S07.E13: Ocean Frank

[tessaray]

Facts don't add up when a man is found dead handcuffed to a bed in his home. Also: Everyone makes a farewell video as a "bon voyage" party fast approaches. The series finale.

Putting this up a little early in case Ep. 12 generates speculation for the finale.  Please use Spoiler tags for actual spoilers. 

[Bastet]

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Also: Everyone makes a farewell video as a "bon voyage" party fast approaches. The series finale.

A video sounds like a cute, fluffy thing that would irritate me in most finales yet would feel right for this show.  I wish the past several episodes hadn't made me think the finale is going to suck, so I could look forward to this.  Alas, time will tell.

[l star]

My first thought to the video was way to rip off The Closer, show. 

[shapeshifter]

21 hours ago, l star said:

My first thought to the video was way to rip off The Closer, show. 

Not sure what you mean. I remember The Closer finale with the team gifting Brenda (who was leaving the squad) with a replacement black purse for the one she shot Billy Burke's character through. She told them, "It looks like love," which were the same words she said in the first episode. 
When was there a video?

[Bastet]

The squad made a video for Brenda and Fritz's wedding; that's the only one I can think of.

[l star]

I was referring to the video in the wedding episode. I remember thinking they barely made it work then. I can't imagine it being anything other than an attempt at cheesy manipulation on this show.

[tessaray]

[mustbekarma]

AW, I'm going to miss this show. I do love the both of them traveling to Paris and the friendly bickering at the end. It added levity to offset the sadness.

[maraleia]

I'm glad they honored Lee Thompson Young again.

[AlwaysWatching]

Wow.  It's really over.  Thanks, Rizzoli & Isles, for the great light entertainment when light entertainment was needed.  It's true that I never cared much (at all) about the plots, but the joy of watching Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander was more than worth it.  I'm pretty darn old and it's still a big deal for me to watch a show that let's two female leads have this wonderful relationship to the point where you could easily imagine subtext being something much more.  Either way, lovers or friends, it was so nice to see them play off each other for a few weeks a year.

I just realized I don't know the real names of any other main characters except Lorraine Bracco.  Oh, and Bruce McGill. ( he's doing all those Trump voice overs....eh to each his own..no biggie.)

Another thing I'm going to miss horribly is that little Irish jig on the opening. I don't know the name of it, but I always seemed to feel better after hearing that song. ::sniff::

[Bastet]

Full disclosure: I was tipsy when I watched, so maybe I'll watch it again sober and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but -- I liked this.  Yeah, I still fundamentally find it ridiculous to change up every character's life at the end, and have no earthly idea why Jane is leaving.  Allowing for the fact that ship has sailed, this episode in a vacuum was cute. 

Honoring Lee Thompson Young/Frost was beautiful, and then I just up and cried when Jane and Korsak said goodbye.  And then Jane and Maura hanging out on the bed again, like old scenes, and knowing they - who have finally, these last two episodes, felt like best friends again - are going to have a nice vacation before Jane starts her new life (or comes to her senses and begs BPD for her job back)?  Thank you, show!  Jane using Maura's miles (for a first-class ticket no less -- so I'll let slide no one gets paper tickets anymore, and if that was a boarding pass she wouldn't have it so far in advance), Maura declaring Jane's wardrobe is inadequate and she'll have to wear that dress the whole time - and Jane grumbling she can't breathe in it - the home stretch was awful, but they pulled things out in the end enough that my final image is one that makes me happy.

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Oh, and Bruce McGill. ( he's doing all those Trump voice overs....eh to each his own..no biggie.)

Oh, wow.  Talk about raining on my parade.

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Another thing I'm going to miss horribly is that little Irish jig on the opening. I don't know the name of it, but I always seemed to feel better after hearing that song. ::sniff::

I'm Shipping Up to Boston.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Bastet

[maraleia]

9 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Full disclosure: I was tipsy when I watched, so maybe I'll watch it again sober and wonder what the hell I was thinking, but -- I liked this.  Yeah, I still fundamentally find it ridiculous to change up every character's life at the end, and have no earthly idea why Jane is leaving.  Allowing for the fact that ship has sailed, this episode in a vacuum was cute. 

