The Blood in the Stones (8×20)

Directed by: Francois Velle

Written by: Pat Charles

There’s been a murder, but the Jeffersonian needs money. And Cam gives her staff no advance warning…

CAM: Andrew’s been commissioned to shoot a film to raise funds for the Jeffersonian, so we are to give him access to everything we do. As long as he’s not in the way.

ANDREW: Trust me, you won’t even know I’m here… by wearing the camera, I give the audience an immersive experience. The camera sees and feels what I see and feel.

BRENNAN: It’s ridiculous. Cameras are inanimate objects; they have no feelings.

As usual, Brennan doesn’t come across well on camera.

BRENNAN: Dr. Edison, what are you doing here? Forensics is my domain, historical anthropology is yours.

EDISON: True, but the board wanted me to, um… They wanted me to back up your findings and perhaps make them a bit more presentable for the film.

B&B investigate where diamonds found on the victim came from.

MAN: Beautiful diamond for a beautiful lady? No wedding band– I assume this is for an engagement.

BOOTH: Bones.

BRENNAN: Uh, yes?

BOOTH: Are you here to buy me an engagement ring?

BRENNAN: Uh, no. My, my…

MAN: Boyfriend.

BRENNAN: Boyfr– boyfriend? No, that seems weird to call the father of my child “boyfriend.”

MAN: Fiancé?

BOOTH: Bones?

BRENNAN: Yes?

BOOTH: Yes, am I your fiancé?

BRENNAN: No. Uh, we have a deal that he’ll never ask me to marry him. When the time comes to marry, which I do not foresee, he believes that I will ask him.

MAN: Then keep these beauties in mind, darling.

Meanwhile, Caroline gets to flirt.

ANDREW: Name’s Jursic. Andrew Jursic.

CAROLINE: Caroline, cherie. My name is Caroline.

ANDREW: Of course it is. “Caroline” means “song of happiness.”

CAROLINE: You have a camera on your head.

ANDREW: I know. But it keeps my hands free. That could come in handy.

Brennan shows some affection as they investigate.

The victim’s wife did him in. The perfume helped them solve it!

Let’s wrap it up…love is in the air!

ANDREW: Ah, I like a woman with an appetite.

CAROLINE: I like a man who knows how to slick a thirst.

ANDREW: Mm.

CAROLINE: Can we drop all the ’40s lingo, cherie?

ANDREW: Yes, of course. I mean, all the suggestive stuff is fun, but… It did its job…

CAROLINE: Monsieur, I already filled up on French fries and mushroom caps, but maybe a nightcap somewhere else?

ANDREW: Ah. I love a woman who knows how her evening’s going to end.

But Brennan just can’t let this film situation go…

BRENNAN: It’s, uh… footage from the fundraising documentary. Mr. Jursic refers to me as “stern and imperious.”

BOOTH: Bones. The guy is a clown, all right? Don’t listen to that guy. Come on, we have 7:30 dinner reservations.

BRENNAN: But he’s right, Booth. I-I look like a really, really mean lady.

BOOTH: No! You’re just really, really focused there.

BRENNAN: Am I always like this?

BOOTH: Mm. Are you just trying to keep me quiet? Yeah, come on, they’re gonna sit us by the kitchen.

BRENNAN: In a minute.

BOOTH: Bones… Okay, we… really got to go or we’re gonna be late. We got 7:30 dinner reservations.

BRENNAN: Well, I was enjoying myself.

BOOTH: All right, well, I’ll tell you what. You can kiss me at the red lights.

Thoughts:

*Brennan just couldn’t stop kissing her man this episode! Too bad we didn’t get more episodes like that!

*We–again–are struggling with Brennan’s emotional regression. This would be a perfect time for Booth to point out, nicely, that she does come across as abrasive and that she’s lost that emotion she used to have, let’s say, when a dog was abused and they buried him. But Booth completely brushes off her concern and says she’s fine. I guess it earns him a make-out session, but it glosses over a real concern that even Brennan is now aware that she has.

*I thought Caroline was a rather random addition to this episode, but I did like her little C-plot line with the film guy. Side note: I get really excited when I see her in commercials these days! Although, I keep expecting her to call someone “Cherie”. 🙂

*Final thought: Wouldn’t there be some kind of a conflict of interest or some legal issues in filming evidence for an ongoing investigation? Would that even have been allowed?

The Doom in the Gloom (8×19)

Directed by: Kate Woods

Written by: Sanford Golden & Karen Wyscarver

Look at how B&B look at their duckling!! They are so proud!!

