BONES Recap: ‘The Resurrection in the Remains’

Hello BONES (and possibly SLEEPY HOLLOW) fans! This episode, “The Resurrection in the Remains,” was part of a two-part crossover special with SLEEPY HOLLOW, and we saw Ichabod Crane (Tom Mison) and Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) guest star. There were tricks and treats to be had in the Halloween-themed ep, so let’s get to discussing!

THE CASE

Two young men are planning a kegger at a church, but when the floorboards give way, they find a human skeleton covered in maggots. Ew, and right on schedule.

Booth thinks it’s sacrilegious, but Brennan isn’t so sure. But they are both surprised, along with Cam and Hodgins, when the dead body is found alongside an iron coffin with a strange insignia. And inside is the skeleton of a Revolutionary War era British soldier…with no skull. What could they possibly have in common?

Angela is able to do a reconstruction and after initially thinking the victim was blond, they realize she had magenta hair and many piercings. The victim is Sarah Lippman, a local medical student.

Booth and Aubrey visit the hospital where she was working and meet her boss, Dr. John Cruz. He said Sarah changing her appearance wasn’t unusual—she wanted more credibility. He points out Sarah’s boyfriend Joel, another student.

Joel is shocked that Sarah is dead. He reported her missing but he hadn’t seen her for a few days; this wasn’t unusual with their academic schedule. But she’d been very happy lately. Booth and Aubrey check out her work locker and find a large old book of spells with the insignia from the iron coffin—definitely not a coincidence. This still doesn’t explain why she was buried beside a high ranking British officer; this brings Abbie Mills and Ichabod Crane to the lab. They believe the headless man is part of an ongoing case they are working on in Sleepy Hollow. Brennan doesn’t want to release the remains since they are part of a murder investigation; the Sleepy Hollow team tell her they aren’t leaving without them.

Ichabod is intrigued by the Jeffersonian and suggests it would have done its namesake proud. He thinks the headless man is Abraham Van Brunt, a man who was decapitated during the Revolution. Brennan says the bones and clothes verify his assumption, but not the headless part—it was done more recently and with a more modern saw. Angela pulls up a body recognition and Ichabod is shocked—the body belongs to British General William Howe, an enemy.

Booth and Mills examine Sarah’s apartment and find a note stating “last night was insane xx” and a fine-toothed saw. Convenient. Ichabod analyzes the book of spells and he and Hodgins realize it needs to literally be illuminated with candlelight. Angela manufactures this and sure enough, secret text is displayed, indicating info on how to raise the dead.

Cam and Wendell discuss Sarah’s body; while there was no sign of ritualistic killing, there is evidence that she died two weeks before her death. So perhaps the person she was raising from the dead was herself—but how?  Aubrey questions Martin, a friend of Joel’s and Sarah’s. He eventually admits that he was with Sarah when they drank a lot of expensive champagne. But it wasn’t a romantic evening out; they were celebrating something else—a shared experience. He was sick as a child and Sarah was obsessed over her sister’s death. She was desperate to know what happened in the afterlife. So, as medical students, they did what was necessary to stop her life and then revive it. And Sarah’s mind was blown. Aubrey figures Martin has just admitted to knowing how Sarah eventually died.
Hodgins, Aubrey, and Cam search the hospital’s examination classroom and find blood splatter on the ceiling, indicating Sarah must have died there.

At the lab, Brennan and Crane are discussing a letter from the archives from George Washington, where he requested that General Howe’s body be buried in the colonies. Brennan says that if the letter is authentic, he can have the remains.

Wendell, Cam and Hodgins search through the hospital’s trash and medical waste to find General Howe’s skull. They find some bone shards, pieces of a porcelain mug, and the skull, as well as some vials of medicine, which is odd, since all of the ‘patients’ in the class are already dead.

Aubrey tracks the medicine vials back to Dr. Cruz. He admits that Sarah was blackmailing him into giving her the necessary medicines to stop and restart her heart. At the lab, the team realizes Howe’s skull might have been the murder weapon and want to search for one of Howe’s teeth. Crane points out that one of his teeth was porcelain. Hodgins hunts through the porcelain pieces from the hospital trash, and they find it.

They trace epithelial cells back to Joel. Booth and Abbie question him, and he admits that Sarah was obsessed with getting back to the afterlife and wanted him to try it. He did but he saw nothing. This shook his faith and he grew annoyed with Sarah, enough to hit her with the skull and cause her death.

THE SQUINTS

I admittedly haven’t seen much of SLEEPY HOLLOW, so I’m not sure how in-character Mills and Crane were, but it was fun to see them interact with the squints. Nothing seemed over the top, and it worked. I liked most everything in this episode, and I liked that it was Wendell who was the one who helped Booth with his prank.

I thought some of the science in the lab was over-explained, but I’m guessing it was for any lovely first-time viewers, so that is fine.

BOOTH & BRENNAN

When the episode description said B&B would spend the ep pulling pranks on one another, I wasn’t sure what to think. That it was really just 2-3 pranks total was good.

It was funny when Brennan assumed Crane and Mills were also romantic and professional partners. I liked seeing B&B interact with Crane and Mills at the end at Founding Fathers. Again, I’m not sure how Crane and Mills are normally written, but for me, if there is any criticism of this episode, it is that Crane and Brennan were written as characters and often for the “oh won’t this be HILARIOUS” joke, whereas Booth and Abbie were written as people, and I liked that much much better.

All in all, it was a fun episode.

What did you think? The comments are open!