Bones

The events that went on in this season finale were pretty surprising to me, not all in good ways. I'm very happy that there are shows on TV whose writing can still throw me for a loop, but I found myself really questioning the plausibility of many of the events, which has been happening a lot with me this season. When I can't just suspend my disbelief and I end up sitting there going, "No way, that would never happen" instead of being totally into the story, something gets lost for me.

Regarding Booth's "death," it was extremely emotional to see everyone preparing or his funeral, and to see how badly Brennan was handling it. I teared up. This wasn't a scene I ever thought we'd see, even though I knew he couldn't possibly be gone. It was a superb twist that he was still alive, but after hearing the explanation about the top-secret FBI case he was working on, the whole thing just left me kind of deflated and questioning. Why would they choose to get this bad guy now? Why was Booth the only one trying to stop him from pulling a gun? Why did Brennan have to knock the guy over the head with a mannequin leg when there was a line of Marines and officers there too? Who was that guy and why did he want Booth killed? This is what I mean. It all really begs for answers, and there just aren't any.

The episode followed the Jeffersonian team's Gormogon investigation after a human jawbone was delivered to them with a set of silver screws, tying it to the ongoing case. Zack determined it has been chewed on by teeth from a pair of home-made plastic dentures and he and Hodgins set to re-creating what they might look like. The bone was boiled, so Hodgins was assigned to find out what kinds of minerals were in the water used for the boiling. Everyone was set on IDing the bone, which we found out came from the lobbyist we saw murdered in his home a few episodes back.

As far as setting up some big suspense, I thought this finale really did some great things. I wholeheartedly suspected that Gormogon's apprentice would be Cam... and then Hodgins... and then Sweets. (Though I did wonder where Clark had run off to). I bought it all. When the story can make you suspect some of the characters you love dearly of being murderous cannibals, I think that's some good storytelling.

Sweets really skeeved me out when it came to light that he never told Bones about Booth's death as an experiment. How do you do that? It just seemed cruel to me. He seemed to impart his professional opinion over so much of the case, and it was odd to see that level of involvement from someone who in my eyes hasn't yet earned their place on the team. I figure it was all done to set him up to look guilty in this particular case, but his actions throughout the episode made me lose a bit of the sympathy I had for the guy.

After Zack was caught in the chemical explosion in the lab, it seemed that he couldn't be the culprit because he was now a victim, and Hodgins started looking pretty skeevy with his weird mannerisms in the lab and upping Zack's meds to shut him up. We now know that it was all to help his buddy, but T.J. Thyne pulls off Disturbed Scientist maybe too convincingly.

In the end, Zack pretty easily let himself be found out as the apprentice with his incorrect diagnosis on where the jaw bone's tooth marks came from. Of course, he didn't think he'd end up with third degree burns from the chemical explosion he'd set set up for himself, either. But with all the places this episode went and all the accusations it made, it explained through the Gormogon reality ever too quickly for my likes. Zack is very central to this show, and I found it difficult to accept that this morally (or maybe just logically?) upstanding guy would make this huge turn in his life, accept the teachings of someone he barely knows based on a few logic principles, become Gormogon's apprentice and kill people, and that we'd have to accept his downfall in just a few minutes. Really now?

I never considered Zack to be someone particularly weak in character. This ending made it seem as though anyone with good enough logic would be able to convince him of doing anything, which to me borders on disrespecting the guy. Perhaps more of his story was built up and missing in the episodes that were never produced because of the strike? Maybe Zack's lingering post-traumatic stress played a part? I need something more to accept that this guy, who always worked with the good guys solving crimes, would ever go over to the dark side. And that he'll now be spending the rest of his life in a psychiatric facility. Big ouch.

I'll say the one thing I did really enjoy seeing was how real and balanced Brennan was in this situation. As someone who we rarely see downtrodden or sad or expressing any sort of involved emotion, she really ran the gamut in light of the extreme things happening in her life. She was furious enough at Booth to barge into his bath unannounced (now one of my top scenes from this show EVER), she showed immense kinship for Zack when she put her forehead to his in the hospital, and really regretted not showing her love for him like the rest of the squints had as they went through his belongings. I don't think we've ever seen her so cracked by the things happening around her. She was almost a different person from the compartmentalizing doc we know, but in a more human way, and in a way that to me was not a stretch. If she hadn't been, and remained her collected logical self, I think that would have been pretty unbelievable.

There's a lot more to discuss in this episode that there's no space for, but I wanted to at least get to the parts that felt really important. I also wished we'd had more of a connection with the Gormogon master (anyone else think he looked a lot like John Turturro?) and that he wasn't just a nobody. Same with the bad guy at Booth's funeral. I can't imagine what next season will look like with Zack (mostly?) gone, or how the dynamic in the lab might be different without him. Will he be replaced? Have we all been punked and this is just one big, bad dream? I can't imagine what's in store, and this finale just felt a little too big for its one hour for me. I'm still a little thrown.

I want to hear what you guys thought. Are you still in shock? Did anyone love the finale? Are you excited for what Season 4 may bring?

Meaty quotes


"I need my best friend." — Angela, convincing Bones to go to the funeral

"That woman was aiming at me. I would have happily taken that bullet." — Brennan's outburst at Booth's funeral

"Just know I won’t be attending your next funeral." — Brennan to Booth

Zack: "Is it a cake or is it a pickle?"
Hodgins: "It’s Schroedinger’s Cat."
Zack: "That makes sense to me. Cakes and pickles mean nothing to me."

"You clearly have no concern for me." — Brennan to Booth, on not informing her he was still alive

"Would you like a towel?" — Brennan

Booth: "Next time I die, I promise that I will tell you."
Brennan: "I look forward to that."

"Just so you know, I find your lack of Puritan modesty very refreshing." — Brennan

"A toothless cannibal just can’t cut it in today’s competitive serial killer climate." — Cam

"I think it’s interesting psychologically how agent booth’s constant efforts to persuade you to enjoy fruit pie could be interpreted as a type of seduction." — Sweets

"It’s Zack. He’s the killer, Booth. It’s Zack." — Brennan

I have nothing witty in my repertoire to help me talk about Booth getting shot tonight by a crazed stalker, his life jeopardy, only one episode away from the season finale. It's like I'm worried, even. Logically, I don't believe they could kill off his character and just wash their hands of it, but what if we have to wait until next season to find out how he's doing? Thats what I'm really afraid of.

