Boston Blue confronted the growing tension between Donnie Wahlberg’s Danny Reagan and his newly recast onscreen son as the two struggled to adjust to living under the same roof.
In the Friday, November 14 episode of the Blue Bloods spinoff, Danny opened up to Lena about the challenges he was facing with Sean.
“The sandwich was for Sean. We were supposed to have breakfast, and he stood me up to go for a run,” Danny explained. “I’m all for the kid staying in shape, but I’m trying to spend time with him.”
Lena gently suggested that sharing an apartment might be part of the problem. Danny pushed back. “It is going great, and we’re having a great time,” he insisted. “So I figured, why not stay longer so we can stay close?”
Later, Sean confided in his partner Jonah that living with his father had been more difficult than he expected especially after they’d argued about Danny making his adult son’s bed.
“I can’t ask him to move out,” Sean admitted. “He uprooted his whole life for me, and it is nice spending time with him. But I just wish he would leave at the end of the night.”
Eventually, Sean addressed the tension directly when he apologized to Danny for how strained things had become at home.
“I’m the one who should be sorry. I’m crowding you,” Danny told him. “I think it’s time I got my own place.”
The two reached a compromise: Sean moved in with Jonah, while Danny stayed in his apartment. The adjustment marks just one of many growing pains the Reagans have endured since Danny relocated from New York to Boston.
Danny’s life in New York played out over the 14 seasons of CBS’ Blue Bloods, which aired from 2010 to 2024. Boston Blue began in October with Danny rushing to Boston after Sean was hospitalized in a coma introducing viewers to a new iteration of Sean, now played by Mika Amonsen following Andrew Terraciano’s run in the original series.
Coshowrunner Brandon Margolis explained the recast to Variety, noting, “We love Andrew and the work he did over the years on Blue Bloods. Really, it came down to us telling a new chapter in both of their lives.”
Margolis added that the shift reflects a major transformation for Danny as well. “It’s not just Sean who has joined the family business and is turning over this new leaf. Danny Reagan is now the father of a cop, which he’s never been before.”
The decision, he said, was “an organic opportunity to bring in a new performance with a new energy, to help dramatize that change.” The writing team was eager to explore “new storytelling lanes” with the spinoff.
“It’s the same character, it’s the same relationship, but it’s also completely different,” Margolis continued. “We love what Mika has brought to Sean the vulnerability, the desire to prove himself. It’s been great watching that come to life.”
Speaking separately to TVLine, Margolis emphasized that he “loved” watching Terraciano “grow up on TV,” but said the creative direction called for “a different energy.”
“It was a gamble to open the show on a new face two new faces, actually,” he admitted. “But the story required us to love him right away. Opening with that heroic moment that has a tragic end was the right way to pull Danny Reagan into this world.”