Photos
Video
'Bones': Poop and other perils
This week, Bones shows us the possible consequences of fooling around on your significant (or not-so-significant) other: You could end up splashed on a reality show, you could end up buried in poop, or you could be witness to an uncomfortable meeting of your booty-call boy and your mental man. None of these options sounds pleasant.
This spoiler dropped trou to warn you about the potential dangers of meeting people over the internet -- honest!
A trucker gets more than he bargained for when the outhouse he scampered into explodes. That's not the interesting part (the boom was probably just caused by the natural buildup of methane) -- that honor goes to the corpse that was buried in head-down sewage up to his waist. Ew! After a mere three days of the poop treatment, the upper half of the corpse is completely eaten away. His lower half was preserved just fine.
The team gets to sift through sewage, which strikes me as even less fun than their usual activities. After plenty of ick, they find that the corpse had been wearing a toupee, that he was bludgeoned on the back of the skull, and that he had a picture crammed down his throat with enough force to break his teeth. Who could inspire that much hate?
How about a guy who hosts a reality show that catches men in the act of cheating on their wives? "Busted by Bill", a cross between "To Catch a Predator" and "Cheaters," is the sort of thing that tends to provoke some passion, especially among the men caught cheating. One in particular responded to his moment in t he spotlight by punching Bill, but even though he's mysteriously left town, he turns out to be a sad-sack gambler who's on the run from his bookie. A wife who refuses to believe her husband was actually about to cheat (even though he appeared sans pants) is another suspect, but she, too, turns up clean.
But there were plenty of tensions at work, too. Bill had argued with his producer, Arthur -- Arthur would lose his megabucks franchise if Bill left, but he'd get a nice insurance payout from the death of his star. Bill wanted veronica, another staffer, fired -- were they sleeping around? Nope, that honor went to Holly, one of the honeytrap girls used to lure the cheaters. A combination of a thrush infection and a tongue piercing proved that Holly was intimate with bill, but she swears they were in love. Why would she kill him? More to the point, how would she have the strength to upend a guy into an outhouse pit? But Pete, the camera guy -- he lived with Holly, used to date her, and was enraged when he found photo of the two in flagrante. He lost it, and Bill was done for.
Brennan and Booth
Brennan shocks the heck out of Booth when he discovers she's dating two men simultaneously. There's Mark, a deep-sea welder and fine physical specimen who gets invited over for sex, and Jason, a botanist and bon vivant who stimulates Brennan's mind but not her naughty bits. Booth mocks Mark, gleefully sabotages a date with Jason, and is ridiculously pleased when Mark and Jason find out about each other.
And I'm actually a bit frustrated with Booth here -- Brennan has the right to live her life as she sees fit. As far as I could tell, she never told Mark or Jason that they were exclusive, so why not? It's not Booth's job to be big brother to Brennan and tell her who she can and can't date. Now, if he decided to actually act on his own feelings for Brennan, that would be different. But since he and Brennan are still in sexual-tension mode, he's really got no right to criticize.
That said, Booth was incredibly sweet when he found out Mark and Jason both broke up with Brennan -- "If they don't realize how lucky they are, they don't deserve you." Ok, great, Booth. But YOU don't realize what YOU want, just like Brennan doesn't know what she wants, so you get to stop criticizing.
A last-minute quasi-session with Sweets led Brennan and Booth to realize they had a spiffy little surrogate relationship going on -- and they were both fine with that. I have to say, I am too. I fear the Moonlighting syndrome -- satisfy the passion, screw up the show.
Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends
- The new Zach stand-in was Daisy Wick, a hyper-competitive, hero-worshipping glory hound who couldn't shut up about herself of her admiration for Brennan. It's enough to make you want the guy who apprenticed himself to a cannibal killer to come back to the lab.
- Sweets is a perceptive guy, but he's apparently got crappy taste in women -- he ended the episode asking Daisy out.
- That gang spent part of the time in Hazmat suits because they were dealing with raw sewage. Sweets was loving it -- "These suits are so cool! Zzzt, zzzt -- I Am A Robot." It was kind of adorable. I really didn't need to see him sneeze all over his helmet, though.