For a show based on a forensic anthropologist who doesn't buy into psychology, tonight's episode certainly waded deep into those Freudian waters. Seeing Sweets and Brennan battle it out in a verbal Debate Of The Smartypantses was strangely educational, and dare I say Brennan seemed to have learned something from Sweets' kind of analysis despite her protestations. This ep was huge on motivations; why we do the things we do, what drives us to irrationality, how our needs come to play in our behavior. And then they put singing, oh yes, at the center of it all. Zack sang us a dirge and didn't seem to mind the crowd of eggheads who stopped to ogle his pipes. And Brennan? Despite her oft-over-seriousness, she got down with that Cyndi Lauper song at the end of the episode. I love that this show finds room for that kind of pure fun. Well, until somebody gets shot. The scene went from party joy to Bones trying to keep Booth alive as he's staring blankly at the ceiling. Totally overwhelming.

So, singing — amazing how they just slipped that in. Considering they're on the same network, I guess I should be wondering what took Fox so long to make an American Idol crossover with Bones. In case their maturity fooled you, yes, two of the main open-mic singers were played my former Idol Top 12 contestants. Ace Young of Season 5 was Tommy Sour and Brandon Rogers of Season 6 was the Broadway showtunes singer that Brennan so admired. Throw in a couple of MySpace references and Fox made itself one hot self-promotion. Mr. Murdoch, I can't say I'm surprised.

OK, back to the story. Where the singing and the psychoanalysis met, therein we found crazy Pam Nunan. Nunan obsessively stalked the victim, Tommy Sour, a singer trying to make it big in the music industry who sang at a hot open mic night. Her story is a good example of what life would be like if you couldn't understand the difference between right and wrong but still had exquisite taste in attractive men. After Sour died, Nunn appeared upset, but only until the slightest kind gesture from Booth had her eyeballs turning to wedding bells for him instead. When she me him in his office and made a pass at him, did you see how forcibly he stepped back and away from her? This is a guy who sees dead bodies and follows perps with a gun regularly in hand, yet I don't think I've ever seen as frightened a look on his face as when Pam cornered him in his office with the gift of socks. I was afraid for him.

What we know of Tommy's mysterious death is he was dumped in a field, was strangled and had his neck cut, and one of his neck vertebrae had a thin sliver sliced away. And now I can't get his severed head and hangy eyeball out of my head. Great. Applause to whomever's responsible for this show's gore. I'm sure you've made your professors proud. Gold star!

The investigation into Tommy's death led Booth and Bones to these shady characters:

1. Pam Nunan, who probably had a Police song written about her, considered a dangerous person by Sweets' analysis, and highly delusional and manipulative of others for their approval. Possible disciple of Annie Wilkes.

2. Chris Calabasa, Tommy's singing competition at the open mic night.

3. Dax, mustachioed open mic guitarist with a scowl the likes to make any mother proud.

4. Jason Bergman, Tommy's boss at the gym, former business partner and sucker to Tommy's shenanigans.

5. Adam Matthews, Tommy's duplex neighbor.

Matthews was the guy who I least expected, and I'm sure I should have known better. He was found to be the murderer, having gone batty listening to Tommy polluting the ear space all day with his singing. Not an Idol fan, I take it?

Despite our conjectures last week, the hog-tied skeleton did not make an appearance. Bonus points to those of you who guessed correctly. But there's a lot from this season that's still unexplored that I can't imagine fitting into next week's season finale. We know from the previews that Gormagon will be back next week. We also haven't seen Angela's giant of a husband yet, and no real wedding for her and Hodgins. And now Booth's life is in the balance. Somehow I can't see all these things getting resolved in one episode. Because of the writers' strike, this seems to be the casualty all TV fans will be living with by the end of May — an oddly segmented season with a lot of plot crammed into only a few episodes. But I've still loved watching Bones despite the stops and starts, and have my fingers crossed for what's got to be an insane season finale. Where do your expectations stand?

From the mouths of Bones

Brennan: "Particles from the cut grass are causing his mast cells to release inflammatory mediators."
Booth: "It’s just allergies, Bones."
Brennan: "Yeah, that’s what I said."

Zack: "I’m deceptively strong."
Cam: "I’m deceived."

Sweets: "Mocking will not change my opinion. I’ve been mocked many many times before. That came out wrong."

Bones (of the lounge singer): "This guy is good!"
Booth: "Thank you, Paula."

Brennan: "Until I was 13, I wanted to be the next Cyndi Lauper."
Booth: "I’d say you were kidding, but I don’t think you know to kid."
Brennan: "The other girls and I referred to her as 'rad.'"

Brennan: "The guitar string could definitely be the murder weapon."
Booth: "Because it cut the cheese?"

That lovely song about fountains playing in the closing scene of last night's "The Verdict in the Story" Bones episode has been haunting you, I know. And like the rest of you, I've had a mighty time trying to find its author online. Well, quit yer Googling, because Fox has informed me that it's by singer Sara Lov, and it's called... wait for it... "Fountain."

Not only that, but the song will be exclusively featured on the upcoming Bones soundtrack, due out this August. Finally, music to experiment on Spam to!

Check out Sara Lov's other work at her official Web site and her MySpace page.

Sometimes you think you know a show, and then it goes and throws you for a loop. I always thought that if ever I had a reason to type those words about this show, they'd be about the science blowing my mind, and not the humanity of it all. I mean, we all like it when episodes delve a little further into the spark that keeps Brennan going, right? With this episode, I realized that spark was not quite where I thought it was hidden in her. And maybe that makes her even better for it.

We all knew it was coming: Brennan's father's (Ryan O'Neal) trial for the murder of deputy FBI director Kirby. It sure took the series long enough (as it happened way back in the middle of Season 2) to get back to this storyline and create a little closure, but I suppose it's closer to reality this way. Though the man claims he was innocent, he is actually innocent only in his own terms -- defending himself and his family against a really evil man. For all intents and purposes, Max is indeed guilty of killing Kirby and everyone knows it, including his children. Not very good for your own defense.

It also didn't help that the smartest minds at the Jeffersonian, sans Brennan and Angela, were all working against him, testifying for the prosecution at his trial. It takes some guts to do what Angela did, choosing a) to be in contempt of court, b) not help send her best friend's father to death row rather than follow the law that she believed was wrong. What an activist she is, pleading the 1st Amendment. I loved it. I want her to be my BFF. "Like, totally," as Sweets would say.

The prosecution's case weighed heavily on connecting the murder weapon and the debris found at the monastery, apartment and rooftop to Max Brennan. With a little help from good old Jeffersonian forensic temp Clark (Eugene Byrd)(see how much he came in handy!), it was found that the murder weapon was actually a misericord that Brennan owned. Unfortunately, the murder weapon swap did nothing to improve Max's case.