Duckling Sweets is finally ready to leave the nest. Daisy gets nosy.

DAISY: Is Lance finally moving out of your house?

BRENNAN: He has stated his intention. He was only supposed to stay with us until he found a place. He found one. Apparently, there are two other psychologists living in the building, so they can all pretend to be scientists together.

DAISY: Well, I’m sure you’ll be glad to get your privacy back.

BRENNAN: Yes. Except it is my impression that Sweets is the only person in the world that Booth, Christine and I like the same amount.

DAISY: Even though liking is not quantifiable.

BRENNAN: Yes, and emotions are unreliable.

Booth is not sure it will happen.

BRENNAN: But he said he was going.

BOOTH: Ha, okay, how many times has he told us that he has found a place and then something happens?

BRENNAN: Um, three.

BOOTH: Three, exactly. It never happens, which means we have to make him leave.

BRENNAN: But I just said that we liked him.

BOOTH: We do. That’s why we have to push him out of the nest.

BRENNAN: Like Turdus migratorius?

BOOTH: No, like a bird, not a turd. Don’t call him a turd.

BRENNAN: Well, Turdus migratorius is the scientific name for the robin, which is a bird.

BOOTH: The point is, when he says that it didn’t work out, we have to help him leave, you know? It’s for his own sake.

Meanwhile, Booth protesteth too much…

BOOTH: You all good with the move? You need any help?

SWEETS: No, but thanks.

BOOTH: All right. Make sure you check that building out for asbestos and plumbing leaks, cracks in the foundation.

SWEETS: Yeah.

BOOTH: Everything’s good?

SWEETS: Yeah. All done.

BOOTH: Okay, ’cause I don’t want to hear any crazy excuses from you that you got to move back in. Not gonna happen.

SWEETS: I’m set.

BOOTH: You’re okay living in a building full of shrinks?

SWEETS: Hey, you know, we have a lot in common, plus we have the skills to work out our disagreements in a healthy and constructive manner. But I’m gonna miss you, too, Agent Booth.

BOOTH: Right, yeah.

Hodgins finds a way to shoot a cannon in the pursuit of science.

Pure joy!

ANGELA: This is not necessary, Hodgins. I already double-checked the figures. A cannonball fractured our victim’s leg.

HODGINS: And I am not doubting that, Angie.

ANGELA: Then why exactly are you doing this?

HODGINS: Have we all forgot the concept of the double blind study?

ANGELA: Doesn’t apply to artillery.

HODGINS: Theories are improved as more evidence is gathered, so that accuracy and prediction improves over time. For that, we need independent strands of evidence, rather than a single foundational source. And you cannot argue with that.

ANGELA: So he’s never shot a cannon.

HODGINS: Excuse me for loving my work.

They discuss the world of doomsday preppers as the investigation continues. ‘Sw-aisy’ reunites.

DAISY: You’re wonderful, Lance.

SWEETS: Excuse me?

DAISY: You’re so… thoughtful and committed to the truth. It’s a rare quality. Even in the way you approached getting your own place.

SWEETS: Okay, okay, I get it.

DAISY: What?

SWEETS: You think that I was acting like a child by living with Booth and Dr. Brennan.

DAISY: Not at all. I thought it showed great maturity and strength. Everyone was gonna judge you for being weak, but you knew that you needed time and a safe place to collect yourself, reflect on what happened. Where better to do that than with people who love you? Any person who can’t accept that, that’s the weak person.

SWEETS: Well… I think you’re pretty wonderful yourself, Daisy.

DAISY: I know.

• 

• 

Booth out-squints the squints…but then gets squirted.

HODGINS: I cannot believe you are here. You hate the lab.

BOOTH: Right. So, uh, let’s make this snappy, okay? Check these things out here. Take a look at this, huh? What do you think?

HODGINS: I don’t… I don’t know what you’re doing.

BOOTH: You’re supposed to be the genius. Come on. Look at it.

HODGINS: It’s… It’s a latch, a spring-loaded hinge, a nail and a piece of pipe.

BOOTH: It’s a booby trap.

HODGINS: It’s a booby trap? It’s a booby trap! Of course! Oh, hey, we make a good team.

BOOTH: Well, I sort of thought of this all on my own.

The motive on this one is pure ol’ jealousy.

DELORES: The object was to survive. My husband and I devoted our lives to that. Deanna was aggressive, overbearing, dishonest. Is that someone you want with you when you build a new world?

