TVLINE | Donnie Wahlberg has said it was never a question of if Danny would join Boston PD, but when. Why was this the right moment to pull that trigger? Was there ever internal debate about holding it for later in the season?
MARGOLIS | It all kind of started when we realized we were gonna be transitioning Danny from NYPD to BPD — this is before the [writers’] room began — and what that process would look like. As much as we wanted to just sort of skate past it and be like, whatever, he’s BPD now, let’s not focus on that, there was the reality of what a tenured career at the NYPD would look like, and you can’t just pick up and go.
Being able to be a contractor with BPD or to be on a joint task force, if you will, was how the show started. But we recognized we still owed some stories around making that choice — and, in particular, we could make it an emotional choice for Danny. It’s hard to recognize that he would have to give up his shield.
As we were looking at emotional stories and when is the right time to pass that baton, we recognized that until he’s carrying it, he can’t run lead. Technically, Lena is the one arresting anybody in these episodes — or, at least, the one who can press charges as a Boston police officer. So in an emotionally charged case, like the one we get in Episode 10, where anybody whose name is Silver is not allowed to work the case, we recognized that that would be a very impactful moment for Danny to step in and step up for his newfound family and say, I can lead this now because I am Boston PD and the time has come to take that mantle.
SONNIER | With everything on the show, it goes back to family. This was a moment to step up for his found family. For the family he sits around the table with in Boston, he needed to make that move.
What I’ll also say is that we do honor the “Blue Bloods” legacy of trying to be true to the police procedure and the truth of the police work, so we do mention in Episode 10 that he is accepting this badge, but there will be a few more steps along the way to finalize his transfer.
TVLINE | How will that procedure play out on screen?
MARGOLIS | There will be a couple of stories in the back half of the season that speak to the process — in terms of actually using his Boston badge as opposed to the shield. In particular, he mentions that there’s a requirement that he would have to serve a shift in uniform, which is something we definitely plan to explore as an episode idea in the back half of the season.
