‘Blue Bloods’: Member of Frank’s Team Almost Quits After Assault

There was another crisis among Commissioner Frank Reagan’s team in this week’s episode of Blue Bloods. Abigail Baker was the victim of assault, and she was close to leaving her work at One Police Plaza because Frank wanted her to stay off the case. Thankfully, Baker chose to stay in the end, but only after she learned how Frank was personally involved in the investigation to capture her attacker.

At the beginning of “Happy Endings,” Baker (Abigail Hawk) was jumped by a man after she picked up groceries. While Baker fought the man off, he still got away with her purse. Baker reached for her gun, but her vision was blurred, and she could not get a shot off. At the hospital, Frank (Tom Selleck) and Garrett (Gregory Jbara) vowed to catch the guy. They were surprised that Baker wanted to go into the office the next day, and Frank insisted she takes some time off. “Don’t treat me with kid gloves. That’d be worse than this broken nose,” she told Frank.

Of course, Baker did go into the office the next day and was not happy that Frank, Garrett, and Gormley (Robert Clohessy) were constantly asking her why she came in. “Am I supposed to stay home because it’s uncomfortable for you guys to see me like this?” Baker said. Frank let her stay, but he told her she had to stop hounding the case detective. Baker hated being treated like the victim, but Frank reminded her that she was in this particular case.

Considering everything Baker has seen in the past few years, watching Frank and his team take matters into their own hands, that was a tough pill to swallow from them. Garrett noted she had a point, so Frank revealed some case details. They said the Special Victims Unit (no, not Benson’s unit) was handling the case because the man was a suspect in rapes in the area. “You should feel good about fighting this guy off!” Frank said. That did it. Baker was not happy about the way Frank said that.

Baker said if she was regularly in the field as a police officer and detective, she would have been prepared and never attacked. “You told me that if I felt I needed to move on, you wouldn’t stand in my way,” Baker said. “It’s time.” She then left the office, leaving Frank stunned. Was Baker really going to quit working for Frank?

Later, Baker did some of her own investigative work with Garrett and they discovered surveillance footage of the attack. Frank had it run through facial recognition, but rather than tell Baker, he had her pick the suspect from a line-up. The man Baker picked was the same man identified through facial recognition, and Frank allowed Baker to be the one to cuff him. During this scene, Baker also learned that Frank took a personal interest in capturing the suspect.

The next day, Frank was surprised to see Baker in his office again. She decided she would continue working at 1PP until Frank found a replacement for her, no matter how long that takes. “I’m thinking that might take a long time,” Frank said. “Years maybe. Can you handle that?” After a pause, Baker nodded. “I can,” she said. “But I’ll probably need time off for the trial.” Frank agreed and Baker began reading a case file off as if everything was back to normal.

Blue Bloods airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, although there is a repeat airing on Friday, April 23. All past episodes are available to stream on Paramount+. Disclosure: PopCulture is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.