BONES Recap: ‘The Life in the Light’

Hello, BONES fans! What did you think of this episode, “The Life in the Light”? Historically, the show has had really great penultimate episodes, and I think this one is no different. Read on to discuss the case, the Hodgins and Angela storylines, and why I feel that the gambling storyline, while exquisitely performed, has a few flaws in its resolution. Let’s do this thing!

THE CASE

The Scene of the Crime: A body is found in the remains of a local forest fire.

The Victim: Micah Stanbaugh, an ex-con/biker turned yoga instructor.

The Suspects:

• Dale Brock, the leader of Micah’s biker gang, The Damned. He got out of prison on the same day Micah was killed, but he insists he hasn’t seen Micah in years.
• Nan Roselick, Micah’s girlfriend and co-owner of their yoga studio and gift shop (including Tibetan bamboo tablet covers). She says she can’t figure anyone who would want to hurt Micah.
• Ramish Patel, a rival yoga instructor who was pushed out of business when Micah and Nan’s studio was more successful. He states he is a peaceful man and Micah’s friend, and when pressed for more, he lawyers up.
• Elizabeth Collins, Micah’s second lover. She insists Micah and Nan had an open relationship and that, though she has prior assaults that match Micah’s wounds, she doesn’t have anger issues any longer.
• Danato, Nan’s side lover. When Nan tells Booth and Aubrey that she broke up with Danato because he was jealous of her relationship with Micah, they figure he has motive.

The Case Progression:

Micah’s wounds show he had a blow to the head and also several cuts to his body, down to the bone. He also didn’t die in the fire, but was dragged to it and doused. The Jeffersonian team determines he may have fallen through a window, and his body may have been set on fire to hide the evidence. They also think he may have been in a fight on the day he died.

Hodgins analyzes Micah’s sandal and finds small traces of oil based paint, and Angela knows it means Micah stepped in the paint on the day he died.

Booth and Aubrey go to Danato’s studio, and he has injuries from a fight and the oil based paints. Booth and Aubrey figure him for a suspect, but he says he got the injuries in a bar fight and that Micah paid him a visit to show him some yoga poses to relieve the pain. He also says that Micah got a call and left his home quickly, telling the person on the other end of the phone that he could meet them within 2 or 3 minutes.

Angela and Aubrey run a scan of security cameras in a 2-3 minute radius of Danato’s home and they see Micah entering a bar called Nat’s Place. Aubrey contacts the manager and is able to get intel that Micah was there and met up with Dale.

Booth interrogates Dale again and accuses him of lying. Dale finally admits he met with Micah, despite it being against his parole agreement. He needed $20,000 and Micah agreed to get him some…but then never returned to the bar.

When the J-team finds traces of aluminum, glass, and bamboo in Micah’s remains, Booth puts it together and knows who the killer is.

The Verdict: Booth and Brennan question Nan, who at first insists she is innocent. But they have evidence from her iPad photos on the cloud. She was angry with Micah for wanting to give their savings to Dale. She hit him with the bamboo covered iPad, and he fell into the glass and aluminum lawn furniture and died. The iPad caught the whole thing.

THE SQUINTS:

Well, first things first — Angela’s real name is Pookie Noodlin? Haha, hilarious and oh, so wrong. But it also made for some sweet Hodgins/Angela scenes. I also loved the progression of scenes between them regarding moving to Paris. I thought it was perfect, from the initial mention to the final scene where they barely mentioned it and Cam got teary. (Excellent stuff from Tamara Taylor there too!)

The Angela/Brennan scene might be one of my all-time favorites of theirs; it made me ugly-cry, but in the best way. Loved that each woman was sad but optimistic for the future.

Aubrey was fine, as normal.

Loved Wendell as usual.

BOOTH & BRENNAN:

Like I said in the intro, David Boreanaz (Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Brennan) have been nothing but amazing for this entire storyline, and this episode displayed it as well. I loved each of their scenes and how eager B&B were toward each other and their relationship. It’s bothered me when articles or promos have indicated that B&B are on the outs; I’m not saying there wasn’t tension between them, but I liked that this episode really focused that they were working on things together as much as possible. Loved the scene at the diner, and the scenes with Christine were cute.