Wrap up time includes B&B sending off Baby Duckling.

BRENNAN: I was not happy when Booth told me that you were coming to stay with us, and I’m not happy that you are leaving.

BOOTH: You left out the middle part, which kind of sounds like you were never happy.

BRENNAN: Right, the part where you came and stayed with us and helped us care for Christine… I’m feeling emotional.

BOOTH: Okay. Good luck, Sweets, in your new place.

SWEETS: I cannot thank you enough for taking me in in a time when I was the most…Yeah, all right. New beginnings… And those must be the other tenants to help me move.

We see that quick up-and-down look you give him, Brennan 🙂

Thoughts:

*This episode was a good bounce back. Of course David and Emily absolutely crush it as Sweets’ imprinted duck parents. They look at him so proudly and lovingly all throughout. And Hodgins is so happy to experiment with a cannon!

*They try to throw in a Daisy red herring like they might get back together, but I’m glad they didn’t at this point. (I’m still annoyed with the storyline that Sweets dumped her in the street. Ugh.)

*Of course we don’t get to see it on screen, but hopefully Booth got to capitalize on his new “hot dad” status with Brennan 😉

The Survivor in the Soap (8×18)

Directed by: Tim Southam

Written by: Nkechi Okoro

Another age-old bickering session.

BOOTH: You know, I just think that we need a vacation. You know? We haven’t been away since Christine was born.

BRENNAN: I have.

BOOTH: You were running away from the police. I’m just saying, like, you know, the two of us as a couple would get away.

BRENNAN: Oh, I’ve been meaning to visit the outlying villages in Yangon to study the linguistic characteristics of…

BOOTH: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No Langoey, all right, or whatever. No… I’m talking about beach and mai tais. All right? That’s a vacation– no learning.

BRENNAN: I think you would enjoy the epistemological nature of their language…

BOOTH: No! I’m talking about beach and spa, sex and room service and sleeping late. Now, that is a vacation. I want to come back stupid.

BRENNAN: I always enjoy learning something.

BOOTH: Well, how about learning how to have fun, Bones?

They are looking into the murder of a refugee. Brennan continues to treat Booth like an idiot.

HAMILTON: Yeah, I’m Hamilton. Uh, mind putting away the badge? It makes some people uncomfortable.

BRENNAN: No, it’s true, Booth. Some of these children or their parents are from countries with oppressive military regimes.

BOOTH: I understand. Been to those places before. Okay, badge is going away.

HAMILTON: You don’t seem like an FBI agent.

BOOTH: Thank you.

It continues.

BOOTH: Man. You know, I really need a vacation.

BRENNAN: We’ll go. I’ve been thinking: Paris.

BOOTH: Paris! Yeah! All right! Okay, now you’re talking.

BRENNAN: The catacombs are filled with historical remains, and the sewer system is fascinating.

BOOTH: Right, skeletons and poop. Well, way to ruin Paris, Bones.

BRENNAN: Well, the food there is superb.

BOOTH: I lost my appetite.

Arastoo and Hodgins get into it. Arastoo accuses Hodgins of messing up.

HODGINS: Now, I’m sorry that you don’t like my results, but I didn’t mess up here!

CAM: Do you want the whole lab hearing you? Because that’s what’s happening.

HODGINS: (to Cam) I do not need him coming in here and accusing me of being incompetent and not caring. (to Arastoo) You’re the intern. I’m the guy with “Doctor” in front of his name.

ARASTOO: I had no idea you were incapable of making mistakes! Maybe I should just bow down to you and do whatever you say!

CAM: Okay, that is enough. You go back to work, Dr. Hodgins. Mr. Vaziri, you come with me. What’s going on?

ARASTOO: I’m trying to solve this case.

CAM: And you feel you’re the only one who can by alienating the most brilliant staff in the country?

ARASTOO: I’ll apologize and get back to work.

FYI: This is why you shouldn’t date your subordinates.

CAM: I didn’t say you could go. I’m also your boss, remember?

ARASTOO: I remember.

CAM: What’s going on, Arastoo?

ARASTOO: You don’t sound like my boss now.

CAM: I want to help you; talk to me.

ARASTOO: Would you like everyone here to see your concern? I don’t think so. This is work. I’ll be a professional. I’m sorry for my behavior. It was wrong, and it won’t happen again. But I would really like to get back to the bones.

The clinic guy who helped the immigrants was the murderer to help cover up shady dealings. So, let’s wrap it up!

First, the Camastoo plot, as they are caught.

