BONES Season 11 Premiere Recap: ‘The Loyalty in the Lie’

Hello BONES fans! Season 11 is finally here, and it started off with a doozy. With a title such as “The Loyalty in the Lie,” how could it not? But who is being loyal—and who is lying (and to whom?). Some questions are answered, and some remain, but there is enough to discuss, so let’s get to it!

The episode begins with Booth and Brennan still in their DC home, having left the FBI and Jeffersonian. They have a new son, Hank, and Booth is doing training while Brennan is staying occupied by writing books and analyzing plows. Booth leaves for a day of work and his longing glance goodbye (and ominous shift in the tone of the music) tells us something bad is about to happen.

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: The team is brought to an abandoned site where a van has been lit on fire. A set of human remains are there, but most disturbing is that Booth’s gun is fused to the victim’s leg.

Aubrey and Cam go to see Brennan, who can’t believe the news. But when she opens Booth’s gun case and sees they are missing (and that he has left his wedding ring behind), she knows something is not right. She rushes to the lab, and interrupts Arastoo from where he is working on the remains.

At the FBI, Aubrey and Caroline hold a briefing and enlist the help of many agents to track down what happened to Booth. They later figure that Booth must have been in trouble and it must have been bad if he didn’t come to either one of them for help.

The Victim: Though the bone structure seems to match Booth’s, after deep analysis, the team realizes the victim is Booth’s brother, Jared.

The Case Progression:

Aubrey and Caroline are approached by Agent Miller (played by Kim Raver) from internal investigations. They are less than pleased, but she tells them a body has been burned to a crisp with Booth’s gun on him, so of course Booth is going to be a suspect.

Agent Miller questions Brennan on Booth’s last known whereabouts and when she wants to know about Booth’s recent behavioral patterns, Brennan balks — those are emotional questions and she would be better served analyzing the case. Miller dismisses her, and Brennan warns her she won’t be able to solve the case without her help; Miller threatens to remove her from the case entirely.

Aubrey and Angela analyze Booth’s phone records and then look at who he didn’t talk to. He received three calls before he disappeared from a 715 number — meaning GO. Angela traces this burner phone back to Jared, who had purchased several phones recently, and five were activated each week.

At the lab, Hodgins is analyzing buffelgrass, a seed that germinates after exposed to heat. And Brennan and Arastoo continue to examine Jared’s remains.

On the way to visit Jared’s wife Padme, Brennan and Miller discuss the case. Miller suggests Booth had as many issues as Jared, and Brennan does not agree. With Padme, it’s clear that Jared was in major debt, and when Brennan wants to know if Booth gave him money, she scoffs and indicates that Brennan got in the way between Booth and his brother. Padme suggests another friend of Jared’s was helping him, Kevin O’Donnell. Aubrey and Miller visit O’Donnell, who was in the Navy with Jared. He is shocked Jared is dead and doesn’t like their implications that Jared might have been involved with something illegal.

At the lab, Angela comforts Brennan with friendship and non-expired chocolate pudding, and Brennan confesses that she is sure Booth is alive somewhere. Later, she and Arastoo look at the fracturing on Jared’s wrists. He must have fallen from about 3 stories high. There was glass on his skull, and Hodgins traces it to a unique glass made in turkey. The team narrows it down to a single house in Virginia, and Miller and Aubrey lead a SWAT team to check it out.

They find lots of blood and a few dead bodies, none of them belonging to Booth. They find a safe that was trip-wired, and it set off an alert. Miller figures the scene calls for a murder charge, and she knows one of the shooters was Booth. At the lab, Cam confirms that some of the blood at the scene was Booth’s, and all accounts indicate he lost a lot of it.

Arastoo and Brennan discuss the case, and she admits she is frustrated and emotional that there are so many questions. Arastoo describes the bond of brotherhood, but Brennan feels there is more Booth was keeping from her.

At the FBI, Caroline has news for Aubrey — she has done research on Miller and found out that Miller’s own partner has been missing for four days, but no one knows that. Why didn’t Miller mention this? That is for Aubrey to find out.

Brennan and the Jeffersonian team grow worried, knowing that Booth has lost a lot of blood and is likely out in the world needing medical attention. The episode ends as we see Booth tending to his own bloody wound. He is with two other men in an abandoned building of sorts. A fourth man joins them and it’s Kevin O’Donnell. He tells Booth he can’t have medical attention and asks if he’s still with them. Booth says yes, and the screen pulls back to a ton of cash.

THE SQUINTS:

I still don’t care one way or the other about Cam and Arastoo, but the scenes with the engagement ring (Hodgins/Arastoo, and then Cam/Arastoo/Hodgins) were very funny — the perfect amount of lighthearted humor for this episode.

I also liked the work related conversations between Hodgins and Arastoo, especially the Jordan/Pippin analogy, haha!

Caroline and Aubrey were great; everyone at the lab was great.

BOOTH & BRENNAN:

What worked:

• I loved the first family-of-four scene with B&B, Christine and Hank. Very cute.
• When Brennan examined the remains and had the flashbacks to various conversations/experiences with Booth, I was literally breathless. Those were amazing, amazing scenes. Honestly, they gave me a lot of hope for this season, that the showrunners and writers have a good grasp of the characters. SO GOOD! I loved how she was both methodical and emotional. I don’t wish Booth dead, but it would have almost been worth it for that scene, LOL!
• When season 10 ended, I was bummed because the Booth/Caroline good-byes were so perfect, and I wasn’t sure how the show could figure out a way to have them reunite. That Booth didn’t interact with anyone else (ex: Brennan) in this episode really ended up working out well, and I think will make that transition between seasons work
• I LOVED Kim Raver as Agent Miller. I loved that her analysis of Booth on paper is correct, but she was missing the human element piece of him. But she was right to dismiss the obvious bias Brennan and the Jeffersonian team (and me) have toward him and treat him like a suspect and fugitive. The BONES cast is professional and excellent, and I thought Raver was a worthy foil for so many characters, and she brought credibility to the role, which then flipped my perspective on Booth. I just loved it and kept thinking, “I really hope her character is not evil.”

What didn’t work for me:

• It was a little unrealistic how long it took for the team to figure out they were Jared’s bones and not Booth’s, but I get there had to be some tension there, so it’s fine.
• Emotional upheaval aside, I thought it was very uncool of Brennan to act/feel like she had a say in her replacement and judge the quality of work at the Jeffersonian. Nah, lady — you walked away!
• It was sad that Padme accused Brennan of getting between Booth and Jared, which then sort of implied that Booth is going behind Brennan’s back. After the gambling storyline in S10, it just feels too soon for this sort of issue between B&B, and I suppose I always sort of hoped that Jared/Padme & Booth/Brennan had kept up good relationships with one another.

All in all, I really liked this premiere. What did you think? What worked for you and what didn’t? The comments are open; speak your mind!

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