Vanessa Ray on Eddie & Jamie’s Major Decision and Last Family Dinner

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Blue Bloods Season 14 Part 2 premiere “Life Sentence.”]

Jamie (Will Estes) and Eddie (Vanessa Ray) are ready to take a major step: adding to their family!

The last eight episodes of Blue Bloods kicked off with Eddie bonding with a young girl whose mother was murdered; she even brought her home while they waited for her grandmother to be able to come get her. After, Eddie realized she doesn’t have to be the same kind of mother hers was, and now, she and Jamie are going to try to have a baby!

Below, Ray opens up about that decision, filming this episode, and saying goodbye to Blue Bloods.

I really liked everything with Eddie and the young girl, and then she brings her home with her and we got to see another side of Eddie at the same time as we saw the cop side of her. 

Vanessa Ray: This episode was so beautifully written by Siobhan [Byrne O’Connor], and when I read it, I mean, we all sort of love as a cast an all skate—that’s what I call it when we all get to kind of intersect and our storylines kind of meet up and we get to work together. Oftentimes I don’t get to work with Donnie [Wahlberg] and Marisa [Ramirez] or I don’t get to work with Bridget [Moynahan]. And so getting to play with them, it was a fun read. I was like, oh, cool. And then I get to meet up with Baez and Danny. Oh, cool. And then Erin’s also involved. But what was so wild about this episode was I had just adopted our son, Isaac, and so I was a brand new—I mean I still am, but a brand new mom. And reading this story and seeing this side of Eddie that we don’t normally get to see, she’s been open many times about her perhaps not wanting to be a mother, fears around motherhood, and getting to see this side of her where she gets to see the beauty between her work life and how it can actually positively affect her home life.

Barbara Nitke / CBS

And then the sweet moment when the girl comes back to hug Eddie when she’s leaving.

So good! Unscripted. She did that. That little girl was an absolute dream to work with. So open and vulnerable and just beautiful. And I think she really anchors the whole thing. If we didn’t believe her, if our heart didn’t break for her, then the episode wouldn’t work.

The episode ends with Eddie and Jamie planning to have a baby. What makes Eddie ready for that besides seeing that she’s not going to be a mom like hers?

I don’t know that anybody knows that they’re ready. I think it’s just a shift in confidence maybe. I think she has a bit of a shift in confidence, and like I said, she was able to see what they do for a living can actually benefit their compassion and just their home life in general, that their relationship is unique and can be uniquely helpful to a child.

But there was also that terrible detective that Eddie had to deal with on the case when he wanted to talk to the girl. And I have to say I’m impressed with how Eddie handled him because the things he was saying…

Listen, just this episode, she was like, I’m not taking it from anyone. I’m not doing it. And there is sort of a power in that when you know that you are on the right side of something. And also she’s protecting and defending someone who is so vulnerable. I think that a power and a strength comes out of that. Sometimes you don’t even know where it came from, but just when you’re speaking on behalf of somebody else and you’re protecting somebody else, sometimes your “mama bear instincts” can level you in a way that’s sort of unexpected.

What was your favorite scene to film from this episode?

There was a scene with the little girl when Eddie takes her home to her apartment and is kind of showing her where the bathroom is and where her bedroom is going to be and all of those things. And just exploring as an actor, getting to explore that moment of there’s this new being in our apartment and there’s this new energy here and the sort of first date nerves were definitely being explored in that scene. And then there’s this lovely moment where she gets in bed and she’s nervous and she can tell she’s really missing her mom, obviously missing her grandmother, all the things. And then she kind of says, without saying anything, will you just lay with me for a little bit? And that moment, I mean, all of us were in tears during that moment. It was just so innocent and sweet, and that was my favorite scene to shoot, for sure.

John Paul Filo/CBS

What else is coming up for Eddie in these final episodes?

Oh gosh. There’s so much. I don’t think the audience is ready for all of the things that are going to be thrown at them for this final season. Our executive producer, Kevin Wade, said to me on the phone before we started the season, listen, this is going to be like we’re playing the hits. We’re playing the Blue Bloods hits. We’re going to go as hard as we can, tell the best stories we can, as we always do. But knowing it was the final season, it was like there were things that we were able to just not have to hold so close to the vest in some ways. I’ve never been in a situation like this where we’re shooting knowing that it’s ending. So every scene, every word is layered with—there’s double meaning in everything and very heartbreaking and a lot of tears and a lot of things. So you’re going to see sides of Eddie that I have previously not been in a position where she’s needed to play. And just like you see her in control, you see her out of control. It’s all the things.

What are her biggest challenges going forward?