Honoring Lee Thompson Young/Frost was beautiful, and then I just up and cried when Jane and Korsak said goodbye.  And then Jane and Maura hanging out on the bed again, like old scenes, and knowing they - who have finally, these last two episodes, felt like best friends again - are going to have a nice vacation before Jane starts her new life (or comes to her senses and begs BPD for her job back)?  Thank you, show!  Jane using Maura's miles (for a first-class ticket no less -- so I'll let slide no one gets paper tickets anymore, and if that was a boarding pass she wouldn't have it so far in advance), Maura declaring Jane's wardrobe is inadequate and she'll have to wear that dress the whole time - and Jane grumbling she can't breathe in it - the home stretch was awful, but they pulled things out in the end enough that my final image is one that makes me happy.

Oh, wow.  Talk about raining on my parade.

I'm Shipping Up to Boston.

Me too about Bruce McGill. I'll say it again. I can't wait to see what Sasha and Jordan and Idara and Christina Chang do next. The rest of them not so much.

[anna0852]

I was really hoping it wasn't Bruce McGill doing those voice overs. Kinda tarnishes Korsak for me a little.

[tessaray]

Only Maura would think crime scene photos would make a good whatever kind of keepsake thing that she was making in the opening.  (And I'm pretty sure I recognized most of the cases. That surprised me, as I tend to forget the COTW an hour after I watch the episode.)

[scrambled eggs]

I was concerned at first that Frost wouldn't be mentioned, so I'm glad they found a way to remember him. 

Was anyone else wondering what the episode title "Ocean Frank" meant until Korsak spoke those words? At first I was thinking, where's Frankie going?

[LisaM]

I cried real tears when Korsak and Jane hugged. I was concerned at one point that they would kill off Korsak. So glad that they referenced Frost. I was hoping for a mention of Susie Chang. 

Thought that the videos were very effective. 

This show was always good for mindless, light entertainment with an engaging cast. I will miss it. 

[Scamp]

• What a disappoinment. That wasn't the Jane Rizzoli I loved from the first four seasons (before Jan Nash): she wouldn't have worn that ridiculous outfit, she'd have mentioned Frost by name, she didn't squeal, she would have hugged her BFF. 
  
  Instead we got a penis cake (really?),way too much Angela and Ron, the making of videos which actually kept the characters apart, and Maura Isles leaving her beloved forensics lab without a tear (Sasha wept after the camera went off). 
  
  A reboot? Please, no.  http://www.tvguide.com/news/rizzoli-isles-series-finale-postmortem/

[maraleia]

When I heard this was the final season I began to disengage from this show so this finale was only meaningful when they mentioned Frost/Lee and the videos that Jane and Maura and Nina made. Other than that you are correct Scamp that this show had been going downhill since Jan took over.

[Black Knight]

5 hours ago, Scamp said:

• Maura Isles leaving her beloved forensics lab without a tear (Sasha wept after the camera went off). 

It would have been weird if Maura cried about that since she was only going on vacation for a month. As it was I thought Maura was overly dramatic in slowly turning off the lights. It's a vacation. For a month.

Well, S7 kind of limped to the finish line, but the first half of the season was a marked improvement over S6 and even the second half was still better than S6, so I'm grateful the show ended on a higher note than its S6 nadir. I enjoyed when Jane and Maura were naming off all their weird cases. I also appreciated that the final scene was Jane going to Paris with Maura instead of the two of them saying goodbye, as that let the episode itself end on a positive note instead of being a downer moment. I remember Golden Girls's finale back in the day, which involved Dorothy moving out of the house, and as much as they tried to add some comedy to her taking leave at the very end of the episode (she kept leaving and then coming back in), it was still a downer final shot, the three remaining women realizing that Dorothy wasn't going to come back in again. R&I avoided that, and also didn't have Maura leave her chief medical examiner position as I feared would happen. 

It's also nice to learn that SA and AH adlibbed the last few lines.

