Summary
Boston Blue finally gives Sean and Jonah more to do in “Blood Chemistry”, even if the big takeaway is that they’re not quite ready for more responsibility.
I’ve been complaining for weeks that Boston Blue tends not to make use of Sean and Jonah, but at the risk of sounding like I’m impossible to please, Episode 14, “Blood Chemistry”, felt like a bit of an overcorrection. Putting the kids in the midst of an undercover operation feels like it’s asking for trouble, perhaps a bit too much of a whiplash-inducing pivot from their usual slapstick nonsense. The focus on the core plot also leaves some secondary threads involving Edwin’s health and Lena’s parentage feeling a little wedged in.
It’s not a bad outing, though. In fact, I think the main case is ironically breezier and more engaging than usual. The key downside is that for a show that tends to be fairly serious about policework, the 21 Jump Street premise doesn’t fit all that well. The cynical part of me thinks that most of the storyline exists to facilitate Sean bumping into Penny again, pushing for a romance that’ll challenge his dad’s ideals. But Danny is pretty reasonable about everything, so I’m not sure that’ll take.
The whole thing starts when Sean and Jonah stumble on some corpses while investigating a noise complaint. This leads them into a drugged-up rave full of tearaway college students, but since both of them are generally useless, they don’t do an especially bang-up job of undercover work. Of course, Penny’s in that club, leading to a few awkward scenes with Sean and a couple of decent bits of comedy from Donnie Wahlberg, whose disbelief at his son’s general uselessness could power a whole episode.
Danny and Lena being a bit reluctant to play steward for this mission is the best we get in terms of pushback. But after weeks of the more senior cops reminding Sean and Jonah to be patient in their patrol duties, throwing them in at the deep end like this doesn’t feel right. More to the point, I’m not sure what the episode is trying to say about either of them or their differences in approach. Jonah has plenty of success asking for drugs like a natural, and Sean jeopardises the whole thing by moseying up to Penny and giving the game away in the hope that their connection will do him some favours, but it isn’t like the episode is trying to comment on their respective personalities. It’s mostly played for gags down the line.
As I said near the top, I think a lot of Boston Blue Episode 14 is designed to provide some more limelight for Penny and keep her at the forefront for a relationship with Sean. That’s the only justifiable reason for Danny himself handling her interrogation, conflicts of interest be damned. I don’t think there’s enough meat on the bone here in terms of the ambiguity around whether Penny is “right” for Sean, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves, since we can’t tell yet how it’ll be handled.
Other corners of “Blood Chemistry” are more promising. The title – as well as applying to the drug-focused A-plot – also has a bit of a double meaning, hinting at Edwin and Lena’s subplots. The former I especially liked, since Edwin is arguably the best character in the show. Him being blasé about his own health and putting off having obvious symptoms of heart disease checked out speaks to a few different issues – not least the reticence of many men to look after their own health, even while preaching to others that they should – but primarily the idea of honesty and trust which is coming to define Edwin and Mae’s relationship after that whole business with her mother’s suicide.
Edwin’s fine, mostly, but there are clearly more secrets than we realised in the Silver family, including a big one involving Lena’s birth father. Now that she has decided she wants to track him down – inspired in part by a reminder of her artistic aptitude, a gift she didn’t pursue in fear she might have inherited it from him – the truth is sure to come to light in a big way, which should be fun. Boston Blue would benefit from a bit more dysfunction, I think.
