BONES Recap: ‘The Corpse in the Canopy’
January 22, 2013 by Sarah Curtis
Hello BONES fans! This episode, “The Corpse in the Canopy,” was intense! And like all episodes involving Christopher Pelant, we’re left with more questions than answers. But I think the Jeffersonian team is getting to him, and hopefully he’ll soon be apprehended. Of course, a bullet wound to the face from Booth is nothing to scoff at either. A lot happened in this episode, so let’s discuss!
THE CASE:
The Scene of the Crime: Hodgins and Angela wake up to the sound of Michael crying. They are slightly drugged and then horrified to see a human corpse draped over the canopy of their bed. To make things worse, there are bloodied corpus petals deliberately arranged within Michael’s crib.
Angela calls Brennan and Booth to check it out, and after some disagreements between the couples, they agree to bring the body to the lab for an investigation, albeit one on lockdown.
The Victim: Cam, Angela and Brennan determine the victim was in the special forces, and FBI Agent Flynn tells Booth the victim is Xavier Freeman.
The Case Progression: Booth and Sweets go to Freeman’s apartment, where they see an open safe with non-military guns and weapons. Booth realizes Freeman was working for Serberus, a private army. He and Flynn go to the office and want to look around, but they are denied. When they try to get Caroline to get them a warrant, she tells them they need more proof.
Flynn suggests spamming Pelant, and Angela agrees. It works, and they are able to trace him to a Serberus server.
Hodgins tries to determine what Pelant used to drug him and Angela, and after performing self-inflicted lung biopsies, he traces the material back to a company owned by his family’s business, the Cantilever group.
Meanwhile, Pelant contacts Brennan and chides her for not figuring out the masterpiece he left her to solve. Frustrated, she and Cam continue to look for clues. Cam notices small marks on the victim and then Brennan realizes Pelant flayed Freeman’s body to mirror an ancient Roman corpse. Angela pulls up photos of both corpses. Cam spots a few discrepancies, and after Brennan assumes they are deliberate, they pull up a code MELYCU.
While Booth, Flynn and a SWAT team take over Serberus, Angela, Hodgins, Brennan and Cam try to figure out what Pelant’s motivation is. They realize that MELYCU stands for lyceum, and he is sending a plane to bomb a school in Africa.
Flynn and Booth catch up with Pelant, but Flynn is taken down by a hidden machine gun. Booth drags him out and escapes just fast enough to shoot a couple of bullets at Pelant as he drives away in a getaway car.
The FBI and the Jeffersonian can see the effects of Pelant’s coding, and then Hodgins realizes that Pelant is stealing all of his money. He has to choose — the money, or the school for girls. He chooses the girls, and the plane is deterred, after Angela disengages the bomb.
The Verdict: The tricky thing about Pelant episodes is that there are some loose ends…like how exactly did he kill Freeman? I understand how he dealt with the body afterward, but how did he actually murder him? It’s unanswered. Pelant is also a criminal mastermind, so there are a lot of things unanswered. I think the show gets away with answering the questions they WANT to and leaving the rest to Pelant’s “genius,” which may or may not be a little lazy. I’m not 100% sure.
BUT the end result of this episode is that Pelant is still on the loose, though slightly incapacitated by the wound he received after Booth shot at him. I have to say that the whole “Hodgins losing all of his money” plot and Pelant sewing up his face at the end felt like a scene from a comic book movie. I liked this episode, but those parts both felt kind of contrived.
THE SQUINTS:
I liked how the team worked together in this episode, but there were a couple of points that stood out to me. One interesting thing was how Cam bristled against Sweets when he came to the lab to talk to Hodgins. Cam was all, “How dare you talk to my employees,” which is sort of out of nowhere, in my opinion.
One of my favorite parts was when Caroline said “Slow your roll, Seeley Booth.” Good times!
As far as Hodgins and Angela, it was nice to see them work through this together. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future if they really are poor, but for now, they seem good.
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
I actually liked that there weren’t a ton of emotional B&B scenes in this episode. They both knew what they had to do and they were perfectly fine letting the other one do what needed done. I liked the beginning of the ep, where they talked through what happened to Hodgins and Angela, and I liked that Brennan deferred to Booth on how the case should be handled. Loved the subtle flinch on Booth’s face when Hodgins asked him about his “kills” and the way he responded.