- Sweets, on the crime: "Shot in the head, punched in the face AND dumped in poop. Whoever did this did not get enough therapy."
- Things found in the sewage: Two toy cars, three cellphones, a doorknob, a rubber casing and a plastic Easter bunny head. The Easter bunny head was just freaky.
- Cam had very little patience for for Daisy -- when Daisy said she just wanted to make sure they realized SHE found the wig, Cam muttered "you did everything but hire a skywriter." Latter, when Daisy kept going on about herself, Cam suggested "You might want to keep a little mystery about yourself." Alas, Daisy was oblivious. No wonder she got fired.
- Daisy did have one good line: "My boyfriend thinks it's weird that I love doing this, but I think it's weird he loves the accordion."
- Booth and Sweets analyze Jason: Booth: "That guy is gay. Please, double cheek kiss, tight Italian suit" Sweets: "Coldplay" Booth: "Never married." Sweets: "Coldplay." Hee!
- I actually enjoyed the return of stalker Noel -- he definitely knew how to tail a guy, and his asides were hysterical.
- Brennan tells Cam and Angela that she's perfectly able to satisfy herself -- she just needs two guys to do it. "I've done that," says Angela. "I miss college."
- Booth wants to know why Brennan is with mark: "There has to be more than sex," he insists. "Not really..." says Brennan. And sometimes, with some people... she's right. And if Booth doesn't know that... well, I wonder what his college years were like.
- OK, tell me if I'm reading too much into this (and if I am, I blame a recent sojourn recapping The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the awfulness of which broke my brain): Did anyone else get the impression that the show was implying that Brennan was some sort of oddball freak for enjoying sex, presumably because girls aren't supposed to be like that? Because if so, that's getting to be a tired storyline. Brennan likes nookie, while Booth seems to want to believe she's some sort of delicate flower. In my opinion, Booth needs to get over it, and so does the show.
I like Coldplay a bit (the song "Clocks", in my opinion, contains one of the most beautiful piano riffs of the past twenty years or so), so I guess I'm 20% gay. Who knew? Thanks, Sweets! :P
The show was back to its mix of gag and grin, which was nice, but I'm never, ever, ever, ever, ever again using anything remotely resembling an outhouse. I'll hold it, like Cam.
Plastic Easter Bunny Outhouse Head would be a good name for a neo-punk-thrash band.
Tempe's foray into two-timing-dom was a little forced, even if her anthropological past deems it necessary that she be beyond such things as accepted societal norms. No, I don't think the show was trying to show Brennan as a highly-intelligent version of Paris Hilton (which is an impossible oxymoron, of course), but I think any plot device that causes Booth to behave like an overprotective little brother is just a little too precious for my taste. Hopefully, Brennan "learned her lesson," and if she has a relationship involving sex, it'll be with one guy (or woman, if she opts to swing that way) at a time.
I like that the break-up of Angela and Hodgens was not mentioned at all. They hardly had any scenes together, which makes me wonder if it was not the actors themselves who were uncomfortable with their on-screen relationship. Hell, they may hate each others' guts in real life and threatened to quit if the writers didn't break them up. Haven't read/heard anything in that regard, so who knows?
Sweets is still not setting well with me. I can't honestly figure out why he's observing autopsies, other than to do the same thing Ducky does on NCIS (do a psychological profile of the possible killer/killers based on the violence visited upon the corpse of the week). Sweets reminds me of Godiva chocolates, really--easy to take a bit at a time, but will make you sicker than a dog if you consume too much at once. Also, the actor needs to do something about his teeth; every time he smiles, I expect him to announce, "Gormogon's back, baby!" and take a bite out of somebody.
Kudos to the writers for not taking the crude and obvious road, leaving the, er, crappy puns out of the script. I can't believe Booth didn't let off at least one inappropriate joke, which of course Brennan wouldn't have gotten.
