‘Rizzoli & Isles’ season 6, episode 5 review: Were Jane and Maura able to save Susie?
We’ve all seen the stereotypical police case before where a character on a procedural is accused of a crime that they did not commit. From there, the majority of the rest of the episode is spent trying to figure out whether or not they are truly guilty.
Pretty much to a T, tonight’s episode of “Rizzoli & Isles” fit into that mold … at least at first. then things started to take a dramatic turn with one of the larger surprises that we’ve seen on the show. We heard that some devastating stuff was going to happen, but tonight? It was a tough one to swallow, since there wasn’t really any going back for the Susie character. What was done was already done. We’re not going to compare this one to Frost’s death, since that came out of real-life circumstances and this is just a TV show. Still, this was a change on the series that caught us completely by surprise.
While there was no way to bring Susie back, there was still some sort of way to clear her name and prove that she was not dirty. That was really what the story of the entire episode was about for Maura, as the unfortunate icing on the cake for her was that Susie was connected to her, and therefore she was suspended.
For most of the episode, there was some entertainment to be had in seeing Maura have to operate in a different way than she is accustomed to. If this was a different case, this probably would have made for some fun. It’s just hard to have humor when you are starting off with something sad.
Eventually, the “someone falsely accused” story trope did pay off, and both Susie and Maura are in the clear. Not only that, but there were connected to the recent forgeries. The episode ended with an attempt to honor Susie, and it range out as effective. We’re not entirely sure how we feel about the decision to kill off someone who has been a part of more than two dozen episodes over the years, but with this move the show is proving that they have no fear. That is something that few other procedurals can testify to. Grade: B.
What did you think about tonight’s all-new episode of “Rizzoli & Isles”? share your thoughts with a comment below, and head over here to preview further what is coming up on the series? Also, you can sign up if you want to get some other TV updates on all we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: TNT.)
Guest
July 18, 2015 @ 3:32 am
I see the writing on the wall for this series. I see the lack of appropriate reaction to Susie’s death from the characters in the show. I was really starting to hope they would involve her more in the show, sadly not now. I see Jane’s and Maura’s relationship becoming stale. I see the next person to want to leave will be Sasha Alexander. She has intimated, maybe not as clear as some might think, she wants to move on to more challenging roles since she decided to take her clothes off in Shameless. So what is left for R&I. They need someone who Angie can feed off successfully, Sasha does not seem to want to do that anymore – otherwise I don’t see this show continuing to season 7. The powers that be need to read these responses from the fans to wake up to what is happening. They need more creative writers on board. I agree with “no longer interested” – bring back Janet Temaro.
henry baker
July 15, 2015 @ 11:35 pm
i can understand the comments here i believe that when you only have an hr to air a show you have to decide wat to keep and wat to leave out it must be hard to put so much into an hour that is watchable and interesting to viewers
No longer interested
July 15, 2015 @ 11:13 pm
I don’t feel like this cast portrays the pain of losing someone so close to you well. Take Law & Order for instance when the female assistant DA was kidnapped and killed Jack McCoy lost it. He went on a vengeful path. The emotions were raw and palpable. In this show I don’t see the emotional connection to such a heavy loss. Only after the fact did I see some real emotion from Jane about the loss of Frost. As to the killing of Susie, it was completely unnecessary to the story. Without the stark emotional reaction to such a loss it seems even more unnecessary. CSI Miami is not known for stellar acting but I will say when a main character (Speedle) died the emotions the others elicited from his loss was believable and it had a lasting impact on the characters for couple seasons. That makes sense. Here, killing off the character doesn’t make sense. It’s an even more lackluster emotional response than when Dr. Sweets got killed in Bones. Everyone deals differently with death, especially tragic death but no well adjusted human being is unaffected by it. Anyway. I am no longer intrigued by this show. It’s on my DVR schedule and I probably won’t take the time to cancel it but if I miss an episode I don’t care.
Betsy Mordecai
July 16, 2015 @ 4:08 am
I agree–when Jane lost her baby–nothing was ever really said or done. And I loved Suzie–the more she did, the better I liked her. I think they are endangeroing the show’s popularity by the luntalented writers working at the time.
Newly FORMER R&I Watcher
July 15, 2015 @ 11:35 am
And they proved that they do not respect the audience. Yes, right away we know “Susie” is not dead in real life because we see her at the start of the episode but we also know that “Frost” was really dead and it upsets me greatly that we, the audience, have to go over this again, fictionally or not. Having 2 characters killed off so close together was unnecessarily mean to us. (Remember, they did NOT HAVE TO KILL OFF “Frost”, they could have had him (for example) get a job with say the FBI.)
I am done with this show because I am not going to trust them not to do it to us again in the near future.
R&I Watcher
July 15, 2015 @ 5:28 pm
Why did they kill off Susie? It makes no sense. She was quirky, she was good at her job. Why did they do this? It did not have to be her, any background criminologist could have been the target. Does Tina have bigger and better plans? Did she want out? I do have to admit that this episode made the last one tie together much better. The last one was closed WAY too fast for me. Anyway, sorry Susie. We will miss you. I guess this was the plan all along but I do not like the new guy. I will still watch, but not as happy. I think they have dug themselves a hole that will be hard to fill in.