Rizzoli & Isles 5×06 featured the most intriguing case of the season so far, as well as showcasing one of the regular cast members’ musical talent. Read on for our recap of “Knockout”:
Episodes of this show kick off in one of two ways: With the crime du jour or the title characters being way too domestic for two allegedly heterosexual women. This week, it was the former. We see a woman alone in her living room, boxing along with a workout video, when she suddenly collapses. Zoom out to reveal the perpetrator in a Tyvek suit, who proceeds to stab her. Yikes.
Now it’s time for the overly domestic scene. As Maura prepares to leave for a conference, she fusses over Jane. “You’re pregnant – you’re vitamin-ing for two,” she claims. “Do we need to revisit the pictures of the iron-deficient spleen?”
Unsurprisingly, Jane can’t wait for her to leave, but Maura’s hesitant because the agenda for the upcoming conference sounds much better than the one for the event she hosted two seasons ago. Remember Rizzoli & Isles 3×07, with the Russian who put vodka in his Thermos, the guy who complimented Maura’s “delicate pink tongue,” and guest star Craig Morgan? Perhaps the different agenda is for the best.
Just then, both women’s phones ring and they do their “Rizzoli!” “Isles!” tandem answering thing because they’re married. This time, however, it’s only Jane who needs to head to the crime scene, as Maura’s call is just to let her know that her cab has arrived.
The investigators learn that the victim – Judith – recently underwent a transformation, losing 100 pounds as a result of the “Tough Broad” workout program she’d been doing when she died. Her husband Alan, a dentist, claims to have been in surgery at the time of the murder but says their handyman, Luis Benitez, was meant to be at the house that morning. Turns out the knife used to stab Judith features the initials “LB” carved into it, and Luis has a looong record. Crime solved, right? Wrong, because we’re only eight minutes in.
Fruitopsies & die-oramas
Frankie tracks down Luis, who claims he showed up for work that morning to find Judith already dead. He didn’t alert anyone because he thought suspicion would fall on him thanks to his checkered history. Jane’s working theory is that Luis had feelings for Judith and got mad when she rebuffed his advances, but there’s nothing to tie him to the murder except for the knife. In Maura’s absence, Jane consults Senior Criminalist Susie Chang, who produces a “die-orama” – a scale model of the crime scene. Susie surmises that because there was no forensic evidence at the scene, the perpetrator must have been wearing a Tyvek suit like the ones Luis keeps in his truck. But just when it seems like it’s all over for Luis, Susie reveals that he’s too tall to have inflicted the stab wounds on Judith at the angle at which they were made.
With the handyman out of the picture, Mickey Rizzo, Mr “Tough Broad” himself, comes under suspicion. Luis reports that he’d been giving Judith “private coaching.” We all know what that’s code for… except Rizzo reveals he’s secretly gay. That’s not the only bombshell he drops: It turns out Judith’s husband had lost interest in her, spending a lot of time at work and weekends alone at his rural cabin. Perhaps he’s the one having the affair.
An examination of the cabin doesn’t turn up any indications of an affair, but the investigators do make a curious discovery – watermelons with bullet holes in them. Susie conducts what she rather charmingly calls a “fruitopsy” and finds traces of dental plaster inside the watermelons. From this, Jane infers that Alan was trying to fashion a bullet that couldn’t be detected in an autopsy. Further testing of strange fragments that show up on the victim’s X-rays reveals that they’re cadaver bone and were used as a delivery system for the plaster. Judith was shot as a way of neutralizing the threat she posed, and then the knife wounds came into play in terms of hiding the cadaver bone and setting up the handyman.
“Grieving” husband proves to be keta-mean
As for Alan’s alibi, there’s ketamine in the system of the patient he claimed to have been treating when the murder occurred. He knocked her out to give himself time to slip away and commit the crime before returning to his office, but where did he dump the gun and bloody Tyvek suit? Searches of the storm drains and dumpsters along his route turn up nothing. While watching the video of the test drive Frankie made between the office and the victim’s house, Jane comes up with the answer – a drop-off box for a courier service. They intercept the package Alan mailed to himself and arrest him for the murder of his wife.
This week’s complicated crime left little time for sub-plots, but the main one in Rizzoli & Isles 5×06 revolves around Korsak. An accomplished guitar player, he receives an invitation to perform with the grandson of a late friend with whom he used to be in a band. Even with Angela’s encouragement, he’s reluctant. When he finally admits why – he feels responsible for his friend’s untimely death – Angela says performing would be a good way for him to help the boy feel more in touch with his grandfather.
With the case all wrapped up, everyone – including Maura, who’s back in town – heads to the Dirty Robber to watch Korsak perform. Listen to and download the song here.
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