BONES Recap: ‘The Fact in the Fiction’
February 26, 2013 by Sarah Curtis
Hey BONES fans, how are things? What did you think of this episode, “The Fact in the Fiction”? It featured a realistic if not somewhat predictable case, discussions of time travel, a new, abrasive, and highly intelligent intern, and an oddly emotional Sweets. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to it.
THE CASE:
The Scene of the Crime: A city guy turned farmer is working some of his land when his tractor comes across (and over) a set of human remains. “I killed a dead guy,” he exclaims to a friend over his Bluetooth headset. Great line. Booth and Brennan examine the skull-less remains and the body is shipped to the Jeffersonian. Later, at the diner, a man rushes in with a gift for Brennan. Booth pulls his gun on him, and the man reveals himself as Brennan’s new intern, Dr. Oliver Wells. He has searched for and found the victim’s skull.
The Victim: Benji Garcia, a youngish man, who the team learns was nearly obsessed with restoring an old truck and with time travel. It’s a strange combination until they all discover more information about their victim.
The Case Progression: Booth and Sweets talk with Alex, Benji’s brother and the owner of an auto bodyshop. He is shocked at Benji’s death and tells them they have no other family. Their mother died a few years before and their father was never around. They are joined by Sidney, another mechanic at the shop, who tells Booth and Sweets that they should question Benji’s ex-girlfriend Courtney, a woman who hated Benji’s truck.
Booth and Sweets do question her at the FBI building, and she’s incredibly cocky, insisting that she broke things off with Benji and that it was because of his obsession with restoring the truck. She admired his research in time travel. Booth later asks Sweets if she could be the killer. Sweets isn’t convinced but says it’s not impossible — a theme for the episode.
At the lab, Hodgins, Cam, Brennan and Oliver Wells attempt to determine cause of death. Brennan is put off by Oliver’s superiority, particularly regarding what he calls her lack of casting a wide net when it comes to scientific reasoning. His argument is that she stops thinking once she gets to anything “impossible” whereas he is willing to embrace the possibility of impossible things.
There are contusions on the skull, but not life threatening. Oliver and Brennan also identify fracturing to Benji’s ribs, encouraging Hodgins and Oliver to attempt a couple of experiments for possible murder weapons.
Meanwhile, Angela is able to trace Benji’s computer usage to a local college site and a Professor Hunter. Booth and Brennan go to his home and question him on his involvement with Benji’s time travel ideas. As he was fired from his teaching position a few years back, and because of his risky home-lab, he is quite a suspect. Professor Hunter insists he is innocent.
Hodgins identifies strawberry seeds in the soil from Benji’s shows, and Cam participates in an experiment, allowing the team to realize Benji’s death came by gun shot. Booth and Brennan go to the strawberry field and find Benji’s restored truck in a barn there. They also discover another set of remains, nearly identical to Benji’s, but 20 years older.
Brennan, Oliver, and Hodgins posit time travel scenarios, but Cam tells them that the second victim is Felix Garcia, Benji’s father. Sweets talks to Alex, who is shocked at the death of his father, but not too sad. He also reveals that he and his mother had always told Benji that Felix was dead instead of the drugged-up abandoner he was.
Oliver works with Angela to figure out that Felix and Benji were shot at the same time, with the bullet moving through both of them. Booth gets a hit on Felix’s drug dealer and finds out that it’s Sidney from Alex’s auto bodyshop. Sidney holds up during the interrogation and insists he’s not part of it.
The Verdict: When Booth and Sweets head to the shop to check out Sidney’s locker, they talk to Alex, who reacts suspiciously to a mention of his father. Booth and Sweets press a bit and Alex confesses that Felix wanted Benji to give him money. Benji was going to give him his college fund, and Alex had to do something to stop that.
THE SQUINTS:
I really did like Oliver Wells, for a few reasons. Not sure I want to be friends with him or anything, but in terms of fitting in with this cast and the lab, I think it worked. I loved his “Would You Rather” questions with Hodgins and Brennan and how each one reacted. I also liked how whether he was complimented or dissed by other members of the lab, he took it all in stride. There’s a sympathetic quality to someone who can’t connect with people because of his intelligence, and I believe it was supposed to serve as an example of Brennan’s people skills. He was able to analyze and pinpoint a lot about Hodgins and Brennan, but missed some important details. More on that later.
The whole “time travel what if” theme with the rest of the Jeffersonian staff was kind of a missed opportunity, I think. I’m not saying that each person had to have some groundbreaking moment in life to go back to, but that Hodgins’ was the moment he met Angela was weird. It was also clear she was lying to him when she said that was her moment too…proven later to us (though we didn’t really need the proof) when after Cam admits HER moment would be to go back in time and sleep with Grayson Barasa (Berimbau) one more time, Angela gleefully admits it’s also her moment. Again…kind of a waste, I think.
