RIZZOLI & ISLES: Welcome to the Creepy Dollhouse

Well this was one of the creepiest Rizzoli & Isles episodes we’ve had in a while.

Someone is killing young women and dressing them in clothes from the early ’90s, including scrunchies. And that’s not even the creepy part. After making their way through a suspect whose significant other is a mannequin named Marlene and a family man who was having an affair with the first victim, a trace of blood on the murder weapon leads the team to a 20-year-old cold case involving the disappearance of an officer’s wife.

The present day murderer was the son, whose been in a mental institution for several years. He saw his abusive father kill his mother and hide her body behind the brick fireplace all those years ago, and in a misguided attempt to draw attention to her murder, killed those young women. If that wasn’t enough to send shivers down your spine, we also got a brief but graphic shot of the decomposed face, frozen in mid-scream, behind the bricks. Shades of “The Cask of Amontillado”, a short story by horror master Edgar Allen Poe that never fails to give me goosebumps.

The other two storylines in this episode were slightly more positive. In one, Mama Rizzoli’s additions to the cafe’s menu are going over like gang busters, to the point that the owner is actually crabby about all the business they’re getting. People are lined up 10 deep to place their orders, so Frost sets Mama R up with an online ordering system to streamline the process. No one is visiting the site at first, but after launching a blog, suddenly she has 12,000 followers. In two days? Clearly this is fiction. It also looks like something’s brewing between Mama R and the Captain. I definitely sensed some interest on his part, but it’s hard to tell if she’s picked up on it.

Meanwhile, Jane is in the depths of despair over Casey, who rather meanly cut her off last week rather than reveal that he’s partially paralyzed. Thanks to the happy coincidence that a stray dog Korsak rescues is in fact Casey’s service dog, Maura discovers Casey’s secret and urges him to tell Jane. It takes some meddling from Mama R, but eventually Casey reaches out to Jane and the truth is revealed. After an oblivious Jane suggested going running or roller blading, but still, in the end she knows why he was determined to be aloof. It’s painful, seeing him like that, but I know Jane can handle it.

I noticed a few call backs in this episode: Maura’s rusty car art is still in the precinct’s foyer, and Rondo the Homeless Guy was back as well. Maura’s assistant, Susie Chang, also appeared again. Continuity is a good thing, but it feels a little bit like they’re making a point to show us that continuity. Coupled with the invitation to text our choice of outfits for Maura to wear in a future episode, I kind of want to tell them to quit trying so hard. Am I being overly sensitive?

Rizzoli & Isles airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.