Rizzoli and Isles Recap: Goodbye to Frost

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I, for one, was not looking forward to this episode. Frost is dead, fittingly, as the actor who played him, Lee Thompson Young, died last summer during shooting, and this episode was the one slated to pay tribute to him.

The episode starts with Angela walking in on Maura, cutting rose stems. The purpose behind her visit seems to be that she wants...Maura and Jane to cry? Apparently since Jane is pregnant it's very important for her to cry over her partner's death. I don't totally get it.

I enjoy the fact that Angela is a character in her own right, but sometimes she's a little too pushy for me.

Maura very gracefully tells Angela that she'll get there in her own time, and for Angela to "keep [her] trap shut" since Jane still doesn't know that Angela knows Jane is pregnant.

Though if Jane can't figure that out, she really shouldn't be a police detective.

Maura reaches out to Jane with some coffee, which she immediately pours in a vase (which looks pretty similar to a to-go cup, honestly) and takes off for work.

Angela thinks Jane has entered the first stage of grief, denial, and while her reasoning is suspect, it gives us a funny little character moment.

When Jane gets to work, she immediately dumps out her coffee and fills the vase with pencils. I think she's figured out it's a vase. She's a better detective than I thought.

Korsak orders Jane to go home and "feel her feelings," as Angela put it so beautifully, and Jane takes umbrage at his temerity. Their ensuing squabble is interrupted by Frost's mother, who collapses onto Jane, crying.

Jane volunteers herself and Korsak to take care of Frost's funeral. I can see a feelings overload coming up right away.

In walks a beautiful amnesiac with a gun, covered in blood. She killed someone, she's sure, but she doesn't know who or why, or who she is.

Things are suitably dramatic. "Guess we've got a case now," Jane grimly snarks to Korsak.

While Brunette Doe gets undressed, Jane heads over to the In Memoriam wall with Maura and stares sadly. Maura tells Jane that she's noticed Jane won't say Barry Frost's name, and Jane gets pretty huffy.

I would, too, if someone were telling me how to process my friend's death.

She and Frankie are discussing responsibilities for Frost's funeral when Jane is stopped and given sympathies by a fellow officer.

"I know everyone means well, but that's going to be real hard to do 200 times a day," she says to Frankie.

They bicker over who gets what responsibilities for the funeral, and Frankie ends up with music duty when Jane asks him if he'd rather do the eulogy instead.

Korsak interrupts to update Jane on Brunette Doe -- no one is missing and he's positive she's faking amnesia to set up a defense for a murder trial.

Jane agrees, but still says they need to find out who Brunette Doe is before they can help the person she shot.

Maura is giving the woman who will now be known as Jessica Doe, thanks to Maura's encyclopedic knowledge of baby-naming trends 25 years ago, an examination.

Her results determine that the blood on Jessica is from a Caucasian male with type A blood, and she had traces of a chemical used in ecstasy on her skirt.

Due to Jessica retaining general knowledge while forgetting specific memories, Maura thinks Jessica is in a dissociative fugue state due to a trauma.

Maura suggests taking her places she might have visited, so Jane gets to take her to parking garages near Indian restaurants all around Boston. What a joy that must be.

Jane and Korsak take Jessica around town, and while Korsak is busy getting frustrated, Jane is busy seeing visions of Frost on the street.

Jane, of course, is shocked and Korsak is not that worried about her mental health, especially after a loss this big.

A woman walks by singing "The Wheels on the Bus," and Jessica remembers that she is a teacher. What luck! If only there were a database of teachers so that they could look up amnesiacs in them...

Apparently in this universe, Massachusetts doesn't require teachers to get fingerprinted before hiring them. I call bullshit.

There is no state where you work with children that hires you without a background check. And you know what's necessary for a background check? Fingerprinting. Yup.

Frankie and Korsak share a moment of grief over Frost's death, and Jane and Maura do as well. Maura wants to be buried at sea, which I believe is really illegal these days.

Jane decides she wants to die one day before Maura so she doesn't have to go out on a boat.

On the Frost side of things, Frankie goes through his apartment and finds Frost's music collection, giving Korsak exactly what he needed for his job for the funeral.

Everybody's eyes are starting to leak: Maura's, Frankie's, and now Korsak's. Jane is next on the list for sure.

Frankie cracks open Jessica Doe's identity; her name is Lily Green, and she teaches at a local private school. Jane, Korsak and Maura head to Green's apartment, only to find it trashed.

They get a lead in the form of Green's boyfriend, Toby Warren, who has apparently been collecting unemployment for the past 18 months.

They trace his cell phone and find him dead in a warehouse. Maura's examination of the way he died clears Green of murder.

Oddly enough, now Jane's gut tells her that Green is not a killer, but an innocent schoolteacher. Funny how those things work out, huh?

Jane and Maura sit down with Green, and after looking at a picture of her dead boyfriend everything comes flooding back. And boy, can this gal talk. She's like the very picture of a singing canary.

Her drug dealer boyfriend stole money from his supplier, and then she gave him all her savings to cover his considerable theft.

It wasn't enough, and Toby paid the rest off with his life. She was lucky to escape with hers.

After that kind of incident, I'm thinking Green should very carefully vet her potential dates before getting involved again. I'm not sure she has the best judgment in the world, you know?

Apparently the supplier's name is Kyle. What a wimpy name for a murderer. I was thinking something like Lorenzo or Vincent, you know? Maybe Grrrrr.

Something with a real bite to it. (On a side note, I had a student named Lorenzo a few years ago. Sweetest kid you'd ever meet, and definitely not growing up to become a murderer.)

Jane, Frankie and Korsak are on a stakeout for Kyle the supplier.

While in the car, Jane confesses to Korsak (and Frankie, who can hear them on the radio) that she feels useless because she hasn't gotten the eulogy done yet.

Before there can be any heartfelt reassurances from the other two, they spot Kyle, chase and catch him, ending the saga of Lily Green and the Mystery Murderer.

At Frost's funeral, Jane gives an excellent eulogy. The show includes a slide show of what I assume are actual personal photos of Young, as well as a couple of screen shots from the show.

This is a really hard part of the episode to get through, and I'm sure it was really difficult for the cast and crew to sit through a second funeral for their friend and coworker, but they do an amazing job.

Jane says, "in this time when there is none, here is the good news. Death may have taken Barry, but they can't take our memories of him.

Those, thank God, are ours to keep." I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry, but then again, I'm known for tearing up at the drop of a hat.

Back at Jane's apartment, she gets a postcard from Barry with the rest of her mail, and we close out on her crying. You'd be lying if you said you weren't at least a little sniffly, too.