On the other hand, Sweets was incredibly sentimental about the idea of going back in time to fully have the opportunity to thank the Finleys, the couple that adopted him. It’s a nice sentiment, don’t get me wrong, and it worked…it was just strangely vulnerable in a way that seemed to be about more than just the case, but was never really explored. That he was also a little over-emotional toward Booth’s teasing regarding his “shrinky ways” is what made it weird. Thoughts from you?
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
I think one point of Oliver’s abrasive personality was to be a foil for Brennan, and I appreciated the more subtle turn, especially when compared with other “Brennan has an EXPERIENCE and proves that she is HUMAN” type episode storylines. Brennan’s confession to Booth that she has no need to travel to the future or the past for happiness isn’t some sappy bizarro-Brennan statement. That is, while it shows her growth in communicating her thoughts on her happy life, it was also a very rational statement. She has no need to travel when she has everything she wants and needs in the present. Period. I certainly liked that it pleased Booth, and I think she did too, but she didn’t say what she did TO please Booth in a romantic way, but because it was a fact, which is what defines Brennan as a character, in a good way.
Likewise, Brennan “won” in the battle against Oliver, not because of her superior intellect fact-wise, but because she can recognize the truth, that the team figured out the case by working together. This nugget of her character, the designation between facts and the truth is a consistent character development point for her throughout the series. Again, I appreciated that for the most part, it was subtly done. The point of Oliver was not to bring Brennan down a notch, but to show that in the scope of her current full life, she has no need for the comparative totem pole, so to speak. And it’s why Hodgins laughs at Oliver for wanting to watch Brennan work in order to learn everything she has for him. Hodgins realizes that (in addition to the numerous things Brennan knows) Brennan is so much more than just her lab work.
Booth had an edginess in this episode that I never quite figured out, but sometimes the writers do that when they think they need to even him out with Brennan. But because I thought Brennan was pretty even-keeled, his gruffness felt unanchored somehow. That it was even MORE of a contrast to Sweets’ unexplained melancholy is also strange.
It makes sense in Booth’s “I love America” ways that he would use time travel to go back in time to shoot John Wilkes Booth, though why the show still continues to offer up that he’s a direct descendent of JWB is a mystery. His line about always getting a schoolteacher look whenever he has a good idea made me laugh, and I think I can deal with Booth doing interrogations in street clothes every once in a while too…not to mention pulling out his gun in the diner.
Okay, enough from me. What did you like about this episode? What didn’t you like? The comments are open, so sound off!
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Filed under Bones
Hi, Parker, Christine, this is your loving father Seeley Booth, and he cares so much about Abraham Lincoln that he would like to save him even if it means the two of you will never exist. Aren’t you proud of him?
(Yeah, I know JW Booth didn’t have kids and the whole thing is bogus anyway. Doesn’t make Booth’s line any less facepalm-worthy.)
New squinterns on Bones always make for great episodes, and I’m anxious to see more of Oliver in upcoming episodes. His attitude was a little grating because he is so arrogant, but I thought he was pretty funny at the same time. I thought I was going to miss last night’s episode because I had to work late at DISH, so I wasn’t home to watch. Fortunately I was able to watch it live on my iPad during my lunch break. The DISH Anywhere app on my iPad allows me to watch live TV anytime, and anywhere, I am with a connection to the internet.
Thought B nd B were good. Episode was average. Did not like Oliver. Angela used to be my favorite character after Brennan. I really do not like her anymore. Would love o have Jack put her in her place just once.
Cams affair with Arastoo must be great if she wants Birenbau back for a night. Made Cam nd Angela look very shallow. Expected more from Cam character.
Just a question. Why doesn’t GMMR do CASTLE recaps. Marisa always does the interviews.
Jumping straight to the big piece of this episode, the intern: Very often new interns are introduced and the characterization is extremely exaggerated in their debut episode. Aside, maybe, from Wells’ initial entrance to the diner, I feel like his debut characterization was much more balanced and authentic. We found things out about him much more organically through his work with the other team members. Also effective? I was totally rooting for Brennan to out-arrogant him. (How about that for a made up word?) If she hadn’t been successful in that as the episode progressed, then I don’t think I would have liked him. To an outsider, Brennan’s first impression on others would be arrogance and lack of compassion. Obviously we long time viewers know that she is full of compassion. Her arrogance has been tempered, but even if it hadn’t been, by now she is OUR superior know-it-all. 😀
I very much liked the teamwork theme that came across. Even though I wasn’t thoroughly tracking the case (ie: details and determining if I was right about the brother), the entire scenario of it felt sad.
The choice of asteroid mining as Booth’s future investment felt off, but the intention behind it felt right on – and I got a kick out of Hodgins being on his side (which on a different day, Booth would take as a warning sign – ha!) and I also liked that “angry schoolteacher look” line.
