Directed by Michael Katleman
Written by Janet Tamaro, Russ Grant, & Sal Calleros
Frankie's ex-girlfriend and former narcotics detective Riley Cooper (Daniella Alonso) is promoted just in time to investigate a series of sex worker bodies found covered in plastered and replaced with existing works of art around Boston. Dennis (Eddie Cibrian) returns after having been previously revived in Maura's morgue three months prior, hoping to romance the good doctor even though Maura doesn't want to talk to him. Meanwhile Jane, believing that the killer they're chasing maybe connected to Hoyt, asks Frost to look at Hoyt's previous victims only to discover a disturbing truth about Maura's date...
Tropes in the Episode
- Alone with the Psycho: Maura is having dinner with the killer and the audience figures it out the same time that Rizzoli does. Rizzoli and team rush to save her as the killer pours more wine for the unsuspecting Maura and is about to take her to show her his "work."
- Copycat Killer: After discovering the second victim, Jane considers the possibility that the killer is a new apprentice of her old nemesis Charles Hoyt given that both crimes shared a ritualistic similarity.
- Disney Villain Death: The killer, when cornered by the police, tries to willingly fall backward down an elevator shaft while taking Maura with him but she fights herself loose at the last moment and he goes over alone.
- Disposable Sex Worker: All the victims are sex workers (of the street-walking variety) because the killer's mother was also a sex worker.
- Doorstop Baby: Lydia leaves her baby on Maura's doorstep.
- Internal Reveal: Tommy returns and learns that he might've gotten Lydia pregnant.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: The killer whispers a nursery rhyme while encasing a victim in plaster during the opening of the episode.
- Mad Artist: Although the killer is not seen making other forms of art there are shades of this as the killer is able to make what appear to be bronze statues, (they are plaster) with the corpses inside. The killer is also a best-selling author who dated Maura.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The killer turns out to be the author Maura performed a life-saving tracheotomy on back in "This Is How The Heart Breaks" and takes Maura hostage near the end once he's been made.
- Wax Museum Morgue: A body is found inside a statue that was accidentally broken. The killer had posed it to mimic an existing work of art and coated it with plaster.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Detective Riley Cooper is introduced in the episode before and joins the homicide squad in this episode. There is a lot of friction between her and Frost and Tommy Rizzoli. Cooper is not seen again for the rest of the season.
