dropped. Danny let them hash it out as he wondered once more about getting through to Sonny.
While there were records of Argus calling Badillo, they were only seconds long and Jamie realized Argus knew he was being recorded and used it to try and frame Badillo. Fleming said Jamie had proven he belonged in this unit.
Anthony dropped some files off to Erin, thinking there was now a distance between them. She appreciated him looking out for her, but he did it a bit too much. Anthony fired back that he didn’t let other people in and was an “all-or-nothing guy.”
Erin admitted she had overreacted and knew someone would have found out about her and Jack. “I suck at some things, you suck at others, but together, we don’t suck as much.” Anthony accepted it as they exchanged a fun handshake.
Of course, Chase took credit for Stokes’ suspension as Moore was impressed at how well Frank handled this. However, he wasn’t happy about Frank cutting him off. “I’m supposed to be your right hand, not your drinking buddy.”
Frank noted Moore seemed to take pushback as his new response to anything he did and sometimes Moore being in the dark was meant to happen.
Moore snapped Frank was just treading water to get his own way as Frank said that was part of his play. He pressed that he truly couldn’t do this without Moore.
At the Reagan dinner, the family played a game asking questions. When asked what his greatest blessing was, Frank of course, said these dinners. The question to Erin was about the love of her life, with her response just dumping the cards.
It was a unique episode showing the Reagans’ sense of duty even as Erin faced a tough romantic trial.
Blue Bloods Season 13 returns Friday January 6 at 10/9c on CBS.