Summary
Boston Blue returns in “Hard Truth” to tie up a major ongoing storyline in a solid episode that delivers important characterisation.
And we’re back. After a several-month hiatus, Boston Blue returns in Episode 10 not just to conclude the cliffhanger left by the midseason finale, but also to tie up one of Season 1’s big overarching plots – the murder of Judge Ben Silver. With that now out of the way, thanks to the appropriately-titled “Hard Truths”, and a lot of inter-family bonding having taken place in the meantime, we’re sure to have a bunch of more straightforward procedural-style cases in the back half.
It takes an effort to remember now, but the previous episode ended with Jonah standing over the prostrate body of Ronan Flaherty with a gun in his hands, the implication being that in his youthful rashness, he took the life of the man whom he believed killed his father. Of course, that’d be too morally risky an avenue for this show to take, and Jonah is promptly cleared through ballistics, but it’s worth a bit of stress in the meantime.
This also raises more interesting dynamics. Sean, for instance, reflexively lies about the details to protect his partner, so when Danny is instructed to lead the case to prevent a conflict of interest, one of the first things he has to do is wade through Sean’s flimsy garbage. It’s a learning opportunity, you see – Sean figured what he did was right because he has seen his entire family do similar stuff, but that’s because he hasn’t yet been a cop for long enough to truly understand the context.
Boston Blue could have been content to allow Sean and Jonah struggling with this and other revelations in the episode be the extent of it, but it’s a better episode because it doesn’t do that. Instead, it creates more complications. Ronan Flaherty, it turns out, was right-handed, which becomes relevant when poring over the footage of Ben Silver’s execution reveals that his killer was left-handed. The implications of this are big. It means that not only did someone else kill Ben, but it was somehow powerful enough to subsequently convince an innocent man to take the fall for it.
Also interesting: The Silvers aren’t supposed to be investigating the case. But as much as they trust Danny to do a good job, none of them are really content to just remain in the background of a case so important to them personally. This sends Lena and Jonah on the hunt for the murder weapon – the gun that killed Flaherty is the same one that killed Ben, despite Flaherty having claimed to have dumped it – while Mae and Sarah root through some archives looking for a motive.
Predictably, it’s garden-variety greed and corruption at the root of everything. And it’s those same things that allowed Flaherty to take the fall, because the DNA proof of his innocence, which has existed all along, was suppressed to secure a conviction. The law is a numbers game, and a win is a win. This played right into the hands of the real villain, a fatcat real estate developer who had clashed with Ben over an appeal. Laughlin had hired a triggerman, Doyle, to assassinate Ben, and thanks to the self-serving incompetence of the judicial system, Flaherty was able to take the blame, and the whole thing was written off as a random tragedy instead of a targeted hit.
Boston Blue Episode 10 knows that it’s only right for the grand finale to be the moment of truth for Sean and Jonah. They’re with Danny and Lena when Doyle is finally cornered, and there’s a bit of ambiguity around whether Jonah will allow his emotions to get the best of him. It’s Sean who keeps a cool head for long enough to take Doyle down, saving his partner the right way this time, and hopefully, the apprehension of Laughlin – Sarah gets that particular satisfaction – will help him to put this particular trauma to bed.
“Hard Truths” is predictable, there’s little doubt about that, but it’s also effective in its characterisation and marks an important turning point as we transition into the latter episodes. Sean and Jonah are growing up, understanding what it means to work in law enforcement, and Danny has pretty officially completed his transition from New York to Boston (there’s even a comically heavy-handed visual beat where he’s weighing up each PD’s badge in his hands after being officially appointed the lead on the case). Where things go next is anyone’s guess. But after a ropey start, the path to get here has been surprisingly fruitful.
