Hello and welcome back to another episode of Rizzoli & Isles! Let's jump right in, shall we? It's night time, and a man who looks a little bit scary is wandering around yelling out to someone who's apparently run away from him. He says he has a proposal to make, and that they can work it out. Hearing a noise, he runs towards a road and promptly gets hit by a car. Youch. His body flies into some nearby bushes and the car races away with much squealing of brakes. Cue aerial view of Boston.
The first of many.
On the pavement outside her apartment, Jane (Angie Harmon) is sitting on the kerb wearing running gear and clutching her ankle. Maura (Sasha Alexander) suggests calling for help, but Jane says Maura will cause 911 and make too much of a scene. With Maura's help, Jane hops up onto the hood of a car which I hope belongs to one of them and Maura prods her ankle. It's sprained, but Jane knew that already. Suddenly some men jog by, so Jane and Maura attempt to act natural. One of them is Frankie (Jordan Bridges), so we can assume they're not trying to impress him, but the other one is Rafael (Amaury Nolasco), who previously worked with Jane on some case and showed up a few episodes back as the head of the drug unit... or something? Oops, that's my bad. I can't remember. He chats with Jane for a while about her car and then jogs off.
Frankie stays behind, because he's sensible enough to realise Jane is hurt. He asks her what's going on and suggests she go to a hospital. She refuses, which is perfectly reasonable. Maura wants to x-ray her ankle but Jane's very firm about it not being broken. I can't help feeling she's being a little bit wussy about a sprained ankle. I mean, this woman shot herself in the gut but she can't handle a bad ankle? I've sprained my ankles too many times to count (as a child I was told I had weak ankles... hmm) and it's not that bad. But maybe it is broken. Anyway, Jane hops away with help from her brother and her friend, and title credits roll.
We're in the morgue, where Maura is x-raying Jane's foot. It isn't broken, but it is very purple. Susie (yay, Susie!) (Tina Huang) comes in with a protective boot for Jane. Jane is not impessed, but she eventually concedes to wear it. Putting the boot on hurts, so Maura suggests a distraction. Jane distracts herself by wondering if the army reads all the emails she sends Casey (they probably do) and admits that said emails contain 'mushy stuff'. Maura finds it interesting that Casey is very far away and Jane only started being affectionate with him when he left. Jane admits that Casey was being too 'domestic' and it freaked her out. A brief conversation ensues about how nice it would be to have men appearing at the touch of a button (honestly? I don't see the appeal) and Jane suddenly worries that Rafael is going to take her car because of his unhealthy interest in it earlier that day. She also needs crutches to get back upstairs.
Pancakes with ears can solve any problem.
In the precinct cafe, Angela (Lorraine Bracco) brings her injured daughter food. She's a good mum. She says that Jane has broken more bones than both of her brothers combined and she doesn't understand how it keeps happening. Jane protests that her foot isn't broken, and Korsak (Bruce McGill) arrives to ask what's going on with the boot. After a feeble attempt to pass it off as a fashion accessory or a heroic injury from wrestling bulls, Jane admits she tripped while jogging. Korsak promises he'll tell everyone who asks that she was sword-fighting.
Rafael shows up again, and is nice to Angela. Jane wonders why he isn't nice to her, and Maura says it's because he wants to sleep with her. Jane disagrees. Rafael also asks about Jane's ankle, and then asks for her keys. He actually does want to steal her car. Everyone in the immediate vicinity is angry with Rafael for stealing the crippled woman's keys, but he ignores their disapproval and does it anyway. Angela offers Jane her car, but detectives aren't allowed to use personal cars for work. Phones ring, and the guys have a fatal hit-and-run, so they head off.
Aerial view of Boston! And... hey, isn't that the coffee place from last week? It is! And that's Irritating Barrista! OMG how dare she smile flirtily at Frost (Lee Thompson Young). That's just rude. Korsak and Maura both recognise Irritating Barrista too, and they're equally annoyed with Frost for flirting with the woman who called his partner a bitch. Come on, Frost.
At the crime scene now, and Maura took a detour to take Jane back to the precinct. She couldn't walk. Korsak wonders how she got upstairs, but not to worry! Frankie and two uniforms carried her. Brother to the rescue! I'm sure Jane was not impressed. Frost uses his iPad (he calls it tablet... are they the same thing?) to show Jane the crime scene.
Technology keeps evolving, but dead people stay the same.
The dead guy was a driver's ed instructor, which makes his hit-and-run death ironic. He's lying in the bushes outside some school, which makes me wonder what he was doing there last night. Potential pedophile run over by his almost-victim? I dunno but that guy has sinister glasses. A broken headlight means that the car's lights were off (because the filaments are only brittle when they're cold) and skid marks prove that the driver braked before hitting the man and then accelerated right into him. It seems this wasn't an accident. Well, cars are just as lethal as guns, and more widespread.
