When the fourth season of Rizzoli & Isles ended, Jane had dropped a major bombshell on Maura confessing to her that she thinks she’s pregnant. But Maura had her own thing going, as the last minutes found Frankie (Jane’s brother), gathering Maura in his arms for one heck of a kiss with the excuse that if she really wants to check on his split lip … well “here it is up close and in your face.” Maura had put stitches in Frankie’s lip after a fight between the brothers in the Season 4 finale.
At the start of Season 5 of Rizzoli & Isles, the first case right out of the gate involves the death of a jogging mother. Next, we see Jane, alone, carefully maneuvering a labyrinth of dark hallways, gun in hand with no partner to back her up. She sees a door at the end of a hallway. She opens it … and steps on a baby’s toy. Standing in front of her … it’s an image of herself in dark blue pajamas and a pink fuzzy robe holding a baby, radiant and smiling.
Yep, it’s just a dream as Jane (Angie Harmon) wakes abruptly with her morning alarm shrieking in her ears. Then, here’s Maura (Sasha Alexander) telling her that her body is manufacturing a whole cocktail of hormones now that she’s pregnant and she must give up caffeine. At that very moment, Jane’s mother walks in the room wearing the same pajamas and robe from the dream and asks Jane if she wants a cup of coffee. Jane declines. She’s not going to be able to keep this secret from her mother for long.
While investigating the scene of the murdered jogger, named Susan, they discover that she was running with a stroller and that her baby boy, Brian, is missing. At headquarters, a patrolman stops by looking for Detective Frost (Lee Thompson Young), who is on vacation, driving back from San Diego and is expected that day.
Jane and Korsak (Bruce McGill) start their investigation with the ex-husband, Ray and his new girlfriend, Caitlin. On the surface the ex-husband looks okay and the two of them have an alibi, so Jane and Korsak look in a different direction. Back at headquarters, Jane checks in with Maura on the autopsy and has a morning sickness moment.
While Maura and Jane discuss the autopsy, Frankie interrupts with a new lead. He’s uncovered a pedophile who lives right across the street from the park where the murder happened. Unfortunately for Frankie, every time he’s around Maura, those two can’t talk to each other like normal people. Why can’t those two officially get together? Ugh.
While Jane and Korsak interview the pedophile they discover that he was hired to create a DVD of the baby, Brian, by the mother. Maura tells Jane that the victim was killed by a woman — not a man — so that leads Jane to start thinking that maybe the ex-husband and the girlfriend did have something to do with it.
They interview the pedophile a second time and ask him to pick out the picture of the baby’s mother who hired him to create the DVD. He picks out a picture of the ex-husband’s girlfriend, Caitlin, not the actual mother. When Jane interviews the victim’s sister, she tells Jane that the ex-husband was behind on child support payments and that Caitlin never brought Brian back on time. At one point, Caitlin told Susan that Brian didn’t want to come back to her.
Frankie further investigates Ray and Caitlin’s alibi and while examining the surveillance video he finds that Ray used Caitlin’s cell phone to make calls to establish cell phone alibis for them. Unfortunately they still don’t have any forensic evidence and they don’t know where the baby is.
Korsak interrogates Caitlin, who promptly asks for a lawyer. Jane interrogating Ray, turns off the heat to make her point, and asks him where they left the baby. Ray, being the dad, crumbles. They just left him near a church on the hopes that he would be found by someone and turned in. When they go to the church and the homeless shelter they discover there’s been a small theft of some milk. So they’re on the right track. They find the baby, warm and well, in the care of a homeless woman. Ray and Caitlin are booked for murder.
But it’s really the last two minutes of this episode that brings closure and the greatest of emotions for the cast and fans, as it’s the storyline involving Det. Barry Frost, who was played by Lee Thompson Young. [On August 19, 2013, at the age of just 29, Young took a semi-automatic and committed suicide. It was later reported that he had a history of depression and bipolar disorder.] The final minutes of this episode are still and somber as Korsak gets a phone call alerting him about an accident involving Detective Frost. When they arrive on the scene, Maura is there, saying there is nothing anyone can do.
The team deals with the loss of their dear friend and colleague as they say “Goodbye” in Episode 2 on Tuesday, June 24 at 9pmET/8pmCT.
I watched the beginning of the premiere a second time and the victim, Susan, was NOT running with a baby stroller. R&I producers really blew that.
You’re absolutely correct Karen. I went back and watched the beginning of the episode myself and it does look like she’s jogging solo. Since that leads right into Janey’s dream sequence maybe the producers figured no one would be the wiser. Thank you for your comment. We always appreciate hearing from readers.