Rizzoli & Isles – Post Mortem

By: Kelly Kearney

On this week’s “Rizzoli & Isles,” Jane hunts for a killer with a sassy Postal Inspector played by “Community” actress, Yvette Nicole Brown. Meanwhile Maura (Sasha Alexander) continues searching for answers to her diagnosis of Chiari Malformation of the brain and Kent (Adam Sinclair) suggests a possible surgical treatment that could help the M.E.

The Case

This week’s case didn’t have me gripping the edge of my seat, but what it lacked in excitement it made up for in laughs. The episode, while still having its darker moments stayed tapped into its comedic side thanks to CJ Prescott, the postal inspector. CJ (Yvette Nicole Brown) is dedicated to her job with the federal post office and certainly gets a kick out of pushing Jane (Angie Harmon) and the team’s buttons. From jokes about Jane’s raspy voice to calling Korsak “silver fox,” and putting Frankie (Jordan Bridges) is his place by calling him an ass kisser. CJ has a few issues with control and wants to be in charge of this investigation. Much like Jane, she’s a woman who’s highly respected in her field of investigating postal crimes and feels like this particular case falls under her territory. Jane, who doesn’t take kindly to people sweeping down and butting into her investigations either, clashes with CJ more than once. CJ is by no way malicious, but seems to have a passion for all things postal from its inner workings to her love of stamp collecting, Jane Rizzoli may have met her match. The kicker is the brash and quirky CJ isn’t who she says she is at all. She’s actually an undercover FBI agent that’s working to bring down an illegal operation within a local post office. After a lot of obsessing about mailing rare pheasants, the case seems to be a simple murder cover up of a post office worker. The victim is Jack McCarty, a postal carrier, that appears to have a self-inflicting gunshot wound, but was actually murdered for his involvement in a drug smuggling scam through the mail. A fellow co-worker became addicted to OxyContin after an accident and when his prescriptions ran out, he turned to a local dealer. The dealer refused to help unless the man smuggled drugs through the mail. The co-worker turned to Jack for help setting off a chain of events that led to his murder.

Maura Re-Trains Her Brain but Is It Enough?

When the episode starts, Jane finds Maura has taken up the sport of fencing. Maura explains that new skills like fencing help the brain to use different neuro pathways and teach it to overcompensate for the parts that aren’t working. It’s just one of the ways she’s trying to retrain her brain and she tells Jane after the detective asks if this will help, “it could and if it doesn’t at least it will give me great abs.” That’s the Maura we know and love, always the optimistic multitasker. This week fencing, next week Piccolo lessons and maybe a shot at the local ice hockey team. The quirky M.E. even gave up autopsying to the sounds of Mozart for the more upbeat sound of Motown. Anything to get that brain back in tip top shape and retrain her neuropathways. Kent seems impressed with Maura’s brain train plans, but he’s surprised she’s avoiding the topic of surgery. They both discussed a rather simple procedure that could reduce her symptoms, but Maura’s not there yet. She wants to try other options first and pulls rank on Kent by reminding him he works for her and harshly freezes the assistant out. Besides his pushy nature, Kent seems to really care for his boss, but the whole episode I kept wondering when these two became close enough to share such personal dilemmas. Maura seems to be struggling and not just with her memory, she needs her best friend and closest confidant Jane. When she finally confides in the detective, she tells her she’s been avoiding the topic of surgery because she’s scared. She’s not scared of the procedure itself, she’s scared of it not working. Maura has always, in Jane’s words, “been the smartest person in the room,” without that, who is she? Jane reminds her of all the things that she loves about Maura. Her ability to love, the depths of her kindness and generosity and of course her loyalty to her friends, that’s what defines her – not her intellect. Jane goes on to crack a joke that she especially loves Maura for taking Angela (Lorraine Bracco) off of her hands and letting her live in the medical examiner’s guest house. The two laugh, hold hands and have a touching moment reminiscent of the earlier seasons when two seemed more like family than friendly co-workers. The fans have missed this friendship so it was nice, in the shows final season, to touch on that relationship. After all, it’s still the foundation of the show. After the two laugh and “play fight,” Maura tells Jane she’ll make the appointment to have the surgery and if all goes well, the M.E. will be back to multi-syllabic word babbles in no time.

Korsak Gifts a Blender and Angela Gives Awful Advice

Angela Rizzoli gets a gold medal in meddling this week thanks to Vince Korsak’s clueless gift giving ideas. It’s Korsak’s new bride Kiki’s birthday, the first since they’ve exchanged vows and the Lieutenant makes a grave mistake…well two mistakes actually. First, he left his new bride’s present under the bar, where nosey Mama Rizzoli works. When Kiki (Christina Chang) comes by the Dirty Robber to drop tax documents off for Vince Angela spoils her birthday surprise when she complains about the staff leaving a blender behind the bar. Kiki recognizes this particular appliance as the one she mentioned to Vince she might want. Kiki doesn’t seem thrilled about her first birthday present from her husband being a blender and Angela agrees. Mama Rizzoli tries to school Kiki on how to act thrilled over terrible presents from your husband. She claims she’s an expert since Frank Rizzoli, her ex, gave her the same box of caramels every year they were married. Sure Angela, but Kiki actually wants this marriage to work out and being a life coach kind of rules out dishonesty. She just doesn’t want to hurt Vince’s feelings. Angela decides to let Vince in on his terrible blender idea. She reminds him that his past wives weren’t too happy with their gifts and those marriages didn’t last. That gifts are a way of telling someone how you feel about them so what feelings does a blender say? Korsak must’ve listened to Angela because after the team catches the drug smuggling murderer they head to the Dirty Robber to celebrate Kiki’s birthday, but now the blender has been replaced by a tambourine? Yup, a tambourine. But Vince taped a little surprise on the underside of the instrument, a ring with both his and hers birthstones to remind Kiki that Vince will always be with her. It’s a sweet gesture and without Angela meddling, he might’ve spent his wife’s first birthday in the so called, “dog house.” With the case solved, the team feels like celebrating and what says party more than karaoke. Jane convinces Maura to sing and the viewers are reminded that Dr. Isles might be a genius and a scientist, but she’s sure not a singer. Thank goodness Nina (Idara Victor) has a serious set of pipes on her because she swoops in to save the day, alongside Frankie. The three sing Maura’s favorite shower ballad, “Natural Woman,” and for the first time Maura seems back to her old self again.

Next week: Maura heads into surgery. Will she get the results she wants or will she have to figure out a way to move forward with her brain limitations?