Donnie Wahlberg, Boston Blue Showrunners Tease 'Tremendous' Complication For Danny And Baez — Plus, Lena And Brian's Future

Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) and Maria Baez (Marisa Ramirez) are officially under one roof on "Boston Blue" — just as a potentially significant new figure has entered their family's orbit.

In Season 2, Episode 2 of the "Blue Bloods" spin-off, Elena's biological grandmother, Dania (Sandra Flores), resurfaced and expressed a desire to be part of her granddaughter's life, raising questions about what her arrival could mean for Baez as Elena's adoptive mother. But as Wahlberg tells TVLine, Danny has reasons of his own to be wary.

"There's a history to how Maria became a mother to this child," Wahlberg explains in the video above. "And it involved a cartel and it involved a bomb that almost took Danny's life, too. There's a lot of layers to it."

Danny's concerns are rooted in the violent circumstances surrounding Elena's adoption, as well as his own painful history with organized crime. And while Dania appears to have good intentions, Wahlberg says Danny can't afford to take that at face value.

"Are they watching her?" he wonders. "Did she unwittingly lead the cartel to Danny and Baez and Elena? We don't know. So there's a real danger."

Still, Danny and Baez are hoping to build a life together. "They do want to have some normal family structure in their relationship," Wahlberg says. "I think they've worked so hard to make this long distance thing work. And now they're finally together, but it's just the three of them."

Elsewhere, Det. Brian Rogers (Ryan Broussard) accepted a job with the DEA that will take him to Washington, D.C., for training. Lena (Sonequa Martin-Green), recognizing that Brian was running from his trauma rather than confronting it, decided to end their relationship — at least for now.

The hour also revealed why Brian was targeted by Cain's Disciples: The biker gang discovered that he was romantically involved with Lena, whose no-longer-estranged father, Chris Williams (Erik King), had been leading the investigation into their criminal enterprise. After Danny and Lena survived a harrowing standoff with the gang, the DEA assumed control of the case.

Additionally, Mae (Gloria Reuben) and Lena took an important step toward repairing their relationship... Sean (Mika Amonsen) continued taking an increasingly aggressive approach to police work, putting him at odds with Jonah (Marcus Scribner)... and Sean made a memorable first impression on new commanding officer Sgt. Bettina Ryan (Sydney Ozerov-Meyer).

Below, showrunners Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier further unpack the events of Episode 2 and tease what's ahead for Danny, Baez, Lena, and the rest of Boston's finest.

TVLINE | It was established in the Season 2 opener that Baez and Elena are now living with Danny. Then in Episode 2, Elena's biological grandmother turns up and wants a relationship with her. How much does this complicate things for Baez moving forward?

MARGOLIS | Tremendously.

TVLINE | Go on....

SONNIER | We've stated before that our show works best when we are playing on two levels, when we are a police procedural and also a family drama. And when both things are happening at the same time, the show is really singing. And we can say that that storyline is going to sing a lot.

TVLINE | The last time we spoke in conjunction with TVLine's Fall Preview, you mentioned that we'll see Baez back around the midseason finale. Is that when this thread picks up?

MARGOLIS | We are building to a pretty incredible climax for our midseason finale and then premiere into the spring. That storyline with Elena and Baez is at the heart of it.

TVLINE | Danny mentions that his apartment is feeling awfully cramped now, and we talked about this at the end of last season — part of his motivation for taking the promotion was earning more money to afford a bigger home. Are we going to see Danny and Baez house-hunting this season?

SONNIER | We're going to see them in a new place. I don't know how much fun the house-hunting part is, but it's going to be fun when we see them together.

TVLINE | So, we're not crossing over with "House Hunters" at some point?

SONNIER | Look, I love the Property Brothers as much as the next person, but I think the juicy stuff happens once they're cohabitating.

TVLINE | Brian responds to Sarah refusing to clear him by taking the DEA job and heading to D.C., but Lena sees that as him running from his demons and ends their relationship. Why was breaking them up the right move at this point in Lena's story?

