BONES: ‘The Doll in the Derby’ Recap

Hey BONES fans! Last week, Marisa posted an interview with :The Doll in the Derby”‘s writer, Michael Peterson, where he discussed why the issue of Neurofibromatosis (NF) is near to his heart and an interview with Michaela Conlin (Angela) on how she prepared for her roller derby scenes. This episode had quite a bit of build-up, some of which was caused by the promo showing Angela laying a kiss on Booth.

How do you think the episode turned out? There is a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it!

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: Two rookie cops are investigating in a dark old slaughterhouse when they come across some very fresh and bloody remains. One cop slips and falls into the blood, gross, and sort of compromises the remains, much to Brennan’s dismay! Cam, Hodgins, Brennan and Booth check out the crime scene and the victim’s remains are taken to the Jeffersonian for further investigation. When B&B return to the slaughterhouse, they find out it also poses as a roller derby rink.

The Victim: Melinda Perkins, a 32-year-old “Derby Doll” known for living a fairly wild and reckless life after her divorce from her husband, Dr. Perkins.

The Case Progression: When B&B go to the roller derby rink, they meet several other “Derby Dolls”, like “Emily Kickinson” and their team manager, Nick Bennett. Nick built the rink himself and manages the team’s profits.  When they find out that Miranda was murdered, they are surprised and point out that another teammate, “Ivanna Kick Ass” is not around.

Booth questions Ivanna at the FBI building. She insists she doesn’t know who would want to hurt Miranda but that she lived a wild, aggressive life, even going so far as to have sex with other men on her ex-husband’s lawn. Sweets thinks that is enough motive for Dr. Perkins to flip out, but he has an alibi.

Meanwhile, at the lab, Hodgins and Wendell work with Cam to figure out cause of death and a murder weapon. There is major physical damage to the skeleton, which coincides with the roller derby life, but they also discover stab wounds and wounds from skates.

Angela goes undercover as “Smackie Kennedy” and holds her own (for the most part) with the rest of the Derby Dolls. She pretends to stick around the locker room in pain and when the coast is clear, she uses special glasses to track blood on the skates. But they all have blood on them, which doesn’t get them closer to a murderer. She invites Emily K out for a drink and then calls in Booth as back-up, after she finds out that Nick was stealing from the ticket sales money and Miranda confronted him about it.

Booth doesn’t have enough for a warrant, but he does call Nick in for questioning. Nick insists he wouldn’t kill Miranda — she was great on the team, and…they were sleeping together. Booth thinks that is really rich, but Nick insists he’s innocent, that he called things off after an incident between Miranda and her ex-husband. Booth questions him again, and he also insists on his innocence when Booth finds a hole in his alibi. Dr. Perkins asks for a lawyer.

The Verdict: Hodgins realizes that part of the fluids on Miranda’s shirt include eyeball fluid, and Brennan figures Miranda was stabbed in the eye. When B&B go to the roller derby rink and collect the keys of the “dolls,” there is one that is a match — Ivanna’s. But the key doesn’t pass Brennan’s blood search test. Booth recommends they search the vehicle’s keyhole, and his suggestion pays off. There is blood in there, implicating Ivanna in Miranda’s murder. The team turns their back on her as Booth arrests her.

THE SQUINTS:

I have to admit I was dreading this episode a bit, first because of the promo scene of Angela kissing Booth AND because for some reason, my cable company’s description of this episode included this: “Cam wonders if Booth is having an affair when she sees him having lunch with an unknown woman.” I was horrified, because how is that even a thing Booth would do and of all people on the show, Cam would be one of the least likely to even consider it! So, I was genuinely relieved when that DIDN’T happen at all. Cam sort of going behind Booth’s back to talk to Dr. Crawford at the hospital was a little iffy, but I’m cool with it, because I think she genuinely was concerned for Booth. It would have been best for her to really just go straight to him, but I also get that the writers were looking to create some awareness for NF, and it worked.

I like when Wendell is around, because I think of all of the squinterns, he and Hodgins work best together. It was a little strange that Hodgins was giving Wendell such a hard time about turning 29. It was almost to the point of cruel, but it worked out by the end, and it was nice to see Wendell confide in Hodgins about the bet with his brother and for Hodgins to give him good advice. Especially loved the end scene where Wendell gave Hodgins the painting Angela had made for him back when they dated. Good times.

But…Angela. It was stated in pre-episode interviews that once we saw the episode, we would “understand” why Angela “had” to kiss Booth, but I have to say that it wasn’t that dire of a situation. The Emily character was basically passed out and there was no need to prove anything. And then Angela tried to go back for more? Nope. Not buying it. It wasn’t bad necessarily; it was just pointless. That it also occurred in an episode where Angela gave Brennan grief about not revealing Booth’s personal secret to her is bonkers. I get that Brennan does tell Angela a lot, but to make Brennan feel bad about keeping something of Booth’s a secret was not cool.

I did love the way Angela was gung-ho about going undercover in the roller derby. “Smackie Kennedy” is a great nickname and the little curtain she made at the lab on the computer to change her clothes behind was a fun, fun little graphic.

I know a lot of people complain that Sweets is over-used, especially at the FBI, but I at least thought in this episode that it was the right amount. Booth and Brennan talked over possible motives with Sweets (which is his specialty) and it doesn’t bother me when he questions some of the witnesses. Since it happened in the last episode AND this one where Sweets first questioned a suspect and then Booth sort of followed up with another questioning, I hope that’s not a trend or rut that the writers get stuck in. For this episode, it worked.

BOOTH & BRENNAN:

I really liked this episode. Like I said before, I went into it thinking that Booth was going to have some huge secret, so I was beyond pleased when the first B&B scene made it clear that Brennan was aware of whatever Booth did have going on. After that, it didn’t matter to me what it was — if Brennan knows, it’s all good. Not that I wanted anything to be wrong with him or Christine or anything, but I just didn’t like the idea of Booth having secrets from Brennan.

I thought it was interesting that Booth’s belief in God showed up in this episode, like the last one. It’s an underlying characteristic of his, and it will be interesting to see if it comes up again. I laughed when Booth made it clear to Sweets that the reason he’s not going to confession is that he can’t be absolved…AKA, he has no plans to stop living with Brennan. Good times. And I liked Brennan’s quoting of Corinthians in defense of Booth at the end of the episode. Booth is a good man, and I like that his definition of charity is as anonymous as possible.

Other than that, I liked that neither B&B were ridiculous in this episode, especially regarding the case. I thought they were both perfectly great. They’re just great.

–

Okay, enough from me. How did you like this episode? Were you surprised by the killer? Were you shocked by Booth’s special project? If you’re interested, here’s a link to the Children’s Tumor Foundation website.

And I won’t spoil it here, but if you’re anxious for more news on next week’s episode, be sure to check out Marisa’s post of photos from the episode!  But for now, the comments are open!