Raise your glasses, Bones fans. Temperance Brennan now believes in love. Or, at least Booth’s premise that love could come first between a recovering alcoholic and a former prostitute-turned-elementary school teacher, and then the chemical reaction. We’ll get to the case — a murdered gay dentist/football player — in a minute. Let’s talk about Brennan’s revelation first.
I’m not sure why the show insists upon making its point in such extreme ways — last week, that Brennan can value Booth’s feelings over the truth (about the lone gunman theory!); this week, that if you believe love conquers all, it means you don’t worry when your younger brother tells you he wants to marry a girl he’s known for a month who is also a former high-priced call girl. I don’t actually think it’s that awful that Booth ran a background check on Padme Dalaj (guest star Dilshad Vadsaria). I’d kinda love a background check on my dates, frankly. Should he have assumed that Padme and Jared hadn’t discussed her past? No. Apparently, that’s something you tell someone within the first month of meeting him. I’m not saying call girls don’t deserve a happily ever after. I’m just saying that you can’t blame someone for being concerned when things are moving that quickly.
It’s nice that Jared has matured and wanted both Padme and Brennan to be there when he and Booth sat down to talk about his situation rationally. We got to see how much Booth and Brennan value each other’s opinions. He was ready to accept Padme because Bones made him realize that what Jared was doing — forgiving someone their past and loving them for who they are today — is what he’d told her to do with her father. Bones thought he was abandoning that belief system — love is all that matters — and it was the sole reason she’d given her father another chance. Of course, she conveniently forgot about Booth’s other belief system — that sex is best when it’s between people who are in love. I can totally see why he would have a problem with Padme being a prostitute. A lot of what Max did, he did to protect his children. I wish we would have found out why Padme had worked as an escort. That would actually matter in real life, but for the cut-and-dry premise of Bones’ argument, it did not. Booth thought about what Bones said and realized she was right: All that mattered was Jared’s happiness. After Brennan tried to kick him under the table but struck Jared instead, he agreed to be Jared’s best man. So, that’s the wedding we’re getting on Bones this season? Or just the engagement? Remember, Emily Deschanel has hinted that they may be two separate couples…
About that case… Civil War reenactors (always fun) found a skull that turned out to be the remains of Dan, a dentist who played on a gay football team coached by Queer as Folk’s Robert Gant. We found out many things through this storyline, besides Cam has arachnophobia: Brennan is pro-gay marriage, Mr. Nigel-Murray thought many men ogled him in the locker room in school, and gay men enjoy bow hunting (“Yeah, I’m gay, and I hunt. Get over it,” Dan’s ex told Brennan). After the usual fakeouts — the killer wasn’t the ex who put him through dental school, or the former assistant who claimed he’d given her Hepatitis C to cover an affair, or the closeted firefighter/ex-marine (Eltony Williams, well done) who wasn’t ready to go public with his feelings for Dan but who sweetly carried a picture of them together in his wallet — we found out it was the contractor. Dan must have discovered that the guy was using paving stones he’d paid for on the former assistant’s driveway and gone to confront him. The contractor called Dan a fag, and Dan exploded with rage. The contractor stabbing him could have been self-defense, if he had called 911. Instead, he let Dan bleed out, then paved over the blood stains, and dumped the body to protect his contractor’s license. Moral: Hate speech is serious to the person it’s directed at no matter who it comes from.
Finding a cause of death was more of a struggle this episode than usual. It was complicated by Nigel-Murray’s sudden need for Brennan’s approval. Wasn’t it nice to see Brennan in the lab, working with an intern, trying to teach him something for a change? Cam got Brennan to finally tell Nigel-Murray something she distinctly remembered telling him once before — good job. He determined the murder weapon was some kind of tool (they thought dental, but turned out it was a grout scraper). Hodgins, meanwhile, had stepped up and acknowledged that Nigel-Murray was a genius. “Yes, but so are we all, except for Angela,” Brennan said. Maybe not her best putdown out of the episode, but definitely the most concise. Of course, Hodgins does tend to love anyone who partakes in cool experiments, and Nigel-Murray did let him stir the tank during the clay-removing rhubarb bath.
Your turn. What did you think of the episode and Brennan’s newfound belief in love?
Photo credit: Greg Gayne/Fox
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Loved it! Loved the way Brennan described her belief in love and gave that credit to Booth for helping her believe that and I love the look that Booth gave her when she came to this realization. It was almost like he was considering that a relationship between the two of them would work. And work well. The storyline itself was pretty good. Thought there were a lot of good one-liners tossed around that added just enough humor. Next week’s ep looks great too.