[walnutqueen]

I suddenly realized I'm going to miss this sometimes silly little show.  :-(

I'd like to see more mature female friendships on my teevee.

[Chaos Theory]

I  only watched the show sporadically.  I do appreciate that it ended with Jane and Maura in bed together.  They didn't run off to be with some man they had no chemistry with.  Even if you were of the friends only camp the relationship that mattered was Rizzoli and Isles and I liked that the show ended with them running off to Paris together.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Chaos Theory

[Bastet]

I also found the look on Maura's face as she turned out the lights much more appropriate to the scene than crying would have been, since she's just taking a short leave of absence to go write in Paris.  Nicely played by Sasha, who, unlike Maura, won't be back, so great job of reining in her own emotions.  In fact, I think that's something they all did well -- there were times the actors' emotions were on full display, but in conjunction with the characters'.  There have been finales where I'm taken out of the moment because actors, having a hard time saying good-bye to a co-star/role, are much more teary and choked up than is right for the characters under the circumstances.  Here, we only saw it when it made sense for the characters, too.  Kudos to the cast.

The penis cake was a silly distraction (and made me think of Rose making a similar cake-ordering mistake on The Golden Girls ["I thought it was in the shape of Florida!"]), but set the stage for a needed bit of humor to break the sadness when Angie perfectly delivered the line, "Now can I have some beer and penis cake?"

[Scamp]

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  5 HOURS AGO, SCAMP SAID:

Maura Isles leaving her beloved forensics lab without a tear (Sasha wept after the camera went off). 

It would have been weird if Maura cried about that since she was only going on vacation for a month. As it was I thought Maura was overly dramatic in slowly turning off the lights. It's a vacation. For a month.

 

 

Good point.  My following the actors as well as the show can make for confusion.  

[shapeshifter]

16 hours ago, Bastet said:

16 hours ago, AlwaysWatching said:

...Oh, and Bruce McGill. ( he's doing all those Trump voice overs....eh to each his own..no biggie.)...

...Oh, wow.  Talk about raining on my parade....

No kidding. I am so glad I watched this episode before Googling that. 

[AlwaysWatching]

I am really sorry I posted the Bruce McGill comment.  It was just on my mind and I have told you I'm old, haven't I?  Still, I should have waited a few days at the very least. I was very upset when I first read about it and then I told myself that I loved Korsak and if I could get over Angie Harmon's politlcs, I could get over it with Bruce McGill.  Well, maybe not so much until we see how the...oh nevermind.  I'll miss everyone on Rizzoli and Isles!

viva la difference  uh maybe

[Maelstrom]

Well, it went out on a better note than I thought it might...

I too will miss the theme music first and foremost! It's such a jaunty little tune, and I'm sad I won't have it running through my head for days at a time anymore. I hope that SA and JB both get great roles very soon so I can continue watching them. OK, and the actors playing Kent and Nina too (sorry, I can't remember their names). I'd love to see the guy playing Kent in something where he's not such an oddball, lol.

Jane passing the doll, er, action figure to Frankie made me a bit misty, but Jane and Korsak's goodbye did me in. Though I do feel this show has wandered far, far from its roots, it was nice that they could still call up the heart of it all again at the end, even just a little bit.

(Nitpick: Didn't Jane basically say that if Frost had lived that he and Frankie would be partners by now? Wasn't he Jane's partner? Or did she mean with her departure Frost and Frankie would've become partners? I know, I should let it slide… But I am very grateful they mentioned Frost again, however obliquely)

I also liked the montage of Jane and Maura moments, though I wish it'd been longer, and that they could've included similar montages featuring Korsak, and Frankie.

Thank you tv gods for one show where a cop actually retired peacefully instead of getting killed off days before their retirement. That's such a tired trope, and I appreciate that R&I didn't go there. (And in my mind, Korsak's politics are more to my liking than BMcG's apparently are).

Also, SockJane tickled me.

Goodbye, Show!