It’s my fave when B&B are the emotional core and structure for the rest of the team, so I really liked when Brennan gave Angela good advice and when Booth didn’t let Sweets go into Serberus with him, because he needed him on the outside in case he didn’t make it out.
Enough from me. What did you think about the Hodgins money storyline? Do you think Flynn is a bad guy or a good guy? And how will Pelant strike next? The comments are open — discuss!
Related Posts
Filed under Bones
Best ep of the season. Interesting story, all cast were in character, and Booth, yes, nothing better than assertive, in charge Booth. Like relationship b/t Flynn and Booth too and not even Swts annoyed me. It gave all the characters a chance to shine in their area of expertise. My only complaint, it feels like there should be a follow up ep immediately, instead of going back to case of the week. But totally enjoyable. Well done.
I like this Episode
I like when booth shot at Pelant
at the end at episode Pelant got stiched up his face
Best “classic Bones”ep in a while. I agree about the loose ends but I can forgive those. I loved the feel of it. The tension. I loved seeing the team pull together for one of their own, each using their skills to reach the same end. This was the Bones I originally fell in love with. Granted, Pelant got away. But I’m glad he did. I like this storyline. I like how he plays with them. I think he’s got a bit of playing yet to do. Who will he target next? I loved Booth taking charge and going in ” on the hunt”. That’s the Booth I’ve been missing of late. All in all, I think they guys did a bang up job on this one. And I agree with the comment about this needing a follow up ep next week. But I’ll take what I can get. I’m giving it a 10/10 this week!!
Does any one actually trusts that they’re going to satisfactorily resolve this Pelant conflict? Or will it just be another “I’m pregnant and you’re the father?” Yeah, me too.
@Jem: Yeah, I do trust that they’re going to resolve the Pelant story in a satisfying way. I’m glad you think so, too! =)
Loved the episode. The characters all worked well together and were totally in character. I loved that Brennan was able to tell exactly what kind of advice Angela needed and give it to her. Seeing Booth getting protective of Bones and Sweets is always cute, too.
After Flynn got shot that badly, I hope he’s not secretly a bad guy; that would be messed up. There was a part of me that wanted them to catch Pelant just because he’s such a narcissist that he needs to be taken down a peg, but I do really like this storyline, so I’m glad we get more of him. Betting he goes after Booth now in revenge for shooting his face up (I was all like “GOOD JOB, BOOTH!” when I saw that)–or, even more interesting, if he goes after Brennan and Christine to get to Booth.
Great episode; this and the premiere have been my favorites so far this season!
Anytime Pelant is in the storyline, I think the case is pretty extreme. I’m not surprised Pelant would go after Hodgins, but I think the setup to the case seemed a bit over the top. I haven’t gotten to watch last night’s episode yet though; I was working late at DISH so I wasn’t home to watch Bones. I’m excited to see what I’ve missed in last night’s episode on my DISH Hopper though. It has been recording Bones, and all the other primetime shows from the four major networks, automatically thanks to its PrimeTime Anytime feature. I can keep up with all my favorite primetime shows, on my schedule, without having to set timers to record every show.
I really enjoyed this episode. The look of panic on Pelant’s face when he started receiving the spam and knew he had been found. Booth looking back and Dr. B when he left her at the lab. I liked the fact that Pelant was sewing up his face. So gross but so Pelant. You know his next target is going to be Booth.
The idea that Sweets would solve the Pelant mystery and bring him in if anything happened to Booth was beyond ludicrous. Booth needed Sweets “to take care of things.” WTF? Take care of things with whom-Brennan? I doubt it. Sweets did not offer a single insight about Pelant the entire episode-he doesn’t know him any better than anybody else involved in this. Booth was the one who figured out they were dealing with a mercenary. Also, with a trained tactical team in place why on earth would Sweets think it would be alright to back up Booth? Kid get over yourself!
