Rizzoli and Isles 5x08 Lost and Found Review

Badass Jane Rizzoli strikes again. Sort of.

She had almost all of the key components in place:

Ponytail – check

Gun – check

Badge – check

Kevlar vest (which really seems too small) – check

Common sense – still missing

Seriously, Jane! You had just commented to Tasha that “if I can find you, so can he.” So why in the world would you let her walk out of the door in front of you like that without any hint of caution? Typical Badass Jane would have stayed very close to, or in front of, Tasha as they walked out to the car, not leaving her that wide open of a target. I know Tasha rejected Jane ushering her out the door, which is why she put up her arms. But Jane should have walked out first, allowing herself to be the human shield.

However, the real Badass Jane kicked in as soon as the shooting occurred.

- Getting them both to safety in the elevator (taking a quick second to grab the gun as they ran by would have helped immensely).

- Buying themselves time by stopping the elevator mid-floor.

- hot-wiring the phone to call for help

- calling Maura to use her googlespeak to keep Tasha coherent

- getting out of the elevator to sneak up on the killer

- giving up herself (and baby) to save a teenager with a promising future

So, that takes care of Badass Jane. Let’s move on to something a bit more unpleasant.

Maura Isles. Or rather, the path that they’re taking Maura down these days: That being Maura & Jack. Didn’t we just go through all of this same stuff with Jane & Casey? Do we really need a second go-round with Maura? We remember how much of a different person Jane became when Casey was around. I’m hoping they don’t do the same with Maura now. I’m quite disheartened that Maura’s main storyline revolves around Jack, and spending time with him at work  ‘on the clock’ – even to the point of not answering her phone while in the office. That’s totally unacceptable, especially for Maura. This was the same scenario that Jane/Casey had during the building collapse at the end of Season 3 where Jane was at Casey’s & reluctant to answer the phone. It surprised me that Jack even had an inkling of a thought that he could somehow be allowed past the crime scene tape just because he was “with her.” Really, Jack? Up until that point, you had begun to earn my respect by being educated and respectful. Just because you drove her to the crime scene doesn’t give you real privileges. The “I’m with her” thing only works when Jane does it.

I’ve seen many complaints about the lack of Maura time lately in each episode. I think people are just confused because much of Maura’s screen time lately has been with someone other than Jane, or that the storyline doesn’t revolve around Maura. In this episode, we got Maura/Angela, Maura/Korsak, Maura/Jack and Maura/Tasha (phone) scenes. But, of course, very little Jane/Maura, (and much of it was on the phone) which, I believe, is why many are complaining. I love Maura Isles, and at this point, maybe even more than I love Jane. Last week, we had the brief return of the Maura/Paddy storyline – a storyline which I absolutely love! However, since they’re moving Paddy to California, I’m guessing that’s history for a while. Right now, I’m just concerned that any current Maura storyline is going to involve more of Jack. That’s something I’m not sure I can accept. We need a good Maura storyline that doesn’t include a boyfriend (aka beard). After all, these two title characters are strong, successful, independent women. Why does there always need to be a man hanging on in the background? Right now, we have Korsak and Frankie to fill that role. Unfortunately, I think Cavanaugh’s male presence has now been replaced by Jack.

There was only a tiny bit of Rizzles in this episode, and of all things, it was them on a date with Jack. (yes, I know how that sounded, and that’s exactly what it was – at least in my head!)

J: he’s great

M: you think so?

J: yes. There’s only one problem with tonight.

M: what?

J: you (throws drops of water on Maura’s sleeve) he’s awesome. I’m awesome. You? Way too stiff. Relax, okay? The evening is going great.

M: no it isn’t. now I have all these water spots on my blouse.

J: great. Well, think about that instead of all that instead of wondering if we’re having a good time, because we’re having a good time.

Tsk Tsk, Jane. You should know better than to mess with Maura’s clothes like that. At least it was only water.

M: since we’re telling funny stories, I…

J: really? You’re gonna tell an embarrassing story about yourself? Okay. This! This is a first.

M: no, but remember the time we went to the Adirondacks?

J: (under her breath) don’t you dare

M: Jane & I had never tried it, so we went camping.

Jack: Uh huh

M: she really doesn’t like this story.

HA! See what happens, Jane, when you mess with Maura’s clothes?! But, COME ON!! I want to hear the story!!! Please?! Jane & Maura camping. I can only imagine the hijinks.

