This episode of “Rizzoli & Isles” begins with a woman relaxing in her hot tub outside when wham! Someone pushes her radio into the pool, electrocutes her, and then holds her head under the water. Note to self: No sitting in a hot tub outside with a radio RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THE TUB! That’s just asking for trouble.
Meanwhile, Maura gets a letter from Paddy. He’s sent her seven letters in the past five days; turns out that his dad – Paddy, Sr., also a mobster – is being released from prison. Paddy wants Maura to take him in because he has nowhere else to go. Really? There’s not ONE mob boss friend on the outside who’d take him in? I guess maybe they’re all dead or in prison.
Jane and Maura go to investigate the hot tub murder, but Jane’s hoping it doesn’t mess up her plans with Casey, who’s coming home for a few days.
“Pink froth around her lips and nose,” says Maura, examining the victim. That kind of non-scientific language is a dead giveaway that Maura’s off her game, thanks to the Paddy business.
The hot tub victim is Rhonda Clark, a college professor of sociology. Rhonda’s husband, also a college professor, shows up, and his alibi checks out. A possible motive might be that she got tenure and he did not. Reason enough for murder?
Meanwhile, Frost is working on another murder case, and the victim’s wife has an alibi. Hmmm…
When Jane and Frost talk by phone, we get a close-up of the phone itself. I know it must be a product placement, but it’s a bad one, because I can’t figure out what the phone is. I know it’s not an iPhone. Motorola maybe?
Anyway, Casey shows up a day early, and Jane is, of course, happy to see him. But he’s acting all domestic, making her breakfast, cleaning out the fridge and doing her laundry. Sounds like the perfect guy! But it’s freaking her out. And she could have taken the next day off, but she doesn’t.
“This isn’t about Casey, it’s about you,” says Maura.
“I can’t be his, and be mine too,” says Jane.
Maura and Jane go to spring Paddy, Sr. from prison, and he is LESS than thrilled to see them. You’d think he’d be happy to see anyone who was willing to get him out of prison and put him up in their home. “Leave me here. I like it here,” he says. “I don’t want anything to do with you.” Such a sweet guy, isn’t he?
Even the always forgiving Maura tells Jane, “He’s a hideous human being!”
Casey brings over his dog that works with guys in the military. He says there’s a lot of similarities, and Paddy’s probably scared of change.
Back on the case, Jane and crew watch a video in which Rhonda accuses a student of plagiarism, and he gets ticked off. They visit the student, played by David Blue. I wondered what happened to him after “SGU Stargate Universe.” Somebody get him a TV show STAT!
After watching Jane and Casey together again, I agree with everyone else who says they don’t have much chemistry. I’m not totally broken up when he tells her he’s now a colonel, and now that he’s approaching 20 years in the service, he has to make a decision about re-enlisting. At this point, I’m kind of hoping he does.
I’m not saying I want Jane with Martinez, because he seems a little creepy when he’s around her. On the other hand, they have more chemistry than Jane and Casey. Maybe we need a new love interest for Jane.
At Maura’s the next morning, Jane is aghast that Maura is cooking Paddy Sr. breakfast, and about throws up when Maura says he has to eat at exactly 7 a.m. or he won’t eat at all. Is Maura too nice? To the point where she lets people walk all over her? I’m with Jane on this one. To heck with both Paddy Jr. and Sr.
Another product placement: Maura’s heel liners. I think they’re Dr. Scholl’s, but can’t be sure. These people need to do better with the product placements. They go by so fast we can’t see what they are.
Paddy, Sr. can’t believe it when Jane tells him that Paddy, Jr. asked Maura to take him in. “He put me outside because he wants to see me die as a nobody,” says the senior mobster.
“Maybe he put you out here so you could see the one good thing he’s done – Maura,” says Jane.
Something is amiss when Maura finds an unknown dog hair in Rhonda’s lung. Turns out the dog belongs to Leslie Cabot – the sister of the victim that Frost was investigating. Cue Hitchcock’s “Strangers on a Train.” Two people commit each others’ murders. In this case, it’s “Strangers at a Dog Park.” The dead guy’s sister and Rhonda’s husband met at the dog park and planned the murders. There’s also a lesbian affair thrown into the mix.
A friend of mine mentioned the fact that Rhonda’s weight played into the storyline. At the beginning of the episode, Jane mentioned something about the fact that body fat and lotion had something to do with her not being electrocuted right away. That’s probably a legitimate statement, but then, there’s this…
“Do you think he wanted Rhonda dead because she let herself go?” says Korsak, talking about Rhonda’s husband. That’s pretty blatant sexism. Would Korsak have said that if it was an overweight guy who died in the hot tub? Maybe.
But then, Jane continues the “fat girl” theme by saying that she’d found a motive, and it was “that and the fact that they ‘grew apart.’” The way she said it implied that they’d “grown apart” because Rhonda had “grown bigger.” It just rubbed me the wrong way. Did this bother you?
Things end with Jane telling Maura that Casey’s going back to Afghanistan. He hasn’t decided whether to re-enlist, but he’ll do just that unless Jane agrees to marry him. I hope she doesn’t. If they got married, it would kind of ruin the show.
There was one other product placement, but again, the brand flew by me. It was when Jane and Korsak were sitting in his car. Jane was fiddling with the cool audio-video stuff on the dashboard. I checked the show’s website, and they’re advertising Lexus there, so it might be that.
In addition to David Blue, other guest stars included Mackenzie Astin (Professor Rick Clark; Mackenzie is the son of John Astin and Patty Duke, and the younger brother of Sean Astin), Kelly Kruger (Jenny Cabot), Heather McComb (Leslie Cabot), Richard Herd (Patrick Doyle, Sr.), and Celia Finkelstein (Professor Rhonda Clark).
Thoughts on this episode of “Rizzoli & Isles”?
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