The one that did help though, was Bones' concoction of a possibility that since both she and Booth also tracked the same debris to the same areas and had access to the murder weapon, any of them could be guilty. The jury couldn't prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Max had done it, and he was set free.

I like it when episodes point out how odd a character Bones is. Seeing her every week and being charmed by her, I feel like we've come to understand her foibles and her unshakable logic, and by so doing, forget that real people can't survive very well that way. It must be a hard thing to reconcile that you've become the person you always strove to be, only to see that you gave up on your humanity along the way. This whole episode was about Bones' friends (including Dr. Sweets Geeks) trying to get her to understand that, and I think a part of her really did.

From the beginning when we saw Bones laughing uncontrollably over Booth's not understanding the mechanism of decomposition, it was clear what kind of person we were dealing with. For her, things are black and white. For her, there is always an empirical solution. And for her, it must be ironic to sit back and feel for your incarcerated father when all the empirical evidence you lean on says he's a murderer.

It's funny, too, how I so wanted Max to go free despite knowing the truth. And that I wanted the Jeffersonian team to fail. Fail! Any other case and I would never want that for those folks. And yet in this situation, I wanted them to get it wrong because I do have a heart. Funny how even television can create these gray ethical areas. In the end, it was Bones' logic, fueled by her emotions, that helped free her father.

It's also easy to forget that Max was on the run from the law before Kirby was killed, and he chose to turn himself in so that he could finally be near his only daughter and make up for what his life on crime on the lam had done to their relationship. She loved that he had loved her enough to sacrifice himself in such a way, but can you imagine what devastation she might have actually felt if her father was successfully prosecuted, possibly executed, all because he chose time with her over his own freedom? I don't think there's much science that can make that wound heal.

I'm still trying to figure out what the hog-tied-looking skeleton in the beginning of the episode had to do with anything. Perhaps it'll be relevant to next week's case? I had also been wondering whether Dr. Sweets' involvement in cases was going to get old, and now I see the clever plan behind it all — Sweets is sticking around on the grounds that he's researching B&B for a project and in return they get him to do psych profiles on their killers. Brilliant, guys. Now just find a way to keep Clark around full-time and we're probably set with ensemble castmates for life.

Quotes of particular awesomeness

• "I did not know she could laugh." — prosecutor Caroline Julian on Bones
• "You are not fine." — Dr. Sweets
• "Ugly up a little. The plain women on the jury will hate you." — Caroline to Angela
• Angela: "The first amendment protects freedom of association, right? Which means that it protects friendship. So I’m taking the first, which is even better than taking the fifth." Judge: "There is no friendship in a homicide trial." Angela: "Sweetie, this is one of those times when I know I’m right and everyone else is confused."
• "A country full of unscrupulous lawyers and you find the one guy with scruples?" — Max to Bones and Russ
• "Friends don’t send friends’ fathers to the electric chair." — Angela
• "That’s a lot of heart, Bones." — Booth

Sometimes, I tell ya, this show acts like it really wants to be a sitcom. It wasn't rocket science that Bones' idea of mothering went from "How about some visual and auditory stimulation?" to "You don't know what they'll do with him there, we can't take him back yet, it's better here!" There’s always the funny mishap, then the true life lesson is learned. I'm not complaining. I love the comedy in this show, even when it borders on cheesy (Brennan shoving the pacifier in Booth’s mouth in the last scene?). It just makes me wonder if this crew really ain't all that different from the likes of the Cosbys. Just with dead bodies and like, science and stuff.

The baby came into the picture after it was found, literally, up in the bough of a tree at the site of his mother's fatal car crash. Rock-a-bye lucky baby in the treetop. After fetching the youngster from the treetop, Bones found a mysterious key in the child's diaper bag and clumsily left it out near him and was swallowed by him. So this is how the squints wound up taking care of a baby for an entire episode. Clever, clever. I was wondering from the promos how they were going to work that little detail out. But since he swallowed evidence from the case, B&B had to stand by their little man waiting for the key to come back around. Why do I have a feeling that digging through baby poop is no big deal for this team? They see a lot worse.

In the process, the crew found out that the baby was named Andy, his charred remains of a mother was Meg, and they came from a poor West Virginian town where Meg worked in a tire recycling plant to make ends meet in lieu of the baby's daddy not being around to help. There she worked under the plant's manager and with visiting company accountant who was also now missing and was known to flirt it up with Meg.

Andy's dad, who was never really a suspect, showed up at Meg's trailer looking for some grub, and I was hoping a shower, when B&B found him and took him into custody. The suspects kept tricking in, but the team couldn’t find any evidence to link any of them to Meg’s death.

Once Andy delivered his diaper surprise and the key was retrieved, it was found to open up a safe deposit box at a bank, where B&B found a gun whose serial number was scratched off, bone and brain fragments stuck in its barrel and male DNA left on its trigger. The team deduced that either Meg was an accomplice or a witness to another crime, and that’s how she came to have the gun. The bone and brain were found to belong to the accountant, but it wasn't until B&B revisited the tire recycling plant for clues that they realized the missing accountant's body could easily have been chopped up and turned into mulch. Miraculously (and with a little science) finding the mulch bag with the accountant’s finely chopped remains, B&B knew their culprit was the plant manager. He'd been embezzling money from the already economically depressed plant, and the accountant learned of the discrepancy on the books and was going to report him. He killed the accountant to protect himself, but not before Meg saw what had happened, and so became a victim herself.

So the lesson tonight was really just “human greed is bad”. Don’t steal from the people who depend on you for economic stability, and don’t kill innocent people to protect yourself when your scheme goes wrong. That’s just common sense, y’all. Instead, do as Bones did and rebuild a broken bridge in a small town with your extra money so that other people can have a better life! Too bad we don't all make Jeffersonian-caliber money. Speaking of giving better lives, did anyone else half-expect Bones to want to keep the baby in the end? I knew she wouldn’t really, but it was clear that this little person had actually made a space in her controlled, overly logical heart ("There was a baby in that car, you son of a bitch!"). Just once, I would love to see a passion play from her for someone, anyone, some sign that she really needs someone. I don’t expect this show to end any time soon, but if I never see Bones really love someone outside her immediate family, I think I’d really be sad for her despite her giant brain and perfect bone structure.

This episode was long-awaited, and again I'm not really sure why it was skipped over. Maybe it works as a better transition into the next episode? I was just excited to see the entire team at work once again, doing what they each do best to solve crimes. The season started out so energetic, balancing its weekly murder fare with the Gormagon puzzle and Angela's ex-husband's story line, and I loved seeing all the characters so involved. I don't feel like it's been quite the same since. The rest of the season has been a little more uneven, for which we might blame the writers' strike. Hopefully next week's trial for Bones' dad will prove to turn it all around.

