Rizzoli & Isles Season 7 Episode 6 Review: There Be Ghosts
Jack Ori
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Quirky cases are a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes they are interesting, other times silly.
Rizzoli & Isles Season 7 Episode 6 looked like it was going to be ridiculous from the previews, but turned out to be much better than expected.
The case of the hour involved the murder of a cancer patient in what looked like an abandoned hospital. In actuality, it turned out to be a new wing that was still being worked on.
The suggestion that it was a ghost who killed her was silly, but it turned out to be an interesting clue.
Multiple murders, a ghost killer... sounds like something I would have heard about.
Vince
Obviously, Jenny Tate wasn't killed by a ghost, but the ghost angle suggested that the killer was familiar with the Hannah Rose legend, which stated that a ghost murdered a doctor who had let some patients die in 1905.
Up until the point where she was attacked, I was convinced it was the hospital administrator. She was the one who confirmed the ghost story and it wasn't in the archives, making her a perfect suspect.
Instead, Jane discovered that the stepson of a cancer patient denied a spot in a clinical trial worked as a maintenance man in the hospital.
These kinds of connections always seem a bit contrived, as if the writers needed a solution to their mystery and just tacked one on at the last second.
The serial killer angle wasn't really explored, surprisingly. While it's true the killer based his crimes on the ghost story, it's also true that his MO was injecting people with massive amounts of chemotherapy drugs and leaving a white rose in their hands.
Since the killer had stolen enough drugs to kill three more people, the team would have been justified in calling this a serial murderer, but it wasn't even mentioned.
We worked Charles Tate pretty hard. A guy who just lost his wife. I hate this part of the job.
Vince
The emotional undertones almost made up for the lackluster solution to the mystery, however. Vince's guilt over pushing a grieving husband to confess to a crime he turned out not to have committed and Jane's guilt over shooting yet another suspect were interesting and moving.
Stop being Frankie Junior. You're not a kid anymore.
Vince
The Frankie angle was not so entertaining.
Frankie spent most of the hour hiding from Kent because he didn't want to turn down his offer of going to a concert. This silly behavior was more appropriate to a teenager than a police detective. Predictably, after a nudge or two from Angela and Nina, Frankie accepted the offer and had a great time.
Vince's advice to Frankie would have been touching had it not seemed to have come out of nowhere.
If she's not crazy, she's up to something.
Jane
The addition of a mystery writer with ulterior motives helped spark interest.
She seemed like a viable suspect despite her alibi, and her evidence-stealing behavior did her no favors. It was nice that she turned out to genuinely enjoy Maura's writing and want to help her establish herself in the literary field.
Having mystery writer Tess Gerritsen make a cameo appearance as Samantha's new contact was a nice touch. Gerritsen writes the novels on which Rizzoli & Isles is based.
This storm doesn't let up soon, I'm buying a bigger boat.
Vince
The rain storm set the mood but really added nothing to the story. I was expecting Jane and her leaky roof to be a sideline, as it was mentioned in the first scene, but it was abruptly dropped in favor of the writer's conference story.
All in all, this was an enjoyable hour of Rizzoli & Isles despite there being no mention of Maura's cognitive issues whatsoever and less Jane and Maura time than there could have been.
What did you think? Was "There Be Ghosts" too silly or just right? Should Frankie drop the Junior from his name? Did you wish Angela played a bigger part?
Weigh in below, and don't forget you can watch Rizzoli & Isles online if you missed anything or want to watch it again.
Jack Ori is a senior staff writer for TV Fanatic. His debut young adult novel, Reinventing Hannah, is available on Amazon. Follow him on X.
