‘Blue Bloods’: Reagan Family Sunday Dinner Gets New Guest Eddie

On the Blue Bloods season nine premiere, the Reagans finally have a new setting at the Sunday dinner table, now that Officer Eddie Janko is joining the family soon.

At the end of season eight, Jamie Reagan (Will Estes) finally proposed to Eddie (Vanessa Ray) after realizing it was impossible to be “just friends” with her after all these years as partners on the job. Just before the season finale ended, Jamie introduced Eddie as the new Mrs. Reagan and welcomed her to the dinner table.

Eddie is sitting between Jamie and his older sister, Erin Reagan (Bridget Moynahan). She will also be across from Jamie’s older brother, Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg).

During the first dinner, the youngest members of the Reagan family gave Eddie the ground rules. The main topic turned out to be “unwritten rules.” Frank and Pops (Len Carou) are on the same page. Meanwhile, Eddie tried her hardest to keep the conversation light and talked about the food, but she could not melt the ice.

The first order of business at the table will be the new couple’s decision to stay as partners. Jamie’s father, Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) disapproves of the idea.

“This idea that they’d be engaged to be married, and yet still riding together as cop partners — we had to address that right at the top,” executive producer Kevin Wade told Entertainment Weekly earlier this month. He also described Eddie as “an injection of nitrous oxide into that dinner table” at first because she “throws off the balance – in a good way.”

“It feels like I’m on a new show,” Ray told EW. “Before, it was like, Will and I against the world. Now it’s this huge collaborative effort.”

Their hopes to stay together at work also creates a wedge in the family.

“It creates a huge problem, because what ends up happening is our characters don’t want anything to change,” Estes told Country Living. “They don’t put two cops who are romantic partners in the same car together.”

The season premiere includes evidence to support Frank’s position. At one point, Eddie rushes into a house engulfed in flames. Jamie runs in to help Eddie, but Frank wonders if he was rushing to help his partner or his fiancé. In a conversation in Frank’s office, Eddie points out there is no written rule barring engaged couples from riding together.

Wade told TVInsider that either Eddie or Jamie will eventually be promoted to sergeant this season and they end up being transferred to a different precinct.

“Their precinct in a rougher neighborhood has them trying to navigate the current climate in which cops feel under siege,” Wade said.

Erin will also be promoted. She gets a new job as regional bureau chief in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. She will be clashing with D.A. Samar “Sam” Chatwal, played by guest star Aasif Mandvi. “She now sits at a desk where the buck stops,” Wade said.

New episodes of Blue Bloods air on CBS Fridays at 10 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: CBS