Rizzoli & Isles 6×08 – Nice to Meet You, Dr Isles – Recap

In the history of Rizzoli & Isles, we’ve met Jane’s mom and dad, as well as Maura’s birth mother, birth father and adoptive mother. That leaves Maura’s adoptive father as the odd one out – but all that changes in Rizzoli & Isles 6×08, “Nice to Meet You, Dr. Isles,” which also features a rare black diamond named The Darkness, and a thing called love. Read on for our recap.

Cher is amazing; Ten Mohs is just silly

Remember how last week’s episode ended with Jane’s apartment building going up in flames? Rizzoli & Isles 6×08 begins with Jane at Maura’s house, which… isn’t shocking. Are they finally officially living together? Will we even notice the difference? Turns out Jane is actually staying at a hotel instead of in Maura’s guest room, and Maura wants to know why, which makes two of us. Apparently, living under the same roof as her mother is too much for Jane to handle. It’s awkward engaging in nocturnal extracurricular activities when your mom could be in earshot, I get it. While Jane is uncomfortable with her mother being overbearing, Maura has the opposite problem. Her adoptive father – to whom she refers by his first name, Arthur – has been trying to get in touch with her, but she won’t take his calls.

For season 6, showrunner Jan Nash seems to be trying to make the obligatory “Rizzoli!” “Isles!” twin calls to a crime scene into her version of that part of the opening montage of The Simpsons when the family sits on the couch: It’s slightly different every time, but it always happens. I don’t hate it. Moving on.

This week’s crime scene is the bathroom of a nightclub, and the victim is jeweler to the stars Teddy Marshall. Maura concludes that Marshall – whose nickname was Ten Mohs, as in the maximum measurement of gem hardness – died from being poisoned by a neurotoxin found in shellfish, and newbie M.E. Kent Drake weighs in on the Edward Cullen-esque quality of his skin.

Drake: Apparently our Mr. Ten Mohs likes his drinks spiked with chips and dust from the gems he’s cut from his clients.
Jane: Uh, it’s not “Mr. Ten Mohs,” it’s just “Ten Mohs.”
Drake: Oh, right. Like Cher.
Jane: No. Nothing like that. Cher is amazing; Ten Mohs is just silly.

P-p-p-pokerface

Upstairs in the BRIC, Nina looks into rival jewelers named by the victim’s business partner, Tory. “All this research made me want to call their mamas,” she tells Frankie. The excellently named Blingman stands out as a person of interest, but despite his claims to the contrary, he didn’t commit the murder and is just looking for street cred. The mother of Marshall’s child emerges as another suspect, along with the elder of an Amazonian tribe from which Marshall allegedly stole a black diamond known as The Darkness. Jane and Korsak head over to where the tribal elder – Raya – is staying, and come face-to-face with Dr. Arthur Isles. It turns out that Maura’s father has lived alongside the tribe for two decades as part of his field research in the rainforest, and he’s acting as an intermediary for them during the legal proceedings.

Back at Maura’s office, Jane tells the Dr. Isles we know and love that she crossed paths with the other Dr. Isles, then tries to get Maura to open up about their relationship.

Jane: It’s obvious that something’s going on between you and your father and has been for a long time because you have absolutely no poker face.
Maura: Yes, I do!
Jane: Have you ever beaten me at cards?
Maura: No.

This has interesting ramifications for strip poker.

Finally, Maura admits that her father is a liar, which prompts Jane to ask Nina to investigate him further. Before they hone in too closely on Arthur, however, Frankie and Korsak run into Ten Mohs’ bodyguard. He shares that his boss’ dying words were “Shoot her,” which he took to mean Ten Mohs’ baby mama. Ever the sharp detective, Korsak figures Ten Mohs may have meant “shooter,” as in “oyster shooter” – the potential source of the poison that killed him. Back at the lab, Maura matches the DNA signature of the neurotoxin to that of an Amazonian puffer fish, and digs up an article her father wrote on killing things with puffer fish toxins. Yikes. Her biological father is a mob boss and her adoptive father is shaping up to be a murderer as well. What are the odds? (Maura would probably be able to tell you, but she’s a little busy right now.)