I think we are seeing progress – Brennan also acknowledged her “gut” albeit in a very scientific way. I hope she will be the one to make the first move – that would be awesome; Booth waiting all this time and she just goes and does it. And I really enjoyed Mr. Nigel-Murray in this one! LOVE this show!
Loved it, as always. I love some of the classic lines that come out of Dr. Brennan’s mouth. Next week’s episode will be fun as well.
Yes we squealed “Ghost! Ghost Facers!” when we saw him!
I didn’t think it was a spectacular episode (certainly doesn’t live up to last week’s JFK mystery!), but definitely enjoyable. I don’t know why, but during the episode I had the random thought that Padme worked as an escort to pay for school so that she could become a teacher. Maybe I was the only one thinking that. I loved Brennan’s toast at the end
It put a smile on my face.
Side note, did anyone else notice that one of the Civil War reenactors was one of the Ghostfacers guys from Supernatural?
I’ve had the Ghostfacers theme song stuck in my head ever since, actually!
Unrelated: I love Dilshad Vadsaria from Greek, so I was happy to see her here!
Very interesting to see Brennan and Booth involved in so many of the little personal events of every day life now. Even having Brennan there to talk with Jared and Padme and having it be an unofficial double date adds to the relationship. I don’t care who gets married as Booth and Brennan could be inspired by the wedding–especially if Booth is looking fabulous in a tux!
I agree with Jackie, I’d put money on it that she worked as a call girl to put herself through school.
I thought it was a good, un-gimmicky episode. I didn’t see the killer coming from the beginning like I usually do on procedurals. Plus, Brennan had some great lines. I liked the whole “I am filled with anxiety” conversation.
I loved Nigel-Murray’s line about not hearing something Hodgins said due to the “keen shrieking” of his intern-paranoia blocking everything else out. Hehe. He’s a cutie.
What happened to the lab guy that joined the service and came back. He was on the show for a long time. Is he the one I hear being refered to commiting suicide?
Dorothy, Poor Zack is currently in jail for culpability in a murder that he didn’t really commit but that he feels he needs to serve time for due to his involvement with a serial killer. At least that’s was I think feel free to correct me out there…
Also, if he admits he didn’t kill anyone, then they might take him out of the Phych Ward and stick him into regular jail for his lesser charges and Zach says that according to Hodgins he’d never survive in regular jail.
Sigh. I really wish there was a way to fix the Zach mess.
I wish they had stuck with the idea of occasionally using Zack as a consultant, they did it for one episode and it had potential. I guess it’s all between the producers and Eric Millegin but he’s certainly proven to be very missed.
and, Zach will be back for the flashback episode (insert another fangirl squee here)
I think you may be running 3 shows together there… George from Grey’s Anatomy joined the service. And Kutner on House committed suicide.
I think Zack just went to jail.
well, Zack did go to Iraq at one point, presumably to help with identification of remains, but he was back within one episode (the season 3 premiere).
I appreciated that Jared insisted on Brennan being there for his engagement announcement and how when he explained who she was (partner/friend) there was this little hesitation; it was almost like he had already figured out that “friend” wasn’t really quite enough to explain who she was to Booth. He might have wanted her there to acted as a buffer between he and Booth, but I think he just thought she should meet Padme. (Wonder if he has talked to Grampa lately) Made me think that Jared has already figured out that Breenan will someday be family.
TO LOVE!
Loved this episode. Brennan’s scientific rationalization of love was good and entertaining! I probably wouldn’t have done the background check on Jared’s fiancee either, but Booth had a right to be suspicious; getting married after knowing each other for a month! The part with all those spiders was freaky, but the Cam reacted to them was funny!
LOVED the real-life representation of gay men and that they presented most of it without any shock or surprise. They have hunt, play football, firefight, and serve in the military. They are black and they are white. They fall deeply in love. It was refreshing.
I agree, Jessica, that was a nice touch. I thought it was a good episode, as other said – didn’t see the ending coming, funny, touching lines, enjoying Mr Nigel-Murray more and more.
I think the interns should have their own show; some kind of Bones spinoff–then they could bring Zack back.
I’m calling it now:
- Jared and ex-hooker get engaged
- Angela and Hodgins get married
- Brennan finds Sweets’ book and reads it, including the ending
I agree!
I would love to see those predictions come true, especially the second!
I loved this episode – especially the Brennan/Booth development. Question though – did the show ever address Jared’s absence when Booth had BRAIN SURGERY?? You’d think his brother would have been around for that – even if he was in recovery.
They mentioned that he was riding his bike in India. They probably couldn’t find him to let him know.