BONES: The X in the File
January 14, 2010 by Sarah Curtis
Holler back, BONES fans! Are you having a good 2010? I hope so. It’s good to have new BONES episodes back, isn’t it? I’ll admit straight off the bat that I’ve never seen an episode of X-Files, so I supposed I might have missed some inside jokes, but all in all, I liked this episode.
THE CASE:
Booth and Brennan are called to Roswell, New Mexico, where a woman’s body has been found dead inside a silver casing type thing. Not that gross at all, and in fact, kind of a cool corpse! The local sheriff denies Booth his FBI jurisdiction and so B&B have to stay in town to solve this case. Along the way, they have close encounters with human kind in the form of some quirky local characters (kind of reminded me of Season One: Man in the Bear. For those keeping score at home, this is a high compliment!). These non-aliens include the local sheriff, who becomes quite helpful, Delmy, the owner of the most famous UFO blog, Marvin, a man who was obsessed with seeking out UFOs (and also Ursula’s lover), and Marcia, the woman with the gun. While Booth interviews the locals, Brennan’s job includes investigating the body (dreaded flesh and all). She finds a memory card in the victim’s stomach connected to dental floss. The victim is Ursula LePine. Booth and Brennan check out her metal trailer and find that it was highly scientific, and when Angela gets the memory card cleared off, she and Cam see what appears to be a UFO.
After further research, it’s clear that what was on the SD card was not alien life form, but rather something else that needed covered up, dumping of chemicals, etc. Booth and Brennan are up against a real challenge in Rachel Adams, who is leading all of that. But she’s not guilty of murder.
I kind of had that cantankerous ranching woman pegged as the murderer, so I was surprised when it was the diner/nostalgic toy owner. But it worked for me.
THE SQUINTS:
I am slightly offended by Angela that she would suggest using the Egyptian room with Wendell! I liked Wendell, though; I thought he was trying to do the right thing, even if he is somewhat optimistic. Although, he did tell Angela that it wasn’t smart to jump to conclusions, which is interesting.
As I was watching the scene with Hodgins and Wendell and Angela at the diner, I was thinking…what does this scene need? And in walked Sweets…awesome. So terrific. I like when Sweets is used professionally in BONES episodes, so I really appreciated Sweets when he was talking with Hodgins. Oh, Hodgins! I know some of y’all live for Hodgins scenes, so I’m very interested in hearing what YOU thought of him in this episode, ESPECIALLY his experiment.
I expected Cam to make a comment to Hodgins, or maybe another comment to Angela or Wendell. She didn’t, which I suppose was also a statement; let’s be professional.
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
I LOVED that when Brennan was working with the body and the MRI machine that she screamed like the girl we know she is, and that Booth made her a deal that he wouldn’t tell about it if she didn’t tell about the gun. “Those terms are satisfactory”. Haha. I also liked that Brennan had to work with flesh. Was Booth even watching the road as he drove? I think not. In the mega-good times column is that at the space diner, the photo that Booth liked is actually a picture of his (David Boreanaz’) own dad, Dave Thomas, from his show Rocketship 7.
You know I think Booth and Brennan love each other, but even better is that they like each other. Brennan especially thought it was pretty cool when Booth got that fingerprint with the tape, etc. He called it magic; she called it science, but either way it worked. I think Booth’s affection for Brennan was also clear when he looked at her after Marvin called aliens ‘cold, heartless scientists’.
I think Booth bought himself a gumball machine! As far as the end, I always love when Brennan is relaxed enough to tell jokes. It’s usually just around Booth, but it’s also usually not really relaxed. Usually, she plans her delivery, so I really enjoyed the scene at the end when she was joking with Booth, very spontaneous and personal, and also kind of making fun of herself and anthropology. I kind of thought it might get romantic and that Booth might tell her she was worth crossing literally astronomical distances to look at, but I also thought it was sweet that he teased her. And they agreed on no probing. I’d say those terms are satisfactory as well.
Hey, enough from me! Let us know what you’ve been up to!
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(Dave Thomas became Dave Roberts when he was on the news in Philadelphia) I loved the photo “cameo” in the diner and David Boreanaz’s Flyers shirt — it was a nice combination.
The MRI scene was fantastic, but the final scene on the car, looking up at the stars was very X-Files and perfect.
A great episode.
They are breaking my heart with sad Hodgins! I am still holding out hope for a Angela/Hodgins reunion down the line, but then I will have to feel bad for Wendell. Why do they do this to me?
I do think, though, that this episode cemented my love for Sweets. His look in the diner when he was leaving – it was so “those are my people, and they are hurting.” It was wonderful. It has been a long trip – from actively not liking him to neutral to begrudgingly liking to a full-blown love. The last scene of Mayhem on a Cross really started the love (that scene was so well acted!), and the one with Hodgins pushed him into ‘favorite characters’ territory.
For me and my money, the X Files stuff was done nicely. The ring tone… the Scully/Mulder vibe Booth and Bones had going on… and what about the Lone Gunman as the shop owner? I took me a minute to peg him without the long hair and glasses!
