'Bones': The Devil goes down to DC
When a body with horns and a tail is found burning on the altar of a church, everyone starts acting like Satan is lurking around every corner. I know we've done the "Booth and Brennan debate religion" thing several times before on "Bones," but it's a nice cross between actual philosophical discourse and Brennan being amusingly sacrilegious. I'm not sure that'll ever get old for me.
The Case: Our horny victim, Neal Lowery, was being treated for schizophrenia in a sanitarium (are we really still calling them that these days?). And the head doctor there is played by Joshua Malina, who's really been getting around lately. Does anyone else harbor a vague dislike toward any character he plays just because you associate him with Will on "The West Wing"? Because I was totally convinced the doctor did it from the moment Joshua Malina popped up, and I can't think of any other reason why.
Neal's horns were implants, but the tail was vestigial, leading him to believe he was marked by God as the son of Satan. I guess that's as good an explanation as any? A gangrenous foot points to heroin use, confirmed when a nurse gets busted for trading heroin for Neal's drugs. Neviah, a spectacularly creepy and quite lovely patient who's convinced she's an angel, confesses to killing Neal with a holy lance because he was a demon. Unfortunately, the holy lance is invisible and thus, as is pointed out, difficult to dust for prints.
The drug dealing nurse's nunchakus, while ultimately ruled out as the murder weapon, do provide some amusement when Hodgins knocks himself out while trying to hit a dummy. I never thought about it, but I guess that'd be pretty easy to do. Makes me respect Michaelangelo all the more - sure, he had the "party dude" reputation, but he wielded those nunchakus with deadly accuracy even when he was stuffed full of pizza. Arastoo is similarly skilled, leading Hodgins to question whether he's "some kind of Persian ninja." For the record, Arastoo doesn't deny it.
Cam discovers that Neal was electrocuted, leading our heroes to his secret heroin hideout, complete with electrical transformer, bloody pipes, and "WELCOME TO HELL" painted in blood on the wall. Cozy. For reasons still mysterious to me, the murderer put Neal's boots back on after his death, leaving DNA on the shoelaces and leading us to Gabe, Neal's brother. When he found Neal shooting up heroin, Gabe struck him with a pipe, knocking him into the transformer - the dramatic altar bonfire was an expression of Gabe's anger at God. Well, fair enough, I suppose. The anger, I mean, not the murder. Though their mother has much more reason to be angry, now.
Booth and Brennan: In one of those surprisingly deep and sweet scenes that catch you off-guard in over-the-top episodes such as this one, Brennan asks Booth how he can believe in a kind God after these types of cases. He admits that his faith is shaken and that he'll question everything tonight, but is confident that he'll get it back, "because the sun will come up, and tomorrow's a new day."
Brennan agrees that her faith in logic is also sometimes shaken, but two plus two still equals four, and the sun rises because the earth turns - things of beauty to her. God, that's endearing. And you can tell Booth thinks so, too. Everywhere she looks there's a cause for each effect, which she finds reassuring. I can see that.
The Squint Squad: I honestly thought we were done with Arastoo - it's been a while, after all. I guess I just wish that they'd develop his character beyond the "religious Muslim guy" thing - though we're learning more about him, it's basically all along those same lines (unless he actually is a ninja!). When he mentions to Cam that he looks at the Devil every day, she wonders if he means "the Great Satan," which Muslim extremists apparently call Westerners. Hodgins and Cam understandably don't want to be the Great Satan...or even a minor demon.
Cam awkwardly brushes it off when Arastoo brings up her discomfort around him, but he pushes on, clarifying that when he says he sees the face of the Devil daily, he's speaking of himself. While a translator in Iraq, he shot an insurgent who was about to shoot him - a man with a family. And while the insurgent had some of the Devil in him, so must have Arastoo in order to shoot him, allowing the Devil to chalk up a win that day.
This guy is like the opposite of Clark - he's quite the sharer. And I do appreciate the insight, but now that our other NotZack's are moving beyond "poor guy," "depressed guy," "weird facts guy," and "overly professional guy," it's time for Arastoo to move past "Muslim guy."
Odds and Ends:
- I cracked up when Brennan, mistaking a window for a two-way mirror, commented on Neviah's eerie ability to follow her movements. Someone's spending too much time in the FBI building...
- It was nice to see Sweets get to stretch his psych muscles a bit more. As he said: "I'm an excellent loony bin crazy-ass sifter."
