'Bones': Booth, Seeley Booth

"Bones" dabbled in international intrigue tonight with an appropriately convoluted plot, but didn't leave Booth and Brennan fans completely out in the cold...although compared to last week, I suppose they weren't in front of a blazing fire, either.

Friends, I have a confession to make: I've never seen a James Bond movie. Not even one. I know, I know. But I've watched the Austin Powers movies enough times that I feel confident I'll pick up on most of the references. And I was a big "Alias" fan, so I'm used to following plots with so many twists they'll tie you in knots. Speaking of which...

The Case:

One man shoots another man in a parking garage, and steals the suitcase handcuffed to his arm. Yeesh. Having your hand cut off with your own knife is a total bummer, even if you're dead. And then having your decomposing corpse eaten by a bunch of cats? Rough day at the office. Said cats staring hungrily at Booth and Brennan, however = hilarious. (And terrifying. Every time I think I want a dog or cat, I see something like this and decide I'd rather have an herbivore.)

Our victim is a Russian diamond courier who mysteriously made his way through a diplomatic checkpoint, despite not being a diplomat. And the car that ran over the body? An Aston Martin - evidently James Bond's car. All signs point to spy, especially when the find the car with a dead CIA analyst (sans briefcase) in the trunk. The analyst's body shows signs of torture, even though he wasn't even supposed to be out in the field, and had a surveillance bug on it.

The bug, it turns out, was planted by a jealous coworker/girlfriend, who overheard him talking to a CIA assistant director about diamonds. The girlfriend also received a photo containing a coded message from the analyst. The CIA honcho claims he created the security hole for the dead Russian to smuggle additional diamonds into the U.S., to be traded for political prisoners in Pakistan. He professes his innocence in the analyst's murder while taking over the FBI's investigation.

In a last-minute effort, however, the squints figure out that the murderer was a representative from the diamond company, who was trying to recover the briefcase the analyst stole from her operative. Apparently he didn't talk, no matter how much she tortured him, and so the CIA is able to recover the briefcase from the hiding place mapped out in the coded message. Inside the briefcase? A USB drive. Yup. No hint as to what's on the drive, just the important lesson that information is more valuable than diamonds in these crazy times we're living in. Um, okay.

The Squint Squad:

The trust that funds Wendell's scholarship has run dry, so his internship is in jeopardy. Which is a shame, because he's one of the few (the only?) NotZacks I can happily tolerate. Brennan is extremely cold about letting him go - or rather, extremely "unsentimental," as she puts it. Oh, Brennan. She's come so far in the past few years, and yet still has so far to go (see also: charging Booth for the plumbing book).

As it turns out, though, Wendell isn't packing his bags after all. After he steps up and solves the case right before the buzzer, a donation is made anonymously to fund his scholarship. Yay! In fact, enough anonymous donations were made for three scholarships. Aww. I love how the squints take care of their own.

Booth and Brennan:

Booth has a leaky pipe that he doesn't want to pay $800 to fix, but he lost his home improvement skills in the coma. (Can that happen?) Brennan offers to pay for it, since she just got a fat check - and a Rolex - from her publisher, but Booth is unsurprisingly not down with taking her money.

Pressed later after a conversation about honesty, Booth admits that it's a little weird Brennan has so much more money than he does. But he gives the old "money doesn't buy happiness" speech, so it's all good. I guess. 

Sweets suggests that Brennan let Booth teach her about plumbing to smooth over their income disparity, and it's completely adorable. Side by side, under the sink, applying pressure and holding a pipe together...adorable.

Booth, conveniently forgetting the whole "Attagirl" Incident of September 2009 (as it will forever be known): "You know, Bones, I'm glad we don't have any secrets between each other."

Brennan: "Yeah, I like that."

Booth: "I mean, if we have something on our mind, we just share it."

Brennan: "True. [Pause] Even with all of the financial and intellectual contradictions, I...still feel close to you."

Booth, looking at their joined hands on the pipe: "Right, because none of that matters anyway."

Brennan: "Sometimes, looking at it through your eyes, I believe that."

Commence Booth reaching around Brennan to turn the water back on, basically embracing her briefly. Of course, the repair doesn't exactly work out, but something tells me Booth would rather share a moment with Brennan than fix his pipes, anyway. Or maybe I'm just projecting.

Odds and Ends:

• I love that Booth's shooting an ice cream truck clown is enough to make him questionably trustworthy in the eyes of the State Department.
• Did anyone else want Sweets and the obnoxious State Department young'un to come to blows? It would be worth it for the trash talk alone. ("Dude, you're totally, like, unqualified for your job." "Whatever, man. I'm moving up the ladder wicked fast.")
• How is it that Booth had the security clearance to hear about the analyst's work, but Brennan had to wait in the hall? Back when the squints were getting questioned by Homeland Security or whoever a few seasons ago, didn't Brennan have such high clearance that she couldn't answer the agent's questions because the agent wasn't at a high enough level to hear Brennan's answers?

Favorite Quotes:

• "Everybody poops. They even wrote a book about it." -Hodgins
• "That is gonna kill the Blue Book value." -Booth, discovering a bloated body in the trunk
• "We weren't supposed to date. I guess it's not like the FBI. We're not allowed to sleep with someone we're working with." [Cue sputtered protests from Booth and Brennan] -Mandy, the analyst's secret coworker girlfriend

We're clearly back to the real world, but how did you feel about the Booth/Brennan component? Did the case grab you?

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