I loved this episode! As an old X-Files fan, it was great.
I kinda love how they are handling Hodgins/Angela now. I know some people think it’s moving slowly but IRL, it doesn’t always happen in a month. They crushed for a season, loved for one, broke up for one…see where I am going? And i really like that Wendell is feeling guilty (a little) about Angela. I think that will be what make that relationship not work.
Bones/Booth were perfection. I liked the playfulness of this episode. The whole convo at the end about probes really had me laughing.
This episode is at that top of my vary favorite.
I loved the episode even if it lacked any real substance, it was a nice way to start up the second half of the season, the case work was good, solid, nothing flashy but with everyone contributing, and of course Brennan and Booth were the stars here, as it should be. If I had some dissapointments it was in Hodgins not getting into the spirit of the whole alien conspiracy thing. It’s not really that surprising to me, I mean I worded in the defense industry where conspiracy nuts abound, and the ufo/mufon folks never seem to mix well with the political paranoids, and Hodgins is definitely the latter.
Also, Wendell and Angela…I like him, I like her, but when I see them together the only thing I get is flashbacks from the 80’s of Van Halen music videos with “Hot for Teacher” playing in the background. Just not gonna work out, plus from Wendell’s body language? He’s already looking for the door.
The ending, btw, Booth and Brennan on the hood of the SUV, staring at the night sky, joking around and just relaxing as friends? I loved it. Sure it was nothing but fluff, hell, it was pure, unadulterated, 100% cake frosting with 0 nutritional value, but that just made me love it more. We so rarely see them get to be ‘just friends’ anymore, it was nice to be reminded that the reason they’ll work out is because they already do.
Hey Kerry, thanks for the information! I didn’t really know anything about it, so i’m glad you gave us the scoop on that. And i’m glad you liked the episode like i did!
Tessa, it’s so fun that you say that about Sweets, because I just watched Secret in the Soil, and I was thinking about how much I liked Sweets at the beginning. Of course, he was almost always used professionally, which is just what i like. So this ep was good for me re: Sweets too. Plus, no Daisy, so…score!
Kathleen, I’m SO glad you spoke up about X-Files stuff, because seriously, I have no idea. Sounds like the ep was a winner on that front, which is also good. I know that David Duchovny directed BONES before (Judas on a Pole? maybe, not 100% sure), so I thought maybe he would do this one too, but he didn’t.
Heya, Patty…I so agree about Wendell. I think he was the only clear thinking one in the trio. I thought the end scene was very interesting between him and Angela.
Robert Modean, old pal! How are things? “We so rarely see them get to be ‘just friends’ anymore, it was nice to be reminded that the reason they’ll work out is because they already do.”
Yeah, i couldn’t have said it better! Darn it, i wish I’d thought of that first! That is EXACTLY how i feel about it.
I have been thinking about the end scene some more and I think there might have been an X-Files episode with a similar scene. Not sure. I have a couple of the early seasons I got on sale and I think it would have been before Dana got abducted. I might have to try and check that out. You know, when I am not working which seems to be almost never these days. 🙁
Ok, so first of all, I have to say that although I am extremely glad that Bones is back, this episode did not live up to my expectations. As someone mentioned, it was a pretty solid ep, without much flashiness, but that was exactly my problem with it. I mean, come on, if you’re going to make a basically X-Files themed Bones ep, why not go all out? Idk, I just thought that this episode had a lot of potential to be very memorable, but alas…
Second of all, I need chastize Sarah for not having seen any X-Files! (audible gasp) You have been missing out! Mulder and Scully are one of the BEST tv partnerships ever, and if you are a fan of Bones (as you obviously are), you will definetely love X-Files. The two shows have so much in common, it’s ridiculous – both have the sceptical doctor working with the passionate FBI agent to solve crime, and a prominent affection between them that keeps on growing… I recommend watching X-Files, Sarah! Just not alone or at night or anything… =]]
Okay, so I know I’m extremely late here, but I just wanted to point something out- when B&B go out to the desert with Marvin and he tells them what he thinks happened to Ursula, is it just me or does it almost seem like the powers that be were trying to do a bit of a tribute to “This Is Not Happening” (TXF s8 episode)? I was rewatching the other day and it hit me. It broke my heart a little, though… although it’s quite plausible I’m seeing things that aren’t there, considering that I’m a major X-Phile. I was picking up on six million little meta-references that probably weren’t intended… oh, well. It was a great episode and sad Hodgins breaks my heart. I love him so much and it still hurts to see him like this.
For me the best part of this episode is that Brennan and Booth can enjoy each other’s company without having to explain their relationship to everybody. Nobody asks about it (maybe folks just assume they are a couple) so they can relax and go with the flow. It is interesting to compare the B&B relationship to all of the Angela/Hodgins/whoever else there happens to be relationship, I think, and imagine which relationship would stand the test of time better.