That’s spoiler territory for sure. The challenges, I think—she loves this family so much and she loves her job so much. And anyone that comes in her path becomes one of her people, I would say. She is estranged from her family and all of those things. So when she falls for someone, she loves someone, she loves them really hard. And so I think this season you just see the commitment to those people in her life that she loves.

Are we going to see her mom again?

I wish! Christine Ebersole! I think she’s shooting a pilot or something and she’s busy. So no, unfortunately we didn’t get a Christine Ebersole appearance.

What can you tease about how the series ends in general and for Eddie?

For Eddie, I think the season ends on a complicated note and it’s life affirming, I would say for sure. But there’s a lot of heart wrenching things that happen in that final episode that the audience is going to, hopefully, go on that journey with us and they will fall more in love with us, quite frankly. I know I did reading the final episode and filming it and everything. I was like, I’m just so in love with these characters. It’s amazing.

And for Eddie and Jamie as a couple?

For Eddie and Jamie as a couple, you have to wait and see.

What was your last day on set like?

Oh gosh. My last day on set, I filmed a scene with Donnie and Marisa, and it was a short, straightforward sort of Blue Bloods scene that we were all trying to keep it together, I think, during it. And a bit of a trend had started where it was like when anyone had a final wrap, they would say something and people quoted poems and people said beautiful thank yous and heartfelt and all that stuff. And we’d done the family dinner scene and we had all kind of gone around the table in this most beautiful way and just poured our hearts out to each other.

And then I did my final scene with Marisa and Donnie and I just didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to hear them say, that’s a wrap on Vanessa Ray. And I’m tearing up just thinking about it. And then I just started singing “You’ve Got a Friend” from Toy Story. I was like, I just love you all and I’m your friend forever and good luck trying to get rid of me because I love all those people so much. And then Donnie and Marisa and I sat in Marisa’s dressing room and just cried and told each other how much we loved each other for literally an hour.

Talk about filming that last family dinner.

Oh my God. Well, it was like we’re all kind of dead men walking into it. Listen, there was a lot of celebration. There was a lot of joy and laughter and just a sense of accomplishment for sure. But it was absolutely heart wrenching to wrap that final family dinner. And we had some guests at the dinner, and so like I said, people had been giving speeches and stuff. And so one of our guest stars started us off just by thanking the show for what it has done for so many people. And that was really, really kind and nice to give us perspective of sometimes you do a show for so long or you are in [it], you’re around this table, you get so insular. I mean, I often forget that my face is the one that’s on TV because we so connected with the crew and the writers and everything. So it was cool to hear somebody have a perspective from an outsider kind of saying, this is such an impactful show, so important in the community of New York City and all of those things. And then Tom [Selleck] quoted the most beautiful poem, and we all just couldn’t breathe afterwards.

Graciously our first A.D. went around and told each of us, this is the last shot. This is the last shot, letting us know. So it wasn’t a surprise, like that’s it. So we all knew it was coming. So when they yelled cut, there was a collective just, it was almost like a moment of silence. We all kind of didn’t want to move and didn’t know what to do. So anyway, it was beautiful. It was a really beautiful thing.

You brought up guest stars at that dinner. Is there anything you can say about who that is?

No. No, no, of course not. You have to watch. It’s very exciting.

I still remember the first family dinner you showed up at, because that was a major moment for the show.

Oh my gosh. It was a major moment for me, too, personally. I was like, oh my God, I’m going to be at this dinner now. I don’t have that day off anymore because normally if it’s family dinner day, I am like, oh, I have the day off. That’s great. Yeah, you’re coming into a room full of heavy hitters who are the top of their game in the best of what they do, and a well-oiled machine at that. So the goal is just to not step on too many toes. The goal is to just listen and learn and find your way in a way that doesn’t mess with what they’re doing. Hopefully I did that sometimes. Hopefully.

You did. Is there anything you never got to do that you had really wanted to do?

I remember there was something, and now I’m drawing a blank. I don’t know. That final episode is like an actor’s checklist for me. This whole season really was an actor’s checklist for me. All of the things that you get to do as an actor, I got to do it all—car chases and rescuing people and tears and sweet emotions and shouting and just all the things. So I think as best as I can, I left it all on the table on this one.

I know there’s been talk of a potential spinoff. If there was spinoff, would you want to do one?

I would do anything with these people. So, yes, of course. I don’t know what world it would make sense for Eddie to be in a spinoff at all. But if they need to put me in a wig and dye my eyebrows and I’ll play a different character just so I get to hang out with all of them more, then I’ll do it.

Blue Bloods, Fridays, 10/9c, CBS