14 Of The Best Blue Bloods Family Dinner Moments

At this special weekly Reagan dinner, the police members in the family were dressed in full uniform for the Police Academy graduation at which Frank was to address the new officers. The entire Reagan clan watched on as Frank spoke to the newest members of the NYPD, saying, "Your most valuable weapon will always be the bond you share with your fellow officers, and your empathy to the public you have sworn to protect.”

Every Blue Bloods fan knows that Sunday dinner at Pop's house is the most important night of the week for a Reagan. After Linda was shot while on duty at the hospital, she and Danny were forced to miss the weekly meal while she recovered from surgery. The rest of the Reagan family put the two on speaker phone in the middle of the table and had a nice meal delivered to them in the hospital to remind them—and the rest of the family—that no matter where they are or whatever circumstances they face, they will always support each other.

After a lot of the usual mother-daughter tension between Nicky and Erin, Frank explained to the young woman that her mother needs her to be understanding and to occasionally take on the role of being the strong one. Taking her grandfather’s words to heart, Nicky, Frank, and Henry made a special dinner for Erin after a late night at the office, complete with all of her favorite foods—even cupcakes! 

Throughout Season 1, Jamie had been followed by the Blue Templar—a secret society of the NYPD that murdered his brother, Joe. Jamie and Danny went to Frank with everything they had heard and seen about the Blue Templar in the finale. After bringing Erin into the fold to get a wire tap, the band of Reagans were able to conclude—and prove—that the Blue Templar was behind many illegal activities, most importantly killing Joe. Once justice was done, the family had their usual Sunday dinner and all took a trip to visit Joe’s grave.

You know something is wrong when the Reagan dinner table is silent. While the Reagan family is known for having rowdy, opinionated conversations over dinner, this particular evening was different. Danny, Jamie, and Frank all faced separate issues that they were not at liberty to discuss. Nicky broke the tension by spilling that she had gotten a tattoo. She paused for a moment to enjoy their surprise before telling them that it was a little joke to lighten the mood.

When Danny prepared to testify against a drug lord after seeing him shoot a young man, the criminal kidnapped Linda outside their home. Without the help of the NYPD, the Reagans worked alone to find her—luckily in time to save her. The family told the younger children that she was at a spa to spare them the truth about her kidnapping, but at that Sunday dinner, her kids were ecstatic to see her—regardless of where she had been.

While Danny was hard at work trying to figure out who killed a seemingly average professor, Erin’s DA’s office received a list of detectives that have been good at getting confessions and informants—too good. Once they discovered Danny’s name on the list, Erin and Frank got caught in the middle. While Erin had to investigate the list from a prosecutorial standpoint, Frank pulled the files from Danny’s sergeant. When word of this list got back to Danny, he was more upset that his father didn’t speak to him about it than he was about being on the list itself. The family’s Sunday night dinner suffered from the palpable tension.

During the Blue Bloods series premiere, we got our first glimpse of the importance of family dinners to the Reagans. While everyone else was jovial celebrating Jamie's graduation, Danny remained serious, throwing tough questions to his baby brother. While that may have seemed intense, it was Danny's way of taking care of Jamie and helping him prepare for the enormous task that is being a police officer.

After Steve, a member of Danny’s precinct, was murdered while working undercover, the Reagan family discussed him over dinner. Once the conversation veered into “adults only” territory, the younger kids were sent away from the table as the older members of the Reagan family shared their theories on how Steve managed to get away with his secret double life—living with his wife and children while carrying on an affair and getting the mistress pregnant. While Henry was embarrassed to have a cop like Steve on the force, Jamie presented a much more sympathetic reaction: that things aren’t always black and white.

Danny and Kate investigated a case involving a murdered, drug-dealing college student. Parallels were drawn through the rest of the Reagan family when Erin forbade Nicky from attending a college party with a 19-year-old boy. This got even hotter when Frank wouldn’t back up Erin’s decision in front of his granddaughter and ended smack dab in the mother-daughter struggle, turning the Sunday dinner into a debate about letting Nicky have more freedom.

Not all Reagan family meals are formal and include the entire brood! After winning a weekend getaway, Danny and Linda left the boys with Henry and Frank. Proving that every member of the family matters, Henry and Frank relished in babysitting duties and treated the youngest Reagans to dinner.

When everyone sat down to Sunday dinner, Frank Reagan shared that he was asked to continue his service as the Police Commissioner under the new mayor. The entire family was surprised to hear that he was waiting until the following Monday to give his formal response, but was intrigued by his reasoning: He wanted the rest of the family to weigh in. The usually buttoned-up Frank acknowledged the effects that him being PC had on the rest of the family. While the others disputed him, it was clear that Frank had all of his children—and his granddaughter’s future—in mind when it came to his decision.

You're not single when you've got family! The unattached Reagans took Valentine's Day into their own hands by celebrating together. Erin, Nicky, Frank, Henry, and Jamie got together for a special meal and toasted to "better luck next year."

While hunting down a rapist, Danny tracked the leads to a diplomat’s son, Claudio. After a third victim was attacked, the family dinner table got increasingly heated as they discussed diplomatic immunity. Danny stood firm that Claudio should face repercussions for his actions, while Jamie’s fiancée, Sidney, pointed out the importance of having a statute on diplomatic safety. It’s easy to think about the experience of a diplomat in the United States, but diplomatic immunity spans the whole globe—including areas that are volatile and dangerous for US embassies.