Photos
Video
'Bones' joins the mile-high murder club
Bones does its part to save the airlines money by making its viewers swear off airplane food for life. Distract yourself from your flight-induced hunger pangs by wallowing in all the spiffy Bonesian banter, celebrating the return of "scary woman" Caroline Julian, and contemplating Sweets' competitive-karaoke chops.
Return to your seats and fasten your spoilers.
Brennan and Booth are on their way to China -- Bones will be inspecting some 40,000-year-old remains, and Booth will be protecting sensitive American technology. OK, if you say so... I'm willing to go with it, if only to see poor Booth sandwiched in the middle seat in coach while Brennan reclines in first class. Booth keeps trying to sneak into first class (and these flight attendants are clearly not at the top of their game, as they let him sneak past the curtain twice), and finally, he's given an excuse to stay when a flight attendant starts screaming. You'll have that when find a human body overdone in the oven. Ick!
So now they've got a crime scene, and the suspect is most likely not going anywhere for the next several hours, but there's a problem -- once they land in Shanghai, the whole shebang becomes custody of the Chinese government and... Ok, you know what? Just go with it. They need to solve the crime before the plane touches down, yadda yadda plot-convenience-cakes, and if you tilt your head and squint you can totally see it.
So: How to solve a gruesome crime in a limited amount of time with minimal equipment? Improvise! That includes using denture cream and baby powder to make a cast of a wound, snagging the blue light from the movie projector and a gun-lover's shooting glasses to make one of those lights that reveals blood, and enlisting super-strength reading glasses as magnifying lenses. It's pretty cool.
After some searching, and with the help of the team on the other end of an internet connection (but they told me I couldn't check my gmail in flight!), the team identifies the victim as Elizabeth Jones, a travel writer from D.C. She recently did a story on pilots with hidden DUI convictions -- and surprise surprise, the pilot on this flight just happens to be one of the subjects of her story! He denies everything, and agrees to delay the landing to Shanghai to give Booth and Brennan more time to figure things out.
Sweets finds out Jones was having an affair with a married man. Shockingly, that man is on that very same flight! What are the odds? He's traveling with his sick wife and their teenage son, who had been filching teeny tiny liquor bottles this whole flight. (Like I said -- lax flight attendants.) Booth and Brennan find blood spatter on the kid's first-class slippers, and there's a tense confrontation over whether they could get a warrant from Caroline before the plane landed, but they managed and they got their man. Kid. Killer. Then they turn around and fly home with the kid, apparently on an empty plane. No wonder the airlines are in trouble!
The lab rats -- plus the flight crew
Hodgins has a few moments of discombobulation seeing Angela and Roxie as a couple, especially after he and Angela have such good work mojo together. He eventually asks her if it's just that she's really a lesbian, but Angela says no -- she capable of loving a man, she just doesn't quite love Hodgins the way she should. Later, she asks Roxie to move in with her. Roxie is shocked -- it's always the other way around with you! She also turns Angela down -- it's too soon, and there are too many unknowns.
More amusing it the impromptu assistants Booth and Brennan pick up en route. Booth was sandwiched between two Miss Marple wannabes in cattle class, and they keep contributing materials to the investigation. Even better was the running commentary -- I didn't hear a shot, so it must be a stabbing! Oh, look, they're building the blood-seeking light! Here, take my knitting needle -- you can use it as a probe! (Apparently the security agent at the airport was just as half-assed as the flight attendants, because I know I've seen knitting needles confiscated.) They were kind of adorable, in small doses. I wouldn't want to see them as NotZacks, of course, but for the story, they served.
Booth and Brennan
This was a pretty fluffy episode, but there were still some nice moments. Chief among them was one that the commercials gave away: Brennan has her hair up in a bun and is wearing the massive cats-eye magnifying glasses. Booth sees her and says, "All right, what I want you to do is take off your glasses, shake out your hair and say 'Mr. Booth, do you know what the penalty is for an overdue book?'" Hee!