I loved how Cam gave Sweets a smack down about Hodgins first about shrinking him without checking w/her first and then how sending Hodgins home would not be the thing to do because Pelant is afraid of Hodgins. *So much for how well Sweets knows Pelant.* I LOVE when Cam is “being” the boss and not just saying she’s the boss.
Pelant has definitley become a comic book villain. I’m surprised he just doesn’t take over the world since he’s so omnipotent.
HH can be happy now that he had Hodgins lose all his money-he’s always regretted making him rich.
Things I loved were Booth taking charge and being an intelligent leader. Goofball Booth is not my favorite version of the character. I prefer this one. Loved him actually hitting Pelant with his final shot.
Brennan and Cam working together=awesome.
Angela and Hodgins sticking together and declaring they didn’t need the money. How awesome was Hodgins doing biopsy’s on him and Angela?! *Angela snorted that line of painkiller like a pro*
Flynn-Loved him. I’m thinking getting shot puts the question of whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy to rest.
I’m sorry, but I disliked Sweets almost from the moment he opened his mouth in this episode. From trying to tell Hodgins he was out of control to tattling to Cam about how Hodgins defied him, to thinking he should go with Booth & Flynn to take down Pelant.
The image of Pelant sewing up his shot up face and his now blind eye-it was blind wasn’t it? Anyway that was just Wow! Although, the poor veternarian. Pelant is getting reckless. He’s killing without thought now.
I really liked the tenseness present in this episode. I believe that Booth really was
his character this episode. We see him as Booth an FBI agent, in charge and really running this whole operation. I also think loose ends are really out there and need
to be brought together, and hopefully they will start bringing them together.
I did like how focused each character was but the award for acting and holding it together goes to Hodgins. He again was fantastic and remained strong. Sweets is annoying almost as much as Daisy sometimes. He is a psychologist and yes he works for the FBI but he did not do anything in this episode except take up space.
Brennan was very eloquent to her friend and shared some very personal things with Angela, which is so great to see. Angela is feeling out of sorts and not really getting the help from her friend that she needs until this episode. There is strength in numbers when they are bound together by purpose and friendship. They will get Pelant and hopefully the writers will make sure these loose ends come together. Bones is about making all the little things count and I hope they bring all those little things wrapped up. I love this show and I appreciate how dedicated the actors, producers, directors are in pushing the story to it’s limits.
Flynn????????? Don’t know yet. Others seem to think since he got shot that he’s OK. Maybe. I want him to be good. He’s Booth’s friend.
Thanks for the good episode. Look forward to more.
I’ve barely held on thru the season and couldn’t even watch last night. HH and Stephen Nathan seem completely oblivious to how bad the writing is. I could go on and on about the lack of chemistry between Bren & Booth, the hookup of the boss and an intern (Cam & Arastoo), too much Sweets, and the whole Pelant silliness, but specifically the idea of Hodgins being like regular people is pointless. Yes, he was one of the richest people in the world but he’s never been a big spender, other than the perfume he bought Angela a few seasons back. They live in a regular house and he has a tiny car Booth could barely fit it. I’m also sure he owns everything they have outright. If they own their home and cars and all their belongings they’re still better off than most regular people who have mortgages and car payments. They are a two income family and there just seems to be no mention of Angela’s money. She made/makes a lot helping Bren write her books. I feel insulted by these writers. Maybe they think we forget the details, and I find that insulting.
I agree that there would be an adjustment period but it’s just a weak storyline. Like others have said on other sites with Hodg being so paranoid he’d never put all of his money in one place. Plus it seems like there’d be an investment portfolio, property. How could Pelant get access to ALL of Hodg’s financial information without someone catching onto something in one of the top corporations in the world? How did he break into the gov’t system and take over a drone? How did Angela? It’s ridiculous.
@LanaSweet Tell me why we should even read you when you admit you dont watch the show. So be it, get on with your life, find another show, stop trolling.
Lydia, I didn’t say I don’t watch the show.
Great episode. I’m fine with the loose ends because I see a great deal of potential for all the characters.
We only get 43 minutes of show, less with a re-cap, and those 43 minutes were intense and quite satisfying. All of the twists that they have to unravel to make an impact on Mr. Pelant is quite riveting.