(P.S. Sarah, you have more patience and a stronger constitution than I do. Had I been obligated to watch SLAT for more than a couple weeks, my head would have exploded.)
Revenant | Sep 10, 2008 11:31:16 PM | #Damn, typos galore. That should be "Brennan's overprotective OLDER brother," and it's Hodges, not Hodgens. It's 1:30 in the morning, what can I say? :P
Revenant | Sep 10, 2008 11:33:52 PM | #I didn't like this episode a lot, the whole case (guy in the poop) was just boring so that i got distracted anyway I did like a few scenes that make me laugh(Booth and Brennan in the aparment and Booth, Brennan and Sweets in the coffee shop). Booth needs to stop being such a c#$k block say something or move on and I just feel sorry for Sweets. He is so weird and his teeth are very distracting specially if you're a dental assistant.
bebin | Sep 11, 2008 12:21:56 AM | #Actually, I don't think the Brennan-and-two story line is some sort of sexual double standard, nor do I think Booth is simply denying his feelings. Time and again Booth has been trying to convince Brennan that there is more to sex than sex. Remember the pony fetish episode and his argument about crappy sex? He's making the same argument about monogamy here: sex is better when it has to do with two people connecting with each other in a way where trust and vulnerability are possible. (See pony fetish episode again). It's his approach. The conflict for Brennan is that she can certainly justify her anthropological approach in general, but it doesn't seem to work for her personally.
Of course the sexual tension is there in B and B's relationship, and, interestingly, the trust and vulnerability as well. That's why he seems much more of a close friend than older brother figure to me. His motivations are mixed, no doubt, but he genuinely cares as a friend, I think, as Brennan does for him.
Michelle | Sep 11, 2008 3:24:56 AM | #I thought it a bit strange that they didn't mention the Angela/Hodgins break-up. I would have expected at least a brief reference to it, at least between Bones and Angela, considering that Angela called her in the season premiere and said she was confused and would continue to be until she could talk to Bones face to face. I did like that they didn't carry on with a lot of tension between Angela and Hodgins, though, and they had some nice interplay in the scene where they figured out who the victim was -- like their old dynamic.
A note to Revenant - the actors Michaela Conlin and TJ Thyne get along quite well. When their relationship first started, they were both excited about it, b/c they were good friends and felt a certain chemistry between their characters. So, I don't think it ended b/c they didn't like each other.
LiasMom | Sep 11, 2008 4:43:15 AM | #Just a side note...there was an episode of Mythbusters that proved that an outhouse could not build up enough methane gas to explode like that. Not that there aren't enough other reasons to avoid using them unless absolutely necessary...
Allison | Sep 11, 2008 5:32:53 AM | #"Angela/Hodgins break-up. I would have expected at least a brief reference to it,"
The order of episodes is messed up due to the strike. This one was actually filmed before Yanks in the UK
kirra | Sep 11, 2008 6:22:52 AM | #Well, I guess it really does take all kinds, because if anything I read the exact opposite into the subtext of the show than the reviewer did. Between last week and this week...it seems the underlying theme of the season (so far) is How To Be A Slut in Five Easy Steps. And it ain't just Bones, either. (And for that matter, I use that term in a gender-non-specific way...)
Frankly, between that and the CSI-like 'how gross can we get' attitude of the writers, I'm rapidly losing interest in the show.
Annoyed | Sep 11, 2008 6:52:11 AM | #Listening to bones talk about sex is just weeeird! the woman has no shame! did anyone notice the resemblense between her boy toys and...booth? heh heh heh she's a serial dater and i can guess who her next victim will be..! he he...
I don't think that booth is being Big Brother--he is just so in wuv with bones that he doesn't like seeing her with ANYONE and used this two-timing 'it's not right' thing to get her available again. he appeared sad when they broke up with her because he doesn't want to see her hurt, and inside he was dancing a jig!
I like sweets. he makes it feel like everyday is bring your kid to work day! cute little tike. he asked out that loser because he is lonely and only shrinks get shrinks. ahh, squint love is in the air!
H/A: ...wait--they were together? really? just ain't right, just ain't right!