While there is another episode in the season — and another season to come — I am guessing that the gambling storyline has essentially been resolved. It’s possible it may come up in small moments, but I’m going to share my thoughts. Warning: long analysis ahead!

As I mentioned previously, I’ve kept a spreadsheet of what I wanted to see from this storyline, and I’ve been tracking my thoughts. For the purpose of this post, I narrowed and streamlined everything into 14 key items with four main “results”: YES, NO, DRAW (meaning there wasn’t enough evidence either way or there were enough good and bad things about it that it evened itself out). Few things:

• I tried to stick with the storyline itself and not include outside “facts” or information, i.e. I didn’t include anything like “were the promos misleading,” because that’s not really fair to the storyline.
• The wording on most items was done in a way that “YES” is the desired outcome.

1. Did the show include the storyline in small increments throughout several episodes vs. a ‘drama of the week’ emotional ploy? YES   NO   DRAW

I think they did a nice job with this.

2. Did the majority of other characters seem to refrain from choosing sides between Booth and Brennan? YES   NO   DRAW

I said “majority” here because while there were flashes of moments (i.e. Jessica saying she was Team Brennan), for the most part, all of the characters recognized it wasn’t Booth vs. Brennan, but something they were working on together. So, yes.

3. Did the writers/show seem to refrain from choosing sides between Booth and Brennan? YES   NO   DRAW

Like we’ve talked about before, if we want to know how the show or its writers feel about a character, listen to what other characters say about him or her. But this question is beyond how other characters reacted. Was there as much screen time and dialogue given to both of them in this storyline? I say yes.

4. Did Booth and Brennan both struggle with the issue? YES   NO   DRAW

Yes. They did it in their own ways (which others may not necessarily interpret as struggling), but I say yes.

5. Did the show handle Booth’s struggle appropriately/in character? YES   NO   DRAW

6. Did the show handle Brennan’s struggle appropriately/in character? YES   NO   DRAW

7. Did the show handle others’ struggle appropriately/in character? YES   NO   DRAW

8. Was the storyline in place to primarily allow Brennan to grow as a character? YES   NO   DRAW

This is a question where “no” is the positive/correct response for me (so yay!). So many times we’ve had Booth go through trauma, he sometimes changes as a character — but mostly it’s Brennan who grows/proves herself. Examples include: being shot by Pam, the Jared storyline (over many episodes) having the brain tumor/coma dream, Maluku, Hannah, etc. Here we saw Brennan use a lot of her interpersonal skills and her inner strength, and those were both awesome, but they weren’t necessarily new facets to her character, nor the primary threads of the storyline, which was refreshing.

9. Did we learn what Booth’s trigger was? YES   NO   DRAW

There are things we could infer, but even though Booth said he wanted to “get his family back” and he wants “to make things right,” we did not see that process of figuring out what it was. Was it just the act of sitting at the card table? Was it emotional trauma from Sweets, etc.? I felt this was unresolved.

10. Did other characters speak with Booth about the issue? YES   NO   DRAW
Outside of Aubrey and Brennan, this did not really happen in episodes, but it is alluded to (by Wendell and Cam). I would have liked to have seen more (especially a Cam/Booth scene) of a “We know you can do this; we are in your corner” from people to Booth, but I also believe that in character Booth is resistant to anyone talking to him about his life. Not that this should prevent people from giving support, but I can see why the show made its decisions. So a draw for me.

11. Should concessions be made on timeliness or logistics of a TV show (including location, casting, renewal considerations/issues)? YES   NO   DRAW

There will always be things I want to see more of — I would have watched an entire episode of Booth at those GA meetings, working through the process. I also recognize the show was in a tough spot in that, as they wrote and filmed these episodes, they weren’t sure whether there would be a season 11. However, in my opinion, figuring there WON’T be should have been the default, vs. trying to wrap things up too quickly in a few episodes after planning to have a lot more time. I think they did a pretty good job, but it’s literally their job, so… Draw.

12. Did the storyline have an appropriate resolution? YES   NO   DRAW

In last week’s episode we could see that Booth knew he had to do something MORE to get back in Brennan’s good graces. His “a ha” moment in the interrogation room was about penitence, I believe, and he knew he couldn’t just cover everything up, but if Brennan had taken him back in that earlier diner scene, he absolutely would have just moved on.

