'Blue Bloods' Season 11 Episode 2: Will Frank's secret relationship with his grandson Joe Hill be out soon?
Spoilers for ‘Blue Bloods’ Season 11 Episode 2, ‘In the Name of the Father’
The first episode of ‘Blue Bloods’ Season 11 saw a lot go down. Commissioner Francis ‘Frank’ Xavier Reagan (Tom Selleck) and City Council Speaker Regina Thomas (returning guest star Whoopi Goldberg) were at loggerheads with each other over police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. At the same time, Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Detective Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), while following a lead for the Madelaine Gleeson case, found themselves attacked and trapped in a basement for several hours.
So, what is next? Titled, ‘In the Name of the Father’, the official synopsis of the episode read, “Danny and Jamie combine forces to convict a notorious drug lord, as Erin (Bridget Moynahan) nervously awaits the Governor’s selection for the new District Attorney. Also, Frank and his grandson, Joe Hill, face a difficult decision as they navigate their new and complicated family ties.”
CBS released two sneak-peeks for the episode. In the first one, we see Danny and Anthony Abetemarco (Steve Schirripa) banter it out while the former arrives at the DA’s office to collect a warrant. As one would recall, Anthony is a senior detective for the DA's Investigations Unit who assists Erin with her cases. And he and Danny have always shared a rather testy relationship. Danny comes to Anthony presumably because Erin is busy -- as is mentioned in the synopsis, she is awaiting the Governor’s selection for the new District Attorney.
The other clip is a lot more interesting. We see Frank and Joe in a conversation and that is a fairly complicated relationship right there! At the end of Season 10, Joe was introduced. He is Joe Reagan's son with Paula Hill, a classmate at the Police Academy who dropped out after learning she was pregnant, without ever letting Joe know about the baby. Joe Reagan had been killed by corrupt cops before the show's story began. The Reagan family did not learn of his existence until Sean (Danny and Linda's younger son, played by Andrew Terraciano), in a school project on family ancestry, took a DNA test that revealed a hit on a male first cousin.
It appears that Joe is interested in a position and he approaches Frank for it. But Frank is worried that in the process, it might get out that Joe is his grandson. Getting to know Joe Hill "is stunningly huge and very emotional for Frank," said Selleck in an interview with TV Insider earlier. "Frank has always carried a certain amount of guilt [over son Joe's death] because of his sense of responsibility. Though he didn't give the order for the job Joe was on, he [feels he] ordered him into harm's way. So meeting his grandson is kind of a second chance."
For Joe, things seem challenging on many fronts right now. The fact that he actively chooses not to attend the Reagan Sunday family dinners would suggest that he is keeping his distance from his newly-discovered family. And if that is the case, him being Frank’s grandson getting out would be at the very least an inconvenience for him. Not to mention, a possible scandal for the Reagan family in general.
‘Blue Bloods’ Season 11 premiered on December 4, 2020, with a new episode ‘Triumph Over Trauma’ at 10 pm ET on CBS Network. Catch more episodes every Friday.