BONES: The Devil in the Details

Hey, BONES fans! Did you like this episode? It’s our last one till APRIL, so we’ve got to make this one count. I liked it. I wasn’t smiling the whole time like with other episodes, but I was very fascinated by this case and the people involved. Let’s discuss it!

THE CASE:

Booth and Brennan are called to a church where human remains are found. They are badly burned in a way that suggests sacrifice, and the head of the victim sports bone-like devil horns and a tail. This of course sets Booth and Brennan at odds, as religion is one of their few points of disagreement. Brennan is fascinated by the remains, as she has never seen anything like it. Booth on the other hand is anxious to get it out of the church and back to the lab.

Once there, the team determines that the body was burned by standard, run of the mill motor oil. The horns were cosmetically attached, but Brennan identifies that the tail is natural. The victim is Neal Lowry, a schizophrenic patient of Havenhurst sanitarium.

Booth questions Neal’s mother and brother. They reveal that at age 14, Neal was suffering emotionally after the death of his father. He often set things on fire, and it was recommended that his tail be removed, but at that point, he wanted to keep it.

Joshua Malina! Excellent guest star of the week! I will never give up hope that SPORTS NIGHT will somehow come back on the air. In this episode, he is portraying the doctor at the sanitarium, Dr. Copeland. Dr. Copeland introduces Booth, Brennan and Sweets to Neviah, a pretty woman who believes she is the living incarnation of an angel whose body is taken over by God for his will. She has created a painting which depicts a crucifixion, specifically, her killing Neal. The wound on the painting matches the wound on his body.

But when Angela uses her tricks on the painting, she sees that there is another painting underneath on the canvas, and it conveys Neal being carried by a nurse named Lloyd (also portrayed with devil horns) and the interpretation is that he killed Neal.

B&B stop Lloyd in his truck and find weapons and heroin in the trunk, and when Dr. Womack has an episode and wants Lloyd’s special medicine, they have no choice but to search the entire hospital.

Later in the lab, Vasiri figures out that Neal died from being electrocuted. B&B and Sweets find a hideout that Neal labeled Hell, and then later, Angela, Sweets and Brennan figure out that Neal’s boots were placed on him by someone left-handed, after he was dead.

That person was his brother. He went to see Neal and pushed him back, causing the electrocution. And BONES breaks our hearts again with a case where wrong seems right, or at least done for the right reasons, and bad things happen to good people.

THE SQUINTS:

In this week’s episode, the squint squad is fairly science-centered. There is not much about their personal lives, which is fine by me. Our squintern is Vasiri, and I guess his storyline is the most personal. He tells us he was a translator, which I didn’t know, and that one day, in Iraq, his group was attacked, and he killed the insurgent. His description of the fact that necessary evils still feel evil is very touching.

I liked that Angela used her art knowledge, and I liked her dynamic with Sweets.

Apparently, Sweets is an excellent LoonyBin CrazyAss sifter. Like Booth, I laughed when Dr. Copeland said he sounded more experienced on the phone and Brennan ‘interpreted’ that to mean Sweets sounded older. I did also like that he and Booth didn’t defer and allow Brennan to join the interrogation of Neviah.

We haven’t talked much about it over here, but I know there are some BONES fans who are Cam and Hodgins shippers. Are you one of those people? I can’t say I am (not enough evidence), but I do like their friendship, so I enjoyed their scenes in this episode.

BOOTH & BRENNAN:

The ‘foot activated vs. voice activated’ accelerator stuff was cute, and I smiled when Brennan realized that Booth was joking. Although, was it ever really explained why Brennan was driving in this episode? I guess it was just the annual Toyata promotional episode (like last year’s Dearly Departed). Also good to see that BONES isn’t afraid to deal with scary topics by having a dark and stormy night. Fun times. What I did NOT like that much was Booth’s attitude toward the inhabitants of the sanitarium. Come on, BONES writers, Booth is better than that, and we all know it.

Did you all notice the way Brennan kind of latched on to Booth’s arm when she was a bit creeped out by Neviah? Interesting. I really liked her rapport with Dr. Womack, and the irony that he was a patient but she still felt as if they’d had a lot in common was a fun moment. Even more meaningful was her conversation and apology to Dr. Copeland regarding their respective work.

I mentioned at the beginning that religion has always been one of the conflicts between Booth and Brennan personally, so I was glad that the writers included a small scene at the end with the two of them hashing out their thoughts. To me, that was less about religion and more about their personal values. Like in season one, when Brennan told Booth she didn’t have to respect what he does but she can still respect him, in this case, they both are presented with a situation and while their points of faith might skew differently, their innate acceptance that life can be good…that is the bridge between their differing opinions. The bridge is made up of honestly and vulnerability and facts and faith.

Life is good, BONES fans; life is very good.

Did you like this episode? Will it be enough to tide you over till April? Be sure to comment below, and let us here at GMMR know what ELSE you’ll be watching on Thursday nights.