The Best Baez Episode Of Blue Bloods Ever

Since she is Detective Danny Reagan's partner, Detective Maria Baez is involved, either directly or indirectly, with almost every major storyline in "Blue Bloods." But the episode "Stomping Ground" (Season 6, Episode 13) is one of the more Baez-focused of the series.

The episode sees the Danny/Baez team work a crime scene where they canvass the neighborhoods looking for witnesses. While in a diner to inquire if anyone saw what happened, Baez notices a person sitting by the window and abruptly leaves the diner. When Reagan catches up to her, he asks her what's going on, and she tells him the man was a drug trafficker from her neighborhood named Octavio Nunez (Ski Carr). She watched him stomp her neighbor to death when she was 10 years old. Baez and Danny eventually find a reason to arrest him, and Baez is able to look him in the eye and tell him she saw what he did.

This is the best episode for Baez because it gives viewers a chance to see the dynamic between the rest of her family (mother and sister) and how it changed after Javier (Kirk Acevedo), Baez's brother, died. Since he died protecting her, Baez's sister blames the detective for his death. The episode also gives audiences a chance to glimpse Baez's past and her reasons for becoming a cop. She was a powerless 10-year-old when Nunez committed the murder. Could that incident have set her on her path to helping keep others from feeling the same way? In any case, putting Nunez away gives Baez closure on a tough bit of childhood trauma. Since writers don't get a lot of opportunities to showcase her history, this was a welcome chance for us to learn more about the tough detective.