BONES Recap: ‘The Big Beef at the Royal Diner’

Yo yo yo BONES fans! It’s time to celebrate, as with this 206th all-time episode,  “The Big Beef at the Royal Diner,” BONES is the “Longest-Running One-Hour Drama for Producing Studio 20th Century Fox”! Congratulations to all involved! We’ve been celebrating here all week with a look at what has helped get the show to 206 episodes.

I thought this episode was funny and pretty cute. I figured it would be from the promos, and I was sort of dreading that the show was going to temporarily backburner some other more serious plots they have created in the past few episodes. I am the first to admit that I jumped to conclusions; this episode did a nice job at least keeping tabs on the current ongoing storylines. There is a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it!

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: A body is found when a weight loss boot camp participant falls on a skeleton. Can I just say…I thought this episode was a little harsh with the fat jokes? It was pretty much all unnecessarily cruel, and the only negative spot in the episode for me.

The Victim: Celebrity greasy restaurant critic, Chili Reuben. He was in DC trying out various local eateries. The team also discovers he was in poor health, had previously received a kidney and pancreas transplant, and still ate unhealthily.

The Prime Suspects:

• Sid Lauren (played by the always great Kurt Fuller), Chili’s producer. He insists they were good friends and that Chili didn’t really have enemies. But when it’s revealed that Chili was looking for producers of reality shows, Sid has a possible motive.
• Royal Diner cook Frankie. When Chili gives the diner a bad review, he’s got motive. But he insists he got the bad review because he didn’t pay Chili $3,000. Does he have a witness to this extortion? Only his knife-wielding dishwasher, Glen.
• Kenneth Morton, a sound producer for Getting Spicy with Chili Reuben. When Chili’s famous chili pepper earring is sold at a local pawn shop, video footage show Kenneth is the one who sold it.

The Case Progression:

Aubrey questions Kenneth at the FBI, who insists he sold the earring at Chili’s request in order to get money to buy drugs. Kenneth kept the money when Chili didn’t text him back and then decided to leave for Philadelphia to visit his hospitalized mother.

At the lab, Clark and Brennan examine the skeleton while Angela tracks down Chili’s last known locations, and Hodgins and Cam examine data from Chili’s body and work/show van — the SpiceMobile. It’s disgusting inside, but that seems like nothing compared to Chili’s personal life of financial ruin, drug addiction, and one-night stands.

Hodgins finds evidence of a floral fragrance inside Chili’s van, and the team traces it to Joanne, played by the hilarious Nicole Sullivan, a local waitress at the diner. Booth and Brennan question her about it, and she admits to sleeping with Chili, but that’s it. She is annoyed at the questioning and tells and incredulous Booth that he can forget about his free refills.

When Hodgins and Clark compare notes on the case, they figure that Chili drowned, likely in a sink or bathtub. The skull damage doesn’t match up with the diner’s sink, but it does match the shape and design of the hotel’s bathtub.

The Verdict: By using epithelial cells found on Chili, and a piece of his bone in a bathtub drain, the team can pin the murder on Kenneth Morton. Brennan and Booth figure he was furious that, while his mother is in desperate need of an organ donation, Chili seems to be wasting his. Kenneth admits they fought and that he shoved his head under water to get him to stop; he didn’t mean to kill him.

THE SQUINTS:

Each of the squints had his or her own sub-plot, and while it was a lot, it all worked out pretty well.

Clark: I thought he was great as both a friend and Arastoo-liaison for Cam and in the lab with Brennan. His participation in the 206-Bones of the Body Rap was fun (and I’m pretty sure we saw some binders of notes there!)

Cam: It was really believable that she would be feeling different levels of angst regarding Arastoo being gone, and in their line of work it would be pretty easy to look for additional meaning in emails and other notifications.

Angela & Hodgins: They were both pretty great in this one. I loved the moment where they were excited about the money and Hodgins was like “why — I’ve had money before!” and Angela reminded him that this is because of something he has accomplished, and that is pretty cool. Twill be interesting to see what happens with those two characters—if they decide to stick around the lab or not. So far, they say they love their jobs, but we’ll see!

Aubrey: I thought it was funny seeing him disillusioned about one of his food idols, and it worked well for his character. Booth’s line about having him around if he ever wanted to see a guy throw down a ton of food in a short time was hilarious. In the past, the show misused Sweets’ character by having him have some personal connection with the case (foster child, abuse victim, death metal enthusiast, trekkie, Salem Witch Trial scholar, just to name a few). On their own, none of these connections are implausible. When combined, it’s kind of a coincidental trap, in my opinion. The writers/show must make sure they don’t do the same with Aubrey just to give him relevance on the show. He’s had personal connections to the Ponzi scheme and to this one, and again both have been plausible and fine—but any more will be somewhat of a stretch. Characters can reflect on the cases in comparison to their personal lives, but it’s these coincidental connections that are overused at times. Fingers crossed it won’t happen.

And everyone did well on the case—good stuff all around.

BOOTH & BRENNAN:

I thought the family scenes were cute, both at home with the pancakes and at the end at the diner with the bones song. Just very sweet, fun, and cute.

I also thought the scene in Brennan’s office was excellent. I know when the “I’m just lucky to have you as my wife” moment was in an earlier promo, some thought it might be part of Booth’s confession or contrition, but I thought it seemed more like desperation — and it’s clear here that it is. His giving her the necklace and praising her isn’t a terrible thing, and it’s not so totally out of character. Booth has a history of giving her cute little meaningful gifts. But in this instance, it was such a telltale move of someone who is feeling guilty and trying to prove his love.

When I heard him say “I’m lucky,” it reminded me of the end of S5’s “Signs in the Silence.”  In that episode, Booth admits to her again that his dad was abusive and that he has to do better. Brennan tells him that Parker is lucky to have him as a dad, and he tells her he knows…but that he wants it to be about more than luck. Booth is a fate/luck kind of guy, and it’s not like him saying just the word ‘lucky’ is a bad thing, but basically it’s clear he’s not quite centered and is trying to figure out how he can fake it a bit.

We talked last week about all of the little notes and moments that will need to occur in order to give credibility to this gambling storyline, and so this scene in this episode was a nice touch in that direction. I liked that Brennan called him on the gambling sobriety chip as well.

All in all, a fun episode. What did you like or not like about it? The comments are open, so speak up—and bonus points for rhyming!

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