Driving guy has been dead eight to ten hours, and he had a key on him. Frost and Korsak take the key and go to talk to the principal of the school. Maura spots a reporter hassling three girls and goes to send him away. She talks to the girls, who all liked the teacher and are sad that he's dead. They ask Maura for advice on how to deal with his death, and she suggests talking to the school counselors and leaning on each other.
The principal, on the other hand, doesn't seem too grieved when Frost and Korsak talk to him. He doesn't recognise the key they show him - it's not one from the school. He also says that some students and parents complain about the strict curriculum. Driving Guy's wife just had her third baby, so Frost and Korsak go to talk to her. She's very unhappy (obviously) and says that she had told her husband not to go jogging at night. When the detectives question her further, she asks if he was killed deliberately, and then says she would never kill him because they have three children under four together. Apparently Driving Guy had been sleeping in the den because the baby's crying woke him up. His wife also doesn't recognise the key. Frost takes Driving Guy's computer.
Mysterious key, eh? What's up with that?
At the morgue, Maura and Jane don't think Driving Guy looks like he did a lot of jogging. There's a gash in his thigh, with blue and grey particulates. Maura will get them analysed. Jane, meanwhile, is missing her car. Maura still thinks that Rafael holds a torch for Jane, but Jane protests mightily. It seems that Driving Guy thinks Jane is a great detective and wants her to find out who killed him, although that could just be Maura's interpretation.
Jane is having a laptop chat with Casey about the case, and then how he's doing in Afghanistan. Rafael marches in and interrupts, so Jane says goodbye. She and Rafael talk, but I'm distracted by the fact that he's putting honey in his coffee. OMG. Who does that? That's disgusting! Ew ew ew!
There's something very wrong with this coffee... I just can't put my finger on it.
By the time I've recovered from my brief meltdown at this horrendous treatment of coffee (also why are there traffic cones on top of the fridge?), the conversation is over and we're back upstairs in the precinct, where everyone is reminding Jane to keep her ankle elevated. "It's like having four mothers," she says in disgust, but I'm amused. Frost is going through Driving Guy's emails when he finds a photo that a student had emailed. She's flashing her bra and wants better grades. I totally called the pedo aspect! But when Frost tries to find out the location of the girl, he gets a surprise.
Cut to a hospital, where Jane and Maura are, and so is the student. She's been in a coma for ten days (so she didn't do it) after ODing on her mother's codeine. Her parents are very unhappy and believe they pushed her too hard. When Jane shows them the revealing photo, they admit that they knew about it, and they went and apologised to Driving Guy about it. They don't seem angry with him, so they probably didn't do it either.
Later that evening, Jane and Maura go to The Dirty Robber (or whatever it's called) and Maura says that the particulates found in the wound were more-or-less average car parts and flecks of paint, except that there was a unique navy blue paint and also they think the car had been in an accident before. Ok then. Frost will start a DNV search. Meanwhile, the guys at the next table are using their coasters to rate the girls who walk into the bar. Weird... Jane and Maura rate them back.
Can't tell if... rating guys or... rating selves.
Rafael shows up again (again?) and gives Jane's her mother's car keys. Why? Well he impounded her mother's car so that regulations allow her to drive it. Ok then. He also says he's worried about her, which Maura takes as proof that he loves her. Jane is still not convinced or impressed. Rafael wants to buy her a drink but he thinks she should take her ankle home and rest. He suggests a raincheck. Jane agrees. Maura says they have chemistry, but I don't think so.
The next morning, back at the precinct, and the most significant thing is that Jane isn't there. But wait, she's just picking up her brother. Not particularly significant. They still haven't found the car, but Korsak has been reading through the complaints about Driving Guy. According to one, he caters to the girls and ignores the boys, even though "boys are better at science". What a lie. Frost thinks it's a lie too, because the two best scientists he knows are his mum and Maura. I forgive Frost for flirting with Irritating Barrista. This is still running along the pedo vein, though. Korsak also says that a top-notch student a couple of years ago was expelled for having weed at school. Driving Guy was the one who found the weed, so that's a motive. Korsak and Jane will go talk to her, because Frost has a 'meeting' downstairs. If this 'meeting' involves a woman who makes coffee in any shape or form, he's unforgiven. Oh, yeah, it's Irritating Barrista. Frost, you suck. Angela hustles over to find out what's going on, but she doesn't throw her pot of coffee on Irritating Barrista like I hoped. Damn. Korsak comes downstairs to tell Frost that his dedicated partner is doing his work while he flirts with a nasty lady, and Korsak and Angela totally exchange a look. Hmmm.
In interrogation, the student who was expelled is being... well, interrogated. Nothing else really happens in interrogation. She says that she didn't stop liking Driving Guy when he found the weed, rather she stopped liking him when he became "a lascivious creep." I have to take a moment to look that word up (new word! Yay! I love learning new words!) and for those who don't know, it's synonymous with lewd and lustful, among other words. It's also connected to statutory rape. Totally called it! But my suspicions aren't confirmed yet. The former student says that Driving Guy wrecked her life because she wouldn't have oral sex with him. He threatened her with a C GRADE if she didn't do it. OH MY GOODNESS. Clearly getting a C would be the end of the world, but the student still didn't do what he asked. She threatened to tell the principal, so Driving Guy planted weed in her stuff and then 'found' it.
