‘Blue Bloods’: Frank Reagan and Pops Clash Over Mysterious Payments in Family Drama

This week’s episode of Blue Bloods featured a rare drama between Commissioner Frank Reagan and his father, retired Commissioner Henry “Pops” Reagan. In “Spilling Secrets,” Frank (Tom Selleck) looked into some mysterious payments. The whole situation got heated between the two, leading to some shock and surprise from fans at home.

At the beginning of the episode, CPA Melissa Bell (Shawna Christensen) gave Frank papers to sign for his tax return, which he was getting done earlier than many other clients. Frank also worked with her mother. When Frank gave her the papers back, he sensed something else was wrong. Melissa revealed that Pops had her mother pay someone for over a decade. There was no paper trail for the cash disbursements.

Later at the Reagan family home, Frank started questioning Pops about the payments. He told her Melissa went to his office, and Pops immediately said, “That was privileged information” before Frank could even broach the subject. This obviously meant something was up, and Pops tried to shut down the conversion. “You think I’m some old coot that’s being scammed!” Pops said. He told Frank this was none of his business – whatever “this” was – and walked away from the table.

The next day, Frank was totally distracted from regular police business and asked his team to share something with him. They were all surprised, especially when Frank asked them how close they were to their fathers before their deaths. This inspired Gormley (Robert Clohessy) to ask if something was going on with Henry. He suggested Frank “ride it out,” but Frank believed he needed to push this. Frank told them to find out who is running the mysterious P.O. box.

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During the Reagan family dinner, Frank and Pops were quiet while Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and Jamie (Will Estes) had fun talking about their childhood roughhousing with Joe. Jamie told Pops he was lucky Frank did not have siblings so he never had to worry about breaking up fights. “Lucky with him? Not the word I’d use,” Pops said, which got everyone curious. “Blessed, that’s the word,” Frank said. “But sometimes too stubborn to see it.” Danny instantly felt the chill between the two, but Frank thought they were fine. Pops said they were not, and told his grandchildren to keep pressing Frank if he did not want to talk about it. Frank said that was not how it went, but Pops disagreed. “Something you two want to talk about?” Danny asked. “I’m fine,” Pops said before the dinner ended.

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Later, Frank apologized for prying, but Frank revealed that he knew who owned that P.O. Box. It was someone named Alex Van Helt. Pops’ eyes lit up. The issue was that Alex was a suspect Pops’ partner shot. His partner claimed the suspect had a gun. Although the NYPD said it was a “good shoot,” Pops never saw the gun. He didn’t question his partner’s word, but Pops felt guilty about putting a man in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Van Helt died nine years ago, but Pops continues to send money to that P.O. Box because a family member might need money.

Frank asked Pops what he would do if the public ever found out about this situation. “It will never get out,” Pops insisted. He told his son he is simply not good at putting regrets in a box like he is. “I’m not good at it… I just do it,” Frank said. 

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In the last scene from Frank’s story, he called his team to tell them he solved his issue with his father. “He’s not the kind of man who could store his regrets in a box,” Frank said of Pops. “He actively worries how his actions affect the other person. And it got me wondering… regrets, I’ve had a few.”

This prompted Frank to tell them what he regrets about having each of them as part of his team. He told Abigail (Abigail Hawk) he was sad to see that she doesn’t get to use her detective skills all the time and Sid that he does understand how he would like to still be in the field. 

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Lastly, Frank told Garrett (Gregory Jbara) he knows he could earn more money somewhere else. Frank said he would easily write a recommendation for any of them if they wished to leave. They thanked him but they all agreed to stay. Frank said he would never be able to hide his regret if he felt he was holding them back. 

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Elsewhere in this episode, Eddie (Vanessa Ray) and Officer Rachel Witten (Lauren Patten) were praised by the public for stopping an active shooter, but the situation became complicated when a civilian accused them of faking the entire thing as part of a conspiracy theory.

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Danny and Detective Maria Barez (Marisa Ramirez) had to deal with a fierce brother rivalry while investigated the murder of the brothers’ father. Danny’s son Sean handled anti-police vandalism at school. New episodes of Blue Bloods air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.