ARASTOO: You will not see any evidence that Cam and I are more than colleagues.

HODGINS: Are we supposed to clap or something?

ARASTOO: No, Dr. Hodgins. Because we’re at work.

Last, B&B tie up that unresolved vacation plot:

BRENNAN: Tho Chau.

BOOTH: The Gulf of Thailand? Oh, boy.

BRENNAN: Tho Chau has been contested territory between Cambodia and Vietnam for centuries. A lot of battles, massacres, mass graves, history, a fascinating adventure. You like adventure, right?

BOOTH: Sounds fascinating.

BRENNAN: Are you just saying that to humor me?

BOOTH: No. You know what, if you’re happy, I’m happy; it’s our vacation.

BRENNAN: There’s sailing,

BOOTH: Sailing?

BRENNAN: And scuba diving and fishing.

BOOTH: Fishing?

BRENNAN: And… Look at that.

BOOTH: Hey, is that a beach?

BRENNAN: Yes, with a bar. The local drink is called the bia hoi, and it is not monitored by any health agency.

BOOTH: Bia hoi?

BRENNAN: Bia hoi.

BOOTH: Toe-choe, that’s what it is.

BRENNAN: Tho Chau.

BOOTH: You found paradise.

BRENNAN: Yes, paradise. Mass graves for me and a beach with liquor for you.

BOOTH: Right. Is there room service?

Thoughts:

*As we can see in the beginning, our favorite writers and directors are dropping off. People that don’t truly get the story. For me, those episodes are just OK and don’t have that special spark we fell in love with.

*Again, I cannot imagine early Booth and early Brennan falling in love with each other as they are now. Brennan has just lost any scrap of intuition and compassion she had in the beginning. Booth is reduced to just shocked reaction faces. We get more romance with Camastoo.

*Speaking of…I don’t get it, I don’t like it. Camastoo. It’s definitely not ok in the workplace. It opens up the lab to all sorts of liabilities, not to mention coworker awkwardness. And honestly, I question if the formerly (possibly still?) very religious Arastoo would be with Cam like this? Unless she converted possibly?

*I think Arastoo’s character could have been a lot more awesome. I feel like they relegate him to being the hot-headed guy lecturing his just-uneducated-about-the-world co-workers. Just IMO I suppose.

*I did like the sweet B&B ending. I wish she’d act like that in the beginning instead of automatically lecturing, but I’m glad there is compromise at the end.

The Fact in the Fiction (8×17)

Written by: Keith Foglesong

Directed by: Dwight H. Little

Booth has an interesting idea to get platinum/money.

BOOTH: Okay, just think of it as an investment for our future. For Parker, for Christine.

BRENNAN: Asteroid mining?

BOOTH: Yeah, asteroid mining. I did my research, okay? The head of the Jet Propulsion Lab says it’s possible, and the two guys who sent the rover to Mars, they agree.

BRENNAN: The microgravity technologies required to do so don’t even exist, Booth.

BOOTH: You know what? There was a time when radios and-and railroads, they didn’t exist, but people, they got rich. Why are you looking at me like that? Like a schoolteacher. Every time I have a good idea…

Hodgins is on board.

HODGINS: Are you kidding me? It’s the only way that the species is gonna survive.

BOOTH: Did you hear that? I am a visionary.

BRENNAN: Why do you care what I think?

BOOTH: Why? Because my platinum is your platinum, and your platinum is my platinum.

BRENNAN: $2,500 is a lot for you, and there are no guarantees.

BOOTH: Well, there never are. I mean, look at us.

BRENNAN: Huh?

BOOTH: No one ever thought that we would pay off.

BRENNAN: Bringing back that much platinum could cause the bottom to drop out of the platinum market.

BOOTH: I’m sorry, are you trying to be supportive?

BRENNAN: I thought I was. I was discussing this as if it’s reasonable.          

Meanwhile, a new intern is arriving on the scene.

WELLS: He’s right. I-I don’t have a bouquet of flowers… It’s your victim’s skull. Hi, I’m your new intern.

Dr. Wells analyzes the team with odd questions.

WELLS: Okay, given the choice, would you rather have your brain in a beetle’s body or a beetle’s brain in your body?

HODGINS: Okay, all right, I’ll bite. If my brain were in a beetle’s body, then I would be King of the Beetles, just like I’m King of the Lab. There, what does that answer tell you?

WELLS: It tells me you not only feel like you belong here, but that this is your domain and you love it. You’re a very happy man.