The best Booth/Brennan interaction came when Brennan told the flight attendant that she was going to China to pursue her real passion -- ancient remains. Booth gets concerned-- I thought you loved working with me! "You're bored," he worries. "The spark is gone." In the end, Brennan reminds Booth that she insisted on being included in field operations. She willingly gave up old bones to work with Booth.
The other recurring bit was that everyone seemed to think that Booth and Brennan had a bom-chicka-wow relationship, much to Brennan's confusion. When Booth tries to steal the seat next to Brennan in first class, saying he wants to be close to his partner, the flight attendant replies with "Your sexual relationship is not relevant, sir. This is first class." "Why does everyone think we have a sexual relationship when we barely ever touch each other?" Brennan wonders. It's called chemistry. Brennan. That counts as science -- you should know something about it!
Highlights, thoughts and odds and ends
- Poor Booth -- I’ve made the trip from the East Coast of the U.S. to China in coach. It's not fun.
- Sweets tries to entice the team to hang out with him and Daisy by promising a little competitive karaoke. Angela and Hodgins have plans, and Cam suddenly remembers she's driving Angela and Roxie to the train station.
- Sweets shows that he dos have skills when he gets information out of Elizabeth's publisher that "scary woman" Caroline was unable to unearth. Go Sweets, with your psychological mojo!
- Kate, the snotty flight attendant, goes into shock when she discovers the body in the oven. I love when she starts playing with Booth's tie as he's trying to (gently) question her.
- Still more evidence that this airline needs a much better HR department: The other flight attendant is using the in-flight phone to make calls to her boyfriend, which, the pilot gasps, is against the rules "So's having sex with a passenger in the bathroom!" she shoots back. That shuts the pilot up. But that's not all -- boyfriend-chatting flight attendant is actually stealing credit card numbers from passengers and passing them along to her boyfriend, who sells them. Nice! I'm so taking the train home for Christmas...
- Booth is kind of adorable as Brennan digs into the body. "Can you turn her around so she's not looking at us?" he asks. Still, he can rise to the occasion -- when Cam asks about the state of the flesh, Brennan doesn't know how to deal with something so inexact. Booth steps up -- "If she were a turkey, she would be dry and overdone." Nice recovery there, Booth!
- I loved the banter at the end. Booth and Brennan are hanging out in first class, contemplating the return trip. The both recline their seats. Brennan's goes flat; Booth's doesn't. Booth complains. "Maybe it's because you're supposed to be in coach," Brennan suggests. Hee!
yep, kind of a filler type episode. reminded me of the house episode on a plane although it was done better there.
loved that whole "librarian thing" that was cool.
one of those episodes where several liberties were taken. i don't think any pilot would slow down a flight to the point that they will run out of fuel in 20mins. there's gotta be some FAA regulations against that no matter what is going on in the plane. plus no flight attendent at least asking booth and brenan to sit during landing... c'mon.
joits | Nov 19, 2008 9:08:45 PM | #B&B were awfully casual about the young murderer. There was total elation when they were able to solve the crime in the nick of time and get a warrant, despite the kid and his family sitting right there. No apparent reaction to the human drama that had played out.
Towards the end in the near-empty plane, it was almost as though the boy had pulled some sort of prank. I could understand compassion or even revulsion, but not what seemed like mild amusement.
In some ways it was akin to the way they treat Zach.
Maureen | Nov 19, 2008 9:49:28 PM | #yeah, it was weird how casual they were toward the kid, who had just killed and baked a woman in a microwave oven!!!
I wish they would quit making Booth seem stupid. I know he is now the intellectual equal of Bones, but they don't have to make him dumb for cheap laughs.
jc | Nov 20, 2008 6:11:11 AM | #I want Angela and Hodges back together!! However, I will say the writers on Bones do a much better job with the lesbian relationship that the writers on Grey's Anatomy!
