The Doctor in the Photo (6×9)

Directed by: Ian Toynton

Written by: Carla Kettner

(aka the dream team)

A skeleton has been found in the roots of a tree. Gotta ship it all to the lab!

BOOTH: Okay, that’s it! Tree back to the lab. I get it. They’re not going to like this one. Yeah, it’s Booth. Listen, I need a 24-foot flatbed. I got to transport a tree. Yeah, that’s right, a tree: T-R-E-E.

The victim appears to remind everyone of Brennan.

BRENNAN: The victim. Does she remind you of anyone?

BOOTH:…a surgeon named Dr. Lauren Eames disappeared last November. D.C. Metro missing persons investigated. The case went cold; it didn’t go anywhere. The woman was a surgeon. Single, no kids. 

As they investigate, we meet a mysterious figure.

MICAH: Burning the midnight oil, Doc?

BRENNAN: Hello, Micah.

MICAH: You awake because you’re intellectually invigorated or because you’re worried?

BRENNAN: I am awake because I can’t sleep. I’m having trouble being objective regarding this case.

MICAH: I attended this lecture where this philosopher guy says that for something to be objective, it must be separate from the mind, and nothing is separate from the mind– ergo, ipso facto, Colombo, Oreo.

BRENNAN: Not all of that was real Latin, Micah.

MICAH: Maybe, for a little change, you could try solving a case without being objective.

BRENNAN: No, if there’s no such thing as objectivity, then there’s no such thing as measurement, which means that empiricism is meaningless.

MICAH: I only attended one lecture on the subject, Doc. It doesn’t make me an expert.

As Brennan continues to be affected by the case, Sweets stops in.

BRENNAN: Why are you spying on me?

SWEETS: Whoa, no, Dr. Brennan, I was just waiting here so as not to startle you.

BRENNAN: Did Booth call you?

SWEETS: Would it bother you if he did?

BRENNAN: Of course. Doesn’t anybody know me at all?

SWEETS: I think we know you as much as you’ll allow. You’re a very private person and we respect that, but it has been mentioned to me several times by Booth and Dr. Saroyan and Angela that you seem to be particularly distressed by this case. Uh, would you like to discuss any of it with me? Is that the victim?

BRENNAN: What do you see?

SWEETS: What do you want me to see?

BRENNAN: Sweets, she-she’s exactly like me. I mean, look, she is me.

SWEETS: Yeah, I see.

BRENNAN: You do? Because, because Booth didn’t.

SWEETS: What I see is that you’re overidentifying with the victim. Brilliant scientist, unmarried, without children, consumed by her work. You can’t help but draw parallels to your own life.

And later…

B&B struggle to communicate as they investigate a drug connection with the case.

BOOTH: Bones, why are you taking this so personally? I mean, you’re acting as though you’re the one who’s being accused of taking drugs. Temperance, are you all right?

BRENNAN: Yes, of course. I-I’m just tired. I, um… I haven’t slept in a couple of nights. Uh…I apologize.

Micah continues to consult with Brennan.

BRENNAN: There’s nothing left for me to discover from the hard evidence.

MICAH: Well, that’s the whole problem with being an empiricist, right?

BRENNAN: What is?

MICAH: Eventually, you run out of things to measure and smell and count.

BRENNAN: No. There is such a thing as objective measurement, Micah. There is such a thing as actual truth.

MICAH: I heard one of these lectures about an experiment where they give guys a pair of glasses that make them see the whole world upside down. But after three days, guess what? They see everything right side up. And then they take off their glasses, and they see everything upside down again. For three days. And then, eureka! Back to normal. Yes, it takes the brain three days to adapt. Well, it seems to me you can’t trust a brain that can’t make up its mind about something as basic as which way is up.

BRENNAN: What-what else did you learn in that lecture?

MICAH: That there’s no such thing as objectivity. That we’re all just interpreting signals from the universe and trying to make sense of them. Signals from the universe. Dim, shaky, weak, staticky, little signals that only hint at the complexity of a universe that we cannot begin to comprehend. But that’s what the lecture said, anyway.

Brennan goes back to the scene of the crime and almost gets hit by a car.

BOOTH:  Your turn.

BRENNAN: She bought the heroin for the danger of it. To feel something. She put it in her pocket. She got hit by a car. Just like I almost did. The impact explains the defensive wounds. She struck her head over there.

BOOTH: So it was the driver that buried her in the park.

BRENNAN: I can’t prove any of this. I know.

BOOTH:  All right? Let me take you home. Come on.

Brennan explains an important connection to the victim and her personal relationships.

BRENNAN: Anyway, the point is, she never gave him a chance. The helicopter pilot. He offered himself to her, but she never gave him a chance. That was her regret. I got the signal, Booth. I don’t want to have any regrets.

BOOTH: Um… I’m with someone. Bones. And, uh, Hannah? She’s not a consolation prize. I love her. You know, the last thing I want to do is hurt you, but those are the facts.

BRENNAN: I understand. I missed my chance. My whole world turned upside down. I can adjust.

BOOTH: I did.

BRENNAN: Yes, you did.

BOOTH: Do you want me to, uh, to call someone to be with you, or…?

BRENNAN: No, I’m fine alone. Thanks.

We end with the mysterious Micah.

MICAH: How’d it work out?

BRENNAN: I listened to the universe. I felt something. I’m sad.

MICAH: That’s so much better than dead. Or even dead inside.

BRENNAN: You hear that in a lecture?

MICAH: I got my own story, Dr. Brennan. Just like you. Just like everybody. I got my own sad story.

Thoughts:

*Why do you think this case got to Brennan so badly? Was it because of the Hannah/Booth relationship percolating in her mind? Was it merely because of the superficial similarities she had to the victim? Both?

*Do you think Micah was real or part of Brennan’s mind?

*Did Booth handle Brennan’s revelation correctly? Should he have done/said anything differently?