Quotes

•Bones: "just because I have breasts doesn’t mean I have magical powers over infants."
•Bones, with a stuffed toy: "Elephants are not purple, this is wrong."
•Angela to Hodgins, on the baby: "Get used to it. I want like a million of these."
•Bones: "Phalanges, phalanges, phalanges! Dancing phalanges!"
•Booth not saying "breasts."
•Booth: "That is right, people. I am a constant surprise."

You can find more Bones goodness in our Online Video Guide.

Aw. Hell. No. Did you all watch the same episode I did tonight? And is anyone else wondering how they let this show get away with all the things it does? I’m used to seeing grossly disfigured corpses and perps who have terrible reasons for having killed anyone, but with every detail that came out tonight, I just couldn’t believe the choices that had been made. This ep even somehow bordered on slapstick humor (I'm a scientist, I'm going to dig a rat out of a corpse!) under the premise of working on a serious murder case. Am I being harsh? Let’s discuss the evidence in bold. Bold is fun.

RJ Manning was a star college basketball forward, the agreed-upon star player of the league, whose decomposing body was found under his school’s bleachers being used as a rat birthing center. A big gold star goes out to the team who created the grossest dead body I’ve ever seen on TV. All melted guts and indiscernible bone fragments, RJ’s brain was left as jelly and bits to be found by Justine, a fellow student and overemotional Hot Topic shopper(the girl with too much eyeliner is always a suspect, isn't she?) and Officer Cutler, a campus police chief/ex-college basketball star with broken dreams.

The tables turn when it’s discovered that RJ was getting hardy helpings of both anabolic steroids and the Clap. The steroids were provided by an alumnus, George Francis (your beloved Daniel Roebuck), a real Papa to the teammates and coattail-rider extraordinaire who goaded RJ into signing a contract that would make George RJ’s NBA rep once the star was inevitably drafted. I expected Booth, who made such a big deal this episode of being a Sporting Man (and oh yeah, an FBI man), to be a little angrier about the muscle juice than he was. Not only did we not see whether George got in trouble for providing steroids, but Booth told the basketball player who’d been juicing that his steroid use would be kept between them if he gave up his provider. I’ve known Booth to make deals, but this was just not his style. The man has values, and I don’t think that’s ever been a point of contention. This is also after he released Ed Dekker, the other juicing suspect, from interrogation on the grounds that all he’d done wrong was “dipping his wick” in the wrong place. Thanks gramps, I’ll add that one to Le Vocab.

Gonorrhea should have had second-billing in this episode, because it seems like everyone had it. I never thought I’d say this, but what a time-saver that was, tying one murder suspect to the next. Justine, the girl Ed had unprotected sex with and described as “not-hot,” who tearfully ripped out a clod of her own hair for the team's DNA testing (oww) gave him gonorrhea as broken-hearted revenge after getting it from having unprotected sex with RJ. Bones was right – this is a terrible university. Hopefully someone out there got a lesson on condom-usage out of the whole thing. And If I had to listen to droney basketball player Ed Dekker talk for one more second, I’d have thrown a boot at my TV. As Bones put it, “All the bad decisions you’ve made, and the one thing you’re ashamed of is having sex with a not-hot girl?” What a winner, that Ed. Sign me up for that hunk of burning man loins.

The lab, through the brilliance of Hodge, Zack and Angie, soon discovered that not only was RJ’s death not an accident, but he was partaking in some oral wick-dipping of his own with someone wearing cheerleaders’ brand blue lipstick at the same time his head was being impaled by a 25-pound dumbbell. Talk about multitasking. Oh, and whoever killed him spit loogied on his dead body. Not very classy, Mr. Murderer, but it does hand the forensic team your DNA! Well done.

The culprit turned out to be police chief Cutler, who lost his mind when he walked in on his Smurf-lipped daughter Celeste under the bleachers with gonorrhea-laden RJ Manning. He claimed that seeing his daughter in that position and knowing that RJ was knowingly giving her the disease set him off. But how did Cutler even know Manning had gonorrhea? Was this public knowledge because the guy got around? In any case, I didn’t expect the guy to make his next move, to whip out a gun and try to kill himself, nor did I see Bones’ heroic gun-jamming-with-thumb-webbing on its way. Cutler was arrested and RJ Manning will probably go down as a skeevy skeeve who played some awesome juiced-up b-ball.

Now that I think about it, maybe I’m wrong to jump on all the things that I thought seemed far-fetched. After all, some of these things aren't far off from the stuff that makes me adore this show and recognize its brilliance in comparison to the pantheon of dumbed-down viewing options these days. Or maybe this story line is just more in line with how real life goes, "scientific" skull-in-a-turkey-cavity pressure-testing and all. I won't say I didn't love the episode despite its points of ridiculosity. I just don't want this to ever be a show that someone claims is a shark-jumper, and this one got a wee bit close for comfort.

There are a thousand things I also loved about this ep, from B&B's camaraderie to the Angie/Hodge sex tape that I don't have space to write about, so I'm going to leave that to you fine people. I just needed to discuss this episode and all its wacky glory. Next week we finally get to see the long awaited "Baby in the Bough" episode. No Gormagon action yet, but I hear this one's going to be a goodie.

Jonesing for more Bones? Check out our Online Video Guide.

Man, was that writers' strike ever long. Since we'd been deprived of new episodes for a while, I took solace in the Bones repeats that TBS started showing, but it just wasn't the same. Having the show return tonight was like going back home to see family you've been missing, if only your family was a crew of brilliant crime-solving geeks. I missed the pokes and prods, Booth's unintentional ignorances, Brennan's clueless Edith Bunker-isms ("You want to come with us? To the bowling rink?). Sometimes I just want to pinch her cheeks and tell her it's going to be okay, and then I have to remember her IQ is probably still a number equal to the sum of all the IQ's of all the people I know. Squared.

Tonight we greeted the melty remains of Tripp Goddard, murdered motorcycle racer supreme, as they were hauled out of a sulfuric hot spring in a secluded foresty area.

Suspect #1: Garth Jodrey, wheelchair-bound journalist/former moto-racer hurt after his bike was clipped by Tripp in a race. Now making nice with Tripp's racing team family. Motive? Revenge.

Suspect #2: Danny Fitz, motorcycle racer and son of Lenny Fitz, owner of Tripp's former racing team. Lost to Tripp often. Motive? Always a bridesmaid but never a bride, he may have been jealous that Tripp's success made his father favor Tripp over himself. Was ruled out after his tampered-with bike lost control on the track, killing him. Ouch.