In all seriousness, I do kind of like Jack. Only because Jane likes him, and they all get along great. Unlike Casey, who seemed to be a bit rigid around Maura. I mean, Jack even gave Jane the autographed baseball! What a present for the LLBFF of your girlfriend. That earns him some points.

M: you really like him?

J: no

M: what?

J: well I answered ‘yes’ the first 17 times you asked, I’m thinking it’s the wrong answer.

M: well I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

J: I’m the other shoe?

M: well I didn’t mean you were a shoe

It’s cute how Maura gets the idioms about clothing correct! Even cuter that she’s so worried whether Jane likes him or not. So, if Jane were a shoe, she’d be…something made of leather. Tough & durable on the outside, yet soft & pliable.

Maura still stands her ground on the subject of Guessing

M: time of death was after Sydney’s, but not by much

K: what about the weapon, can you determine if the weapon was the same for both murders?
M: you know I can’t answer that question now, Sergeant.

J: we know, but it never gets old asking.

K: how about the same caliber bullet

M: well, I will take a leap into the void and say that this bullet is the same caliber as the one I removed from Sydney Allen.

J: let’s assume that both victims were killed by the same person

M: I’m not willing to assume that.

J: okay, let’s say that Korsak & I are willing to assume that both victims were killed by the same person. That narrows our list of suspects down to people that needed them both dead.

Ha! At least Jane avoided using the eyeroll. After all this time, Jane should really know how to phrase her ‘assumptions’ by now when it comes to Maura.

Maura even wiggles out of a Korsak assumption:

M: ballistics confirmed that Sydney and her husband were killed by the same gun. And these striations confirm that a silencer was used.

K: professional hit.

M: that’s not what I’m saying.

K: sorry. I’m not putting that in your mouth. I’m saying it. Cuz I get to say whatever the hell I want and nobody asks me for scientific evidence to support it.

M: well lucky you.

K: well you wouldn’t do it even if the Commonwealth said you could.

M: probably not.

K: the real question is: why would someone hire a hitman to kill ‘em? (Maura shrugs) oh, I don’t expect you to answer, I’m just thinking out loud. Thanks, Doc.

Wow. Korsak was channeling Jane quite a bit in that scene. The whole “say whatever I want” line was totally something that would come out of Jane’s mouth.

I like how Vince is seeming to take charge more. It does beg the question: have they actually gotten rid of Cavanaugh?

K: the most interesting of the textbooks is “Police Administration: Structures, Processes, and Behaviors.” 720 pages of pure gold

J: you had to memorize all of that?
K: no, but they reserve the right to put anything from the book on the Lieutenant’s exam.

J: I mean, structures & procedures I get, but behaviors? Pfft. We’re cops. We’re pains in the asses. They need 720 pages to dissect that?  You’ll do fine on the exam, by the way.

K: we’ll see

J: you’re the best Sergeant Detective in the building. What’ idiot’s not gonna promote you?

K: If I don’t study a bit more, they might be idiots if they do.

I really don’t want the Jane/Korsak dynamic to change. All this talk about him moving up has me screaming “NO!” I love all of the moments with these two. They always seem to have “mature” talks between them.

I’m glad to see they’ve still got Angela around. I had to chuckle at how Jane still believes her mom can do miracles in the ‘cleaning’ department. I just KNEW when she mentioned that her mother got the motor oil out of her confirmation dress, that Angela had actually just bought a new dress instead. After all, do you remember back to when Angela was in charge of the parakeet (Starsky) that Korsak found at the park a few seasons ago? Yes, the parakeet died, and Maura was sneaky & bought a new one in its place. This time, I don’t understand how she actually wiped off the writing. The coffee stain was around the name, not ON it.

M: Grover Ver?

A: the ‘ben’ is silent

M: the ‘ben’ is not silent. It’s missing. What happened to it?

A: I don’t know, maybe he got tired signing all those autographs. All right. Jane spilled coffee on it and she asked me to get the stain out.

M: well, you did. It’s just too bad the stain was on the signature.

A: I know. I made it worse. Jane brought it to me because she thinks I’m some kind of whiz with the stain removal.

M: she did say once that you got motor oil out of her communion dress.

A: yeah. Kind of. I bought her a new one.

M: so you kind of didn’t

A: it’s mom logic

M: don’t worry. It’s not a big deal

A: yeah, it will be to Jane when she finds out. She doesn’t want to hurt Jack’s feelings

M: she doesn’t? that’s sweet

A: no, I think it’s totally neurotic.

M: it’s sweet

A: so, it doesn’t matter that I erased half his name?

M: it’ll matter to Jane.

