Directed by: Michael Lange
Written by: Keith Foglesong
Brennan’s bummerness cannot exist in the presence of the wonderful Betty White.
BRENNAN: Oh, Dr. Mayer, it’s so nice to see you again.
MAYER: Oh, Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth. What a treat. Please, join me.
But don’t worry, she saves it for her staff.
WENDELL: Um, sorry, I’m trying to decide what to write my dissertation about.
BRENNAN: I recommend you choose wisely, as it will be one of the most important decisions of your professional career.
WENDELL: Thanks. As if I wasn’t already stressing enough.
BRENNAN: What is it that excites you about the field of anthropology?
WENDELL: I don’t know. Uh, lots of things. Your dissertation on the effects of tribalism within ancient Karakorum was certainly an early inspiration for me.
BRENNAN: Oh, as it should have been. It’s an exceptional paper, as are the other four I’ve written.
WENDELL: You wrote five dissertations???
Meanwhile, Aubrey is still being an adorable Booth sidekick.
BOOTH: Hey, uh, I checked with the local hospitals, found a patient matching our victim’s description. Uh, victim’s name is Ronald Bergman, but you may know him better as the “mattress king of Southeast Baltimore”.
AUBREY: This sounds like a good case for James Aubrey, the murder solving king of Washington D.C.
BOOTH: What?
AUBREY: Hold on a second. Are you giving me lead on this?
BOOTH: You know what, Aubrey, if you want to be a Supervisory Special Agent, you got to get a little experience under your belt.
AUBREY: Wow, thank you, Booth. So does this mean that, like, I’m your boss now?
BOOTH: Listen, Aubrey, if you have to ask if you’re my boss, you’re not my boss.
AUBREY: Okay.
The victim was making a silly sci-fi movie. Brennan cannot comprehend the idea of entertainment. (Even though her own book was turned into a movie but….)
WENDELL: Zombies!!? Come on, you had to have heard of Sharknado.
BRENNAN: Those are all scientifically implausible.
WENDELL: Oh, completely. But I think that’s part of the appeal of B movies– they offer a mindless escape.
BRENNAN: So people enjoy these movies because they don’t require them to think?
WENDELL: After a long day at work, don’t you ever just want to go home and turn it off?
BRENNAN: No. I enjoy using my mind, and so should you.
(But she used to go home and turn it off!)
We meet an actor from the show Married with Children who is playing himself.
(On which show David appeared once!)
BOOTH: According to the Internet, you got kicked off your last movie for fighting with the director.
DAVID: Okay, dude, I’ve auditioned to play cops before.
BOOTH: Okay?
DAVID: I know the drill. Just get to your point.
BOOTH: You got a history of violence towards directors, you threaten to kill your current director, and now he’s dead.
Brennan seeks out advice from Betty…I mean Dr. Mayer.
BRENNAN: How do you know?
MAYER: How do I know what, dear?
BRENNAN: When you’ve lost your passion for your work. You said that you woke up one morning and realized that it was gone.
MAYER: If you’re used to that electricity dancing through your veins and suddenly it’s not there, you notice.
BRENNAN: What if you’re not that in tune with yourself? Is it possible to lose your drive and not know?
MAYER: Absolutely. In fact, that’s what usually happens.
Brennan asks for job contentment advice from the person who has wanted to, and actually left, this profession a number of times!
BRENNAN: Angela, do you believe in passion in the workplace?
ANGELA: Well, given that Hodgins and I have been caught in the Egyptian room a few times…
BRENNAN: I-I meant professionally. How important do you think it is for us to love what we do?
ANGELA: Uh, well, it, it’s important, but it’s not everything. Most people don’t love their jobs. They don’t even like them. They do them because they have to.
BRENNAN: What if they didn’t have to?
ANGELA: If you can afford to leave an unfulfilling job, why wouldn’t you? Are you…
BRENNAN: Just curious. That’s all.
Guess what? Accidental murder!
LINDA: He said the movie was a mistake and he was coming back to work. And I was working so hard. I couldn’t go back to being his sidekick again, and it just happened. I just… pushed him.
Wrap up time! First up, Aubrey gets promoted.
BOOTH: Look, the L.A. field office has been enquiring about you, so I said to myself, what better way to show them that you’re qualified to do this by…
AUBREY: ….giving me my own case.
BOOTH: Boom. They’re gonna offer you the job.
AUBREY: Oh, my God. Booth, I’ve never even been to Los Angeles.
BOOTH: You’re gonna love it. It’s a place full of schemes and dreams and pros and cons– all about the show. I hear, uh, it’s a little bit lacking in the pizza department.
AUBREY: Yeah, their pizza’s really bad.
BOOTH: You know what, you shouldn’t take the job.
AUBREY: Thanks, Booth.
Brennan takes the job contentment advice to kick out Wendell. Who literally survived cancer to come back to work, and loved it so much the team gave him a scholarship to stay once, but ok.
WENDELL: Are you firing me?
BRENNAN: No. No, I wouldn’t fire you. But you should know that you are too smart to waste your life doing something that your heart isn’t in.
WENDELL: I mean, you’re not wrong. I like my job, but compared with you and the other interns…There’s something bigger out there.
BRENNAN: You need to go after it while you still can.
WENDELL: You guys are like my family here.
BRENNAN: That will not change.
WENDELL: Wow. This is not how I saw my day ending.
Thoughts:
*I know this episode was Booth-lite as he prepares for directing the finale, but we didn’t even get a B&B wrap up!! And we only have a couple episodes left!!!! DB couldn’t pop in and just hug his TV wife or something?!
*What do you think about sending away Wendell and Aubrey? Aubrey is still so new to the team and has only run lead on this one case for a promotion (?), and Wendell’s seems VERY far-fetched. He previously loved this job so much and they gave him a scholarship to continue…and just because he’s not sure what to write about for his dissertation (WHICH BRENNAN COULDN’T DECIDE EITHER—SHE WROTE FIVE!) that means that Wendell should find a new passion. Say what??
*This seems like a terrible time to make a filler episode so close to the end of a 12-year series! And why bring in the celeb cameos now? I mean, I love Betty always, but how about more Bones characters coming back instead?