'Bones': Booth and Brennan still won't just make out already

Hmm...something tells me Emily Deschanel, vegan and animal rights activist extraordinaire, had something to do with tonight's episode of "Bones"...and I'm not talking about the murder victim being a chicken farmer. The show aired a surprising amount of real footage from broiler chicken factory farms, and peppered the episode with information and conversations about farm animal treatment. (Full disclosure: I'm also vegan. But this episode didn't make anything up for dramatic effect - I promise.)

The Case: Our victim was discovered by a troop of "Woodchucks" (think awesomely nerdy Girl Scouts) in a river ... and he smells like farts. Ugh. In addition to being full of hydrogen sulfide, our mystery man is missing some digits. They theorize secret military experiment, especially when Angela's reconstruction turns out "half man, half chicken." (Huge forehead, pointy chin, beak-like nose...) Oh, and he's also got chicken parasites.

Instead of a "super chicken soldier," however, our victim is a manager at Clucksten Farms, a broiler farm under siege by protesters: both "animal rights nuts" (ouch) and locals who hate the smell. The hydrogen sulfide from all the concentrated chicken manure inside is so strong that over the years it ate away at our victim Nick's nose until it looked like a beak. And as if that's not bad enough, Nick was killed when someone wrung his neck with a chicken plucker ... and then put his dismembered fingers inside, well, chicken fingers at a local fast food joint. Ewwww! (Yes, that grosses me out more than the rotting, farty smelling body at the beginning. Maybe I'm just disturbingly desensitized to the gore?) 

We've got plenty of suspects: an animal-rights protester who put out a video showing how the chickens were treated, the victim's wife, who gave him the video footage because she wanted Clucksten shut down for her husband's sake, the baker whose shop is downwind from the fart factory, and the worker who runs the debeaking machine (don't click if you don't wanna know) that was used to cut off Rick's thumbs and toes. 

In the end, though, Brennan identifies Clucksten's head of security, who broke his hand shoving Nick's head into the plucker. Nuts. I was hoping Angela was right about the chicken revolution. His wife got sick because of Clucksten, but when they moved to the next county, she got better. And Nick just couldn't let him have a gas allowance ... from there, the chicken plucker. Booth believes the guy when he cries accident, but Brennan proves that he forcibly pushed Nick's head in there. And if you think it's weird that Brennan picked up on the lying when Booth didn't, you're right. And Booth realizes it.

He thinks he's still not up to speed after the surgery -- still not himself. Brennan: "Well even at half speed, you're twice as fast as anyone else." Still, I can understand why Booth is worried: If he can't bring his great instincts and observational skills to the table, what use is he to Brennan?  

Squint Squad/Booth and Brennan: Brennan, it seems, is only vegetarian for health reasons (...and I assume, since she's mentioned it before, because she was grossed out by cannibals and horse meat eaters). In fact, when Angela tries to get a donation from her to save a piglet (why that would cost $1,500, I don't know) Brennan is worse than dismissive. Angela: "It worries me that you can look into [the piglet's] eyes and feel so cold." Me too, Angela. That's one adoooorable piglet! She even goes so far as to question her friendship with Brennan. This distresses Brennan, but Booth won't get into the middle of it to help aside from expressing his sympathy with some intense hand-holding. 

Sweets, insultingly, decides that Angela just needs to give up celibacy early because she's "forming strong emotional attachments to photos of baby animals." Okay, first of all, we've been over this: the piglet is cute as a freaking button. (Not this cute, but then, no piglet could ever be. Which is why that's been my desktop background for more than a year. Shut up.) Secondly, maybe she actually cares about the way animals are treated, Sweets. (Though I'll concede that running around and annoying your friends by asking for $1,500 maaay not be the best way to go about helping them.)

Wendell, an "unapologetic meat eater" who owes $40,000 in student loans, immediately ponies up $45. And honestly, if Angela hadn't been all over him immediately I'd have wondered what was wrong with her. How hilarious was it, though, when Cam noticed what was going on and first just looked on amusedly at the awkwardness with Hodgins, and then went in for the kill: "I don't twirl the interns. Perhaps Angela could do it..."

Sweets suggests to Brennan that she be the one who "comes around" this time, despite the fact that she sees saving the piglet as a meaningless act, even though he's "very, very cute." Brennan isn't swayed until she talks to Booth to get perspective from "a full-grown man of experience." When he suggests that she just let Angela have this one, she immediately hops up and writes a check. Now that's trust, people. And growth -- I'm not sure an earlier Brennan would ever have followed anyone's advice without first agreeing with the logic behind it.           

She's also clearly gotten better at reading people, because she sees that Booth noticed something while she was gone (Angela and Wendell). She first congratulates him on still having his mad observation skillz after all, and then asks if she wants to know what he saw. And when he says no, she trusts him on it. Aw. They clink glasses and look into each other's eyes, smiling, for like an hour. GOD, just make out already! It's getting kind of silly at this point.  

Quotes/Odds & Ends:

• Is it just me, or was Brennan smiling a bit when she and Booth got doused in yellow goo and paper feathers by the activists?
• Brennan + children = hilarity. Every time. "Their moods are very capricious." Ha!  
• Booth: "I don't freak out. Do I freak out?" Brennan (hesitantly): "Sometimes."
• Cam: "Do not tell me we're back to super chicken soldier again."
• Booth: "Listen, Bones, I would do anything for you. I would die for you, I would kill for you. But I am NOT getting in between two best friends."

So...they really should just make out already, right? How do you feel about the Wendell/Angela situation?

Related:

Zooey Deschanel makes 'Bones' a sister act
'Bones': David Boreanaz is banging his head against a wall ...over Brennan?

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