Rizzoli & Isles – Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

By: Kelly Kearney

A Family Tragedy

The episode starts off with a flashback to the murder of a young girl named Wendy in 1975. Cut to present day and Maura (Sasha Alexander) and Angela (Lorraine Bracco) are trying their best to be supportive of Jane’s (Angie Harmon) new job. Angela’s trying to teach her daughter the family recipes so she doesn’t starve 400 miles away and Maura’s searching for apartments for her best friend. Both are hiding how sad they are that Jane is leaving, but the smart detective isn’t buying it. She knows they aren’t ready to say goodbye because she’s not ready either. The three of them get teary and agree to drown their sorrows in a bottle of wine.

The next day at the crime scene, Maura tells Jane she’s still waiting to hear back from her book editor on the first three chapters she sent them. Frankie (Jordan Bridges) interrupts the duo to say that Korsak (Bruce McGill) is inside the victim’s home with the body and seems a little off.

While Maura is determining the cause of death was likely due to asphyxiation, Korsak tells Jane that he knew the victim Walter Sokolov. Apparently Korsak dated Sokolov’s daughter, Mary, when he was a teenager. Even more tragic, Walter’s other daughter Wendy was the teenager who was murdered in the flashback and Mary was the sister who found her. The crime haunted Korsak and even a few years ago, Vince was looking into the case evidence. Not surprisingly, Wendy’s murder had a lifelong effect on Walter which led to his work as a victim’s advocate helping the families of loved ones who had been murdered.

New Beginnings

Frankie and Nina (Idara Victor) couldn’t be happier about their engagement, but they’re not ready to spread the news just yet. Frankie wants to have a ring and Nina agrees, besides she’s too busy trying to win herself a honeymoon with a program she made to enter into thousands of sweepstakes. This girl is smart and if she wants a free vacation, she’s going to find a way to get one! Speaking of new relationships, Agent Davies (Mark Deklin) pops into the BRIG to ask Jane on a dinner date. Nothing fancy just burgers and fries…that he flew from D.C. to have with a woman he met only a handful of times. Jane’s been talking about Davies since she met him so she awkwardly agrees to the date, but first she makes a stop in the morgue to talk to Maura about the case.

Maura found DNA evidence under the victim’s nails and bruises on the body that indicate Walter was held down with a person’s knee while being smothered, maybe by a pillow. Jane notices Maura seems depressed and the quirky M.E. confides in her best friend that maybe she’s not cut out to be a writer. It seems Maura’s editor got back to her and while they think the book has potential, her characters and scenery don’t really “pop.” It seems they need more color and the literal doctor is at a loss. Jane tells her not to give up, it’s one editor and who cares. If Maura doesn’t believe in her book than nobody will. She also reminds her that every case she works on she’s wrong until she’s right so just keep trying and Maura will get there.

A Father’s Persistence

Korsak meets with Mary, his old childhood sweetheart and Walter’s daughter, to question her about her father’s death. The two talk about the past over tea in the park. Walter and the entire family never got over Wendy’s death. Walter turned to the bottle and Mary and her mother left him. Eventually, he got sober and started working with victim’s families, but he never gave up on trying to find Wendy’s killer.

Later at the Dirty Robber, Vince tells Kiki (Christina Chang) about the case and how he’s tied to it. He mentions that Wendy’s death was probably what drove him to become a cop. Angela interrupts to ask about switching her schedule to spend more time with her grandson. She’s not getting any younger and wants to make the most of her life. That touches Korsak who starts questioning his retirement. Korsak’s been on the fence about retiring and Kiki isn’t about to force him to do it, even though she suspects that’s exactly what he’s hoping for. This decision is his and his alone, but now that Jane’s moving maybe it’s time for Korsak to take the leap.

