'Blue Bloods': Danny Faces Reminder of Late Wife in Comedy Club Murder Investigation

This week's episode of Blue Bloods saw Danny and Baez investigate the murder of a legendary comedy club owner. It got complicated when Baez suspected one of Danny's favorite comedians of the murder, and she believed he was too star-struck to seriously consider him. The case surprisingly got Danny to talk about his late wife Linda briefly in an emotional scene.

At the start of "Fallen Heroes," Detectives Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) arrived at Doc's Comedy Shop to find Doc dead, with her face in a pool of blood. At first, Danny and Baez suspected Doc's son Ira (Ben Rosenblatt) had something to do with it because they disagreed on the future of the Comedy Shop brand. However, they discovered there was an issue with the comedians who perform and vie for slots on the Comedy Shop's bill. Ira suggested they talk to Emmett Fells (Ben Bailey) because the night before Doc's murder, Emmett got angry with Doc for kicking him off the bill and giving his slot to Ricki Banton (Ilana Becker).

Later, Baez and Danny paid Emmett a visit, and Baez began suspecting that Danny wasn't interested in seriously considering Emmett was the murderer. Their meeting with Emmett made it clear to Baez that the comedian was their guy. Danny disagreed, and suspected there were other people they needed to investigate. Baez told Danny to look into those people by himself.

Danny then interviewed Ricki, who said Emmett was a good guy to her until the night before he tried to pull her offstage the night Doc was murdered. Ricki claimed she was nowhere near the club when Doc was killed. Surprisingly Baez was there to hear who Danny's new suspect was. Although even he couldn't find anything to disprove Baez's theory, he still couldn't believe Emmett was the murder.

Danny then explained why he was a fan of Emmett's comedy. During one of his first dates with Linda, they saw Emmett perform and had a great time. "I never saw her laugh like that," Danny said. However, Danny assured Baez that if they did find evidence supporting her theory, he would arrest Emmett. "You just don't want to ruin the memory," she said. "I guess not," Danny replied.

Danny and Baez later brought Emmett in and he confessed to the murder, despite his lawyer's objections. But after Danny got Emmett processed, suddenly Baez discovered that Emmett gave them a false confession. She realized that Emmett went into a downward spiral after he could no longer spend time with his daughter and he just assumed he might have killed Doc while he was drunk.

In the end, Danny arrested Ricki. It turns out, Ricki was angry that Doc didn't do anything when Emmett tried to drag her offstage. Ricki confessed after the police matched geotagging data that accompanied fans' photos with Ricki and proved she was at the comedy club around the time Doc was murdered. Emmett was free to go, and Danny suggested he reconnect with his daughter.

This episode also featured a story where Frank (Tom Selleck) and Jamie (Will Estes) were at odds because Jamie wanted to help a homeless woman instead of arresting her, and Frank discovered the woman was a homeless veteran who had helped Danny in Iraq. Eddie (Vanessa Ray) also teamed up with Anthony (Steven Schirripa) to nail a corrupt parole officer, but she wasn't happy about working with another former parole officer she and Jamie arrested way back in "Past Tense." Blue Bloods airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS and is available to stream on Paramount+. You can also find the first nine seasons on Hulu.

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