Rizzoli And Isles 3x01 What doesn't kill you

I have to admit… the season 3 premiere of Rizzoli and Isles wasn’t as angsty as I had envisioned it to be. Thankfully. Yes, there were some death glares and even a catfight (yes Jane, he really did call it that. LOL) but we still were treated to the trademark Jane/Maura eye-sex that the duo has become well known for. Strangely enough, my focus for this episode ended up more on the big picture, and I noticed some interesting changes.

1 – the fact that Brian Goodman’s name was listed in the main cast opening credits. I’ve been hoping that his character, Lieutenant Cavanaugh, would end up having a more prominent role in the show. I like him. His commanding style reminds me a bit of Lieutenant Fancy on NYPD Blue – someone who trusts in his detectives, yet knows how to play “the game” with the Brass.

It was great to see a scene with just Cavanaugh, Korsak & Frost. No Jane. No Maura. And the guys were talking about their balls. That had me rolling with laughter. Thank goodness this show is on a cable channel – though I have to admit being amused that, as I usually watch the show with the tv captions on, the captions bleep out any less-than-PG word, yet the audio isn’t bleeped.

That one scene really emphasized a welcome change. Yes, I’m absolutely in love with Jane Rizzoli, and I pretty much love Maura Isles (except when she’s glaring daggers at Jane), but after two seasons, I was almost getting worried that the show was relying too much on the two titular characters. I was feeling sorry for Angie having an incredibly busy workload, as she was basically in every single scene in the first two seasons. It’s one reason I had missed Angie’s previous show, Women’s Murder Club. Her character, Lindsay, didn’t have to be in every scene. There could be scenes with either Jill, Cindy or Claire, or even Tom, the ex-husband. Thankfully, this episode branched out from that tunnel vision in a big way. Yes, we still had either Jane or Maura in most scenes, but for a lot of it, they weren’t together. I think that helped to widen the spectrum of the show as well.

2- This also seemed to be the episode that brought out the strength of Mama Rizzoli. We’ve had glimpses of this wonderful woman’s charm occasionally (like the episode with Bill O’Reilly), but this episode brought out the Mama Bear side of her – taking care of not only her daughter, but her ‘other’ daughter (most would say daughter-in-law). Hey, she basically even suggested to Jane that the two were a “couple” and talking about couples’ therapy. That makes me love Mama Rizz all the more.

3- While on one side you’ve got Angela looking out for her girls, there seems to be a mirror image on the other side with Paddy Doyle, who would do anything to keep his daughter alive – like telling everyone (including the baby’s mother) that his daughter died at birth, going so far as to erect a tombstone marking that occasion.

If there’s one thing in this episode that really made me smile, it’s that they didn’t kill off Paddy Doyle. I love John Doman in this role. Charles Hoyt had been a good foil for our main characters through the first two seasons, but since he was a serial killer, two seasons was enough of him lurking around, so thankfully Jane was able to take care of him with their ‘weapon of choice’ – a scalpel to the heart. With Paddy Doyle, the writers have been able to make him a bad guy, but actually give him a loving heart – which is what drew Maura to him in the first place. It was because of that vulnerability in his character that we got to see Maura’s feelings for him evolve from just a “sperm donor” to “father and protector”. It also became Paddy's Achilles Heel, and the reason for his being finally captured after all these years..

I still believe he didn’t give Maura the whole truth when asked if he would have shot Jane. Yes, I think Paddy would have taken a shot at Jane in the same way she shot him – not to kill, but to wound. It’s only the twist of fate that he fell off the catwalk that made him incapacitated, or he’d have been out the door & gone in a flash. I think during the hospital scene where he answered Maura’s question with a “hell yeah,” he had seen the looks between the two ladies and knew they were at odds with each other. He knew, now that he had been captured, that Jane would be the only one of them to be able to keep Maura safe. After all, he was the one to actually tell Jane to look after Maura. From her actions leading up to and throughout this whole warehouse fiasco, we know Jane respected Paddy as well. I don’t believe it was just for Maura’s sake. Remember when Maura had the dilemma of whether to call Paddy with the name of Collin’s killer? Jane said, “if he wants to protect you, maybe we should just let him handle it.” I think that’s when her opinion of Paddy turned from “mob boss killer” to someone to help watch over Maura’s shoulder.

