This week’s Boston Blue, “Suffer the Children” was an incredibly heavy episode but also an important one. It focused on teenage gun violence and how critical it is for parents to be involved in their children’s lives in order to help prevent tragedies. The episode also solved an old mystery which sort of helped lighten up the hour of television. We review.
MORE: Need a reminder of how the last episode ended? Read our review for Boston Blue Season 1 Episode 4!
Parents and Children
At the beginning of “Suffer the Children,” Sarah discovers that Kyle Ferguson, a teen, was responsible for shooting and killing three other teenagers. First, we were impressed by Sarah’s detective work to quickly figure out what happened. Second, we were also impressed by her dedication to proving the Sean’s parents could have prevented this tragedy.
We are aware that parents can’t be present in every moment of their kids’ lives. And, yes, some could argue that parents aren’t responsible for when their children do something like Kyle did. While that may be true in some cases, (like in the situation Danny talked about with his kids), it wasn’t true here.
Kyle’s parents knew he had mental health problems, and they still had a gun in the house. Why didn’t they get rid of the gun? Why did they not monitor his medication and make him take it? And because the Fergusons didn’t pay more attention and didn’t take more action, three teenagers lost their lives.
It’s so important for parents to be involved especially if they notice their child has anxiety, depression or any other mental health diagnoses or problems, like bipolar disorder. And we really have to commend Sarah for not backing down to prove that Kyle’s parents were responsible, even though Mae wasn’t on her side at first. She never stopped fighting for justice.
Cold Case Crackpots
The lighter case in Boston Blue Season 1, Episode 5, if you can call a murder “light,” focused on Danny and Lena trying to solve a museum heist that happened 35 years ago. Throughout the episode, we learn that art is something that Lena loves, or at least, used to love.
Learning that she gave up art because she didn’t want to be like her biological father, the man who abandoned her, gave us more insight as to who Lena is. It also kind of related to the theme of “Suffer the Children” in that parents involvement, or lack thereof, shapes children’s lives forever.
Even though Danny was skeptical at first of the “Cold Case Crackpots,” he went along with it, at least at first, because it was important to Lena. And it turns out that this wasn’t really a “Cold Case Crackpot” after all. Even though Danny and Lena solved the museum heist, they didn’t have any evidence. And it was disappointing when they went to the storage unit and there wasn’t anything there.
It would have been so much more gratifying if they had been able to arrest the guy. Maybe we’ll revisit this in the future?
Other Thoughts:
- Sean (and Jonah, but especially Sean) went above and beyond to help the man with dementia. It was touching seeing how much he cared. We wish all cops were like him.
- We can relate to Sean loving Danny and wanting to spend time with him, but also not wanting to be roommates with him. Especially with how small that apartment is.
- Sean and Jonah working together and living together? That does seem like a lot. We hope it works out for them. Worst case scenario: Sean can move back in with Danny?
- We really liked hearing about how Mae used to go through all her kids’ things. It shows us that she really cared, and still cares, about her kids and their wellbeing.
Boston Blue airs Fridays at 10/9c on CBS.
