Directed by Michael M Robin
Written by Janet Tamaro & David Gould
During the annual inter-department baseball game between Boston PD and the Drug Unit, a body is thrown onto the diamond from a nearby bridge. The cause of death is quickly determined to be strangulation, and when another victim pops up, (and the bodies to the two victims match up to those of the original Boston Strangler case), Jane immediately suspects a copycat is at work despite her superiors instructing her otherwise. Meanwhile, Korsak is passed over for promotion despite scoring 100% on the sergeant's exam and the unit finds out their new lieutenant is Joey (Donnie Wahlberg), an old rival of Jane's.
Tropes
- Baseball Episode: The episode starts with a softball game between Robbery and Homicide, which is interrupted by the dumping of a dead body from the nearby freeway overpass. Notably, both ladies are hilariously bad, though Isles is considerably worse; Rizzoli's attempts to teach her how to swing properly set up a Chekhov's Gun later on.
- Batter Up!: Chekhov's Gun.
- Beware the Nice Ones: According to the show, many good cops on the Boston Strangler case have died young and/or snapped in an explosive manner.
- Fanservice: Maura playing baseball in a water-resistant, skin-tight suit. It has, shall we say, quite the effect on guys.
- Framing the Guilty Party: The killer here turns out to at least believe he's doing this; one of the detectives involved in the original Boston Strangler case is committing crimes with the goal of framing the person he believes was the original Strangler.
- Killer Cop: The episode had a detective who killed a bunch of women with the same names as the original Boston Strangler victims. His purpose in so doing was to frame the person he believed was really the Boston Strangler. He had worked the original murder case and didn't believe that the person who confessed was really the killer.
- Mood Whiplash: The episode has an oddly-uniformed Maura Isles running happily to first base when a body is dropped off an overpass onto the far side of the field.
- Racist Grandma: Rizzoli & Frost visit the elderly mother of a suspect."Now why would a skinny greaseball, dyke detective be looking for my son? ... Holy Mother and all the saints! They sending us one of those affirmative action cops."