The teamwork, the low-tech solutions, the consequences made for a great hour. While we didn’t get a lot of B&B, I do hope we get a sense of how this alters their lives in the coming weeks. Pelant ain’t going anywhere. . . and comic bookish or not, it was a great 43 minutes.
@LanaSweet
Hodg and Bren? *cringe*
and was that a paid advertisement for Primetime Travis? …. :-\ Perhaps you and LanaSweet could go off and find another show …
My question about the money is that Hodgins made a big point of saying how his Cantilever Group is responsible for the majority of the funding for the Jeffersonian. So… if Pelant cleaned out Hodgins’ accounts, all of them, including the ones for the Cantilever Group, doesn’t that mean the Jeffersonian is broke too? How will they pay for their employees? And all the interns? How will they pay for their very expensive equipment or what must sure cost a lot to run that expensive high-tech equipment? How will the Jeffersonian be able to continue helping the FBI solve crimes if they have no money coming in from Hodgins anymore? That seems like a missed plot point, and it doesn’t sound like they’re going to deal with that. Stephen makes it sound like they’re going at it more from the aspect of Hodgins having to deal with living with a lot less than what he’s used to. Which is interesting, but I don’t like the plot holes involved. It seems too convenient just to play ‘Hodgins has no money anymore.’
I agree that Pelant has become a comic book villain. Carla Kettner kind of set the bar for his otherworldly abilities and I think the writers this year are just trying to manage it without being over-the-top, but there are still times where I think it’s getting a bit out of hand, but I just accept it for the most part and move on.
The only thing that rankled me, which is so minor, but only because I do work for a pulmonologist writing up his procedure notes, was Hodgins & Angela snorting lidocaine to suppress the gag reflex for a bronchoscopy. If the writers did enough research to know that the blood taken for testing of gases is taken from the radial artery instead of a vein like for all other blood tests, then they should be able to find out that lidocaine is never snorted for anesthetic purposes. It’s given in viscous and nebulized form for the procedure Hodgins was doing. I guess it made for good TV to see Angela stepping right up to do a line? Bones is usually better than most shows about getting the science mostly right, so kind of weird that they got this so wrong.
I was also interested that Bones used Rob Hardy to direct this episode instead of their go-to guy for the big episodes, Ian Toynton. It was definitely a different feel. The camera work seemed a little frantic and shaky at times, which I think was intentional to give the sense of being out of control, but at times that was dizzying, and the lighting was darker and harsher (since when are there drop lights in the conference room of the FBI?).
I really like how Jonathan Collier writes and hope that he writes a lot more episodes. There are some writers who seem do better with writing the interpersonal aspect of the characters but write weak cases and those who write decent cases but whiff on the characterizations, but Jonathan Collier seems to be the most well-rounded in that regard. Overall, I thought this has the best episode of the season so far, if not the last two seasons.
Hodgins going broke is so bogus. There is a ton of legal paperwork behind all of his holdings that are locked away in various lawyers’ safes, trust company safes, bank safes, etc. His family trust has lawyers working for it that would immediately spring into action to produce the paperwork that render all the electronic transfers null and void. And the FBI would back up all the claims of theft.
The banks have plans when such things happen. They have insurance against such robberies. Hodgins would immediately begin to get some of his money back. It make take months, even years to get it back and he may not get all of it. However he will be rich again in a short time. He just will not be as rich as he used to be. When Joe Sixpack gets robbed, it’s just another robbery but when someone as rich as Hodgins get robbed, people notice and banks jump to make it right.
And Hodgins is an employee of the Jeffersonian, which means he gets a paycheck and can get advances on that paycheck. Hodgins has always pretended to be just another scientist so he would be taking that paycheck to blend it. Someone with his credentials and experience is getting paid far more than minimum wage. He is certainly making a 6 digit income.
Any cash flow problem Hodgins will have would be small and short.
I totally agree that the money transfer plot bit is bogus. As soon as that money started to drain out of the accounts, someone at the bank(s) noticed and noticed in a BIG way. Accounts like that are constantly monitored.
I’ve had my bank call me and/or shut off credit cards because of suspect transactions that are outside of what they consider my normal usage, and I’m just a poor wage slave.
