Rizzoli & Isles – Stiffed

By: Kelly Kearney

With only a few episodes left of the hit show “Rizzoli & Isles,” the team are headed for some big changes. Jane has taken a job with the FBI and is leaving Boston while Maura is developing her medical skills with the living thanks to her mother’s clinic. Everyone’s lives are at a crossroads, even the youngest Rizzoli – Tommy.

FUNERAL SURPRISE

The episode opens with a funeral. A family is burying their grandmother and in a freak accident drops the casket revealing not just granny but a man buried with her. Most funeral homes don’t offer a two for one sale so this is a case for the Boston homicide department.

At Jane’s (Angie Harmon) townhouse, Angela (Lorraine Bracco) is pumping Maura (Sasha Alexander) about the big news the detective is going to tell her. Maura stays tight lipped until Jane comes home and breaks the news. She’s moving to D.C. to be an FBI instructor. Angela is upset because D.C. is far away and how can she be a nosey helicopter mother 500 miles away? Maura corrects her on the exact distance because she’s an awkward brainiac and has also been obsessing about Jane leaving, although she hasn’t mentioned it to her best friend.

After the big FBI reveal, the duo head to the crime scene where Maura surmises that the victim was stabbed with a cylindrical object and the body is surprisingly clean. The team decides to question the funeral parlor where the woman’s body was prepped for burial.

COMING HOME

Angela Rizzoli is ecstatic when her youngest son Tommy (Colin Egglesfield) along with his young boy T.J. (Cooper Fontaine) surprise her at the Dirty Robber. Tommy was living in Chicago as a plumbing apprentice when his wife Lydia left him for another man. Now, he’s looking to start over and came home to catch his breath and figure his life out. Angela tells him there’s an extra room at Jane’s and he should bunk there until he decides his next move.
At the funeral home, Korsak (Bruce McGill) and Jane make an interesting discovery. It seems the owner of Mason Funeral Home, Sam Mason, was the body in the casket. They question his sister and business partner, but she wasn’t even aware he was missing. The team bags some evidence, especially an embalming tool that matches the wounds Maura thought could be the cause of death. It appears that Sam was murdered and the killer tried to hide the body with the woman who Sam was preparing for burial. Kim mentions that her brother was seeing a new woman, but other than that she didn’t notice anything different about him.

While Korsak and Jane head out to question Sam’s girlfriend, Maura’s covering for Hope at her medical clinic. Maura, who was nicknamed “Queen of the Dead,” isn’t exactly known for her tact with the living. She’s faced with a case of a baby whose prognosis is terminal. She lets the family know that there’s nothing more she can do. They hand the baby to Maura and form a prayer circle. Maura, who believes in Science, feels very uncomfortable with offering hope through prayer.

STIFFED IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE

Korsak interviews Sam’s girlfriend and discovers she’s not his girlfriend, but his real estate agent. Sam was looking to sell the business, even at a loss. Even more interesting was that he planned on doing it behind his partner and sister’s back. Could it be that Kim found out about his plan to stiff her out of the business and she killed him for it then hid his body in the old woman’s casket? While Jane and Korsak debate the evidence, Korsak lets slide that the FBI called him to vet their newest hire. Jane says she was going to tell him, but she wasn’t ready because she knew it would be so hard. A teary Korsak tells her he’s proud of her even though he’ll miss her. Korsak always has a way of fathering Jane and their relationship has evolved so much from partners.

Back at the B.P.D Morgue, Maura tells Jane that the cause of death was impalement and draining of the body. It seems Sam was embalmed and this case is similar to an earlier one from the neighboring Essex. In that case, Mason Funeral home buried a body on top of a man who was stabbed to death and also embalmed. That murder is also unsolved so these two cases might be from the same killer. Jane heads off to question Kim Mason about why she neglected to mention the other murder case their funeral home was involved in. Kim says she was too distraught over her brother to make the correlation. Jane seems skeptical, but Kim’s alibi checks out. She mentions that Sam was planning on selling their business and Kim seems shocked. She had no idea and doesn’t believe her brother would do that to her.

