Blue Bloods Season 11 will be the second full season with Jamie Reagan and Eddie Janko as a married couple, following years of a “will-they, won’t-they” dynamic that finally broke when they decided to date. The wedding was not exactly something Will Estes was sure about in the end. In an interview with PopCulture, the actor, who has played Jamie for a decade, said he was actually “afraid” of bringing Eddie and Jamie together.
One of Estes’ “biggest fears” was how Eddie and Jamie’s relationship would change once they were married. He compared it to Mulder and Scully getting together on The X-Files, noting that “once they’re together, what’s the story?” The tension between them could disappear. “We’ve obviously already been playing these characters [who] had a huge affinity for each other and, and love and respect for each other,” Estes said of himself and Vanessa Ray, who plays Eddie. “But I was worried about that story being over once they were married.”
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It came as a relief for Estes though, as tension still remains. Eddie and Jamie still have to work together. In one episode, they learned they could not be partners because it was against guidelines. “I think the story has continued on and continue to progress and we find them, you know in this, in this new place to have been together and yet they’ve been together in a way all along you know,” he said.
The decision to have two characters get married can often leave shows in a bind, but Blue Bloods took its time to develop Jamie and Eddie’s relationship to the point that it did not feel like a sudden move. Estes agreed it was a natural progression, one that mirrored Jamie’s own career development. Recently, Jamie has gone from a police officer walking the streets to a sergeant with a rank higher than Eddie’s. Estes admitted he felt the Blue Bloods producers may have held Jamie back as a uniformed police officer because they did not want to have a police show without any main character wearing a police uniform.
The first episode of Season 11 will see Jamie developing another important relationship. In the Season 10 finale, he met his long-lost nephew, Joe Hill (Will Hochman). Estes described their relationship more as one between brothers than uncle and nephew. The two will be working together in the premiere, which airs on Friday on CBS at 10 p.m. ET. Estes said Joe’s introduction was “really cool for everyone in the family,” as Joe is an “extension” of the late Joe Reagan. “I think it’s a really powerful experience for Jamie and that, it’s just been a new cool thing on a show that’s run so long to have a new character come in like that,” Estes said. It “is really a cool bit of oxygen for all of it.”