CBS procedural Blue Bloods returned from its hiatus with the fifth episode of the 14th and final season, which was titled “Bad Faith.” In this episode, Jamie butted heads with his superior, Frank dealt with a tricky political situation, and Danny and Erin both handled investigated cases with mob connections. Here's all you need to know about Blue Bloods Season 14, episode 5, with a recap, review, and the ending explained.
Keep reading for a recap and review of this episode. Warning: Spoilers ahead.
This week’s Blue Bloods episode continues a major theme of Season 14
One of the primary themes of the 14th season of Blue Bloods is the appearance of recurring characters from previous seasons. This allows the writers to wrap up key storylines while allowing fans to see some of their favorite guests appear one last time before the Reagans bid farewell.
That theme continued in this episode as a disgraced law enforcement officer returned along with a former criminal Danny had run-ins with in the past. Without further ado, let's discuss what happened in season 14, episode five of Blue Bloods.
What happened in this episode?
This week's episode of Blue Bloods featured three key storylines: Frank’s handling of an attempt by the local Teamsters chapter to unionize the NYPD, Erin and Anthony's investigation of illegal horse betting practices with fatal results, and Jamie's investigation of a local drug gang.
The unionization battle is one of the rare instances where Frank appears indecisive and doesn't seem to stick to one consistent set of principles. First, he tells the Dream Team that he privately agrees unionization could be a good thing for his officers. He notes that having the powerful Teamsters brotherhood behind them would offer more leverage to improve the lives of the men and women in his department.
Frank meets with Terry Friendly, the leader of the Teamsters with whom he has a long history. At this meeting, Frank appears skeptical of Friendly's intentions and motivation. He indicates his unwillingness to support unionization.
When Garrett learns of Frank's meeting with Friendly, he hits the roof. Garrett's viewpoint is on the optics as usual, and his position is that Frank can't publicly meet with a powerful leader that his boss, the mayor, opposes.
On the surface, Erin's case this week seems to be a straightforward situation regarding corruption in horse racing. However, it quickly goes much deeper than that, as Erin is pressured by a powerful figure to force a witness into testifying despite credible threats to his life. The witness was Don Voorhees, an admittedly detestable figure in earlier seasons who is a disgraced former parole officer.
Erin ultimately finds a way to make the case without requiring testimony from Voorhees, just as the disgraced parole officer comes around to the idea of testifying and thanks Erin for giving him a chance to atone for past mistakes. At the end of the episode, though, we learned that Voorhees was murdered so he wouldn’t talk.
Jamie's case of the week revolves around a local chop shop, cars that are being tracked and robbed, and two rival drug gangs. Similar to Erin's case, Jamie also faces pressure from his superiors. In this case, Jamie is ordered to stand down as his unit does not have the resources to investigate a case with limited direct evidence and witnesses who are unreliable at best and uncooperative.
Jamie disobeys his superior’s commands and pursues the case anyway, seeing an opportunity to make a major bust. Jamie ultimately convinces the owner of the chop shop to cooperate and takes down both gangs simultaneously.
Jamie goes to meet with his commanding officer, Lieutenant Fleming, prepared to accept the consequences of his disobedience. However, he's surprised to learn that he is, in fact, being promoted, with Fleming commending him for doing what he thought was right, trusting his instincts, and ultimately successfully closing a big case.
Danny and Baez ran into an old friend this week. That was Sonny, the former mob leader whom Danny had mentored and helped to turn his life around. The case begins as Danny and Baez investigate a brutal beating that is likely related to a protection racket run by the local mob.
The detectives interview Sonny, only for Danny to get it in his head that the former criminal is lying to them because he's back up to his old tricks and is actually running the mob racket and handing out the beatdowns.
Sonny is angry at first and becomes reluctant to help, ultimately agreeing to do so in order to prove that he's not the same man that he was when he was committing crimes. He agrees to wear a wire and is able to catch the perp in the act by working with Danny and Baez.
Blue Bloods Season 14, episode five review
Surprisingly, Frank's storyline was one of the weaker plot points in this episode. Typically, Frank navigates challenging political situations by sticking firmly to his core values and beliefs. He has a moral code that guides him and he typically follows it, which serves him well.
In this case, though, Frank appeared hesitant to take a stand. At some points, he seemed to agree with the NYPD joining the Teamsters while at other points he appeared starkly against it. He told his family that he had mixed feelings, which might have been the most honest opinion he had.
It was great to see Jamie get to do some detective work, and he excelled in the role. Meanwhile, Danny and Erin both faced roadblocks in their respective cases but ultimately found what they needed the evidence they needed to arrest the culprits. If Erin had any thoughts about running for office again, her experience working with the US attorney likely reminded her of the dark side of politics and power.
Danny showed character growth and maturity by admitting that he was wrong about Sonny's character. Overall, this was another strong entry into the series that did an excellent job of wrapping up the stories of some popular guest characters.
We'll see what else is in store for the Reagans as Season 14 continues.
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