Joe Reagan’s death will always cast a shadow over the Reagan family.
He is never far from their thoughts, and ever since the family met the son they never knew Joe had, they have missed him even more.
On Blue Bloods Season 13 Episode 9, someone knocked over Joe’s gravestone, leading to a conflict between Frank and Joe Hill over how to deal with it.
Joe’s upset over this insult to his father’s grave wasn’t hard to understand. He never knew his dad, but he could protect his memory by finding and punishing the people who had messed with his grave.
Frank should have understood that. But although he thought he was talking to Joe as a grandfather, he was too much in the cop mindset.
Frank didn’t want Joe to investigate the gravestone attack because he felt Joe was too close to the case to be objective. That would have been fair if Joe was any old cop who Frank needed to advise.
But Joe wasn’t a random cop. He was Frank’s grandson who had felt like something was missing his whole life because he had never met his father.
If Frank had slowed down and thought about why Joe was so determined, he would have understood this.
Of course, Frank’s judgment was also clouded by his own grief.
Joe: You didn’t tell them?
Frank: I didn’t see a reason to share the pain.
Henry: Because he was my grandson.
Danny: And our brother.
Joe: I don’t get you guys. Sometimes you swear each other to secrecy for just long enough to blab to everybody and other times you say…