SONNIER | At this point in Lena's story, it is the right move because, as she has acknowledged in the first couple episodes, she is dealing with putting herself back together — quite literally, physically and emotionally — having recovered from her wounds, but also building a new relationship with her father and her sister, and embracing new family.

She is on a journey toward self-discovery, self-realization, and she can see that Rogers is not dealing with his own personal issues. It's best for her to press pause at this moment to really focus on herself and hope that he can come to a position where — you know, she has offered to walk that road with him, but not if he doesn't face it.

TVLINE | Brian makes a point of telling Lena before she breaks things off that the move is only temporary — that the DEA has a Boston field office. Should the audience take that to mean this is goodbye for now versus goodbye for good?

MARGOLIS | It is a goodbye for now. We love that character, and we do find ourselves interested in what happens to them [as a couple]. With some time apart, they can reassess, and we can potentially put them on a collision course at a very dramatic moment later on in the season.

TVLINE | Now that the DEA has taken over the investigation into Cain's Disciples, does that bring this storyline to an end, or will it be revisited later this season?

MARGOLIS | It will [be revisited].

SONNIER | We certainly leave some dangling threads in that story that must be picked up and dealt with, as well as the emotional component. We indicate that Rogers is going off to join the DEA, and we indicate that the DEA is taking this case, so it's highly likely that we're going to be back there.

TVLINE | Mae and Lena have a very cathartic exchange where Mae apologizes for keeping Chris from her, and Lena accepts her mother's apology. Does this open the door to blending the two sides of Lena's family? 

MARGOLIS | In terms of opening the door to a blending of the family, I think despite Lena's enthusiasm for learning who her father is, Mae and Chris' relationship is of a completely different energy. While that's not to say they aren't going to collide, I do think Lena's version of them blending would look a lot different than what Mae would prefer. But that is something we're going to explore down the stretch of the season.

TVLINE | And when might we see Lena's half-sister, Alisha Wainwright's Kristina, again?

MARGOLIS | We see Kristina around the midpoint of the season. She will be back.

TVLINE | Mae and Thad strike an agreement to leave each other's families out of their political battle. Mae mentions that she has some sort of dirt that can end him if he goes after Lena. How long can that truce realistically hold?

SONNIER | I mean, how long would you trust Thad? 

MARGOLIS | Do you want the exact episode number? [Laughs]

TVLINE | You guys know how I feel about characters named Thad, so I don't trust him for one second.

MARGOLIS | We may have quoted you! Danny may have quoted you in 201. He said, "Can't trust a guy named Thad."

TVLINE | I clocked that! I was like, "either I really beat that drum in our previous conversations, or I'm not the only journalist in your ear about the name Thad Longfellow...."

SONNIER | [Laughs] The détente does not last very long. We can say that. It certainly comes back in a very big way.

TVLINE | Jonah seems increasingly frustrated with Sean's tactics and warns that he doesn't want them known as an "untrustworthy, undisciplined, unmanageable" patrol duo within the department. How much are we going to see Sean repeating some of his father's mistakes — and will those choices eventually catch up with him?

MARGOLIS | I think it's less about mistakes for us and more about a gung-ho point of view that his partner may not share. In Episode 1, they're told by their sergeant that the second year is the year you decide what kind of cops you want to be.

We'd never want to split up Sean and Jonah. We love them together. But we did like exploring the idea of, what if they had different answers to the question of what kind of cops they want to be? Can a partnership survive different priorities, different points of view, different approaches? It is a theme between them that we're going to explore a lot this season, and [we'll] see which parts of the job they gravitate to as individuals. But we love it when, even when there's a different point of view, it's finding the common ground that makes a team a superpower. And that's what we're going to explore with those guys.

TVLINE | Did I detect some chemistry between Sean and his new commanding officer, Sergeant Bettina Ryan?

SONNIER | Here's what we will say: Sean is dating Penny still.

TVLINE | OK....

SONNIER | And so, a relationship with his boss would present many problems.