Suspect #3: Lenny Fitz. DNA evidence seemed to link him to the crime scene, but was ruled out once he disclosed he was making Tripp a business partner, thereby shifting blame to children, including...

Suspect #4: Phillipa Fitz (say that three times fast), twin sister of Danny, ex-girlfriend of both Tripp and Garth, whose lies tumbled in on themselves once she admitted knowing of the existence of the secret hot spring where the body was found. Motive: Keep the family company in the family and away from Tripp. Accidentally killed Danny as a side effect of her initial plan to sabotage Tripp on the racetrack.

There was way more awesome science involved in this episode regarding the victim's remains, the mechanics of the victims' vehicles and possible murder weapons than Bones usually focuses on, and I adored it. Don't you feel like you learn a lot from this show? I love hearing Zack spit things out like "there are fractures of the pelvis, compression fractures of the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae, multiple metacarpal and metatarsal fractures..." It's dirty geek talk. Sexy beast, that Zack Addy.

And something tells me that if I was ever murdered, no one would be out on a hunt quite like this for my killer. Grumble, grumble.

We somehow still had time to see psychologist Dr. Sweets work an experiment on B&B — on a double date with him and his girlfriend, which I think kind of crosses the doctor-patient line. When I spoke to John Francis Daley last week, he mentioned that the whole affair would bomb, but I didn't quite expect to have the joy of seeing Sweets with a real GF only to lose her right away. By "her," I do mean of course the fabulous and now grown-up Senta Moses, who you might know from My So-Called Life and about a thousand other productions. Also regarding Daley, he's looking pretty eye-candyish in his new five seconds in the show's opener. Who else caught that? I missed his face.

Booth was also way crankier than usual this episode, not having much patience with his colleagues and cracking smarmy, evil jokes. Here are a few:

Re: The double-date: "Wednesday is fine, do you want me to get you a corsage?"
Re: Hearing new evidence new from Hodge: "Let’s just cut to the chase there, Mr. Wizard," and "You know what? You can suck it up, buttercup." Why all the angst, Boothy? And what's with you not wearing a suit?

One last thought. I know many of you are rooting for B&B to get together romantically on the show, and I have to confess... I'm not. Take the scene tonight in Sweets' office where they discussed lying. The two of them found a way to communicate subliminally, ganging up on parent-y Sweets together almost subconsciously. It was uncanny. Scenes like that make me look at B&B much more as siblings than as anything else. When I saw their interaction tonight, I realized what kind of perfect chemistry they've got as partners in crime-solving rather than as partners in baby-making.

Not that I wouldn't mind more kisses like last Christmas's.

Until next week!

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Episode Recap: "The Santa in the Slush"

Well, that kiss was certainly a nice holiday gift for us all, wasn't it? The way Bones gripped Booth's collar, how the two of them blushed, her gum ending up in his mouth… Though when it was over and they got to mumbling about how little it meant to each of them, you'd think you'd just seen two teenagers kiss for the first time in a public game of truth or dare or something. But it was so sweet. I think we all waited a long time to see if something like this would ever happen between them, and I rather enjoyed seeing how innocent it all ended up.

As for the dead Santa, he appeared to not quite live up to his good name as the jolly man of myth, despite his milk-and-cookies-swilling dossier. Santa was instead accused of picking pockets and ruining Christmases for folly. I didn't think the episode did a very clear job of connecting Kris Kringle's death to Jeff, the Santa who killed him, or even giving Jeff a motive to commit the crime. The money with the serial numbers was in Kringle's drawer, apparently fingering him as the pickpocket, but Jeff was the one who got beat up by the secrity guard? What was Jeff's deal? And did he kill Kringle over money? Jealousy? I feel like important parts of the Santa case just got cut out. Either that, or I’m just sorely confused.

In any case, this episode really put me in the holiday mood for egg nog and snow and family. It might be the first show I've seen this season to touch on the magic of the holidays, corny as it can often be on TV. But it was great to see a family as disjointed as Bones' finally getting together for the holidays despite prison walls, lies and trips to Peru (which I hope we all know is indeed not in Africa). I expected a sort of Bones-style tragic-feeling ending where not everything gets solved and not everyone is happy, but somehow the magic of Christmas put things right. Daddy Bones got to see the whole family together for the holidays, Russ got to keep his charade going for the kids, Bones saw her family happy for a day, Booth got to spend Christmas Eve with his son Parker, and everyone else exchanged presents and looked snappy in their Christmas sweaters. Well, except for Cam, who was tethered to a Sex and the City-style gigantic flower pinned to her dress. Even though I should really blame the costume people on the show, I'm giving her a free pass because she proclaimed in a factual-sounding way to all the empiical thinkers in the lab that the importance of Santa is that "Santa is magic"

Still, that pin. Oof.

I also totally thought of Chuck's Captain Awesome on the mention of Parker's mom's boyfriend, Captain Fantastic. Hilarious, but none too original.

Quotes:
Caroline: "You kiss Booth on the lips for no less than 1 steamboat, 2 steamboat... 5 steamboats."
Bones: "What about a Christmas tree?"
Caroline: "No tree, not even if you squeeze his buttocks"

Hodgins: "Santa was around some other food source before he died. My bet's on milk & cookies."

"Was there tongue?"

Booth: "I'll have a talk with Caroline"
Bones:"NO!"


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I find the Widow's Son serial killer case totally fascinating. Honestly, I don't know how they get so much info into one episode. With storylines like tonight's, which are so embroiled in secrecy and mysticism and intricate clues in code, I end up feeling like I can't even get up to use the bathroom for fear I'll miss something important. Every detail feels that essential. And you just don't get that from TV so often these days.

We found out more about Gorgonzola Gormagon tonight than we have yet, most importantly that there are two of them: A master cannibal, and his apprentice (a new apprentice, mind you, since the baby-eater croaked). Why you need to teach someone the proper way to eat human flesh, I do not know. I'm guessing it has more to do with the intricacies of picking one's kill, like making sure your victim's father died when your victim was young, or that his or her profession coincides with the characters on your ancient tapestry, or that his or her home is located along invisible upside-down-and-backwards paths throughout the city. You know, basic stuff like that. But the Gormagons seem to have a purpose to their killings that sets them apart from the rest of the killers on this show, who kill for revenge or love or by accident. And I don't know if that purpose is actually to undermine other secret societies like the Knights of Columbus (as Booth conjectured tonight), or if it's just a complicated way to get a snack, but it still makes me feel all icky on the inside.