- My favorite scene may have been when Brennan was a bit taken with Phillip, an institution psychiatrist who shares many of her views on the specialty. Turns out he's a delusional patient. Brennan: "I thought we had quite a lot in common." They really zigged when I thought they were going to zag there - great job by the actors in creating an instant connection (all the better to fool us).
- I also loved that Phillip isn't as helpful as he could be, due to patient-doctor confidentiality. Quite the consumate professional.
- Props to Joshua Malina for calling Brennan on her psych-hating, and pointing out that he helps people while they're still alive - a not completely worthless endeavor. She gives him a non-apology at first, but comes around when she sees him react to Phillip's freakout. I was a psych major in college, and we once had to read an article entitled "Psychology: the Rodney Dangerfield of the Sciences." You know, because we don't get no respect. I doubt Brennan has truly seen the light, though. And to be honest, I do enjoy her jibes at Sweets.
How did you feel about Arastoo's return? What did you think about the latest "Booth's faith vs. Brennan's science" conflict?
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A TMNT reference! Cool!
Michaelangelo was my favorite. LOL I had the t-shirt and even some bow-biters. God, I'm old. haha!
I think my fave part was when Dr Copeland says to Sweets, "YOU'RE Dr. Sweets? On the phone, you sounded more... experienced." And Booth basically just laughs and makes fun of Sweets the whole walk down the hall. LOL I love that Sweets never really lets that stuff bother him, he's very water-off-a-duck's-back about it. :)
Once I saw the tail, I gotta say, I was immediately reminded of the "Small Potatoes" ep of The X Files! Any time I see a tail, that's where my mind goes. haha!
Great ep, great recap, as per usual, Liz!
I was VERY unhappy to see the return of Arastoo. He just doesn't fit in with the group, and I personally am offended that he considers me an infidal just because I don't have the same religious beliefs he does. I found it very uncomfortable watching him, and he ruined this episode for me. If he lied about his accent, what else would he lie about. I sincerely hope this is the last we see of him. You writers are cleaver, talented people. Find a way to bring Zack back and be done with it. You can do it!
What happened to Brennen's Mercedes? The show is pushing more Toyota products again. Enough already.
I thought Joshua Malina was the wrong-doer as well, just because the well known guest actors are usually the ones who did it. I liked that he didn't.
Hmm...Donatello was my favorite, but I think that's just because I was kind of a nerd. Michaelangelo never took anything seriously! And Shredder is serious business, y'all.
@Jeanine- Thanks! And I thought the SAME THING about the tail!
BONES is the best show on TV!
I was actually disappointed in this episode. I thought there were so many missed opportunities here. The whole horns and tail thing ended up being totally irrelevant and they could have done so much more with it. The mental hospital was totally irrelevant as well and again could have been great. My favorite parts were those mentioned above where Brennan got suckered in by the patient and when Hodgins knocked himself out. Those were great. I thought Brennan's sudden turnaround to acknowledging psychology as a good thing because they were drugging up the patient made no sense at all and was out of character. I also thought it was out of character for Cam to not ask the intern what he meant because she's pretty straight forward. Unless she was worried about political correctness? At any rate, they've had some great episodes lately, so maybe this one just pales by comparison. This is one of my favorite shows, though, and I never miss it.
Once again, Bones handled a very sensitive set of issues with a well-balanced episode that questioned the concept of faith without making fun of it. Too many other shows put down people who have strong religious convictions (whatever they may be), and even Bones sometimes overplays their hand when faith is part of the episode. This one was spot on.
I used to live in Dallas, Texas, and I can say with pretty good authority that people are very strange when it comes to "augmenting" their bodies. I never saw horns on anybody downtown at some of the clubs, but I did see just about everything else. I'm all for individuality and all, but still...what if the guy had decided he wanted to look like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Although I'm tired of the Squint of the Week, I thought that the Muslim lab rat was the right one for this episode, as it played into the storyline's plot. Muslims who are not psychopaths (and that would be most of them) can be devout, but they also lose their faith at times, the same as Booth does. It was a nice counterpoint to the blatancy of the Catholic symbolism at the beginning of the episode. Maybe he does share too much, but it was needed in this case.
I'll admit that I didn't have the brother as the killer, though, even if it made the most sense. Nice job explaining his motive at the end, because until it was given, I wasn't buying it. Really good episode, especially since Angela didn't mention sex once.
Who doesn't love a woman who finds 2+2=4 beautiful?
(And another moment of the show: when Sweets "sounded more mature" over the phone.)