BONES Recap: ‘The Drama in the Queen’

Hey, BONES fans! How did you like this episode, “The Drama in the Queen”? I thought it had some cute moments and it is always fun to see experiments in the lab. There is a lot more to discuss, so let’s get to it!

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: A woman gets stuck in a well after trying to convince her young daughter to pretend to get stuck — in order to get publicity. While down there, she discovers a human skeleton. I feel sorry for the skeleton!

The Victim: Brian Thomas, a local swim coach. He was well liked by his wife and swim team, who are all shocked to learn he is dead. He seems to lead a clean life, and Sweets finds out that he recently reported one of his swimmers, Avery, for hazing. Brennan and Sweets question three swimmers, Avery, another young man who shows signs of hearing damage due to swimming, and a young woman who points out it is possible Brian was having an affair with another coach, Gabby. Gabby insists she wasn’t having an affair with Brian but thinks he may have been having one with someone else. She once found an earring in his car, and sometimes he smelled like perfume.

In the lab, Brennan, Cam, Hodgins, Angela and new intern Jessica (played by Laura Spencer) examine the remains, leading Brennan to realize Brian suffered damage to his feet in the same way a person who often wore high heels would.

When Sweets finds evidence that Brian frequented the same bar every Friday night, Booth and Brennan investigate. They don’t get results, but Brennan notices a local club called Madame’s Apple. She realizes Brian was a drag queen, which explains the anomalies on his skeletal remains. The club owner, Destiny, confirms Brian performed there as “Jenny.”

Primary Suspects:

•    Lyla Thomas — She insists she didn’t know Brian was performing in drag but that she would have been fine with it if he had told her. She seems genuine, but it is possible she lied.
•    Avery Parrish — the swimmer accused of hazing. He certainly could be angry enough to have a motive.
•    Gabby — Sweets thinks the swim coach could have killed Brian out of jealousy. Maybe he was having an affair, just not with her?
•    Kimmy Moore — a rival of Jenny’s, who was annoyed when Jenny stole her timeslot.
•    Joe Rizzo — when security footage shows Jenny get into a fist fight with a plumber (Joe), and Brian’s body shows signs of being hit with pipes, Joe becomes a prime suspect.

The Case Progression:

While Booth studies up for the congressional subcommittee hearing regarding his possible promotion, Brennan and Sweets continue to handle the lead on the case. Sweets talks to Joe, who admits he did push Brian (as Jenny) and he regrets it. But the fight wasn’t sexual or even that malicious. Joe was confronting Jenny about stealing money from his credit card.

Angela researches the club’s financial records and notices that with their free wifi, it was possible for the staff to skim a little extra off their customers’ credit cards.

Sweets brings in Destiny to confront him about it. He admits to having done that, but insists that he stopped when Jenny called him on it. When Sweets suggests it’s a little suspicious to make such a change in behavior, Destiny says it is indeed possible.

At the lab, Brennan and Jessica find out that Joe’s plumbing pipes are not a perfect match for the wound. They know the velocity needs to be similar, but they aren’t sure of the weapon. Jessica rules out a bullet, but then Brennan realizes that it is possible…if it was shot into a person swimming in a pool.

Hodgins, Cam, Sweets, and Brennan visit the pool. They confront Gabby, and she admits she has a gun but doesn’t use it for anything but self defense. The team doesn’t find much evidence of blood, but Hodgins is able to find a little bit of scraping on the inside of the pool.

Later in the lab, he tells Jessica that he found piece of a pool runner in a filter. Jessica realizes that it means they were wrong about how Brian was killed. She races off to find Brennan, and once she tells her the new information, Brennan also rushes away to the skeleton with Jessica right behind her. Sweets, Cam and Hodgins have no choice but to follow, intrigued.

Brennan points out that in order for the piece of pool plastic to be caught, the water would have had to have been at a lower height, and the shooting would have taken place inside the actual pool. She notices ear damage on Brian’s body, and suggests the killer would have the same ear damage. Sweets realizes they have caught their man.

The Verdict: Sweets and Brennan bring in the swimmer who had hearing issues. They point out that he was a veteran and seemed to be on the right path. The swimmer admits that Brian caught him cheating on a test and was going to report him, putting his plan to attend a four year college in jeopardy. He pushed Brian into the pool, but then just lost control.

The show has done a good job over the years in portraying veterans’ affairs, but sometimes I think it misses the mark. I personally would like to see a little more insight into Booth’s experiences in the military, but I also understand why the show doesn’t go there all of the time. But in the case of this episode, it seemed like the killer did what he did BECAUSE of his military background, and it just didn’t work for me. There were some loose strings in terms of the case, and combined with the resolution, it felt a little off. I did, however, like the way the victim was respected and that there really wasn’t any mocking made of his life at all.

THE SQUINTS:

I was excited to see Laura Spencer tagged as a new intern at the lab, but I didn’t exactly warm up to her character of Jessica. It will be interesting to see what happens if she returns next season. I just thought her attitude was a little over the top, and maybe a little forced. As a main plot, it then forced the rest of the Jeffersonian team’s actions to mostly be re-actions to her. There were some fun moments, and I liked all of her scenes with Hodgins, especially the experiments. He truly is king of the lab when it comes to navigating all of the personalities. But it sort of pulled out some lesser liked (by me) characteristics of Angela (lots of gossip) and Cam (constantly pulling rank or being harsh in ways that are inconsistent with her own character in other episodes). I’m hoping it was a one episode thing, and that next season some of that will smooth over.

I also thought the interactions between Sweets and Jessica were a little forced. And we can add them to the list of characters we’ve seen in bed together unnecessarily. However, every single moment where Sweets basically wanted to be an A++++ student on this case to prove himself to Booth was absolutely on point. I honestly don’t know whether Sweets is really qualified to lead a case (what exactly IS his job description?) but I was less worried about that when it was clear that he completely idolizes Booth still. It was endearing, and it was refreshing that he and Brennan didn’t compete the entire time.

BOOTH AND BRENNAN:

I liked all of the scenes between Booth and Brennan in this episode. It was cute to see them banter back and forth and support one another. It makes sense to me that Brennan wants Booth to succeed but also is a little nervous about what that would mean for their partnership. And it is so like Booth to make sweeping “hey, nothing’s gonna change” type statements.

I loved, loved, loved the scene with B&B at Madame’s Apple. I thought everyone played everything perfectly, from Booth’s edgy “I’m fine with everything. I just like pants” personality to Brennan unashamedly loving the environment and seeing Kimmy and Destiny flirt with Booth.

We’ve already discussed the nice trend of this season where Brennan relates to and praises her students, and I thought she did a pretty good job working with Jessica as well.

All in all, not one of my favorite episodes of the season, but it was cute, and I want to hear what you thought of it! And I hope you turn in for next week’s intense season finale! No spoilers here, but if you want some more information on it, check out what Marisa had to say after a conference call with David Boreanaz (Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Brennan)!