The team found out tonight that the Gormagons' victims are connected by all of the above reasons. They also discovered that their perfect recreation of the artifact-filled bank vault had embedded in it a sort of camera that let the G-guys see everything the team was up to in there. During this whole episode, I kept finding little things like this that I questioned the plausibility of, but felt I needed to keep my mind off them for the sake of the awesome story being told. Ignorance is bliss.

B&B then tried to lure the G-guys by pretending to transport the silver skeleton to another location, but instead got their car blown up when the motorcycle-driving G-guy left a bomb for them in the middle of the road. At least they got a bit of a look at the young Gormagon, clad all in leather gear and threatening the lives of small children and half-naked lobbyists. It was genius how Hodge and Sweets figured out that the lobbyist would be the next victim after the musician and the priest, and I'm still loving Sweets' candor for this new aspect of his job. I kind of expected Bones to argue with his psychiatrist logic more than she has been, but hey, the kid actually has good observations every once in a while.

Bones' brother Russ also made a comeback from his life on the run, to be with his family in their time of need. Oh, and also because Daddy Bones lied and told him Booth wouldn't arrest him on his return. Is it just me, or does it seem as though their dad is trying to create this drama? He admitted he put himself in jail so he could be closer to his daughter, so is he now putting his son in jail to be closer to him too?

The last 10 minutes, where we saw the faces of both the (toothless) master Gormagon in his nursing home and the younger apprentice Gormagon popping out of the closet to kill the lobbyist, makes me wonder what more this arc has in store for us. Clearly we are meant to be creeped out. And oh buddy, I sure am.

Favorite Quote Time:
Bones: "Russ turned himself in, but I convinced Booth to let him go see Hayley at the hospital."
Miss Jillian: "I did not hear that."
Bones: (slowly) "Russ, turned, himself in, but I convinced Booth, to let him go see Hayley at the hospital."
Miss Jillian: "Do I have this straight? You're a genius?"

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It's true, everyone seems to have belonged to a specific group during high school. Some people spent all their time studying like Bones, some embraced grunge like Hodgins, and some had dashing looks, could throw a perfect spiral, and always had a pretty lady on their arm like Booth (or That Guy as we get to know him). I love episodes in which we find out a little bit more about the history of our characters, the way they were before this chunk of life we're witnessing them go through now. And realizing that Bones didn't know who The Cure were in the 1980s makes me wish she'd put those books down a few more times, though it made for one of the most humorous lines of the night: "The cure? Was he sick?"

A 1987 time-capsule unveiling intended to unearth only Rubik's Cubes and acid-washed jeans yielded those exact things... floating with the remains of a decomposed body instead. Good job, Bones producers, at subsequently grossing us out more week after week. The body belonged to a fellow classmate, übersmartypants Roger Dillon. Other classmates Terry Stinson, former class president, his wife Janelle Stinson, former head cheerleader, and Gil Bates, former dork, were all at the unveiling and became suspects in the murder.

Roger's murder led us down several paths that seemed promising, and I have to hand it to the writers of this show for knowing how to twist the details convincingly. In the end, it was mostly the scientific details that led the crew to their discovery of the murderer, but in the meantime our leads were pretty convincing. Roger was an amazing computer programmer. Was he killed for having a brilliant mind that could have made him rich? He had a watch with a secret compartment filled with cocaine. A drug deal gone wrong? B&B questioned suspects including Roger's best friend, Gil, Roger's abusive father, a former teacher with a rap sheet for drug possession, and most convincingly John Adamson, a former classmate with a cocaine habit who paid Roger to take the SATs for him. That seemed like a clear motive — until Dr. Sweets discredited him as a suspect in his psychiatric profile.

So Dr. Sweets is back! Sweets has definitely grown on me. I wasn't sure how the young doc was going to fit in with the show's storylines now that he's a regular, but I think this time around he added something satisfying to the show in his eagerness to help with the case. Not to mention he had a few of the funniest lines. His inclusion also means we dig deeper into B&B's relationship and what makes their screws turn. Bones spends much of the ep angry at Booth for snorting at her story of high-school humiliation (publicly receiving a Brainy Smurf doll as a Secret Santa gift in high school from her popular-guy crush, when all she wanted was pretty Smurfette), which Booth unsuccessfully tries to match in sheer embarrassment. But it seems humiliation didn't really follow That Guy around back then. (Bones: "Dr. Hodgins, do boys change after high school?" Hodgins: "Only on the outside.") But Sweets accuses Booth of being a poor listener, to which Bones rebukes, "Booth is a great listener," even though he hurt her feelings. She didn't have to stick up for him, but she did.

The killer in the end was Roger's BFF Gil Bates, whom Sweets pretty much profiled exactly. It's always sad when the death ends up being an accident but nevertheless ruins lives. Gil never intended to kill Roger, but he did and finally must pay the price.

And in the end, B&B ended up back at the Royal Diner just like old times. This scene was actually one of my favorites of the season so far, as Booth gifted Bones a Brainy Smurf figurine and explained, "Smurfette was the stupid shallow Smurf that only had her looks. You're better than Smurfette. You have your looks and a whole lot more." Their faces ended up way too teasingly close together for my taste in such a sweet moment. I felt used. But I love that That Guy ended up being such a good guy.

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Gorgonzola. Gormaguy. Goobagon. That Widow's Son serial killer sure racked up a lot of nicknames in tonight's episode. I was really looking forward to finding out more clues about the mystery cannibal, and it was rather a letdown to find out the Silver Skeleton perp didn't end up having anything to do with tonight's case. Perhaps, like the squints, I just really wanted it to be Gormogon (as explained tonight, G-gon refers to a group in the 18th century dedicated to eradicating the Freemasons and the Illuminati) and not the smarty-pants Jeffersonian doc we should otherwise have been able to trust.

After maintenance workers found the charred remains of a girl in the Jeffersonian's furnace room, the team set out to figure out who the victim was and how she died. I loved the scene where Angela looked at the skull and already saw the shape of the girl's face forming in her mind before any forensic devices were applied. You have all been dead-on in your commentaries by mentioning that we've learned a lot more about Angela this season than ever before. I love hearing her backstories as well, and also finally knowing that this is really a girl with some depth. It's also apparent that she's practically the only one in the whole gaggle with a social life. Her business with the victim, Kristen Reardon? Oh, they lunched. With Reardon's lover, the Jeffersonian's Dr. Aldrige? They had drinks. Angela, we knew you rocked, and by the end of the season, I bet we'll have even more evidence of it.