Edited September 6, 2016 by Maelstrom

[MerBearHou]

Will miss the show and wish everyone on the show the best.  Watched faithfully for years with a co-worker and we loved comparing notes at the office the next day.  It got very frustrating by the end of the series and I just didn't buy the Angela/Ron and Frankie/Nina romances AT ALL but I guess I don't really care one way or the other.  I also don't care one bit about Bruce McGill's politics -- I loved his character and the actor.  The Jane/Korsak and Frost moments were the most touching by far and I loved the Jane SockPuppet!!  Things I won't miss: "Silly Jane" squealing, "Serious Jane" talking in such a low voice that I can hardly hear her, Angela over-enunciating

Edited September 7, 2016 by MerBearHou

[Black Knight]

48 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

(Nitpick: Didn't Jane basically say that if Frost had lived that he and Frankie would be partners by now? Wasn't he Jane's partner? Or did she mean with her departure Frost and Frankie would've become partners? I know, I should let it slide… But I am very grateful they mentioned Frost again, however obliquely)

I'm getting my idea about this from the Law & Order franchise, so I don't know if it really applies to R&I since I don't recall this show ever talking about partnerships in terms of senior partner and junior partner - but maybe what Jane meant is that Frost was her junior partner, but deserving of a promotion to senior partner and so once Frankie made detective, Frost would have been assigned to him as senior partner. Frankie and Frost did work together quite a lot, and the BPD would never assign Frankie his sister, so Frost would have been the natural choice once Frankie needed a partner.

I wonder if the reason they purposely didn't say Frost's name was to make the scenes feel more about the actor. The characters obviously couldn't say Lee's name, so they at least avoided saying Frost.

[mythoughtis]

I've been disappointed by this show ever since Suzie was killed off.   This season being no exception.  Jane becoming an FBI instructor makes no sense, she hasn't the temperment for it.  Worse, I hope Tess doesn't go that route in the books.  Maura is such a scientist, her flip-flop into helping out at clinics and being a writer also makes no sense.  Korsak retiring does, as Kents' taking over the lab, and Frankie getting a real desk.  The Frankie/Nina romance was built up slowly and also makes sense.  Ron coming back to Angela makes sense as it was stupid for her to drop him without even explaining why.  I don't feel any chemistry between Jane and the FBI guy - and I am someone that isn't on the Rizzles train.  This was another show that lasted at least 1 season longer than it should have.

[St. Claire]

I was really glad that Agent Davies wasn't shown in the episode, because I watched an old episode of another crime procedural immediately before watching R&I in which Mark Devlin was a super creepy bad guy.

Nice nod to Frost/LTY; I got choked up. I full on cried with Jane and Korsack's goodbye. I was also glad we didn't actually have to see a Maura/Jane goodbye. That might have done me in.

[Clanstarling]

19 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I wonder if the reason they purposely didn't say Frost's name was to make the scenes feel more about the actor. The characters obviously couldn't say Lee's name, so they at least avoided saying Frost.

I like that thought. The other day I was flipping channels and came across an old episode with Lee in it. It made me sad.

I didn't know there was a call for retirement. I found that almost as moving as the "end of watch" tradition.

[shapeshifter]

4 hours ago, Clanstarling said:

...I didn't know there was a call for retirement. I found that almost as moving as the "end of watch" tradition.

I heard Korsak say "Victor Ocean Frank" and found that "Victor" is for Detective, so it translates to "Detective Off the Air/Signing Off" (see http://blogs.n1zyy.com/n1zyy/tutorials/boston-police-codes/ ).

Edited September 8, 2016 by shapeshifter

[backgroundnoise]

Don't instructors have, you know, class schedules or something?  I work at a University and instructor cannot just ask for a month off at the last minute. 

[Clanstarling]

@backgroundnoise, I believe Jane requested a later start date, and although there are regular university type courses at Quantico, there have seminars/workshops in case training (where they teach them how to work a case), firearms training, and operational skills training (which sounds like what Jane did when she went down). so I think there was probably some leeway. And I spent WAY too much time investigating, but now I know something I didn't know. 

[vera charles]

I imagine they went to Paris, then came back, then Jane had a moment of clarity, realized she was in no way qualified to work for the FBI, and got her job back at BPD.