Back upstairs, Frankie has brought Jane a teddy with a boot like hers. Adorable! Frost thinks so too, and Frankie says that they always get each other presents when they are sick or injured. I wish my sister did that. Frost has found a blue car registered to the high school, so they go check it out. The car in question is the driver's ed car, and there's a dent on the bonnet (or hood) and a blue thread caught in the gearstick (or shifter). When Frost releases the handbrake (or emergency brake... man, I'm so glad I don't have to drive in America. This is confusing) the car rolls backwards and Frankie spots blood on the headlight, which is broken. Murder weapon - found! Now they just have to figure out who was driving it.
The plot thickens...
Back at the precinct, they've had CSU start processing it (but according to this show they're useless). The car is six years old and they've already found more than a hundred fingerprints on it. Yikes. Maura comes up and tells them that the turquoise thread they found in the gearstick (shifter) is a kind of embroidery commonly used for friendship bracelets. She prepares to launch into a lecture about where friendship bracelets originated (she supports Arabia) but Korsak gets her back on track. Driving Guy had Viagra in his system. Everyone finds it weird that he took Viagra before a jog, not to mention his wife has just had a C-section. Maura says the word 'penis' and every male in the room looks at her as though she has suddenly grown an extra head. I thought they were adults? Sigh.
Jane and Maura head to the high school in Angela's car, which has a giant coffee cup thing on the top. Everyone is amused. I spot a continuity error where the sky behind the car is blue while the sky in the wide shots is grey. Ha. They drive up to the driver's ed building, where they spot a padlock that could potentially fit the mysterious key. It does! So Driving Guy had a personal driver's ed shed. They wonder what he used it for, and then Jane spots another thread on the floor. Ok, now that's a little implausible. I mean, I could understand a thread getting caught in something like a gearstick (shifter), sure, but just spontaneously dropping off and falling on the floor? Nope. Maura brought a blacklight, which Jane uses to look at the couch. She sees bodily fluids, so they think that the expelled student from before was telling the truth. Called it! There's also a basket which has a notice telling students to leave all their phones in it during class. Jane and Maura wonder if the photo sent from the hospitalised student's phone to Driving Guy's email was actually sent by Driving Guy himself as blackmail material. She must have taken the photo herself, though, so that was dumb of her.
Park your cellphone here; please leave all nude or semi-nude pictures at home.
Back at the precint, Maura, Frost and Korsak check on the hospitalised student's internet pages etc. A photo of her with the three girls from earlier pops up, so I'm calling it - one of them did it. Or all of them. After checking Driving Guy's lesson planner, Maura realises that the student was watching a movie at the time the photo was sent, and Driving Guy was in the driving ed shed with her phone - so it's almost definite that he's the one who sent the photo.
They find a bunch of videos of the hospitalised student (I really need to remember her name) with the other three girls - her three friends. The bra photo was taken from a video she took with her friends at her sixteenth birthday party, so she wasn't intending it for her teacher at all. Glad we need to confirm that for the third time. Maura recognises her friends, and then they see the friendship bracelets on their wrists. Called it. Man, I'm good.
They call the girls in, and all of them veto their right to have a parent or lawyer present, rather foolishly. Jane suggests splitting up and taking one girl each, so that's what they do. Jane talks to the first girl, who says that she wanted to record Driving Guy telling her he'd fail her unless she had oral sex with him. (I find it weird that all of the students interviewed so far have used the more formal version - oral sex - rather than the slang words that teenagers are more comfortable with.) The girl says that she met him at the shed at eleven, and turned her phone on to record him, putting it in her shirt pocket. The other two girls say exactly the same thing. Uh oh. All three girls give the same story, about Driving Guy finding the phone when he tried to grope them, they ran away and hopped in the car and he ran out in front and they hit him.
So, does three confessions mean we're doing our job badly or incredibly well?
A lady who I assume is a lawyer but who hasn't been introduced points out that with three confessions they can't make a case against any one of the girls. Jane, Frost and Korsak try to push the girls harder, including threatening them with fifteen years in jail, but they're all still saying they were the one driving. Basically, legally, there's nothing anyone can do, because it casts reasonable doubt or something and they'll never be able to prove which one it was. Everyone is secretly happy that they don't have to arrest the girls for killing a pedophile (called it).
Final scene, and the three girls are in the hospital with their friend while Maura and Jane look on. Maura says it will be a long haul, but the girl will probably make it and get back to her normal life. Jane says that she thinks it's beautiful, the kind of friendship they have. She wouldn't go so far as to die for Maura, but she'd come "pretty damn close." Maura would too. Everyone say awwww, and it's the credits! Another completed recap, thanks for reading, go do something nice. See you next time!