Besides, didn’t Angela track down the bogus transfer from Brennan to Caroline and prove it was faked? Why couldn’t she use her hacking skills to help out in this case?
Aside from that, it was an okay episode, but Pelant was boring from the beginning and he’s just tedious now. Shoot him and be done with it. We already know that’s how it’s going to end.
In response to the this episode was “classic Bones” comment, I say not hardly. Brennan is still horribly wooden whereas in “classic Bones” episodes, she was never wooden. Awkward, yes, but not wooden and cringeworthy. Go watch the first few seasons and see.
We do know how he killed Freeman, remember? It was from pain. He stimulated the nerves by scraping them directly with a needle until he died from the pain.
The school was not in Africa. It was in Kandahar Province, which is in Afghanistan.
To be honest… even though Flynn got shot and hurt badly I still can’t figure out if he’s a bad guy or not.
I was guessing… he got shot on purpose so Booth had to spend the extra time to call the medical team to his side, and thus delaying booth’s chase after Pelant, and eventually Pelant got away.
But I could be very wrong.
The thing that keeps playing back in my mind is when Flynn & Booth went through the secret passage way, (electrical door) why did Flynn call to Pelant?! They seem to be sneaking up on Pelant, he didn’t seem to know he was being followed until Flynn called to him. The merigold added to this now has me very suspicious.
I have to agree with previous commenters who said Sweets should have known how threatening Hodgins is to Pelant & not asked the Hodgins be sent home.. BUT as Sweets said, I think he was speaking less from an FBI Psychologist place & more out of concern for his friend.
I find Cam more & more annoying these days.. especially the way she felt the need to jump on Sweets because he talked to Hodgins… She acts like they haven’t all worked together like family season after season. She would have to be my least favorite character though.. so I probably shouldn’t pick. lol
I would love to see more lovey stuff from Brennan & Booth. I love that they are together & the added dimension it gives the show. I think back to the episode last season where it was the hatfield & mccoy type fued going on & Brennan kissed Booth because she wanted him to know that she thinks he’s an excellent father.. to me it was cute without being too overboard. I think they’re great together. I have to admit, I’d like to see Hannah come back & try to stir up some poo poo. When Booth proposed in season 6, she said that she felt like they weren’t finished. I DO NOT want Hannah & Booth together at all, I’d just like to see if Brennan would fight for her life with Booth. (That’s the soap opera in me though… lol) I have loved all 8 seasons of Bones & I would be perfectly content & happy with 8 more! <3 🙂
WHY did Agent Flynn take the Marigold Pelant gave Brennan out of the trash? (The episode when Brennan is cleared of her friend’s murder) He had such a guilty, conspiritorial (a nod to Jack) look on his face. The show just hasn’t done anything with that and it’s how the episode ended! I’m confused. However, I am liking this new villian. I loved the whole Gormigon thing until the show fired Eric Mulligan. That completely STUNK!
Twiter has a good site called @BringBackZach. For those of us who loved his character and miss him so much on the show. At least throw us some more bones (sorry) and give him more cameos!
Angela and Hodgins are gonna be ok both emotionally and finacially…remember Angela is now receiving royalties from Dr. Brennan’s book sales…Angela is the one who gives Temperance her Love scenes!
Have they ever mentioned what motivates Pelant? He’s described himself as a “hacktivist” and we know he shut down the Senate’s website and the Pentagon’s website… (In my book at least) so far that’s two GOOD things he’s done considering how the U.S. Senate is a worse-than-useless governmental organ that should never have existed and only exists to thwart the potential for meaningful change being enacted by the House of Representatives and considering the Pentagon is the epicenter of the American military-industrial complex that stomps around the world trashing other countries on behalf of America’s billionaire ruling elite and big corporations. So in those two actions we can see he has genuinely decent motives.
Maybe he’s the most believable kind of bad guy in that he’s someone who actually has a valid point, has a legitimate reason to hate the things he hates but is simply going about it all wrong (by murdering people)? If he didn’t murder anyone and restricted his activities to disabling things that deserve to be disabled (the Senate, Pentagon etc.) then he would probably be the most honorable character on the show.