[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 2, “Dropping Bombs.”]
What if Frank Reagan retires from the NYPD because times are changing? Blue Bloods Season 14 Episode 2 hinted that Tom Selleck‘s character’s job could be on the line with the introduction of a new plan from Mayor Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh).
Mayor Chase reveals in a news interview at the top of the episode that he’s considering replacing the singular Police Commissioner position, Frank’s long-held title, with a Commission of Police. This would be a five-person committee comprised of experienced and diverse members of the police force. Chase makes it clear that he doesn’t want to replace Frank, rather he implies Frank could be one of the committee’s five members. But why make this move after the two connected in the Season 14 premiere? Perhaps this is Chase’s solution for Frank feeling “lonely at the top,” as they said in Episode 1.
Frank is none too thrilled by this possibility. It’s sprung on him in a press conference, and his immediate response is to call it a “terrible idea.” This leads to some choice words exchanged in Frank’s office. “What the hell were you thinking?” Chase says the second he walks in. “Back at you,” Frank replies. They can’t to see eye-to-eye on this, as it’s directly tied to a fundamental disagreement in how the police should function.
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Chase resents Frank’s implication that he’s “preventing [him] from keeping crime down.” “What I said was that current policy makes it difficult to keep crime down … the current system is a revolving door for criminals. That’s the truth.” Chase shoots back that Frank is “looking to spread blame on anyone but your cops.” After all, it is their sole job to keep crime at bay. Frank argues that city policies prevent them from doing their jobs well.
“Stand up with me and demand with me that we turn back the clock on measures that allow repeat offenders to go free,” Frank urges the mayor, who says he needs to learn how to keep his “mouth shut.” The mayor leaves the conversation saying that someone has to hold Frank accountable for the NYPD and their effectiveness (or lack thereof). “It’s a tough job. Someone has to do it,” he days before storming out.
Frank stirs the pot more in a press conference about the yearly crime statistics. He makes fun of Chase’s idea when saying, “I have always held that if your aim is to block innovation and stifle results, just put a committee in charge.” Another journalist cites Frank’s love of Teddy Roosevelt, whom she points out was the President of the New York Board of Police Commissioners, never the sole Commissioner himself.
“If it was good enough for him,” she asks, why not for Frank? He notes that the mayor hasn’t asked explicitly asked him to be on this hypothetical board and that Roosevelt replaced the board with a single commissioner “as soon as he became governor.” In a meeting with Chase later on, Frank tries to clear the air.
There was no “committee to water [the mayor] down” to “try to confuse” him when he was running for mayor. Chase’s perspective on the committee becomes more clear when he replies, “That was an election, now it’s a job. And only a fool would try to do it all on his own.”
He says Frank makes it heart to work together, but it does seem that Chase is trying to help the lonely-at-the-top Frank. Sharing the load of responsibility with other cops with differing experiences could produce new and helpful solutions to old problems. But what if Frank can’t evolve with the times? Will he come around to this idea of teamwork, or will his resistance to change eventually push him out of his job? Alternatively, perhaps he’ll realize down the line that stepping aside to allow a new class of leaders step up is a good reason to retire.
Whatever ending the series decides on, it seems Frank will continue to face these existential questions to his position throughout Blue Bloods‘ final season.
Blue Bloods, Fridays, 10/9c, CBS