‘Blue Bloods’: Danny and Baez Survive Traumatic Struggle in Hunt for Serial Killer

After a long two-week wait, Blue Bloods finally returned on Friday night with a tense episode that picked up on an unsolved crime from the Season 11 premiere. In “More Than Meets The Eye,” Detectives Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) found another murder that matched the modus operandi of the serial killer who trapped them in the basement in “Triumph Over Trauma.” The episode also featured a guest appearance from Michael Imperioli, who played Attorney General Robert Lewis for the first time since 2016.

Danny and Baez’s case started with a body being found on the beach, bordering Queens County and Nassau County. The Nassau County detective, Raines (Jason Bowen) insisted they got the case because the serial killer murdered one of his colleagues. Danny and Baez at first refused, but Danny suggested they work the case together. Baez was not exactly happy with this. Later, the victim was identified as Sofia Vazquez, a 24-year-old who was suffocated with her hands tied behind her back, like the killer’s other victims. Danny and Baez still have very little to work on.

They went off to look at Vazquez’s autopsy with the M.E. (Annabella Sciorra), who reported that semen was found in the victim’s body. The DNA matches semen found inside six other victims from across the country. All the cases were unsolved because the women were sex workers or runaways. The next day, Danny and Baez started working early in the morning, and Danny warned Baez not to take the case too seriously. It was a strange role reversal for the two.

The social media squad helped the two bait the suspected killer by creating a fake social media profile so the killer would think he was meeting a runaway. Unfortunately, the killer knew what was going on. He had a kid give the cops a letter telling Danny they will not catch him.

When the show finally picked up the case, Baez went to an address that could be linked to the killer by herself. Danny was not happy and told her to wait. While she waited, Baez snooped around and found what looked like a possible trail of blood. She called it in before following the trail up to the house with her weapon drawn. Incredibly, she went inside where the killer tried to suffocate Baez!

During the struggle, Baez got free and Danny came in just at that time. He successfully talked Baez out of shooting the killer. “You lose,” Baez said. Outside the home, Baez told Danny she should have killed him, but Danny said she shouldn’t have. Baez said she was just doing the same kind of reckless things he does. “I don’t want you to be like Danny Reagan… because I like Maria Baez,” Danny said.

Imperioli’s Attorney General appeared in the episode to clash with Tom Selleck‘s Commissioner Frank Reagan. He was not happy with Frank after Jamie (Will Estes) arrested a reporter who showed up at a robbery. Lewis pushed Frank to rethink the press pass policy and had the charges against the journalist dropped. Meanwhile, Erin (Bridget Moynahan) got increasingly frustrated while D.A. Kimberly Crawford (Roslyn Ruff) shadowed everything she did while she tried to convince a drive-by shooting witness to testify. New episodes of Blue Bloods air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.

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