'Bones': Being bad to be good
Tonight Bones stuck to the formula that keeps me addicted, with a quirky mystery (presence of college mascot = quirky), plenty of quippage, and just the right amount of deeper personal material to keep it from feeling like junk food TV. Plus, of course, a priceless Booth/Brennan scene at the end.
The case: We begin with the least safe college pep rally ever, with actual flaming arrows and a cannon full of shrapnel being shot at a rival high school's mascot hanging over a bonfire. (Seriously, does this just seem crazy to me because my school was Division III? It IS crazy, right?) And yeah, there's a dead body in the mascot costume.
"Beaver," a frat member, is full of nails, keys, ball bearings, and a commemorative Olympics pin. And a bullet that didn't kill him. Though I'm disappointed that Hodgins didn't get to try a new experiment this week (Cam, you and your "math" are bumming me out), the mere reference to the bouncing frozen turkey made me laugh out loud. That one was classic. Once the lab rats are tapped out, we move on to the close-up, vaguely soft-porn-esque shots of Brennan examining the skeleton. ...Hot? Cause of death, it turns out, was a nail gun to the chest.
The team learns that Beaver was hitting a Cougar. You know, before winding up in an otter. (This discovery owes its existence to an entire fraternity eagerly dropping toga so the hot lady scientist could test their sheets for DNA. Heh.) And, Beaver had photos of himself and the dean's wife's...beaver. (Sorry, had to.) He was blackmailing the dean into not expelling him for low grades.
Turns out, though, that the girl he was claiming to bang killed him semi-accidentally after he hit on her a lot too aggressively. Or rather, he killed himself by pulling the nail out, because he was clearly too busy partying to watch any episode ever of ER or Grey's Anatomy. Never pull the nail out!
Booth and Brennan: Booth shares his philosophy that you have to be bad to be good. Apparently, everyone starts out with a raisin-sized frontal lobe, and develops it by doing the wrong thing (and presumably learning from it). Brennan, however, realizes that she's never done anything bad on purpose. She is beyond adorable when Booth suggests that they dine and dash at the bar. ("But...that's stealing! Are you serious? Wait, really? I can't! Oh my god! Aaaah!!!") And I guess my frontal lobe is still raisin-sized, because I was totally relieved when Booth secretly left money (stealing is baaad!).
"It's personal": Baby Booth got dishonorably discharged for the Gravedigger rescue incident, so he's bought himself a motorbike and is taking it to India. Sweets calls Booth out on being jealous of Jared's freedom rather than angry at his irresponsibility, and Booth is actually tempted to join Jared after he's invited. Kind of a new take on the Brennan/Sully situation, eh? But Brennan, in her awesome way, convinces Booth that Jared needs to be alone so that his frontal lobe won't be the size of a raisin. ("Though that makes no scientific sense.") Booth tells Jared that he's ready to stand alone. Aww, funny how getting your life saved by someone can change your tune.
Favorite quotes:
"Would this by any chance be a fraternity of sociopaths?" -Bones to Booth, upon hearing that his fraternity stole a cadaver
"What? I'm a wisecracking pathologist with a dark sense of humor." -Cam, after making a Horatio Caine-style morbid quip
So, do you have to be bad to be good? Something tells me the idea of a "bad" Brennan would appeal to a lot of fellas...
There were numerous "bone" quips that came to mind during Brennan's, er, handling of the remains of Beaver, but I'll leave them to the imagination.
Booth's brother's subplot seemed tacked on. True, it did play into the fraternity house goings-on and the whole "raisin" argument, but it still didn't seem like it fit in with the rest of the show. And has Booth the Younger not watched Travel Channel or National Geographic? Does he honestly think a motorcycle that size is going to last long in India? Meh.
I honestly think Hodgins was being more snarky towards the Muslim fill-in, as opposed out-and-out offensive, and I think Not-Zack knew it, which is why he didn't get all het up the way he might have. Poor Hodgins has to keep adjusting his mien every week, and I think he's getting tired of it. Pick a newbie and get on with it already.
Angela was actually tolerable this week. Maybe she's using some of those Oriental pleasure spheres or something and is self-satisfying enough that she isn't jumping on every male in the place.
For a shrink, Sweets certainly is an overly-sensitive sort. Sure, there was that horrific childhood of his, but still...he's been there long enough now that he should have a thicker skin. Plus, he could probably come back with some bon mots that would be both funny, and that Brennan wouldn't understand anyway, so he'd pay her back twice.
Good episode. Now for next week, which could either be hilarious, or a jump-the-shark moment that will kill the show for good. Fingers crossed, fingers crossed...
loved this episode- cl***ic "Bones!" Cute moments mixed in with more serious ones (and I was surprised by the killer). Can't wait for next week!
Pure Bones! Yeah, I thought the Jared bits were kinda stodgy, but all in all, still a really good ep. Loved the sheets and the DNA round up of them, too! Brennan almost seemed shocked when all those frat boys disrobed. You just knew they'd be measuring penises after she left! HA!
I agree with Aaron R. Next week will be either awesome, or painful. But, c'mon, with Stewie thrown in the mix, it has to great, right?
Enjoyable the episode. Didn't like the non-Zak of the week. He's not a good fit with the group. Bring back Wendell or Clark.
Loved the Dine and Dash at the end even though Booth is too good of a person to actually do it.
Can't wait for Stewie next week.
Rather dull case, but I liked Bones being all giggly at the end! Not a fan of Booth's brother. I find the storylines with him just tedious.
An ok episode, but not anything that special.
Good episode, not great, but good. I agree with Kathy, I think Clark mite work out. If not then BRING BACK ZAK! :)
This episode felt cramped to me, confined, leaving me wanting to expand the Booth/Brennan moments at the cost of others. For example, the initial revelation of the raisin-sized frontal lobe theory was totally wasted. That theory could have produced a good two full minutes of Booth/Brennan banter, but all we got was Brennan smiling and saying it wasn't "scientifically valid". Another was Booth's "Cringe Factor", which was never even introduced (as a guy, the "Cringe Factor" is an eternal statistic), but only alluded to by Brennan as "Booth's Cringe Factor", which again could have allowed a two minute opportunity for Brennan to dissect it "anthropologically speaking" with various scenarios that Booth just ignores and sticks to his theory. So I see that Zack was dropped off the show because there are simply too many characters, each stealing time from Booth/Brennan. If you accept that Sweets exists (primarily) to give us a window into Booth/Brennan, then he must be there, and who from the others then must be dropped? It's a tough situation, and causes me a little anxiety that they are having this problem as they go into the Booth/Brennan coupling.
But I do love the way Brennan listens: she heard the raisin theory, asked if Booth really believes it, then applied it and played it back to Booth in his struggles with his brother. It was a wonderful lesson in coupling, for though she didn't really for a moment believe the theory, she accepted Booth's belief in it, and spoke to him in terms he was familiar with - she supported his reality, the essence of any good partnership. In the same way, when Brennan confessed never having done anything bad, Booth completely accepted it, didn't get preachy and try to "fix the problem", but rather took her hand and helped her have the actual experience. He saw who she was, how she was built, and reached out and helped her.
They could spin off a half hour show that is simply Booth and Brennan relating to each other. Couples everywhere would be uplifted.
@HoenyedTenor: Fox tried that something not unlike that already. Remember "Ally"?