Money, Cover-ups and a Locket

Back at the lab, Maura matched the DNA scrapings in CODUS, but there is no name. The match came from a sample that Maura, herself, put into CODUS when Korsak had her go through the evidence in Wendy’s death a few years back. Whoever killed Wendy killed Walter. Korsak gives some background on the young murdered teen including a mystery locket that she wore. Nobody knew who gave it to her and on the day she was murdered. Walter questioned it, but she still didn’t say who it was from. The locket was missing from Wendy’s body and since her death, Walter has been searching for that locket hoping to find the killer. Even more interesting is that Wendy was killed at the home of The Davenports, a rich family who wasn’t known to mingle with a blue collar family like the Sokolovs but Wendy attended school with the Davenport sons thanks to a scholarship. That’s why she was invited to their party. The three Davenport sons were no angels and throughout their lives their father covered for crimes, including rape, for two of his sons. The third son, Robbie, was apparently the good kid while his brothers remained in and out of trouble their whole lives. Jane and Korsak wondered if Wendy was murdered because she saw something at the Davenports she wasn’t supposed to. The team heads out to question Robbie Davenport (John Allen Nelson), but they get nowhere. Robbie has taken over the family business now that his father has some form of dementia and has been living in an assisted living facility. Jane wants to question or get a DNA sample from him, but Robbie is evasive and tells them to get a warrant. Robbie isn’t just the family lawyer; it seems he’s also the new family protector.

Boy Talk and DNA

Like most mornings, Rizzoli and Isles car pool to work, but this morning Maura got quite the surprise when she showed to pick Jane up. I guess after burgers, beers and trading gunshot stories, Jane’s date went well – if the half-dressed Agent Davies is anything to go on. Maura seems slightly embarrassed, but plays it off by joking about Jane’s clothes not making it off the floor. Jane’s not amused by the teasing and the three of them drive Davies to his hotel before they head to the precinct. No doubt that was an awkward ride that requires copious amounts of coffee so the two besties head to the café for caffeine and boy talk. Jane really likes Agent Davies and Maura agrees he might be a keeper. The conversation switches to Maura’s book and Jane tells her she thinks the M.E. needs a change of scenery. Maybe she should switch up her writing habits and even where she writes from. Jane tells her not to give up because giving up is not the Dr. Isles she knows. While Jane and Maura are down in the café, Nina is upstairs telling Korsak about her program to win a vacation. She also lets him know that Walter’s bank records over the years show him purchasing twelve lockets. He must be trying to find Wendy’s missing necklace with the hope it leads him to her killer.

Later on that day, Jane meets Frankie at the assisted living home where Oliver Davenport is residing. They have no luck getting past security without a warrant so Jane decides to sneak in with an art delivery service. She throws on one of Frankie’s jackets and slips in undetected. Yes, Jane Rizzoli decorated police officer and soon to be FBI employee, just broke every law in the book to illegally obtain evidence. Since this is TV, we’ll just go with it. Jane finds Oliver and the elder Davenport’s very ill. He mistakes Jane for his wife and he seems to be in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s. The man is in tears over his visiting “wife” and Jane uses this as an opportunity to wipe his tears and collect his DNA – DNA that Maura later matches to one of the Davenport sons, but they still aren’t sure which one.

Find The Locket, Find The Killer

Korsak meets Mary at her father’s safety deposit box after Nina uncovers his bank records and finds years of purchases for twelve lockets. When they open the box, all the lockets are dated to when Walter bought them yet the most recent locket is missing. Mary and Korsak assume that Walter finally broke the case. He found Wendy’s locket and the killer most likely murdered him to cover it up. If the team finds the locket they’ll find their killer.

Down at the lab, Maura and Kent (Adam Sinclair) are using a new technique to lift fingerprints off Wendy’s clothes. It’s a long shot since the dress is over forty years old, but It works and uncovers two child size handprints on the front of the dress. Further investigation shows the prints belong to Robbie Davenport, the supposed “good son.”

Jane and Korsak take off to arrest him, but someone tipped Robbie off and he fled to the family’s helicopter. He doesn’t get far when Jane and the Boston police force order the helicopter to land and Korsak quickly reads Robbie his rights. The case is closed and the group heads to the Dirty Robber for a much needed drink. Agent Davies was called back to D.C. on a case so the whole family is there to celebrate one of the last cases Jane will work on.

Nina is excited that her vacation scheme worked because she won a free honeymoon. That’s not all, Frankie turned his grandma’s hideous earrings into a beautiful engagement ring and the two decide it’s time to let everyone in on their good news. Just when they’re about to announce their engagement, Korsak steals their thunder when he tells everyone he filed his retirement papers. Jane’s leaving Boston for the FBI, Korsak’s retiring and Maura is headed to Paris…wait what? Yes, Maura took Jane’s advice about a change of scenery by taking a month off in Paris to finish her book. With everyone moving on to new phases of their lives it seems the end of this show is pretty clear: Change is coming and for the fans who’ve stuck it out for seven seasons, so are the tears.