BONES Recap: ‘The Teacher in the Books’

Hey BONES fans! Hashtag hello! What did you think of this episode, “The Teacher in the Books”? And if you’re on Twitter, are you following @DrBrennan ? I have to admit that when I first heard the premise (Brennan gets Twitter!), I was skeptical, but I really liked this episode a lot. It was funny, and there were good character interactions with a lot of heart throughout. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get right to it!

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: A young woman’s body is found in an abandoned bookstore, covered in forlorn abandoned books (including one of Brennan’s). Sad for the victim of course, but I honestly hope I never see a bookstore look like that at the end of its life.

The Victim: Mia Ferrara, a young teacher of at-risk youth through the United Teaching Fellows (UTF) program. She was well liked by her students and co-workers and often praised for getting great results.

The Prime Suspects:

• Hunter, Mia’s boyfriend. They didn’t argue, but after her death, he stands to receive a great apartment paid for by her trust fund. His alibi is that he was out of town on a coffee-shop musician tour when she was killed.
• Marcellus Miller, a student. Booth finds a note in Mia’s desk with his initials and a police code for homicide.
• Keith Miller, Marcellus’s older brother and guardian. It’s possible he killed Mia to protect his brother.
• Steven Brady, a member of the school custodial staff. Mia’s blood is found on his cleaning cart.

The Case Progression:

Caroline tells Booth to be extra-precise on this case. She’s on the board of UTF and doesn’t want the funding cut further. Booth gets righteous and promises he will, and Caroline gets tingly. Welcome to the club, Ms. Julian.

Booth and Aubrey visit the local school and quickly see a group of students pushing a teacher’s, Shane Gentry, Smart Car across the lawn. He’s fine with it, figuring that pranks are better than gangs. They speak with Principal Anne Franklin and Shane, and both confirm that Mia was an excellent teacher and that she had no enemies that they knew of.

Booth and Caroline talk with Marcellus and his brother/guardian Keith, who is resentful of the interrogation. Caroline puts him in his place, and Marcellus admits to the note but says it was a joke, and that Mia was the only person in his life who helped him with school.

At the Jeffersonian, Hodgins and Cam examine evidence on Mia’s body. Traces of Styrofoam and cafeteria food indicate she was stuffed in a garbage can at one point. Additionally, blood in her feet and traces of disinfectant show she was shoved into something tall and upright and regularly cleaned.  At the FBI, Caroline gives Aubrey criminal records on everyone associated with the school. He’s checked Mia’s records and found no credit card or any other activity after the school day, indicating she never left the school’s campus and was killed there—this is what Caroline was afraid of.

Brennan and Jessica examine the skeleton and confirm the victim was placed in a vertical and narrow space. Damage to her skull also shows signs of metal hooks, and Brennan realizes Mia’s body was placed in a locker. She and Booth visit the school and see a memorial set up in Mia’s honor. An FBI dog identifies the right locker, and Principal Franklin states it was unassigned. Booth calls out Steven Brady from the crowd, and when Aubrey interrogates him at the FBI, asking him how Mia’s blood got on his custodial cart, Brady insists he wouldn’t kill Mia—she was one of the only people who believed in him too.

Jessica and Brennan continue to examine Mia’s skeleton and realize she was likely killed by being strangled. Aubrey traces Mia’s online accounts and finds that she mostly followed students and was positive, with the exception of her final tweet, “Sucks to be so wrong about someone #heartbroken.” Angela looks at Mia’s computer and sees extensive data on school and student metrics, indicating Mia was practically obsessed with the subject. She also finds evidence that Hunter was cheating on her, and that his coffee-shop tour was cancelled.

Booth and Aubrey question him at the FBI (somehow forgetting to ask why, if Mia had such a nice trust fund, THEY SHARED A COMPUTER?!?), and he admits he lied about his tour. But he has a new alibi—he was with another woman when Mia was killed. He even has her number, but when he dials it, it’s a reject line; Booth laughs at him.

Jessica identifies a deep cut on Mia’s hand, and Angela is able to create an image of the type of knife used. It’s traced back to Keith. Caroline is bummed, but Booth tells her there is no need to jump to conclusions. She proposes running away together, and Booth laughs and says he’ll think about it. Got to respect a woman who goes for what she wants, haha. She also says “You’re a good man, Seeley Booth,” and it’s been a while since that over-used line occurred—I’ll allow it!

When Booth and Caroline question Keith again, he admits it is his knife, but that Mia went crazy and used it on herself to cut her own hand out of rage that Marcellus was missing some school. Keith once again pleads his innocence, but he doesn’t have an alibi. Booth clearly wants to believe him, but the lack of alibi makes it tough. Later, Marcellus admits to Aubrey that Keith was at the store stealing some food in order to get him a good breakfast before testing day.

At the lab, Cam, Brennan, and Jessica discuss the postmortem damage done to Mia’s knees and back. If she was dead, why break her bones? They realize that after her body was in the locker it was too stiff to be tossed into the trunk of a car and was instead placed in the seat area of the car. They just need to find someone connected with the case who had a very small vehicle…and a motive, of course.

The Verdict:

When Hodgins points out that eraser marks were found on Mia’s body, Booth and Brennan bring Shane in for questioning and tell him they also found her blood in his car. He confesses that he changed the test results because he’s trying to look good for a job interview with the department of education. Mia caught him and he strangled her to keep her quiet; he also doesn’t think it’s a big deal and figures the kids where he works will never amount to anything. Booth gives him the disappointed headshake and likely arrests him.

THE SQUINTS

I liked all of the work Angela, Hodgins, and Cam did in this episode and on this case. I loved the first scene at the bookstore, and I liked that each person contributed to the case. Loved Hodgins with the spider at the bookstore (and Booth coaching Aubrey to stand back if Hodgins says so!), I thought Jessica was less abrasive here, and was helpful in the case and with Brennan, and Angela was great when she told Jessica to stop feeding Brennan’s Twitter frenzy.

Aubrey was great as well; I laughed when he gave Booth a hard time about Brennan’s book characters (and Booth responded perfectly), and I liked his conversations with Caroline. I am not sure how young Aubrey is, but his lines about huffing good books and tweeting and hashtags were funny. In your dreams, hashtag!

Speaking of Caroline, she stole the show in this episode. I loved her interactions with Booth, and I adored the way she took Marcellus and Keith in under her care, academically and emotionally. It absolutely made the episode.

BOOTH & BRENNAN

Like I said before, I wasn’t sure how the Twitter storyline would go, but it was okay. One of the things I have always loved about Brennan is that she is (terrifically) above pop culture. If there is something she doesn’t get, it doesn’t matter because she’s waaaaay too cool/smart/important to be worried about who is on magazine covers or whatever. So when the show sometimes creates storylines in which she is found lacking (and feels the sting of it), I am annoyed—but the Twitter thing worked pretty well because she did it in her own way, she very clearly had a goal of dominating, and she used the tool for anthropological purposes.

A lot of the scenes between Brennan and Booth about Twitter and such were fun and sweet; there are too many to go through moment by moment (and I think there were some meta moments on David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel’s views on Twitter too, which was fun). I liked that Brennan went for it after taking Booth’s advice, and that she also asked for Jessica’s help at his advice. And the end scene was nice—it was very Brennan-esque to brag about Booth, and it was very Boothy for him to at first be annoyed that she was sharing stuff about their lives, but then be pleased when she complimented him. #BestPartnersEver!

Enough from me—what did you like or not like about this episode? Did the Twitter storyline work for you? And how about the case—were you surprised by the killer? What Caroline moment was your favorite? The comments are open—speak your mind and favorite hashtags!

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