Donnie Wahlberg Explains Baez & Elena’s Shocking Family News (Exclusive)

Blue Bloods‘ Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) are finally a couple on Boston Blue, and they’re living together in Boston with Baez’s adopted daughter, Elena (Eleanor and Penelope Yataco). But a shocking development regarding Elena’s adoption was introduced in Boston Blue Season 2 Episode 2 on October 16 that’s going to reverberate throughout the season and “lead to some very intense situations,” Wahlberg tells TV Insider. Warning: Boston Blue spoilers ahead!

Baez and Elena returned in the episode in a sweet scene at a park with Danny. It showed the endearing dynamic between Elena and “Uncle Danny,” as she calls him, but when an elderly woman was spotted taking photos of the three of them, the detectives started asking questions. As it turns out, this woman is Elena’s biological grandmother like she claimed, altering the family dynamics of Season 2.

“I think with the grandma, it’s interesting because the way that Baez became a mom was because this awful cartel that happened to make Danny a widower and has caused so much destruction in Danny’s life,” Wahlberg tells TV Insider. “And that’s what prompted Baez to adopt Elena.”

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“When the grandmother shows up, it’s not that she’s dangerous in any way per se, but she represents danger, I think, to Danny,” Wahlberg notes, “because what if the cartel’s been keeping an eye on her, and now if she could find them, or what if they’re keeping an eye on Elena? If she can find Danny and Baez so easily, who else could?”

At the same time, Danny doesn’t want to deny Baez and Elena the chance to have a bigger family like he has with the Reagans. And he knows how painful it was for Lena to not know the truth about her biological family (Lena’s dad, Chris Williams, returned in this episode, played by Erik King).

“As scary as it can be that someone found them like that, he knows what a big family means,” Wahlberg explains. “He knows what it means to be a Reagan. He knows what it means to be a Silver. He knows what it means to have watched Lena not knowing her dad and not having those relationships in her life, how much it meant to her. And Elena could grow up in a similar way. Now he could say, ‘I’m going to be different and I’ll be there and da, da, da, da,’ but she’s never going to know her biological dad.”

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“She’s never going to have that extended family,” Wahlberg continues. “I think there is this great temptation to want to involve the grandma in her life because I think Danny knows what family means through the Reagans and now through the Silvers. I think there is a temptation there that we’ll discover is going to pull at his heart and may lead to some very intense situations.”

On a happier note, Wahlberg says that “Danny’s having a lot of fun with Elena and Baez being in Boston. He’s loving it.”

“One of the things I loved about Blue Bloods was playing a dad, and I get to be a dad on screen, and it’s fun,” he says. “And I do model some of the fun behavior and stuff after how I am. I try to be a serious dad and teach my children good things, but also I want them to have fun and I want to be someone they look forward to seeing, not someone they dread seeing. So, I definitely bring that.”

Boston Blue, Fridays, 10/9c, CBS