Ha! Of course it will. It seems that Maura knows Jane much better than Angela does! Not surprising. I have a feeling that, in the next episode, Maura will secretly buy a new baseball and have Angela give it back to Jane. Kind of like Korsak’s Starsky/Parakeet scenario.

In this episode, we got the introduction of Idara Victor as Nina Holiday. I like how they subtly brought her in as a ‘crime scene analyst’ and working from BRIC instead of the regular bullpen (and not sitting in Frost’s chair). I like that they have her in a different role instead of a detective, even though she had been a former cop from Chicago. (And thankfully, a Cubs fan, not a White Sox fan – or at least she didn’t deny it. And myself being a MN Twins fan, the White Sox are the hated rival.) And I have to love the lady (the actor, that is) even more since she tweeted me last night during the airing of the show, replying with an answer to a tweet that wasn’t even originally directed towards her. I love it! I’m looking forward to getting more of Nina’s backstory as we go along. I also like that they had Nina come along with them to the crime scene. I’m glad she’s going to be doing more than just sitting at her computer.

I had to chuckle a bit when we were first introduced to Nina. Frankie walked into BRIC and all of the desks were taken. I don’t think I’ve seen that many people in BRIC ever before. Many times, we see the room empty – or just with Korsak, Frost & Jane. Since it’s officially the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, you’d think it would always have a bunch of people working there, and working on ‘intelligence’.

K: what do you think of her?
J: Who, Nina? She seems all right. Helpful. Less likely to leave Cheeto crumbs on the keyboard. Why?

K: she’s our new homicide hire.

J: what?

K: yeah, I got wind of a Chicago PD uniform that was transferring in the department.

J: so why ain’t she on the streets?

K: she wanted to make a change. Didn’t think it’d be received well back home.

J: there’s got to be more to it than that

K: probably, but what I cared about: she has a perfect service record, a clean psych eval, and BPD bought my argument that for now, we’d be better off with a dedicated BRIC homicide analyst than another detective.

J: what about Frankie?

K: same job. He just got a new employee.

J: you did this so it’d be easy on me, didn’t you?

K: I did it because it’s the best thing for the unit.

Awwww I just want to reach out & give Vince Korsak a very big bear hug right now!

Before we get to the screen caps, I had to chuckle at the little continuity mistake as Jane walked into the building when she was first looking for Tasha. The wide shot has her holding up her badge in her left hand. Immediately, we come to the close-up shot and the badge is in her right hand. Just a tiny ‘oopsie”!!

A couple other quick observations:

1.      Isn’t the ‘new’ break room actually Cavanaugh’s office?

2.      The little blue “on official business” sign in the corner of the front window of Maura’s car made me chuckle. All she gets is a sign? At least they could give her some kind of flashing light to make it seem cooler. She also needs a cooler ID badge so that the unis at the crime scene can recognize her as an ‘official’ person and she doesn’t have to keep explaining herself each time.

3.      On the park bench when Jane kisses her mom on the head, Angela gives an “ewww” look and pushes her away. That is so Jane! Like mother, like daughter.

4.      And Jane’s strange joke when trying to distract Tasha in the elevator… I just had to roll my eyes.
5.   I also just realized that it was another life & death situation for Jane, and she was wearing a blue t-shirt again. She really should avoid that color.

Thoughts on the continuation next week – (stop reading now if you don’t want spoilers)

I saw the preview with Jane on the phone asking about what it takes to be a foster parent. I’m not believing that Jane is asking for herself – because we all know how much danger she always gets into and how much time she’s away from home – but I’m thinking that maybe that she’s asking for her mother, Angela. Last week, we heard Angela was giving up everything and starting over. Maybe her next move is being a foster mother. Or maybe that’s just because on this weeks’ episode of The Fosters, the Girls United ladies were back on the show, and that’s fresh in my mind.

Or a second (and more plausible) theory would be:

Since next week’s episode is titled, “It takes a village”- maybe that means, since Jane’s place has only one bedroom, Angela moves into Jane’s condo (or even to some new place); Jane moves into Maura’s guest house; both Jane and Maura (and maybe even Angela) become registered foster parents, allowing Casa Isles to begin filling up with a few foster kids run by “the village” (aka Jane, Maura, Angela). I’ve asked this before fairly recently – does anyone remember the kids in “Rondo’s Rejects”? Jane & Maura mentioned they were going to ‘keep an eye’ on Danya. I’d love to see the ladies start following up with some of the previous ‘troubled’ kids – even like Ricky from last week’s episode.