Why The Blue Bloods Season 11 Premiere Didn't Make Sense To Fans

The Reagan family has run into its fair share of criminals over the years on Blue Bloods, but, in 2020, the show faced its toughest challenge yet — the COVID-19 pandemic. The disease cut into the production schedules for numerous movies and TV series, forcing Blue Bloods to end its tenth season after 19 episodes instead of the usual 22. It also caused many fans of the police procedural to worriedly wonder when the series would be able to resume filming, with those fears soon squashed when it was announced new episodes would begin in December. 

When the show came back, it was set in a world in which COVID-19 was a distant memory, taking place about six months after the pandemic had passed. It makes sense: a certain segment of viewers tune into the series for escapism and don't want to be constantly reminded of the horrors of disease by seeing all their favorite characters wear masks. It also allows the writers to create whatever stories they see fit without having to consider how the novel coronavirus would impact people's actions.  While audiences were able to look past Blue Bloods leaving the pandemic in the rearview mirror, there were still certain issues they seemingly couldn't look beyond, with one glaring issue in the show's season 11 premiere. 

Spoilers ahead for Blue Bloods season 11, episode 1 — "Triumph Over Trauma."

Blue Bloods season 11 kicks off with a bang when Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and his partner, Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez), go on the hunt for answers to a grisly murder. Their search takes them to the home of a woman whose son lives with her. The detectives are interested in the son as a suspect and the woman invites them to check out the basement if they like. It's at this point the audience discovers this isn't some innocent, defenseless lady, as she traps them in the basement, a situation made all the more complicated by the fact that Maria forgot to log where they were heading. 

For the rest of the episode, the two are trapped. Don't worry: they're rescued eventually, but TVLine raises an interesting question. When they're first locked in the room, we see Danny pull out his gun. If he has his gun on him (and assuming it's fully loaded), then why couldn't he just shoot the lock on the door to free them? It's possible he didn't want it to risk injuring the woman or her son, so he exercised restraint. 

However, that doesn't explain why he doesn't use the gun later in the episode when Jamie (Will Estes) sees their car and goes around searching for information. He does his best to make a lot of noise, but the music playing upstairs drowns him out. Again, if he had a gun on him, he could've shot it; a gunshot would've absolutely cut through the music and saved them a lot sooner, in addition to giving Jamie probable cause for entry.

Of course, the simplest explanation is that if Danny had just used his gun right off the bat, the episode would've ended before the first commercial break without any of the character development we get out of Maria through this story line. The ordeal also undoubtedly made for some thrilling conversations during the Reagan's regular family dinner.