Now, the question of whether Paddy escapes from the hospital or actually goes to prison is yet to be seen. Having him escape and on the run again would just kind of bring us back to where we’ve already been with that story line, so I’m hoping they actually have Paddy put in prison. He can still run his business from there, and it would also give us many opportunities for either Jane or Maura come to him for information whenever they needed to. We saw Jane going to Hoyt in prison for information a few times in the first two seasons, so it could be quite reasonable to have Paddy do the same.

4- and then there’s the catfight. Seriously? A Jane/Maura catfight in the morgue, with Dr Pike calling for backup? That seemed so out of character for Maura. Not the argument itself, but where it took place, and the two not being alone. Then again, it did take place in Maura’s ‘comfort zone’ – her office - and she had been stressed out with having two of her parents in the hospital with serious injuries, and being upset with her best friend for shooting her father. So I guess I’ll give her a little slack on that. As for Jane, we see her arguing all the time with anyone and anywhere, so that seemed a normal part of her character. Maybe Jane’s behavior has rubbed off on Maura more than we realized. That was also quite evident in the scene where Jane tells Maura that if their relationship ever meant anything to her, that she should think about her answers to the IAD guys before speaking. After having her first answer cut off after “yes, but…”, she actually remembers Jane’s comment and thinks hard before answering the second question.

5- speaking of the aforementioned Dr Pike … he is kind of enjoyable to watch – in very small doses, though. I love how Jane has remembered her sensitivity training classes, and put them to very good use in this episode with Dr Pike. I couldn’t help but crack up at Dr Pike painstakingly checking the victim’s mouth for evidence when doing the autopsy. I guess he learned something from Maura the first time, when she made him check the victim’s teeth to find crucial evidence that basically solved the case. Lesson well taught, Dr Isles.

6- I can’t forget the wonderful Korsak moments in this episode as well. Where Angela brought out the Mama Bear persona in full force this time, Vince seemed to cover the Papa Bear role – both with Jane and with Maura. I know Pop Rizzoli will soon be making a reappearance, but I really hope they can start to bring both Angela & Vince together at some point, like the R&I books do.

7- speaking of the books… The Jane/Maura relationship is definitely not the same as on the show, and I really don’t like the Jane/Dean relationship (in either the books or on the show), but there are some other cool parts of the books that I wish could be incorporated in the show. I’d really love to have the character of Julian “Rat” Perkins from the books brought into the tv show. They could even use the main premise that’s in the books – have Rat save Maura’s life, then she sends him to the Evensong school and pays for his education. Then he could show up occasionally.

8- PLEASE tell me that Gabriel “Dickhead” Dean is gone for a really, really long time- like forever. I hate him. (did he really think she'd accept his flowers?) I know Casey is coming back soon, but I’m guessing that the Jane/Casey reunion isn’t going to end up long-term either. However, if I had a choice, I’d pick Casey over Dean. I mean, I’d pick Jane/Maura over all of them, but… Yes, Maura gets a love-interest soon as well. We know the Rizzles love will forever be a fantasy – even though Sasha mentioned that Maura would probably be up for a romance with Jane.

9 – there is one part of this episode that really, really annoys me, and it has to do with the flashback of the first time Jane & Maura met. In the season 2 episode, Sailor Man, we hear Vince telling Maura that Stanley, from the Post Office, just took over running the Division One Café as he had a “cousin in personnel” to give him the job. However, in the flashback, we see Stanley there running the café as Jane & Maura meet. Clearly in the pilot episode, Jane & Maura had known each other for a while, and considering that Jane was still undercover in the DCU during that flashback and not even in homicide yet, the timeline is many years off. Minus 10 points for the continuity error, and the full ire of my wrath for that blatant mistake.

10 – how ironic was it that Maura said she always hated that awful drawing that she gave to Angela, and it turns out that the person represented in the drawing was actually her biological mother – the same person she’s been wondering about for years. Yes, this show certainly does have its tongue-in-cheek moments like that.

11- I must confess... once I saw the main IAD guy, I knew he was the eventual baddie. That actor is ALWAYS the bad guy. He plays "bad guy" so well, I guess.

Overall, I’d say that after just one episode of Season 3 so far, I can see the huge growth this show has made. The biggest growth is the overall size of the main family, including Lt Cavanaugh, and even Paddy and Constance (whom I know are only limited guest stars). But I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction. Now, if they'd just extend that family a little bit further and bring back Detective Crowe from the 1st season. I miss him.