Ep 12. Cursed

After a few episodes of the show Blue Bloods that dealt with Nicky's (Sami Gayle) college admission dilemma and Frank (Tom Selleck) trying to avoid getting his picture clicked by journalists, the show's 6th season's 12th episode, "Cursed," is a shift in tone from those family-centric episodes. The episode revolves around Erin (Bridget Moynahan) and her dilemma of trying to clear a man's name who is accused of being a serial killer.

Scheduled to premier on 15th January 2016, in "Cursed", Erin has to dig deeper into a case where the accused is likely to face death consequences if found guilty, and this time, the case has a personal touch for her. The accused, Anthony Dalton (William Sadler), is the father of a childhood friend who died when they tried to rescue a group of young people from a fire, and since then, she had a soft corner for Mr. Dalton.

However, these are the only minute details she knows about him. As she tries to collect evidence, it looks like Anthony has killed several women and is the one person responsible for spreading fear and panic in the city.

Erin is determined to prove Anthony's innocence, but her colleagues are skeptical about this idea. Frank even tells her that she needs to re-evaluate her priorities, and Jamie (Will Estes) goes through the files again and comes up with a new piece of evidence. The plot thickens further when Anthony's lawyer comes up with a theory that someone else's DNA was present at the crime scene, and now the team is not sure if the evidence is tampered with or not.

Meanwhile, Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and Baez (Marisa Ramirez) are busy investigating a case of a hit and run, where the victim is a popular chef. The case takes an interesting turn when they find out multiple people are involved. The team figures out that it was the chef's so-called friends who were jealous of him and his success, and as they argue over dinner, one of them decides to hit him with their car, causing fatal injuries to the chef.

The show's co-writers, Siobhan Byrne O'Connor and Ian Biederman, have done a great job of weaving two different cases in the same episode without interrupting the flow of either of the cases. Most importantly, the ending did complete justice to both the cases. The writing never got too dramatic, and the direction brought the best out of the cast's performances.

One of the notable things about the episode is that the showrunners didn't forget to use their staple family dinner scenes. After hearing about Erin's dilemma, the family members, one by one, all vow to help her in their own way. The family dinner scene at the end felt like a callback to the first season's dinner scene, where they all agreed to have an open-door policy with their siblings.

Another highlight was Danny's interaction with Anthony Dalton. Despite Danny's seniority, he gets called out for being a ‘cop' and not considering any options beyond the obvious. In response, Danny flips the switch and advises him to at least consider some of the options that are given to him, including confessing to some of the murders, so that the team could make a deal and save his life.

Overall, the episode "Cursed" is another solid entry in the Blue Bloods' story arc. The writing was sharp, the acting performances were on point, and the main characters got their own moments to shine. The episode leaves us with a question, though: will a friendship still be the same once we know the darker truths behind them?