Rizzoli & Isles 4.07 “All For One”

I believe having once been a teenage girl myself I have the right to say this: teen girls are creepy and weird.

The clicks that happen, how cruel they can be, the whole “BFF” thing; teen girls are a special breed all their own. I don’t miss high school. At. All.

Of all the “issue” episodes that I’ve talked about this one hit me the hardest. As a female who was never part of the “it” crowd, but also as a parent. My seven year old will be in high school in a few years and I hate to think what the world might be at that time. Episodes like this also make me glad I have a boy.

A teacher sleeping with students has been an issue since teachers and students were a thing. But intentionally failing an “A” student and ruining their chance at a future with serious black mail is mind blowing and scary. All of this because a smart young girl with a chance at an amazing future wouldn’t give him sexual favors to change her grade to what she had rightfully earned.

Now what’s strange is how this was all set up. We see a man get run over by a car as he’s talking about “working something out” with someone we can’t see. As Jane and Frost start to investigate we find he just had a baby to add to his brood. Three kids under four and a wife who relied on him. He taught Drivers Ed. He taught science. He was very well loved by his students, inspired great things for them, instilled a love science in young girls who are generally the ones ignored in that field.

How sad it is that something so amazing is tainted by a pervert? It grates on my nerves like few other things can. And what is worse is that during the course of the episode we start from truly caring for this man and wanting justice for him to believing (at least in my mind) that he deserved what he got.

But go a step further.  Justice was not met because there were three suspects. Girls who were friends that this man had tried to screw over. Their forth was in a coma due to an OD suicide attempt after the teacher posted a picture that had her in a bra on some social network sites. It just kept getting darker and creepier. So these three teenage girls commit the perfect crime. Three suspects, three exact witness accounts, three exact confessions. Impossible to charge anyone.

So maybe, justice was in fact served, in a skewed sort of way. These girls defended their friend, revenge though it was.  Their BFF pact actually saw them through, when the tendency we see of teenage girls in the media is that they are weak and crack under pressure. That they are manipulative. We rarely see how true friendships can in fact be made.

Like Jane and Maura. They have been through so much together; fights and heart breaks and mob boss fathers. Yet, they are inseparable. I may joke about the subtext involved in their relationship but at the same time it’s so rare to see two strong women who ha ve strong important careers be such close friends without the cattiness. I haven’t seen that kind of relationship since Stargate SG-1.

It’s just nice.