Blue Bloods: An Innocent Man

Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck) in “My Funny Valentine,” last night’s “Blue Bloods” episode. (Screen cap)

The country spent the past week venerating the wrong Reagan.

Instead of commemorating Ronald’s 100th birthday, everyone should have been celebrating Frank, Tom Selleck’s character on CBS’s Blue Bloods.

In My Funny Valentine, last night’s installment, Frank – the New York City police commissioner – cleared the name of a man wrongly arrested for robbery, counseled a troubled grandchild and made sure his daughter didn’t spent Valentine’s Day alone.

If you ask me, these achievements are a lot more heroic than almost anything Ronald Reagan did.

But I digress.

When we first saw Frank last night, he was working late in his office while a cleaning lady dusted around him.

She accidentally broke a souvenir mug, but Frank didn’t mind because, well, he’s Frank Reagan, and nothing rattles him.

The cleaning lady was extremely apologetic but also pretty flustered, so Frank took a break from his work to chat with “Inez,” asking if she was upset because her sister was back in the hospital.

You see, not only is Frank the kind of guy who knows the office cleaning lady’s name, he also takes time to get to know their families.

Inez explained that the problem was with her youngest son.

“Eddie, isn’t it?” Frank inquired.

Inez told the commissioner that Eddie was recently arrested for armed robbery, but she was sure he wasn’t guilty.

“He’s never touched a gun in his life. He’s a good boy,” Inez insisted.

“Inez, the police commissioner cannot interfere with an ongoing investigation,” Frank said, sending the poor woman off on another round of endless apologies.

When we next saw Frank, he was standing on a Manhattan street corner with his loyal aide Baker (Abigail Hawk) and another officer.

In my favorite scene of the week, Frank suggested Baker grab a cup of coffee down the street.

“I can’t let you go in there alone, sir,” Baker said.

“It’s a pastry shop,” Frank responded.

“It’s protocol, sir.”

Frank reminded Baker that he was her commanding officer and ordered her to get a cup of coffee.

She reluctantly agreed – but added that if he wasn’t out of the pastry shop in 10 minutes, she was coming in after him.

“Weapons drawn, I expect,” Frank said.

Inside, Frank met with Patricia Ryan (Paige Turco), the detective who arrested Eddie.

Frank apologized for summoning Ryan to a pastry shop (“I didn’t want to go to the precinct. It’s always such a big deal,” he explained) and gently encouraged her to give Eddie’s case “a second look.”

“I know the mother,” Frank explained. “I met the kid. He didn’t seem likely to go bad, but that was a long time ago. We always say that it’s just as important to work hard to exonerate an innocent person as it is to convict a guilty one.”

We didn’t see Ryan review Eddie’s case, but we did get to see plenty of shoe-leather detective work courtesy of Frank’s hotshot detective son Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) and his partner, Jackie Curatola (Jennifer Esposito).

They were featured in this week’s main story: the abduction of a wealthy teenager who, it turned out, staged her own kidnapping to try to bring her divorced parents back together.

The week’s other subplot belonged to Danny’s sister, assistant prosecutor Erin Reagan-Boyle (Bridget Moynahan), who continued to flirt with her boss, Charles Rossellini (Bobby Canavale).

When Erin’s teenage daughter Nicky (Sami Gayle) dropped by mom’s office after school, she sensed the chemistry between Erin and Charles and did what comes naturally to TV teenagers – she schemed to set them up on a date.

Nicky told her mom that she wanted to have dinner with her at Peking Duck – their favorite Chinese restaurant – on Valentine’s Day.

Unbeknownst to Erin, Nicky was planning a bait-and-switch; Nicky would skip dinner at the last minute and offer up a substitute date: Charles, who was all too happy to be the girl’s co-conspirator.

Unfortunately for Charles, Nicky got cold feet and confessed her plot to Grandpa Frank, who listened as she talked herself out of her scheme.

By Valentine’s Day afternoon, Nicky had also fessed up to Erin, who apologized to Charles.

“She should never have put you in that position,” Erin said.

“It wasn’t exactly a hard sell,” Charles responded.

Erin said it was a bad idea for them to date; after all, he is her boss.

“I won’t be your boss if I get elected mayor,” Charles said.

She suggested he might fire her father once he reached City Hall but he dismissed that idea – as well as her concerns about how “it would look” if they began dating.

“Politics and government – they’re incestuous by nature,” Charles said, urging her to have dinner with him – but she again turned him down.

Back at police headquarters, as Inez wielded her big pink duster, Frank received a phone call from Detective Ryan, who explained that she had dug a little deeper into Eddie’s case.

Ryan told Frank she had used Eddie’s metro card to determine he was on the 6 train when the robbery were taking place; she also checked the victim’s credit cards and discovered that when Eddie was in custody, someone was still making charges.

“That’s good work, detective,” Frank said.

“You know, it’s as important to work hard to exonerate an innocent victim as it is to convict a guilty one,” Ryan responded.

“Well, that being said, you still have an armed robber at large in your precinct.”

“I’m on it, sir.”

Inez stopped Frank as he was departing.

“Commissioner, you should know, my son Eddie was released this afternoon, and the charges were dropped against him.”

“Always nice to hear good news,” Frank said.

In the final scene, Erin arrived at Peking Duck, apparently expecting only Nicky and surprised to find Frank and the other single men in their family also at the table.

“What’s this?” Erin asked.

“A meeting of the lonely hearts club,” Frank said as he pulled out his daughter’s chair.

That Frank Reagan – what a guy!