Allie | Nov 20, 2008 6:43:04 AM | #This was an episode that I really enjoyed while it was on, but does not stand up to any in depth scrutiny. I agree with previous posts about the odd, casual way they treated the kid. For the most part, I have enjoyed this season, but I am very disappointed in the Hodgins/Angela relationship. They spent so much time building them up and then got rid of the romance so quickly. Now they have Angela already in love again, and willing to move in with someone? Girl or Guy, it's still way too soon.
tia | Nov 20, 2008 6:49:16 AM | #I loved how after Booth asked Brennan to do the librarian impression and he left she did it.
Dory | Nov 20, 2008 7:15:27 AM | #I completely agree with tia.
katie71483 | Nov 20, 2008 8:42:12 AM | #A nice stand alone episode. I liked the kid at the end when Booth and Bones were in the post-arrest after glow and he asked "are you going to start making out".
| Nov 20, 2008 8:57:05 AM | #Yeah, the ending was too weird..
Bones and Booth playing cute, talking to the kid as if he was going to detention instead of maybe death row for baking a woman alive.
The showrunners thought this played well ?
They weren't flying home on an empty plane. They were in the ground at the airport waiting for a flight crew and boarding of passengers when they were drinking the champagne !
MJ | Nov 20, 2008 10:22:55 AM | #This episode had some problems of tone, and some logistical problems as well, but overall a so-so episode of Bones is still pretty good television.
Siansonea | Nov 20, 2008 10:38:46 AM | #So a microwaved human body smells like pork....ick.
Alex | Nov 20, 2008 12:55:24 PM | #I think they're setting up for a big shocker, and need this time for the characters to find themselves. But I agree. Booth isn't stupid, they should stop portraying him like he is.
The real problem is Zack. They are missing a key element in the dynamic. It would have been way better if Sweets was the killer. Made WAY more sense and would have been great B/C he has both their psychological profiles. BRING BACK FRY!
I gotta ask... is applauding when a flight lands an American thing? I'm not American and I've never experienced that on any flight I've ever taken.
Nigel Fenway | Nov 20, 2008 11:14:00 PM | #They were going to fly home with the plane epmty. Booth said it's now a crime scene, so it would be just them on the plane.
Michelle | Nov 20, 2008 11:46:00 PM | #I've only ever seen the passengers applaud a safe landing if it's been a particularly bumpy flight. So yeah, that struck me as odd, too.
Sarah | Nov 21, 2008 9:10:58 AM | #I thought the show was a little out there also. I did not like the casual way the murdering boy was handled either. No matter where his heart is they way he killed her was very gruesome. I just read a spoiler where they are going to introduce another female for Booths attention. I do not like it at all. The pull of this show is the chemistry between Booth and Bones and what they learn /give to each other. I would probably quit watching it if they go off in a different direction. They have let them go from simply partners to something on a deeper level. I think they could enter into a romantic relationship and this would provide even more development on a personal and professional level. I will really hate it if they go away from that.
Deb | Nov 21, 2008 9:13:07 AM | #Well, I see this show has "officially" adopted the liberal Hollywood agenda of promoting gay relationships. It's so sad that another show refuses to have any respect for the majority of Americans. Sadly, I must say goodbye to Booth and Brennan.
Phil | Nov 22, 2008 1:09:22 PM | #I'm sorry, PROMOTING gay relationships? It has already been stated (QUITE early on in the show) that Angela was bisexual (not gay). Your post is confusin, Phil.
That being said, I also had a problem with the ending, but besides that, this ep was fun and light, and a good one to play after the amazing Con Man. ("What I want you to do is take off your glasses, shake out your hair, MR Booth, do you know what the penalty is for an overdue book?" THAT LINE WAS GOLD!)
Phil, your post is so narrow minded. I don't see why having a gay relationship on the show "promotes" homosexuality. It just shows a real-world view in the course of television story telling. If you are so homophobic as to be offended by this, by all means stop watching. No one will miss you.
Marisa | Dec 15, 2008 2:28:34 PM | #
Zap2it Twitter Talk
