‘Blue Bloods’: Reagan Family Welcomes Eddie to the Dinner Table in New Photo

There will be a new face at the Reagan dinner table in this season of Blue Bloods, although she is no stranger. CBS shared a new photo from the season nine premiere with Entertainment Weekly, showing Officer Eddie Janko (Vanessa Ray) sitting next to her soon-to-be husband, Jamie Reagan (Will Estes).

After years of playing a will-they-won’t-they game, Eddie and Jamie finally realized during the season eight finale that they cannot be “just friends.” In the very last scene, the couple shocked the other members of the Reagan family when Jamie introduced Eddie as the next Mrs. Reagan. Now, Eddie has a permanent seat at the dinner table.

“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.

“Like anybody in a relationship, you think, ‘Nothing’s going to change, right?’ They’ve been together all these years, they know each other inside and out,” Ray added. “But what they’re constantly coming up against is ‘Man, it has changed.’”

Eddie’s seat at the dinner table will be between Jamie and Jamie’s older sister, Erin (Bridget Moynahan). It takes some time for the Reagan family to get used to this change during their Sunday ritual.

“It’s an injection of nitrous oxide into that dinner table,” Wade told EW. “It throws off the balance — in a good way.”

Ray said Eddie will try a little too hard to lighten the mood during the dinner. Even off-screen, she was nervous about appearing in these scenes.

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

The new photo EW shared is not technically the first time we have seen Eddie at the dinner table. After production started last month, Donnie Wahlberg, who plays Danny, shared a behind-the-scenes photo of Ray at the table on Instagram.

“New face at the #BlueBloods family dinner table for season 9,” Wahlberg wrote.

Ray shared the same photo, adding, “Thanks for the welcome [Wahlberg] and Reagan family. Also, that look from [Estes] is CLASSIC. Me talking his ear off and him looking at me like I’m nuts.”

Blue Bloods‘ ninth season kicks off on Friday, Sept. 28 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS. The first episode is titled “Playing With Fire,” in which Danny clashes with drug cartel member Louis Delgado (Lou Diamond Phillips), who thinks Danny had something to do with torching his house. Erin is also gets a promotion in the district attorney’s office. Jamie’s father, Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck), will try to convince him that it is not a good idea to keep Eddie as his partner.

Photo credit: John Paul Filo/CBS