10×09 Grave Errors

While working a case of a nanny accused of abuse, Erin disagrees with the psychiatric consultant, Dr Alice Dornan (Jennifer Bowles), regarding her diagnosis and punishment suggestion. Also, Eddie confronts her boss who has a personal vendetta against the commissioner and the Reagan family name; Mayor Peter Chase (Dylan Walsh) pushes Frank to make staffing changes he is sceptical about; and Danny goes undercover on a case when a woman claims to have heard someone plotting a murder, on BLUE BLOODS.

CBS Press Release

Initial Thoughts

These are my thoughts on the ninth episode of season 10. Much of it is my interpretation of what is not said and may exist purely in my imagination. If you agree or disagree please let me know as I’d still love to hear from you regardless. I just ask that you’re polite. It’d be great to debate ideas and see what interesting theories emerge.

Revisiting the story of Eddie’s continuously grumpy boss. There had been a brief smile just before the end of Behind the Smile but overall Sgt McNichols had been determined to have the worst take on everything Eddie did. This episode addresses the reason for her obvious attitude…The storyline doesn’t allow Jamie and Eddie much screentime together (which might be due to when the episode was filmed, as Will Estes celebrated his birthday during the filming of this episode), but it does take the opportunity to show Jamie being supportive whilst also being mindful of Eddie’s ability to deal with the problem she’s faced with.

Scene by Scene Breakdown

Driven to Distraction

In Behind the Smile, it had already been shown how much McNichols disliked Eddie, and it’s clearly still the case with her seemingly barely tolerating Eddie’s presence. McNichols doesn’t trust Eddie’s ability as a driver, and she doesn’t want to get to know Eddie as a person. McNichols is belittling Eddie and making it clear she doesn’t feel that Eddie is worth her time or attention.

Sweet Support

Jamie can be so supportive while still keeping it humorous. Throughout their conversation, he’s constantly talking positively about Eddie while also trying to make her laugh. During this conversation they’re pushing the limits they place on themselves while at work, but Jamie obviously feels that at this point Eddie needs his support as her husband rather than just another sergeant. Their final exchange of “I love you” and “Be safe”, seems a reasonable reflection of what they do for a living, and that Eddie’s main concern is for Jamie’s wellbeing during his shift.

Revelation

This is Eddie’s first time of dealing with someone who has an issue with her because she’s part of the Reagan family, although the fact that Eddie says Janko suggests she is probably expecting that McNichols has an issue with her dad. It’s easy for her to imagine someone having a problem with Armin, while she would never expect a member of the NYPD to dislike Frank in the same way.

At least McNichols acknowledges that Eddie is a good cop, even if she does it begrudgingly, but it leaves the question of why she decided to assign Eddie to be her driver for several shifts. Had she originally hoped to find something she could use against Eddie? Or was she aiming to force Eddie to request a transfer by making the midnight shift too unpleasant?

Reagan Family Dinner

Couldn’t help but think about the award for Best Fake Chewer during the opening of this scene. Having found the chicken not to be to his liking, and despite never being responsible for the main course of Sunday dinner, Jamie is questioning the quality of the food (although it is funny to think he got the portion intended for Danny). Maybe Eddie’s gentle reproach to compliment the chef will lead to her trying to subtly suggest that Jamie should be cooking if he’s going to comment on everyone else’s attempts…Meanwhile, we are still waiting for the day that Jamie actually cooks Sunday dinner.

There’s a nice flow to the scene as the discussion bounces around while managing to start and end with Sean’s desire for an increase in his allowance, and Frank offers his key piece of advice for money management. That “you can sleep in your car, but you can’t drive your house”, which was last heard in season 2’s A Night on the Town. During all of that, Eddie demonstrates her contribution to the family. While the rest of the family are letting Frank get away with his obfuscation, it’s her question that provides the push to make Frank open up about his problems at work.

A Secret Exchange

Considering how long this series has been on the air, it’s great when they’re able to do something new. It’s so rare to get a scene that features two of the regular female characters, but this shows how good they can be. (It’s also another great excuse to get Baker out of the office)

This conversation between Eddie and Baker makes so much sense, Eddie wants to find out what McNichols’ issue is, and no-one is better placed than Baker to provide the information she needs. This is one of those small ways in which Eddie does now have a different working life, only as a member of the Reagan family does she have a direct line to Baker.

An Understanding

Eddie took a risk with her story, but everything about McNichols had shown that she was extremely defensive, and wasn’t going to open up to Eddie. She’d already told Eddie to keep quiet, so Eddie needed to find a way which meant she would be allowed to speak. Eddie does it by playing on McNichols dislike of the Reagans, it would have been one of the main reasons McNichols would have ever been willing to believe that Jamie could do anything like that.

It’s a tragic aspect of domestic abuse that many victims feel powerless but aren’t able to place the blame on their partners. Certainly, how McNichols blames Frank, and by extension, the rest of the Reagans, for what happened to her is likely to be a coping mechanism (although not a particularly healthy one). It would have seemed easier to her to blame someone remote and untouchable for what was happening, which would’ve have worked up until the point where Eddie was assigned to her squad. It doesn’t excuse the fact that McNichols then used her position to make life difficult for Eddie, but it does help to understand what was going through her head. Realistically it’ll take a lot more than a quick chat in the RMP for McNichols to deal with her issues, but at least she’s been shown to acknowledge that the problem exists.

Final Thoughts

In Behind the Smile, it was fairly obvious that McNichols saw Eddie as a problem because of her associations with the Reagans. Although that seemed mainly to focus on her thinking that Eddie expected special treatment. Here the real issue is revealed and resolved, in some ways it’s quite quick with it being only McNichols second appearance, but Eddie will have been working for her for several months so within the Blue Bloods timeline it makes sense. The issues behind McNichols feelings about the Reagans are really complicated, and the format of this type of drama means that they’re resolved in the simplest way possible. It all seems wrapped up very quickly, and the arc of the story seems to imply this is the conclusion, but have to wait and see if it’s revisited in a future episode.

This episode is similar to Higher Standards, in that it shows that when an episode only has a couple of scenes between Jamie and Eddie, it’s easier for it to focus solely on the positives and strengths of their relationship, without the need for any disagreements. Although their screentime was brief it still provided some wonderful moments, which is something to be grateful for.