Booth and Bones can't hook up for a while, but i loved the moment when they looked into eachother's eyes, and booth said that she'll find someone that is supposed to be with her for the rest of her life! awww! psst, booth! take ur own hint dumbass!
No offense indended, but I wish people would get over Moonlighting. Yes, the characters getting together on that show marked the decline in quality on that show. One show. Twenty years ago. Other shows have successfully paired up couples (or even started with paired couples) and as long as they inserted some conflict, some drama into the relationship, it didn't mean the end of the show.
In my opinion, it would be fun to see a season or two of Brennan and Booth adjusting to being in a relationship with each other.
Biggest annoyance was yet another religious discussion between Booth and Bones, yes Bones, Booth is religious. How many times must they repeat these scenes.
jbw | Sep 11, 2008 9:10:03 AM | #Carla Gallo ("Daisy Wick") is awesome. She is one of Judd Apatow's go to girls. She apparently only has one more episode to go... she is far more entertaining than most of this cast - GIVE HER A JOB! She satisfies both requirements to be a regular female cast member of this show - cute and funny.
BHM1304 | Sep 11, 2008 9:22:06 AM | #This show could use someone like Carla Gallo (Daisy Wick) fulltime. They should have cast her. She is terrific.
It seems like this show is running out of ideas. The quality from season one to now is so marked. This show has gotten progressively worse over the years and its decline is continuing rather than halting.
The mysteries used to keep you guessing and now the mysteries are just stupid and obvious.
They should end this show while it still has a little quality left in it.
bhm1304 | Sep 11, 2008 9:27:28 AM | #I thought the show was a bit boring, and hated the Daisy character. Couldn't wait for her to get fired. Sweets is a little annoying too. And that lipstick with those teeth - yuck.
Kathy | Sep 11, 2008 12:12:18 PM | #I just love Bones but I have two complaints. 1. I wish all the TV industry would get over the "Moonlighting" "can't put the characters together because it will ruin the show" - damn, can't anyone put the characters together and make it right. I would love show to do this. Anyway, how do they really know that by today's standards it would be ruined? 2. I see the spoilers that Angela's old flame - her ex girlfriend - from an experimental stage will be back to see her. I am not against gay relationships at all but I am not looking forward to this exploration on this show. Am I wrong? Or is there just not need to go there? One on hand I want Bones/Booth, Angela/Jack to be couples but on on the other hand I don't really care to see Angela with all her exs.
Me | Sep 11, 2008 1:13:02 PM | #I thought the writing was just too stupid. You don't have to hit me over the head with the joke, okay? Sweets sets my teeth on edge.
I've always enjoyed the humor of this show, but other than Cam's wonderful deadpan retorts to Daisy, the rest was a mess. Let's move away from vaudeville and use a little subtlety, okay?
jbw, I'm a pagan, so I get where you are coming from, where Booth and Brennan having religious conversations is concerned. But one thing people forget is that there are many, many scientific types out there who honestly cannot understand at all how somebody can be religious (even if they're not traditionally religious, like me) when it flies in the face of logic. Brennan is like that: she is of a type that cannot fathom worshiping something or somebody she can't see, so she doesn't see how Booth can not see the fallacies in what he believes. Credit to Booth, though--even though he holds his own in conversations like this, as least he doesn't try to convert her. He respects her enough to disagree with her, but not to try and change her. Also, if you've been in a relationship with anyone for any length of time, some subjects are going to be repeated a number of times. Ask any two guys what they talk about on a regular basis, and it will most likely be the same few things (like football, women or maybe fashion...depends on the folks involved). Good friends of any gender and make-up who are comfortable with each other will beat a subject to death and be happy as clams at high tide about it.
For those griping (rightfully so, in most cases) about the cases lately, consider this: there are so many damned procedurals on right now that it takes a body upside down in an outhouse type of episode to even get noticed, since everything has already been done. So, yeah, maybe the episodes on Bones have been silly lately, but just about everything that can be shown on TV has already been done. 'Tis the nature of the beast, alas.
