It took an entire season for Boston Blue to truly come into its own, only for it to reach its dramatic peak right on time for the midseason finale. Episode 9, titled "Collateral Damage," marks the last time we'll see Danny and Lena for a couple of months, and it's a strange place to leave it—not only because nine isn't the natural midpoint of a twenty-episode season, but also because, for the first time, I'm genuinely invested in what happens next.
The tone is undoubtedly shifting. Even the family dinners are tense this week. All that happy-clappy nonsense is being set aside as things continue to go increasingly poorly for everyone, which is obviously a good thing. The subplots are starting to intertwine as well, which also helps.
For instance, the whole business with the corrupt ADA, resulting in all of his prior convictions being thrown out, including the murderer of Mae's husband, sends Jonah on a downward spiral that affects his relationships with both Sarah and Sean. Both are trying to keep him from making an incredibly detrimental error in seeking revenge for himself, but his complete refusal to listen leaves us with a massive cliffhanger.
You could argue that Jonah is irritating in this episode, but I think it does a fairly decent job of articulating his mindset. He and Sean are both intended to be rash and impulsive—Sean shows a bit more maturity here, but his dating a felon, who shows up again here, has the same sort of whiff of youth about it—and they highlight how their much more buttoned-up parents and siblings have honed their demeanor through long careers in law enforcement.
Boston Blue Episode 9 cleverly doesn't reveal the details of the shooting that ends the episode. It's very much staged to look like Jonah is guilty of shooting Ronan Flaherty dead, but I doubt that's really what happened. Despite its recent tendency to make things difficult for its characters, I still doubt it'd commit to having them murder people in cold blood. I suspect either someone else shot Ronan or Jonah shot him in very justifiable self-defense. We'll have to wait and see.
It's once again Edwin who comes to the rescue with genuine emotional sentiment, just as he did in the previous episode. There's a wealth of sincerity in his scene with Jonah as he tries to talk him through his grief and the anger he's feeling about the circumstances of Ronan's release. This makes it all the more galling when Jonah ignores the advice.
I'm less compelled by Danny's "predicament" of whether he's going to accept a full-time position in the Boston PD, which has been offered to him. This show is already looking at two seasons, and we haven't even finished the first yet, so it stands to reason that he'll remain in Boston. Sure, he doesn't like the paperwork of officialdom, and he has Baez and his family back in New York, but we've already implied that relationship isn't going to work. And, let's be clear, the show doesn't work without Danny, does it?
I just appreciate that there are consequences elsewhere. The answers aren't easy to arrive at. This is exactly what Boston Blue was missing in the early portion of its run, so I'm pleased to report that it's the area where it's really excelling now. The determination to include every character in every episode, even when it felt scattershot and detrimental, is paying off now that the personal subplots and conflicts are starting to knit together.
Ultimately, Episode 9 leaves plenty on the table for Boston Blue to address when it returns in February, which is all you can really ask of a midseason finale. Hopefully, it comes back in the same form.