On Cam. I'm usually not a Cam-disser, but tonight her shenanigans really blew my mind. A confident leader-type like her asking Booth to pretend like he's still her boyfriend "just between 6:30 and 10:00" in order to make her dad happy? Get with the program, girl — you have to be your own woman. At least she figured that out by the end, if only under duress. Her sister and her frisky lips were somewhat another story, having spontaneously kissed Booth and providing us with one of those rare, wonderful Booth moments where he gets all awkward and tongue-tied. That kiss made me yelp, but maybe not entirely in a bad way. And yes, I do think he kissed back.

The team later found out that Kristen was having an affair with Aldrige. Unfortunately, Aldridge was killed (and his death made to look like a suicide) before they could get any useful info out of him. In the meantime, it was discovered that Kristen's body was dropped from the incinerator's top-floor chute, that she was killed in Aldridge's office near the chute, and that the copper chunk found in her ribcage belonged to an 800-year-old artifact that the team couldn't quite pinpoint. Two murders, no known perps, and a whole lot of conjecture that Gormogon was not only responsible but is a Jeffersonian squint. That didn't sit pleasantly with me, and from what we gathered at the end of this episode when Bones talked about feeling betrayed, it didn't sit well with her either.

The bad guy ended up being Dr. Klimkew (who I think deserves a few parody names himself), Kristen Rearden's internship head in the Jeffersonian's authentication department. Kristen figured out about the guy's smuggling of stolen Persian artifacts (one of which inadvertently became her murder weapon), essentially putting a big fat Klimkew-attracting target on her back. Since the Jeffersonian isn't subject to customs or security inspections, a smuggling scheme was pretty clever. The team eventually cracked the case and exonerated Gormogon (for now).

What did you think of the look on Bones' face when Cam told her she and Booth had had dinner together? Was that jealously or just confusion? I really liked how proud Booth was that he knew so much about Bones' favorites in life. Daffodil, daisy, Jupiter? I wonder if those shots they gulped down at the end were her favorite kind of whiskey, too.

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Ahh, nothing like an episode about human fears to celebrate Halloween. I've always admired that when this show hits a nerve in its most important characters, it often hits one in us viewers, too.

As the victims' causes of death were discovered in last night's episode, I just kept thinking about their deaths and how much it would suck to be buried alive or stuck in a box full of hungry tarantulas. Thanks, Bones! A happy Halloween to you, too (grumble)! At least I'm not afraid of clowns.

This week B&B investigate a killer who's left two mummified corpses in Halloween hot zones: a pumpkin-patch maze and a funhouse. Not a very covert way of disposing of bodies if you ask me, but I guess there's no rule that serial killers can't have a flair for the dramatic. My favorite part of the opening maze scene was where I noticed actor Rider Strong (playing funhouse employee Gregg) hanging out in a grim-reaper costume. I didn't really believe my eyes until I saw him later at the funhouse. But it was great seeing one of my favorite characters from an old fave, Boy Meets World, on one of my current favorite shows. Grounded for Life's Lynsey Bartilson also popped up later as second victim Judith Evans' big sister. This show gets some killer guest stars! Which reminds me that I'm dying to know who's going to play Angela's husband. Any new guesses?

Speaking of Angela, the hunt for her old ball & chain continues via a new female private investigator (a colleague of their original PI's), but tonight we get some real results. Mr. "smells exactly like a fresh wind just after a summer storm" (PI lady's words) was found in the Florida Keys, pining away for Ms. Montenegro (as we found out, not her real name!?!) and showing his true love by building a cottage for her on the beach and, oh yeah, not granting her a divorce. The PI also went and outed Angela's pan-amorous past by revealing that Angela changed her birth name at 18 when her current name came to her in a dream. Her source for finding out Angela's name change being "a girl named Roxy whose heart you broke in second year art school." Oh yes. But they still never said what her real name is. I have a feeling it's going to pop up eventually.

As the search for the killer went on, B&B interrogated Gregg and found out that he and his girlfriend Lola had been in contact with at least one of the mummified victims on the night of her death. In interrogation, B&B went and gave him a few good 'ole smacks to the face, Bones' own dead-on blow appearing to really please her. I like seeing Bones so giddy about kicking butt (later she whips out her famous gigantic gun), but I'd rather see her bouts of violence be well timed and proactive for the cause at hand, especially when (in an excited moment later) one of her bullets mistakenly grazes Booth's leg, hurting him. At least for not-killing-Booth's-sake.

B&B go on to find the missing third girl (whom they found out was still alive) in the lair of the murderer with the help of Zack and Hodge's mad process-of-elimination skills. Meanwhile, the rest of the squints hang at the Jeffersonian's costume-mandatory Halloween Ball. (Cam went as Catwoman; Zack as the rear end of a cow; Hodge as the downtrodden captain of the Titanic; Angela as Cher). And, of course, Brennan (Wonder Woman) and Booth (a squint!) show up at the crime scene in full regalia. I wouldn't want to be saved by anyone else, really.

The killer ends up being an EMT we met earlier in the episode who used injected stimulants to overamplify his victims' physical reactions to the scary circumstances he put them in (confronting their greatest fears via tarantula and live burial), thereby killing them. By the time it's all over, Booth has been grazed by two separate bullets, has killed a man and barely got out of the situation alive.

And the glances the two of them share at the end after rationalizing how their crime-fighting evening was "not a date"? Those are what make my heartbeat race for this show. That, and seeing Bones do the Wonder Woman twirl.

My favorite conversation of the episode, regarding Angela's incredibly good-looking mystery husband (The PI to Angela):
"I tried to seduce him, you know"
"Hodgins?"
"Eew, no."

Happy Halloween!

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I really thought tonight’s episode was going to give us some more clues about the season-long serial-killing cannibal hunt. But despite "cooked" bodies and multiple victims popping up, tonight’s supposedly cold-blooded perp turned out to be a young girl in the wrong place with the right reasons — trying to protect her mom’s honor from her cheating pop.

Did anyone else totally call it early that the killer was Kat Curtis? I find it’s always easy to jump to conclusions early on in the episode that the killer has to be a calculating menace, some deranged and brilliant mind plotting his/her murders with stealth. So when it ends up being an otherwise innocent person caught in an unfortunate circumstance, I can’t help but feel deflated. That’s similar to what often happens on another favorite show of mine, Law & Order: SVU — when someone tries to do what they think is the right thing but winds up in the completely opposite predicament, it’s hard to feel like justice was really served.

Also reminiscent of SVU, their higher-ups are questioning B&B’s relationship. Are they too close? Is their relationship getting in the way of their jobs? Luckily, their youngin’ doc is finding that’s not the case. But can I see a show of hands of the folks who wish it were?