FAITH, FAMILY AND SCIENCE

Maura is struggling in so many ways. She can barely face the idea of her best friend leaving and on top of that she’s having a crisis of Science, not faith. She’s desperate to find something to help this dying baby, but so far has had no luck. She doesn’t want to face the family without something that could help. Kent (Adam Sinclair) listens to Maura talk about feeling responsible for saving this poor child’s life. More and more Maura relies on Kent, which I guess is good since her main source of support is bailing out of Boston for Washington D.C.

Upstairs in the BRIG, Frankie (Jordan Bridges) congratulates Jane on her new job, it seems the FBI made the rounds and contacted him for a reference check on their new employee. He’s happy for his big sister, but can’t believe he will be the only Rizzoli left in Boston. Little does Frankie know that Angela asked Tommy to stay and let her help raise T.J. since Jane is leaving. After some brother and sister play/fight and bonding, Frankie lets Jane know that Maura’s ruled Kim out as a suspect since she’s left handed. The embalming wounds on Sam are from someone who was right handed. Nina (Idara Victor), interrupts with evidence of discrepancies in the Mason Funeral Home’s books. It seems they’ve been burying bodies, but not documenting them. They send out a ground penetrating team to their recent burials to see if there are any extra murder victims and low and behold they uncover four extra bodies buried in four graves. Is Sam Mason a serial killer? Is he a hitman for the mob? Someone’s disposing of bodies through his funeral home but what do these four victims have in common?

A MODEL SERIAL KILLER

Whoever’s killing these people it not Sam Mason (Brett Easton). Their autopsies show numerus spots on the body where the killer tried to embalm the victims. This was not done by a professional mortician. Someone who may have had some knowledge, but not an expert.

While the team tries to search for clues on the link between their victims, Frankie lures Nina to the roof for some star gazing. After a brief mythology lesson from the smart and beautiful Nina, Frankie decides he wants to make it official. Nina is everything has ever wanted so he asks her to marry him! Nina excitedly says yes and it looks like the Rizzoli family is about to get a new member.

After a brief heart to heart between Maura and Jane over the sick baby, Maura questions how she’s going to get through things like this without her best friend. Jane casually says they’ll just do it over the phone with some wine. The reality of this move seems to have hit everyone, but Jane. The detective seems pretty casual about leaving and her friends and family beyond proud, but also slightly dreading it. With two episodes left, hopefully Jane will see the death of this decision and it’s affect on both her family and the Boston P.D..

With some good old fashioned police work, Jane uncovers the link between the victims. All of them are models and their headshots were taken in the same location – a farmer’s market on Bleecker Street. If it’s the same location, chances are it’s the same photographer. Jane tells Nina to check the victims bank records and they find the name Eddie. They head to Eddie’s apartment and his dark room is filled with photos of his victims alive and dead. His work schedule shows he had a photo shoot today and Jane and the team head to Bleecker Street to catch their killer and catch them they did! Jane makes eye contact with Eddie in the crowded outdoor market and he takes off running. The chase is on and Jane takes off running and then, like a linebacker, tackles him to the ground. Frankie throws the cuffs on Eddie making it a big day for the good guys and the streets of Boston.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON
At Sam’s funeral, Kim tells Jane that Eddie was a family friend. Sam looked out for him after Eddie’s parents were killed when he was sixteen years old. Jane tells her that Sam covered for him because Eddie threatened to hurt her and Sam was protecting his sister. It’s a small consolation after her brother was killed.

The episode ends at The Dirty Robber. The whole Rizzoli clan is getting ready for family dinner to celebrate Tommy moving back to Boston and Jane’s new job. Everyone is having a good time, but Maura can’t seem to deal with the good news about her patient. It seems the most recent test results show marked improvement and the baby will most likely live. Maura can’t make sense of it and refuses to call it a miracle. Jane grabs the sulking Maura and tells her to come with her so they can talk. The two go to Jane’s favorite thinking spot, a park bench, and the brunette detective tells her everything happens for a reason – that we are all a part of a bigger plan. Maura doesn’t really seem to be buying it. She believes in Science and when things like this happen they just don’t compute in that big brain of hers. On top of not being able to make sense of this miraculous recovery that the M.E. still refuses to label a miracle, she’s also having problems coming to terms with Jane’s decision to leave. She can’t face losing her best friend and most trusted person in her life. If the detective believes everything happens for a reason, for her best friend’s sake, I hope she’s right.