As Boston Blue prepares for an explosive season finale, Sonequa Martin-Green teased a difficult revelation.
“What a journey I take as Lena Silver. There’s some threads of it at the beginning of the season [and] you’ll start to see us delving into some really serious things,” Martin-Green exclusively told Us Weekly about what is still to come.
Martin-Green warned that there “were difficult stories to tell.”
“I applaud Brandon Sonnier — our coshowrunner — because the Silver family is based on his own family. There are a lot of dynamics in Lena’s life that are based on his life,” she continued. “So this is real and this is authentic. This is his experience. So I am just so excited for people to see it because it’s rough. It’s rough stuff that Lena is about to go through for the rest of the season.”
During the Friday, April 10, episode of the Blue Bloods spinoff, Lena was seen asking her mother, Mae (Gloria Reuben), for more details on her birth father. Mae was reluctant to open up about the past — and that will continue to be addressed on the show.
“It’s going to have a ripple effect. It’s going to be time for this family to start unearthing some serious stuff. We went there and we went to those difficult places because the story was just really important,” the actress noted. “I’m really hoping that people can relate to it and can see examples of it in their own lives.”
Martin-Green recalled a multitude of conversations being sparked on screen.
“We’re just one example of it. We’re a pretend example but I think that sometimes examples are needed to be seen,” she continued. “Lena is a cool cat — as I like to call her — and it’s nice when you get to see layers with somebody like that. She is self-assured, confident and carries herself with ease and smoothness. It’s really good storytelling to see someone like that be broken down and humbled.”
Lena was introduced to Us when Boston Blue premiered in October 2025. In addition to being Danny’s (Donnie Wahlberg) new partner, Martin-Green’s character brought in a new fictional family into the Blue Bloods universe: the Silvers.
“We’re standing on the shoulders of Blue Bloods and there’s so many amazing characters and relationships,” she told Us. “I don’t take that lightly.”
Martin-Green did use the opportunity to take what Blue Bloods built to pave the way for more authentic and important storytelling. Through Lena, Martin-Green was thrilled to expand the world with stories while offering insight into a Boston detective finding her place while part of a noted police family.
“There were the detectives at the BPD that really made an impact on me. It was amazing to be able to be there in person and see and then continuing to have those conversations on set is just invaluable,” she shared. “We ask them for some of everything and they are so open and willing and collaborative and gracious and generous with their stories that are difficult. I’ve been learning a lot about what it means to be a cop. I’m pulling from all the resources that I have around me.”
The work didn’t stop with the scenes Martin-Green filmed. She also spoke to Us about building Lena out through her wardrobe as well, saying, “It is a conversation that we continue to have about finding that balance because you don’t want to be in a position where you’re standing out but you also want to be put together. There’s something so elegant to me about Lena but also understated. The suits are a necessity because I have to wear those. But it was about, let’s work with certain cuts that have more of a femininity to them. It’s great to just dive into your femininity and into your softness because you have to have that masculine shield up when you’re at work.”
She added: “You have to put that force field up because the job just requires it. But when you’re home, you can be soft and you can sink into that softness. I want to keep growing in that and I appreciate that it is a collaboration and that we are able to have these conversations.”
Looking ahead, Martin-Green is excited about where the show goes from here.
“I just can’t stress enough how grateful I am to be telling a character-driven story in a procedural format. I couldn’t have imagined and I really appreciate it. We cover a lot and a lot goes down by the end of the season,” she told Us. “There are a lot of things that are open-ended. There are so many questions and so many things have been introduced. Things are so big in the second half of the season that I feel like we’re going to see the undoing of all of those things — or the coming together of all of those things — for episodes and episodes to come.
Martin-Green is also starring in Rick Gomez‘s directorial debut She Dances, which follows a struggling father who attempts to reconnect with his daughter while serving as her chaperone at a dance competition. Steve Zahn, Ethan Hawke, Mackenzie Ziegler, Rosemarie DeWitt and Audrey Zahn make up the rest of the cast of the movie, which is out now.
Boston Blue airs on CBS Fridays at 10 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Paramount+.