Lilith Says Hi | Sep 11, 2008 2:34:30 PM | #Anonymous Coward (love the screen name btw!), you took the words right out of my mouth and said it so much better! I too am so tired of hearing everyone talk about the 'Moonlighting Curse'---the main reason that show tanked wasn't because the couple got together, it's because the creator Glen Caron left the show over disputes with Cybill Shepherd, and they couldn't replace his vision.
Like you mentioned there have been plenty of couplings in the last twenty years that have worked out just fine. (Chandler and Monica on Friends being just one example). It's never the relationships that get boring, it's the writing.
If the writers would be more creative, there isn't any reason Bones/Booth couldn't get together and still be interesting. They are such different people, that alone would keep the tension alive. Shows should stop blaming the 'Moonlighting Curse' for boring couples once they get together; it's the boring writing that's responsible.
Doris | Sep 11, 2008 3:54:21 PM | #this episode was another example of how hypocritical brennan can be. on the one hand, she ridicules certain practices such as attending funerals and refuses to accept various reasons that have to do with cultural preferences etc and then here she goes dating two guys knowing that's generally frowned upon but isn't smart enough to know that once the guys found out they wouldn't accept it. it just reinforces my view of brennan being the dumbest smart person on tv. and sometimes her dumbness is just way over the top.
this was a so-so episode and i only enjoyed the booth-brennan-sweets scenes. i'm also glad they didn't mention angela and hodges' breakup.
joits | Sep 11, 2008 6:45:29 PM | #I was greatly disappointed in this episode. After enjoying the first 3 seasons, I am throwing in the towel. I did not even finish watching this episode. Did they fire the writers and replace them with perverts? Both episodes this year have focused on how sexually promiscuous Bones is and that she is somehow morally neutered. I used to enjoy the science, the technology, the interaction of the team, the humor, and interaction between Bones and Booth. At lease there were 3 good seasons.
James | Sep 11, 2008 8:53:45 PM | #i loved Booth in this episode and what he said at the end made my heart melt. He didn't appear jealous to me, more like he new her antics would blow up in her face so why worry. He is right, Brennan taste in men sucks. And they really need to tone down Brennan acting like a s**t for the 3rd episode in a row and she is so annoying with her I am always right attitude
| Sep 12, 2008 12:25:18 AM | #Hahahahaha! I think Secret Life of the American Teenager definitely broke my brain - sorry to have taken you down with me!
(Side note: I also wondered about the episode moralizing on Brennan's dating habits, but I'm leaning toward thinking everything Booth said was in character and just being happy that they've got a woman who enjoys sex and isn't straight-up being called a slut.)
Liz | Sep 12, 2008 5:00:32 AM | #Just to respond a few of your comments Revenant:
As someone already said, TJ Thyne and Michaela Conlin are good friends. TJ has always been liberal with his praise of her and her character.
"The Angela/Jack relationship starting off with light flirting between myself and Michaela. "
(SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4) They both are upset about the current break in their relationship, but understand the reason behind it and both are sure that their characters will find their way back to one another.
And his name is neither "Hodges" nor "Hodgens." It's Hodgins. Dr. Jack Hodgins.
Bee | Sep 12, 2008 8:39:45 AM | #they also need zac bac dude the show is totally different in a bad way without him. he brought more sciency and seriousness to the show by always staying focused on the case. too bad he's a serial killer. shame
vicious circle | Sep 12, 2008 10:35:55 AM | #Thanks, Bee, for your response to mine. Call it going nearly eight days in a row with only about four hours of sleep a night. I'm lucky I can remember what day it is, so it's nice to have somebody (several somebodies, in this case) who has been keeping up on things. And I've been having trouble with Hodgins last name since day one, for some reason. I can spell ridiculously long words with nary a blink, but a fairly simple name like Hodgins? Pfft.
Anyway, thanks again! :)
re: vicious circle--"sciency?" Oy vey, mon ami. :P
Revenant | Sep 12, 2008 12:02:46 PM | #
Zap2it Twitter Talk
