BONES Recap: ‘The Archaeologist in the Cocoon’
January 14, 2013 by Sarah Curtis
Hello BONES fans! A long hiatus is not quite so bad when there are two episodes in a row to greet us, right? I liked this one, “The Archaeologist in the Cocoon,” more than “The Diamond in the Rough,” and I’m interested to hear what you think about it too. Let’s discuss!
THE CASE:
The Scene of the Crime: A somewhat timid parachuter lands in a tree, and when he calls his wife to assure her that nothing is wrong, he spots a dead body. It appears to be wrapped in some sort of cocoon. Booth, Brennan, Hodgins and Cam arrive to the scene, and while Hodgins his opposed to Brennan cutting open the cocoon, she decides to anyway, causing many bugs to fall on her face. GROSS! Emily Deschanel (Brennan) is a pro.
The Victim: The team quickly identifies the victim as James Sutton, a somewhat wannabe archaeologist who is known for salacious “scientific” books rarely based on facts.
The Case Progression: Booth and Sweets talk with Sutton’s Russian widow Marina, who is pregnant and distraught. She needs the help of her brother to translate, and she gives Booth a key to a storage unit of some sort.
Booth and Brennan investigate and find Sutton’s workspace, including several relics and pieces of bone, dating back to Paleolithic times.
Booth and Brennan then talk to Sutton’s publisher, who is shocked he’s dead. She tells them James always sold his pieces to the same person. Sweets finds this man, Wayne Wilson, a Creationist who owns a museum that would deny Sutton’s claims. Wilson funded Sutton’s trips, presumably in order to destroy any relics that contradicted the Creationist theories.
When Brennan examines the skeleton and suggests James was flogged, Hodgins goes in search of a possible murder weapon. Booth talks with Marina again, who confesses that she shamed her family by marrying James. Booth begins to think that maybe Marina’s family was involved in Sutton’s death, and he accuses her brother of killing Sutton to bring honor back to the family name.
The Verdict: Upon closer examination, Cam and Brennan realize James was murdered by a sharp slice to a major artery. Brennan and Booth go back to the publisher’s house, and ask her about an elephant-shaped bookend that’s gone missing. She hems and haws a bit, but when Booth presses her, she confesses to the murder, stating that James wanted to publish his findings with someone else.
THE SQUINTS:
I still think there’s little to no value with Sweets living with B&B, but I did like the later scenes where Booth and Sweets talked about Brennan/Christine and the case. It made me laugh when Sweets figured he was in trouble for telling Booth what he thought. And I really loved the interrogation scene with Sweets and Wayne Wilson.
I’m going to assume that either this is one of Angela’s few hours at the lab or that it’s just an episode order issue that has her working so happily with Clark and not spewing hate for “all things Jeffersonian.”
The whole Clark vs. Brennan competitive storyline was just very unflattering for both of them (until the end), and I was not a fan. It’s one thing for Brennan to have conflict with another character, but it’s also in the way other characters talk about her (Hodgins, Cam, Angela, Sweets etc.) that REALLY shows just how the writers feel about her…and in this episode, it wasn’t very complimentary.
I also thought the whole re-enactment at the end of the lab was kind of awkward. I don’t know if it was the set design or what…it just felt strange. What did you think?
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
Another underlying thread of the episode was Brennan’s desire/expectation that Christine should be advanced in all areas for her age group — specifically in peekaboo. She tries to engage Christine in the game, but it doesn’t work. One main motive is that another child in the day care seems to have mastered it.
I thought it was a nice storyline for Brennan. It didn’t get too over the top, and by the end of the episode, she’d come to terms with her expectations and grew as a person. I liked when she confessed to Booth that she didn’t want to pass her failings on to Christine. That Booth said, “What failings?” but also gave her two thumbs up for self-awareness worked for me. I’m generally opposed to Brennan learning lessons, but this one wasn’t too bad AND the fact that she totally wanted Booth to divulge HIS failings too made me laugh. They are both cocky and hate failing at stuff, and I just thought it worked and was very sweet. And I was glad that the end scene was only between the three of them.
Enough from me — what did you think? Did you like this case, and were you surprised by the killer? Do you think Brennan is more competitive than Booth? And what did you think of the Clark vs. Brennan storyline? The comments are open — let’s discuss!
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There were so many callbacks in this episode and in “Archaeologist,” like Brennan’s development of the illiac crest from season 2’s ‘The Girl in the Curl” and Angela thinking about leaving and focusing more on art from seasons 1’s “The Boy in the Bush.” I love it because it reminds me that this is still the show that I fell in love. The ending scene was really sweet too and it was longer like we used to get earlier seasons 🙂
Oops. I meant this to be for ‘Diamond.”
My quick thoughts on this episode. Again, more callbacks from earlier seasons. Brennan licked the bone and Booth told her to stop like in season 4’s “The Bone that Blew.” Also, I LOVED Brennan in this episode. She remind me of how her character was in season 1. She was just so angsty and confident and self-aware when she was fighting with Clark. I hated how they make her seem like an emotionless robot or alien from outer space that has to learn how to be a human in recent seasons, but I felt like the character I fell in love with was back 🙂
Ironically I liked all of this episode until the end. I didn’t understand the reason for the skit and this time B&B only had two minutes together at the end. Also, why did Bren remove her name from the byline? Can there only be two names???