No sign yet of where the cannibal case is headed, who’s going to play Angela’s hubby, or whether Zackaronie is going to be making some serious changes in his approach to work. But next week’s be-costumed Halloween episode will probably have all our eyeballs falling to the floor. And in case you haven’t caught them yet, (shameless plug alert!) you can see a few choice pics of the squints’ costumes in the Oct. 22 issue of TV Guide. Ooh, I'm excited.

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What can I say about last night's pony-play fetish episode? Giddyup. I didn't really expect to see leather and riding crops all over a show on network TV, but Bones has that way of surprising me and tackling oft-taboo topics in an educational way. Kudos to the show — they sure know how to keep things fresh over there.

One thing I realized was that the more the team uncovered details about Mr. Ed's death, the more squeamish I got. I thought the maggoty (does anyone else wonder how they later get the bugs off of the body?), decomposed corpse was pretty gruesome, even for this show. Eyeballs poked out? Check. Feet severed? Check. Blunt trauma to the head? Check. But no matter, because I love watching the sleuthing ways the team uncovers clues in the victim's body. Last season when Cam busted into the lab and stopped Zack and Hodgins from setting their Spam-head experiment on fire (they were testing how long it would take skin to melt under specific conditions) I thought in horror that the experiments would stop altogether. And yet here we are in Season 3, Hodgins roaming the lab, melons a-go-go, testing knife patterns on them. Even Cam can't stop their brilliant shenanigans.

I also love the way the team traced Mr. Ed back to the pony-play ranch and figured out what he was into. His body had horse sunscreen all over it and they found food a horse would eat in his stomach and evidence that he'd been biting on a bit. And even though I should have seen it coming, I was kind of surprised at Booth's intolerance for the folks at the ranch. The one thing the show really gets my gold star for is exploring the different views on the matter and not just having everyone on the team agree about their judgment of the victim. Bones, of course, went at the topic empirically, and Booth spiritually. While his speech at the end of the episode was heartfelt, and I especially liked how they juxtaposed it over what was going on in everyone else's life at the time, I still didn't buy his theory that the pony players had to have "crappy sex" because of what they were into. He made some decent points about love in general, but it didn't sit right with me that Bones quit fighting and let him make that kind of judgment about a group of people.

But then again, I live for exchanges like this one:
Booth: "Making love, that's when two people become one."
Bones: "Yes, but it's physically impossible for two objects to take up the same space."

Oh, Bones. In any case, Annie Oakley seemed shady from the start, so I'm not too surprised that she ended up being the killer. Though it would have been great if Bones' shriek of "Stop or I'll kick you in the testicles!" was something that stopped the actual killer from getting away.

Angela's hypnosis was also an interesting factor in this episode. In the hunt for the real name of Angela's husband (whom we now know as Greyson Barasa, though I might have spelled that wrong), we learned more about her relationship with Hodgins. It wasn't so apparent to me earlier that her cooperation in finding Berimbau's true identity was a vote of confidence in her relationship with Hodge. I thought they were really fine. But they both seemed truly relieved when she made the breakthrough under hypnosis that led her to find Greyson's picture stuffed into her book on wasps.

Angela: "I see a wasp."
Hypnotherapist: "A white Anglo-Saxon Protestant?!"

Aw, the doc just seemed so excited by that possible revelation. Who do you think might play Greyson now? My first thought when I saw the picture was Blair Underwood, though I've never particularly considered him a "giant." But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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Tonight's episode put me back in that happy Bones place that made me love the show in the first place. Somewhere between solving a murder and using big science-y words like "capillary electrophoresis" is the show's big heart, and I have to say that tonight I sighed more than once.

Soccer mom Amy Nash was killed when her car exploded at a soccer field. I can't say how much this scene got me — the explosion churning red while Lou Reed's sunny "Perfect Day" played in the background and little girls screamed in horror from the adjacent field. The three couldn’t have contrasted more, and it was totally beautiful.

Back at the lab, the FBI called in Special Agent Frost, a lady with some impressive skills and equally impressive cleavage, a fact not lost on Hodgins. My favorite quote of the night came when Angela, noting the stuttering mess her man Hodge became around Frost, introduced herself to Frost as "Angela Montenegro. I do facial reconstructions. And him." I heart Angela. Unlike the other squints, I don't feel like I have to dig deep to be sure she's a human being and not just a brilliant machine.

The case took a curious turn when the team reconstructed Nash's tattoo of the National Liberation Army symbol, outing her as a member of said '70s radical group responsible for police deaths and other crimes. Amy Nash is an alias for the NLA's June Harris, wanted for 30 years in the unsolved case of a murdered police officer named Valenti. Booth (often curiously still in the field without Brennan), questions Amy/June's irritable husband, Mr. Nash, and then a Mr. Huntzinger (a lawyer for the NLA) and officer Danny Valenti (son of the aforementioned murdered cop), all of whom have suspicious ties to the case. This leads the team to Sam Riley, the original FBI agent on the Valenti case, who still carries a heavy torch for nabbing the culprit responsible for Valenti's death.

This all leads us to Neil Watkins, June Harris' then-partner in crime, whom ballistics fingers as Valenti's killer, clearing Amy/June of the Valenti murder. It's clear that Amy/June's car explosion was no accident, and that Watkins may have been behind it. Riley's passion for nabbing Watkins keeps him butting heads with Booth and Brennan, and when ingenious sleuthing by Hodgins leads Booth and Brennan to Watkins' West Virginia home, Watkins is found shot dead — only it looks a heck of a lot like it was Agent Riley, in his bloodlust haze, who pulled the trigger. In the end, Riley is exonerated and the blame for Amy/June's death goes to Mr. Nash.

Brennan goes to visit her father in prison several times, often storming out of her meetings when she gets frustrated at the lack of answers she's getting from him. He really gives connecting an honest try, even apologizing for the pain he's caused her. You have to feel sorry for the guy, sacrificing himself after so long on the run just so he can be closer to his daughter. I love how this show is not just a scientific procedural — when the characters come full circle in their stories, it's honestly poetic. Brennan's acceptance of her father's efforts at a relationship coincided with Brennan's reading of a letter that Amy/June left for her daughter, telling of her plan to make things right for everyone and turn herself in after running for so long (she was on her way to meet with the DA when she was killed). Brennan was inspired, choosing to move forward and forgive her father, finally understanding that his aims in reconnecting were true. Seeing how happy they were in the end together looked majorly therapeutic, and I have to say it's nice to see Brennan so happy again. But I'm not getting too attached — her pop has yet to be sentenced, so his future is unfortunately unclear.

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