While Maura’s dealing with daddy issues, Frankie’s facing a crisis of his own: Angela wants to move in with him so Jane can move in with Maura. FINALLY, THEY’RE MAKING IT OFFICIAL. Jane’s on board (yeah, she is) but Frankie’s not keen. “I know a really bad thing has happened to you, but this is an even worse thing happening to me,” he tells Jane. Yup, your house burning down with all your belongings inside it vs. your mom moving in with you… seems about even to me. (I actually think it would be kind of fun to live with Lorraine Bracco.) Jane agrees to talk Angela out of the plan, provided Frankie buys her Red Sox tickets, two beers, a pretzel and a foam finger. There’s just one problem: Mama Rizzoli wants to know where Jane will live if not with Maura, so Jane quickly volunteers Frankie’s apartment. Well, that backfired nicely.

Doctor to doctor

Things aren’t exactly turning out well for Maura, either. Her father appears at the Dirty Robber and asks to speak with her, “doctor to doctor,” to which Maura responds, “You’re not a doctor, you’re a PhD.” SHOTS FIRED.

Even after that third-degree burn, Arthur is still willing to share a piece of very interesting information with Maura: Raya’s daughter, Karina, has access to Amazonian puffer fish – and she’s going to college in Boston. Nina does her tech thing and finds out Karina supplied Ten Mohs with diamonds, and was also on the club’s VIP list the night he died. Well, I guess we know how he got his hands on The Darkness.

When Jane heads back to the squad room, she finds Arthur waiting by her desk.

Arthur: My wife has told me about how important you are to Maura, how much she relies on your counsel.
Jane: If you knew who I was, why did you pretend that you didn’t?
Arthur: It seemed easier somehow.

I get it, Arthur. It’s a process. Finding out your daughter likes the ladies can be a shock. I recommend PFLAG.

Arthur goes on to ask Jane to put in a good word for him with Maura, and Jane points out that Maura gave her kidney to a half-sister she barely knew, so if she’s this mad at him, there’s probably a good reason. Boom.

A thing called love

During questioning, Karina reveals that The Darkness was stolen from her tribe’s land by a logger, and she was channeling black diamonds to Ten Mohs in exchange for his help in getting The Darkness back. However, she denies killing the jeweler, claiming instead that she was in love with him. So, we have a diamond named The Darkness, and a thing called love. Just putting that out there.

Long story short, Ten Mohs’ business partner, Tory, was in love with him too – and it just so happens that she recently purchased puffer fish. Watch out for her on Orange is the New Black sooner rather than later.

Over at Frankie’s apartment, Jane’s learning the ground rules. My personal favorite is “Don’t dry your brassiere in my shower.” Luckily, Maura shows up before Frankie can come up with any other outdated words for undergarments (pantaloons, anyone?), and Jane warns him not to touch Maura’s brassiere (because only she can do that). Then Maura asks to talk to Jane privately, so they go to Jane’s new bedroom. “What I say cannot leave this room,” Maura tells her, then takes off her jacket. Ummm, is this going where I think it’s going? Nope, turns out she just wants to tell Jane a story about how she caught her father cheating when she was 14 and Arthur made her promise not to tell anybody. She thinks that’s why, to this day, she can’t tell a lie without breaking out in hives. “Well, I love that you can’t tell a lie,” Jane reassures her. OK, why are they not living together?

Jane: You want me to shoot him?
Maura: I do. I really do. But instead, maybe I’ll talk to him first.
Jane: Fine, but let me know if you change your mind.
Maura: We’ll see how the talk goes. Otherwise, you are very good at shooting my relatives.

ZING. What a great way to end Rizzoli & Isles 6×08.