I always like the eps w/Clark and I didn’t mind his interactions with Bren. She’s very competitive, always has been, but it was his job to work with those bones. Also, he and Cam have so much more chemistry than her and Aristoo (a storyline I dreaded seeing thru-out the two whole hours). I don’t find it a stretch that Bren wanted her daughter to be advanced, and I do like when she’s learned through the episode and she shares her feelings with Booth. What I didn’t like was his response. Usually he explains away her behavior in a very gentle way. “You’re just awkward,” he’d say. I still think they’re best together. I wished we could see them together more.
These cases are different, too. The focus is ONLY on how weird the bones are i.e., jewel encrusted, in a cocoon. There’s no longer a human connection to the person’s story or death.
The best I can do is meh on both eps. Too much whiny Ang in Diamonds & Cam/Hod manipulating Ang, an adult female hours, so she would be happier was just demeaning. The little we did see of B & B was cute, but overload on Sweets again. Why is he still at the Mighty Hut? Too bad they have to make out in a janitor’s closet & not their beautiful home.
Actually liked Cocoon better, the end scene was overdone, but guess we cant have everything. BTW, where was Booth for most of the ep? I know this is called Bones but without him they would have never made in past season 1.
“but it’s also in the way other characters talk about her (Hodgins, Cam, Angela, Sweets etc.) that REALLY shows just how the writers feel about her…and in this episode, it wasn’t very complimentary”
It’s not just this episode, although it was particularly blatant here. Brennan is the butt of every joke, Brennan makes a fool of herself while everyone else rolls their eyes, Brennan is constantly “put in her place”, whether it’s about her professional standing, her abilities as a mother or her relationship with Booth, Brennan is taught lesson after lesson until she finally sees the error of her ways. And of course Brennan has to change, change, change because she obviously started out as the most horrible person in the history of TV. (Makes you wonder why people ever watched and loved the early seasons, doesn’t it?)
Not that long ago, Stephen Nathan said in an interview about Brennan “We’ll make a human being out of her yet”, and I guess that tells you everything you need to know about the creators’ attitude towards her character.
I agree about Angela, Cam and Hodgins talking about her behind her back, but I really loved Brennan in this episode. She knows that she’s not good in social situations and that she can be a little insensitive to people, but she’s completely aware of that. She didn’t just act like an emotionless robot, did something wrong and then acted completely clueless afterwards, unlike many episodes in season 7. It reminds me of season 2’s “The Headless Witch in the Woods” and she’s on a date with the firefighter who killed his brother and she starts talking in scientific talk and then she realizes that she’s doing and stops.
I do think that she has changed though, but for the better. She can’t be the exact same person she was in season 1. First, it would be very unrealistic because no one was the same person they were 7 years ago. I wasn’t the same person I was 7 years ago. I wasn’t even the same person I was a year ago. Second, I thought it was really sad how her character was. She was really insensitive to people and and she didn’t want to have emotion attachments with people because she was too afraid of getting hurt. If she was the same character she was in season 1, she would never be in a relationship with Booth. She would only have a one night stand with him, so I like that that they are making her believe in love and feelings more and maybe there are some things that science can’t explain.
“And of course Brennan has to change, change, change because she obviously started out as the most horrible person in the history of TV. (Makes you wonder why people ever watched and loved the early seasons, doesn’t it?)”
Exactly. And the thing is, Brennan didn’t start out as some horrible person. She’s always had a sense of humanity within her (“I see a face in every skull.” Anyone?) So I don’t see Brennan’s character change as one of evolution as more of a character derailment. What humanity she’s gained in acting on her desire to be with Booth and raise a family with him she’s lost in all of the other aspects – the way she approaches her work now, the robotic way she speaks to Angela, etc.
I will say, that I didn’t mind the confrontation scene between Clark and Brennan. If it was Wendell pulling this crap, I would say, ‘Sit down, Son.” But ultimately, Clark is Brennan’s peer. He was never her intern, capably ran the forensic anthropology portion of the Jeffersonian while Brennan was gone, and therefore, he was right to stand up for himself. Unprofessional to lose his sh** like that? Perhaps. But you can argue that he knew Brennan wouldn’t be offended. That said, the way Cam, Hodgins, Angela, Sweets, and even Booth were all talking about Brennan during the episode – yeah, that rubbed me the wrong way.
Casewise, I was unimpressed with this episode. For the agent/editor or whatever she was (I can’t remember which) to kill him for wanting to publish a journal article? I mean, what, is he her only client? Does the journal article mean no more books from him? It just seemed weird and no real trail to led to her.
The Brennan-Clark thing was great, I thought. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I did not like how arrogant and competitive Brennan was, but this is still who she is – especially when it lands on something that she might still harbor a few regrets about giving up. Clark absolutely deserved to run 1st investigator/researcher on those remains. He was, of course, a bit of a jerk about it at times – so both were at fault. I felt that their conflict was extremely realistic for those 2 characters and also loved how they showed them coming together at moments for joint fascination (or disgust with “cave man” haha).
And yes, LanaSweet, I was confused about giving up her byline, too. Scientific articles can have a bazillion names on them, so that didn’t make any sense.
The whole scene where Booth is processing what Sweets said in his office was funny and I agree that the end scene worked for the same reasons you thought so.