06×01 Worst Case Scenario

We’re now so close to the season 12 premiere. For completeness, I’m turning my attention to the season six premiere in which Jamie and Eddie only played a small part. It’s the only one of their premieres I hadn’t written about yet, and it was a challenge to find something meaningful to say about it.

Frank goes on high alert when a threat to New York City may be imminent following a terrorist attack in the Middle East, on the sixth season premiere of BLUE BLOODS

CBS Press Release

Initial Thoughts

These are my thoughts on the premiere episode of season six. A lot 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 thought-provoking theories emerge.

This feels like a case of prioritising the need to involve everyone in the same storyline over actually giving them something meaningful to do. Jamie and Eddie’s part of the story is a minor subplot: there’s no point where they’re driving their investigation. It requires the external influence of Frank to bring them back in and give them a reason to take part in a final scene.

Scene by Scene Breakdown

Club Interview

In response to the waitress’s call, Jamie and Eddie arrive at the club: the use of the location immediately creates an atmosphere and sense of time passing as the lights are gradually turned off. Eddie leads most of the interview while questioning, even judging, whether they can trust their witness. Eddie wonders aloud how reliable she is due to how she takes the edge off of working at the venue, to which she replies, “I called you”. Later in the episode, when Jamie visits 1PP, this conversation is practically repeated word for word as he mentions the witness probably drinks to take the edge off, and Frank points out that she called them. Sometimes echoing an earlier exchange can be a creative way of reminding the audience of an earlier scene, but it doesn’t feel entirely successful here.

Caught on Camera

Checking the surveillance footage from the club for clues, both Jamie and Eddie catch the strange response from the manager when they ask if there are more cameras. After a silent conversation, Eddie walks away with Lacey, and Jamie remains to take the lead in getting the video they need. Generally, Jamie will be quite amiable when speaking to a potential witness, but he’s brusque with the manager due to her attempt to hide something. Of course, the additional camera is later found to have provided critical evidence.

1PP Priority

Jamie’s been called up to 1PP with apparently no hint as to why he’s there. Frank is entrusting him with gaining more information on the bomber so they can track him down.

This request is necessary to give Jamie and Eddie some reason to continue their subplot. They have no agency of their own, there was no reason to keep following their part of the story, so it’s now having to be jump-started. This highlights how limited their role is within this episode.

The interaction is required to reintroduce Jamie and Eddie to the story, even though it could equally have been achieved through a phone call. Bringing Jamie to 1PP has to serve another purpose. One possibility is that Jamie’s arrival provides an outsider’s perspective on the hustle and bustle at 1PP as the camera gives us his view of the activity and tension. For Frank and his team, what’s going on at 1PP is expected, but it seems to be a shock for Jamie and re-emphasises how significant the threat is considered to be. All shown through Jamie’s reactions as he stops to watch through the window.

With episodes like Unwritten Rules and Forgive and Forget or Righting Wrongs, we know it isn’t that unusual for Frank to ask Jamie for a favour: he trusts Jamie to take action when he can’t. Frank is relying on the understanding Jamie and Eddie already have of their witness. Unfortunately, Jamie then warns Frank that their witness might not be reliable, and we hear a virtual repeat of Eddie’s conversation with Lacey.

Revisiting the Club

Following the visit to 1PP, there’s a definite urgency to Jamie and Eddie’s cross-examination. There’s a tangible sense of time being short, with the rapid-fire questioning and the different ways they coach Lacey to provide the clues they need.

Jamie and Eddie work as a team to draw out the additional details the witness has. Ultimately, they find the clue that Danny needs to confront the bomber – although the real clue is in the images they’d previously taken from the security camera. There’s still a fair bit of guesswork involved in identifying which location is the target, but it helped to narrow down the possibilities. It is a case of the necessary information being passed on just in time. But what really makes the scene work so well is the pacing of the dialogue as it sets the tempo to lead into Danny’s confrontation with the bomber.

Final Thoughts

As a sign of how lean Jamie and Eddie’s story is, both the establishing shots at the bar show their RMP parked outside, but we never see them near it. Plus, all of Eddie’s scenes take place within the club.

Their storyline is an integral part of the main plot, but it’s not necessarily vital as it could have happened off-camera and the relevant information given as needed onscreen. For example, Sid providing Frank with an update at 1PP or when Baez briefs Danny on details from the club. This isn’t unusual even in season 11’s More Than Meets the Eye Jamie and Eddie’s story was a subplot to Frank’s that wasn’t vital to progressing the story, and there was no visible interaction between the two elements. Although this story is really brief, it’s more substantial than More Than Meets the Eye; Lacey is a better-developed character than the fairly forgettable journalist. Perhaps it’s helped by using the club as a location, which creates more atmosphere than the clinical stores and the hallway of the 29th precinct.

Although their contribution to the episode is relatively minor, there was still time to include small character moments. There is so much energy in their questioning, it feels decisive and fast-paced. It feels a little unfair to keep comparing it to More Than Meets the Eye, but the recent episode feels so stilted in comparison: while Worst Case Scenario demonstrates that it isn’t the brevity of the scenes that causes this. Currently, it’s impossible to get any sense of what Jamie and Eddie’s contribution will be to Hate is Hate. But based on what’s known so far, it should be a personal story for them.