Rizzoli & Isles Recap: Knockout

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The newest episode of Rizzoli & Isles proved that Maura doesn't have to be in Boston for her to exert her influence over a case. (But it does help.)

Maura set off for a conference in Las Vegas that she wasn't too thrilled about attending since it was going to be so "fun" and show up the conference she hosted last season.

To (over)compensate, once she got there she proceeded to open her room up to conference-goers as a fancy nightclub.

In a truly grotesque murder scene sold only by the sound effects (and that sound mixer deserves an Emmy for those horrible noises) a formerly-fat, now-lean woman is boxing alone.

I'm trying so hard not to make a Jack Spratt joke.

She is stabbed, or shot, or something horrible, and then Tyvex-suited killer then, very patiently, stabs her in her wound several times. The squelching is the most disgusting thing ever.

Judith (the murder victim) is discovered by a neighbor and Jane is called in. She and Korsak go to notify Judith's husband, Dr. Barnett, a dentist. His receptionist tells them she couldn't possibly interrupt him during surgery, which he's been in all morning.

Just as the Fed-Ex man arrives, Barnett comes out with an elderly woman who is really out of it. Jane gives him the news, and he seems sad, but unsurprised.

"I warned her this could happen," he says. My ears perk up. Excuse me?

"She was a grown woman who'd never learned how to deal with men's advances because no one was ever interested.

Most women develop defenses as teenagers. She was a grown woman getting a lot of attention from men and she didn't know how to handle it," he continues.

So it's her fault she was murdered? Fabulous. He just rose to the top of my suspect list.

Anyone who blames the murder victim for getting harassed and possibly murdered is super sketchy. Barnett is played by David Goldman, who you might recognize from House or Jane By Design.

Barnett didn't really have an alibi (he was "operating" on a "patient" with no one else around) and for some reason, Jane and Korsak didn't haul him in for questioning. Come on, you two.

Barnett pointed them to his handyman (though they don't seem to be doing any work around the house) Luis Benitez, who has a criminal record. Big shock. Now he just needs a sombrero and stereotypical accent.

With Maura gone, the M.E. taking her place was terrible, a fact illustrated by his refusal to wave to Jane.

When Korsak entered the police station, the desk seargent tells him that Bobby Semanski left him an envelope. It turned out that Korsak knew his grandfather, having cut that album with him as the other half of the duo.

Semanski wanted Korsak to sing with him that weekend at his show.

Korsak had a lot of guilt over the way the grandfather died, and felt responsible. Angela had some strong words with him, for once using her power for good, not evil.

When Jane caught up with Maura next, Maura was still giving in to peer pressure and acting like a fun party girl, not the fuddy-duddy we know she is.

She helped Jane with more case details, somewhat hindered by the distance between her and Boston.

Cut to Frankie, who is tracking down Benitez, the handyman, played by Arturo del Puerto, who has appeared on Chicago P.D. and The Bridge.

So no sombrero, but definitely the accent. I'm okay with it, though, since it seems that might be his actual accent.

For any and all interested, he is very, very cute. It's a shame he can't be the murderer since we all know it had to be the husband.

Benitez explained that he ran because he discovered the body, and with his record, he knew he'd be the first they police looked for. Plus, his knife was missing, which was coincidentally found in Judith's back.

Jane and Korsak didn't really believe him, and so disappeared to chat real fast. "We nave no witnesses and nothing but the knife to tie him to the murder," Jane says, frustrated.

"So what do you want me to do?" Korsak asks, quite reasonably, in my opinion.

"Gimme five minutes," Jane says, and disappears.

She ran into Suzie, who has a fancy little diorama.

Jane was thrilled because she thought it proved Luis killed Judith, but Suzie informed her that Luis was too tall to have stabbed Judith in the back at the angle the wounds were made.

Gee. Who is short and blamed the victim for her own murder? Could it be the husband?

Jane didn't think so, apparently, and while she let Luis go, she pumps him for info first. That leads her to the gym where Judith began her transformation.

Micky Rizzo, played by Angelo Vacco, an accomplished voice actor who has also appeared in t.v. series such as E.R. and Entourage, is the gym owner.

Jane aks some leading questions about Rizzo and Judith's relationship...to no avail. Rizzo readily admits that he is gay. On to the next lead! Or the husband, maybe?

Rizzo tells Jane that he never saw Judith with her husband. He spent his weekends at a cabin in the woods. A murder cabin, maybe?

Jane and Korsak head up to the murder cabin and find nothing...save a bunch of murdered melons. They were shot with something the size of a .22 caliber-bullet, but there is no bullet in them.

After some keen forensic work, Jane, Korsak and Suzie discover that the bullet was made from gypsum, a dental plaster.

It had cadaver bone embedded in it, and each bullet came from a different mix, as if someone was trying to make a bullet that would be invisible to an X-Ray. Who could it be, I wonder?

Turns out it is the husband, wonder of wonders!

Jane realizes that he must have stabbed Judith after shooting her, in order to break her ribs and mix up her bone with the cadaver bone.

Maura identifies the fragments via Skype. Gotta love Skype, what with that high resolution and all.

"Why would a happily married man kill his wife after she lost a hundred pounds," Maura asks Jane.

"Because he liked her just the way she was. When he was the only man who paid her any attention," Jane says.

There are so many problems in that exchange, I barely know where to start. When someone loses a large amount of weight, or makes a similar massive lifestyle change, it has been shown repeatedly that their relationships can suffer.

As the two no longer share the same interests, this can prompt a break-up (or in this case a murder) or because one person is insecure and has a hard time dealing with their partner's change.

Jane's answer is clever and off-the-cuff and does a real disservice to the complexities this dentist's murder of his wife actually held.

Barnett refuses to cop to anything in the interview Jane and Korsak bring him in for, and he really gets Jane's goat. She leaves that interview even more determined to bring him down.

Frankie maps out the best route from Barnett's office to his home, and Jane figures out that the patient Barnett was operating on was only Barnett's alibi because he knocked her out with an excessive amount of Ketamine.

No one has been able to find the murder weapon and the Tyvex suit, and while watching the video of the route to and from the crime scene, Jane realizes that Barnett must have Fed-Exed the evidence to himself.

She intercepts him and, voila! An arrest is made with sufficient evidence.

She and the gang (Maura included) get back together for some drinks and to support Korsak at his duet with Semanski. It's not bad! Check it out below.