We don’t know what ultimately caused this relapse, so we aren’t sure what exactly he has so much remorse for — is it the gambling and making bets, or is it the lying about it? Or just that Jimmy the bookie was involved, which was dangerous? We haven’t gotten to the root of WHY Booth did what he did, which is necessary for successful resolution, in my opinion. I also think we see him still repressing things and self-punishing. For example, when Brennan showed up at the GA meeting (which, in general “Anonymous”-type meetings, seems inappropriate, but maybe this wasn’t officially anonymous? I’m not sure how that works.) and asked why he didn’t invite her, he still hemmed and hawed about it and deflected, saying it wasn’t a big deal. She says it is a big deal, because they are in on it together. He likes that, but it doesn’t resolve the deeper issue of why he didn’t invite her — because he feels shame and is afraid she ultimately doesn’t accept him. So he is self-punishing there and trying to redeem himself in the way he knows how, and with one of his love languages: gifts. The coconut ice cream and the compliments on her sense of humor were all sweet, but so was the necklace a few weeks ago. I know there are layers to every addiction and recovery, but as I was watching, I kept thinking that Booth just wants Brennan to like/want him again, and he’ll do whatever it takes to get THAT back.

At the end of the episode, he agreed with Brennan that part of what is motivating him is knowing that he won’t get another chance if he screws up. But again, what is the screw up in his mind? In her mind? The bet, or the lies? And if someone has an addiction, when they mess up, is that a “screw up” or a relapse? Even Cam’s words to Brennan were that he was working hard “make things right.” It’s totally Booth-y and in character, but is he actually getting to the root of his actions? I felt like he still wants to control it from the top down instead of rooting out the issue and resolving it from the inside out. Also, his original (from episode 100) reason for quitting gambling (“I have a gambling problem…but I’m dealing with it”), meeting Brennan and wanting to be in her good graces, now it just seems like part of a cycle. By the end of this episode, Booth is back where he wants to be with Brennan, and that’s all he’s ever wanted — but I’m not convinced that they’ve actually gotten to the bottom of his gambling addiction issue.

Of course, it’s a TV show, and they can’t show every detail. But it IS scripted TV. Someone literally wrote the episode and someone else (or several someones) in charge chose which scenes to keep and which to cut. If you only have a certain amount of minutes for a storyline, it’s essential that every second devoted to that storyline must be exactly what you want communicated. And I believe the show did communicate what it wanted to — that B&B love one another and are committed. But that was never in question for me, so it wasn’t the resolution I needed to see.

13. How did I feel when the storyline was resolved? HAPPY   SAD   INDIFFERENT   ENRAGED

But I did FEEL so happy at the B&B scenes that, even though I had some philosophical issues with the storyline, I was still grinning from ear to ear. I was having the same issue as Booth, haha…substituting the relief of resolution for actual resolution and not getting to the core issue. There’s certainly a lot to be said about how a show makes us feel, but I recognize that for me, that “I DON’T CARE! B&B ARE HAPPY AGAIN ALL IS RIGHT WITH THE WORLD” feeling is maybe not the best, LOL!

14. What did I learn about myself in the process?

This is more for me to study my own reactions, and I don’t have a ton of answers here. But when I unpack all of my feelings about this storyline, I quickly see I have room to grow and mature. Why am I so enamored when I see Booth as such an eager-to-please, sweet puppy dog — when I really dislike seeing Brennan brought low at times? Do I like seeing men grovel but resent when female characters do it? Why did I resent Jessica’s opinion to Brennan more than Cam’s? Maybe Jessica hasn’t earned the right? When Booth stood up at his GA meeting and it felt like a victory…was I feeling that sense of victory for Booth or for Brennan…or both? And was it victory or vindication? What does all of this say about me? Like I said, those answers are for me to know and work through. At the same time, I have to remember that I watch this show through my own lens, made up of my own experiences and worldviews and ideas of romance and love and forgiveness and justice, and all of that. And so does everyone else.

Enough from me; what did you like or not like about this episode? The comments are open; speak your mind!

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