HODGINS: Ah, I can’t argue with any of that.

WELLS: Dr. Brennan, given the choice, would you rather be run over by one steamroller or by 1,000 mopeds?

BRENNAN: Why would you ask such a preposterous question?

WELLS: Dr. George did psychological experiments at Cambridge on bias and judgment formation….

BRENNAN: I don’t like psychology. And I’m not the one we’re studying here.

WELLS: Sorry.

BRENNAN: Would that be one moped 1,000 times, or 1,000 mopeds at once?

WELLS: It doesn’t matter. You’d choose the steamroller. By the time it had run over your legs, you’d already be dead from shock. It fits in with your hyper-rational outlook.

BRENNAN: Please don’t pretend to know how my mind works.

WELLS: You shy away from randomness, and that prevents you from casting a wide net.

BRENNAN: Are you saying that I’m narrow-minded?

WELLS: Your words, not mine.

The theory of time travel comes up as they investigate. Booth is not a Wells fan.

BOOTH: This guy– he is a jackass. Okay? He’s gonna be gone when this case is over.

BRENNAN: Maybe Dr. Wells has a point, though. Just because we can’t travel through time right now doesn’t mean that we can’t do it in the future.

BOOTH: Okay, well, then, why aren’t these future-seeing people here, and they’re not rewriting the past, or betting on football games then?

BRENNAN: I don’t have all the answers. I’m just trying to cast a wider net.

Lesson Brennan Already Learned #231
ANGELA: “Noooo…You’re a romantic of a narrow kind. You live to catch bad guys. Sully lives wide.”
BOOTH: “You know, it’s one year out of your life and a person’s gotta…live wide. This is kinda narrow.”

B&B know where they’d time travel.

BOOTH: Ford’s Theatre, 1865. Yep.

BRENNAN: But you said that time travel was impossible.

BOOTH: It is impossible. I’m saying if it isn’t, okay?

BRENNAN: You’d… stop Lincoln from being shot?

BOOTH: Yeah, I would. I mean, he deserved to… know that everything turned out pretty well. I mean, I could do it. Even if it meant that, you know, I had to put a bullet in, uh, Booth’s head.

BRENNAN: But then you might not have been…

BOOTH: Yeah, I know, Bones, but it’s impossible. Al right, what about you? If you could travel through time, where would you go?

BRENNAN: I’m already there. Here.

BOOTH: What? Here?

BRENNAN: Here. The difference between past and future is nowhere to be found in the laws of physics. Everything I want or need is here. Right now.

They discover a man killed both his brother and dad.

SWEETS: I can see it all happen. Your dad got his drugs from Sidney. He didn’t pay his debts. Sid busts up his leg, so he comes to you two guys for help. Now, Benji thought your dad was dead so, unlike you, he was thrilled to see him. Benji was gonna give your dad the money, so you followed him to the barn. You didn’t want to shoot Benji, but he stepped in the way. To protect his father.

ALEX: He was gonna give the old man his college money. I couldn’t let him do that.

Wrap up time!

BRENNAN: I confess that in a moment of weakness, I took the opportunity to make Dr. Wells feel bad about himself.

BOOTH: He deserves it. Trust me.

BRENNAN: It’s probably the first time he’s met someone that’s smarter than him.

BOOTH: You’re referring to me?

BRENNAN: Yes. I have another confession. It’s possible that… I’m not smarter than he is.

BOOTH: Really?

BRENNAN: He saw the merit in your get rich scheme before I did.

BOOTH: Ah, the asteroid mining.

BRENNAN: Yes. I invested $10,000.

BOOTH: Yeah, but wait a second. I didn’t put any money into that at all.

BRENNAN: Why not?

BOOTH: Because you’re the smarter one.

BRENNAN: I’m going to point out that if I’d trusted you from the beginning, I would’ve invested in the asteroids and I would’ve been ahead of Dr. Wells.

BOOTH: Right, so…logically speaking, that makes me the smarter one. No argument there?

BRENNAN: I’m thinking.

BOOTH: Ah, I hear nothing but asteroids.

BRENNAN: What does that mean?

Thoughts:

*Just seemed “meh” for me this episode. Not super bad and not super good. I think at this point I was getting annoyed with getting new squinterns with interesting qualities and backstories, and then having them disappear for long periods of time and never come back. Like Finn, Wells, the Cuban dr (I believe he was Cuban…?), etc.

*Of course we need an intern we’ve known for 5 minutes to teach Brennan a lesson (that she’s already learned) from people she loves and cares for.