Dirty Little Secret (Episode 302)

After the season three premiere, I didn't think they were going to be able to top the excitement and drama that left us on the edge of our seats the whole time. I can honestly say they didn't top it in episode two, not even close. THEY FREAKING BLEW IT OUT OF THE WATER!!!!!!! So much happened in episode two that you could hardly keep up! There was drama and laughter, fighting and tears, gunfire and car crashes. The writers really keep setting the bar higher and higher for themselves with each passing episode and haven't disappointed their fans since the series premiere.

There were many surprises in this episode and they gave the audience a shocker before the opening credits: the return of Frank Sr. If you remember all the way back to season one, Jane's parents split up and Frank Sr. moved to Florida and had a girlfriend. The Rizzoli kids are in Jane's apartment watching a baseball game when Frank Sr. shows up with no warning. Jane is clearly hurt and on the defense, Tommy knows something the others don't, and poor Frankie Jr. is stuck in the middle. Frank Sr. hands them all an envelope, an invite to an upcoming wedding, his. The Rizzoli's are Catholic, and in the Catholic faith, marriage is sacred, you only marry once. If you want to marry again, then you need to get an annulment, which means "an ecclesial tribunal determines the sacrament of marriage was invalidly entered into." The Rizzoli children are deeply hurt and put out by this, Jane the most visibly.


This episode was not without it's murder. A young woman was found in the tunnels underneath a university. This is the first case Jane and Maura have worked on together since the shooting. There is still some obvious tension between the two, their relationship is no where near being where is was before. Their constant bickering makes for an awkward situation for Frost and Korsak, who are inevitably stuck in the middle. the two men, and Frankie Jr, come up with this plan to put Jane and Maura into a situation where they will be forced to talk to each other. 

Jane and Maura both want to go to a yoga resort that their victim attended, but refuse to ride together. Korsak and Frost have their cars towed, which force them to take Frost's unmarked. They argue all the way to the resort, bickering and trying to outwit each other. After discovering that the yoga resort is just a cover for a fracking company, Jane and Maura lives are in danger. 


After their car is hit by a truck, being shot at, and running through the woods for hours to get away from the men that are trying to kill them, Jane realizes Maura is seriously hurt. The blood circulation has been compromised in Maura's leg, and if Jane doesn't perform a surgery on her leg, she could loose it. They don't have any medical equipment, they don't have any working cell phones, they only have each other. Jane saves Maura's leg, but Maura passes out with the pain. 

After being discovered by the men trying to kill them, they take the two women to a water reserve, strap them into their wrecked car, and leave them to die. With Maura barely coherent, It's up to Jane to save them both, She uses the broken screen from her phone to free herself from the tape, then uses Morse Code to send a message to Korsak, who eventually saves them both. 


What started out a a ploy to get the two women back together, turned into a fight to stay alive. Jane saved Maura's leg, and Jane led the team to the arrest of the yoga instructor. Back in Maura's living room, the Rizzoli family is back together, helping Maura as she returns from the hospital. The final scene is the one we have all been waiting for. The make up scene. Jane and Maura both realize that they were wrong, they they were acting like jerks, or as Angela puts it, assholes. The episode ends with the two in an embrace, back together again. 

Until next time, 


J. Cavanaugh

P.S. All photos in this post are screen shots from episode two.