Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18 Sends Lena on an Emotional Journey While Danny and Erin Go On A Seemingly Wild Goose Chase

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

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Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18 sent Lena and Danny in opposite directions.

Lena’s story was the more emotional one, as she went looking for her birth father and discovered something shocking after one of the best days of her career.

Meanwhile, Danny and Erin’s quest to find a missing girl seemed like an exercise in going nowhere, until it wasn’t.

Danny and Erin’s Quest Was One Of The Weaker Threads on Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18

Jonah and Sean weren’t part of this episode, so I guess Danny had to get the ridiculous case in their stead.

Don’t get me wrong — I love it when Reagans visit, and Erin and Danny have a great brother-sister dynamic.

But this case seemed completely out of left field. I know Boston Blue has a police advisor, but I had trouble believing that this story of letting a serial killer take them to his victim was at all in line with how the real cops do things.

I dislike it when police procedurals take the stance that in order to save an endangered person, the cops should do “whatever the perp wants.”

That contradicts articles I’ve read by real cops that suggest that you can’t trust an armed kidnapper to keep their word if they promise not to hurt someone if only their demands are met.

And we certainly couldn’t trust this one, so there was no reason for Danny and Erin to do so.

Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18 featured a lot of questionable decisions that were made more for plot purposes than anything else — everything from tossing their phones to unshackling the perp or sharing personal information with him that he could use against them later.

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The perp himself admitted he was a liar, so what reason did Danny and Erin have to believe that Lauren was anywhere near where he said she was, especially considering that he was making demands like asking for his legs to be unshackled?

Stories like this also depend on the premise that there is no other way that anyone could ever find the missing child on time. I suppose sometimes that could be true, but I couldn’t help wondering what forensic information and other clues Danny and Erin could follow instead of going on a wild goose chase.

Predictably, following the perp’s directions led to an abandoned warehouse where he somehow got ahold of Danny’s gun and tried to force him into a storage unit that contained a recording of a child crying.

I know this elaborate and stupid setup was designed to offer a callback to Blue Bloods‘ introduction of the code phrase “Please don’t hurt my family,” but putting any faith in this killer only made Danny and Erin look incredibly incompetent.

The Erin I know would have put Anthony to work looking into where the little girl was being held while trying to talk Danny out of even considering letting the perp take him on a road trip.

It’s too bad we couldn’t have both Erin and Anthony visit Boston so that we could have a story like that instead of the silliness we had.

It was so unrealistic that I was shocked that Danny and Erin found Lauren at the end instead of discovering another recording of a child’s voice screaming for help.

Lena’s Much More Interesting Story Came Out Of Edwin’s Relatable One

Edwin’s heart procedure was my favorite part of Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18 because it was so relatable.

I’m at a point in my life where I’ve both had to have surgery and had to wait to hear news about a relative who was having a procedure done, so all of these scenes felt real to me.

What was your favorite part of Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18?
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I will make one exception, though: minutes after Edwin got out of surgery was not the time for Mae to start yelling at him about her argument with Lena.

Come on! It was more or less a coincidence that Edwin needed emergency surgery right after that, but still. Mae should have used some common sense.

I Have To Admit, I Did Not See This One Coming…

Lena’s attempt to meet her birth father was always going to be emotional, but I wasn’t expecting even more secrets around him after Mae told Lena a version of the truth.

I am liking Mae less and less now that this complete inability to tell Lena the truth is coming out! I get that she thinks she’s protecting her daughter, but she’s just making more of a mess and causing unnecessary trauma.

It seemed to me that it was moving toward Lena and Asher having some sort of relationship that interfered with her relationship with her actual boyfriend, and I did not expect that Asher would be married to Lena’s half-sister.

I guess that makes sense, given how easily Asher and Lena took to each other. Plus, with all my years of watching soap operas, I should have known that Lena was going to run into her half-sister once Mae and Chris mentioned her.

What about you, Boston Blue fanatics?

Were you surprised by the direction Lena’s story took? What did you think of Erin’s latest guest appearance and the quest she and Danny went on?

Hit the comments with your thoughts, and don’t forget to share this article with your friends so they can join the conversation.

To rank Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 18, vote in our poll below.

If you enjoyed this article, check out our coverage of the rest of CBS’ Friday night lineup — Fire Country and Sheriff Country.

Boston Blue airs on CBS on Fridays at 10/9c and streams on Paramount+ on Saturdays.

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