Sweets’ go-back-in-time confession was a really nice moment, as was Brennan’s I-have-everything-I-need-and-want-right-now. Booth’s was… I don’t know. I wasn’t sure if they were pulling that in just to show they remember they’ve talked about Booth’s ancestry before or if they were aiming for something else. If it’s the something else, I’d be interested to find out where that might end up in a future episode, but otherwise, I’d think he’d want to change the conditions of some of his kills as a sniper or whatever. More interesting would be to change something about his family, but I like that they didn’t go there because it felt in character for him to avoid that.
That Angela wants to go back in time to sleep with Grayson? There’s being whimsical and then there’s making your husband fell “less-than”. For some reason that particular choice made me feel sad for Hodgins.
All in all, I felt this was a solid episode.
I loooved this episode – hilarious. I liked the new squintern and found myself chuckling throughout the whole episode. I did not mind the Cam-Angela moment as they reminded me of two naughty school girls. An episode does not always have to be realist for me as I do not mind a touch of whimsy. We have too much reality in our day to day and I watch TV to escape real life for a short while. The secret is to not over-analyse things and just enjoy! I know how to separate fact from fiction at the end of the day. A fun episode for me!
A good episode, writing very good.I did not mind the new intern, as long as he respects everyone than all is good. What did interest me was Sweets, he does not look well ,his clothes look too big for him,lost weight, maybe in future something will happen to Sweets!!. I can understand Hodgins about where he would travel back too, apparently he was lonely, no family ,until he met Angela & then he connected & then well you know what happened.Angela and Cam, disappointed.
Yes, a good episode, BUT, when Booth went to kiss Bones and the phone rang,why oh why did he not kiss Bones instead of answering the phone,Bones looked so sad and rejected. LOL. The new intern, is it true that he is a relative of the late Jack Klugman, (ODD COUPLE), great show,now that takes me back in time,HAHA
Kind of bored with this epi, and hate the way they wrote Angela’s story lines this season. It make me thinking that Angela’s stucked with Hodgins because of Michael Vincent. It remind me of the epi when Angela’s said that she want a beauty in her life and Hodgins was peeking at Michael Vincent sleeping on the couch. Even she doesn’t feel growing a son is part of the beauty. And now she want to visit the time that she spend the time with Grayson the man that she already forgot that she jumped the broom with. I take Daisy over this over qualified intern.
I went into this episode bracing myself to not like the intern because I was expecting the old “Brennan learns another lesson in what it’s like to be human,” and I was very happy that isn’t how it played out. I actually loved Dr. Wells. He wasn’t mean or dismissive of Brennan. He was just blunt about his abilities. And I thought his scenes with Hodgins were some of the best parts of the episode. I would love to see him around in more episodes just to see Dr. Wells & Dr. Hodgins doing more experiments together. And of course, Brennan got the last zing in at the end, which made it all good.
Regarding the characters revealing what they would go back in time to change – I loved Brennan’s response. Yeah, it’s a little bit cheesy, but it’s also very true. Everything she did in her past, right and wrong, has led her to what she has now. She has Booth and she has the family she’s wanted for so long. I found it very appropriate. As for the other characters, I wonder if that was just a blatant hint to the audience that the new writers know about B-plots from past seasons? That Angela wanted to use her time travel to go back and sleep with Birimbau again made me sad for Hodgins. He deserves better.
That said, no one on the staff apparently remembered that Brennan, from this season no less, has already acknowledged her belief that time travel is possible: 8×02 “The Partners in the Divorce”, when B&B first interview the couple that ended up killing Bartlett:
Brennan: “So you went from assaulting each other to reconciling in a matter of days?”
Booth: “It’s possible, Bones.”
Brennan: “Well, time travel is possible, theoretically.”
So the fact that the EPs kind of make it seem like the idea of Brennan “coming around” to accepting the possibility of time travel in this episode as some radical change for her character is a bit of ret-conning. She already believed in it. 😉
Overall, I found this to be a solid episode. I’d rewatch it, and I can’t say that for most of the episodes this season.
I enjoyed this episode and found the new intern amusing and interesting. I look forward to where they take his character in future shows and hope he turns out to be Hodgins long lost brother or something, lol.
This epi had some good B&B moments and I loved Sweets’ vulnerable moment when he shared with Booth where he would go back to in time.
I’m not happy with how the writers are portraying Angela this season. She’s unsatisfied with her work, she kisses Booth while undercover which was fine, but then has the audacity to ask for another, and then lies to Hodgins about what moment she would revisit and tells Cam the truth. BTW, Hodgins totally heard what she told Cam…did you see the expression on his face?!!! He deserves so much better than that.
All in all, I liked the show and look forward to more Oliver visits.
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It in reality was once a enjoyment account it.
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This episode was not my favorite but I did like it. I did laugh out loud at Booth’s reaction to Brennan when she says the new intern thinks she is narrow minded, but that could be because he managed to pull off a charm smile. 🙂