BONES Recap: ‘The Cheat in the Retreat’

Hello, BONES viewers! How did you like this episode, “The Cheat in the Retreat”? I will say that it was very cute and fun. I liked the lighthearted feel and that we saw some continuity on the B&B storyline.  I also enjoyed the unique setting for the case investigation as well as most of what happened in the lab. There’s a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: 

At the beginning of the episode, Booth and the J-team are called to investigate a body found near a dumpster, after it had been eaten by a bobcat. Brennan determines that the body was dead before the bobcat found it, which leads Booth to call it a body dump.

The Victim:

At the lab, Arastoo, Cam, Brennan and Hodgins examine the body and determine cause of death was blunt force trauma, likely to the skull. The victim is Adam Pak, a management consultant married to Emma — but since she didn’t report him missing, Booth and Sweets go to her house to talk to her.

The Case Progression:

Hodgins also discovers agricultural lime on the victim, and he is able to locate the origins to some Native American land nearby. When the team learns that Adam was taking part in a marriage retreat there, B&B decide to go undercover as Tony and Roxie Scallion.

The retreat is led by Shaman Little River, and “Tony and Roxie” are joined by couples Bill and Evelyn Schumaker and Jeffrey and Mark Baxter as well as Kelly Pak, who was at the retreat with Adam.

Booth and Brennan try to get as much information as they can from the other couples, and they quickly find out that things were not good between Adam and Kelly — there were lots of secrets and anger.

B&B split up on the case as the retreat members take to sweat lodges, and while “Tony” talks boxing and wheedles information from the guys on Adam and Kelly, “Roxie” uses word trickery to get Kelly to confess a lot of information, including that she knew Adam was married and was angry at him for not leaving his wife.

Primary Suspects:

• Emma Pak: Her reputation isn’t solid, especially when she tells Booth and Sweets that her husband and their security company all thought she was crazy when she called them to say she thought someone was breaking into their house.
• Kelly “Pak” Goodman: Adultery doesn’t put her in a good position in B&B’s eyes, and when the team finds out that she recently received over $900,000 from the death of a previous boyfriend, she shoots to the top of the suspect list
• Shaman Little River: Sweets tells Booth that LR has another identity that includes priors. Booth and Brennan confront him and propose that if Adam figured out LR’s past, he would want to shut him down, giving the retreat leader a clear motive.

Ultimate Crime Scene:

Hodgins traces the tree residue found on Adam’s teeth to a spot that also features the agricultural lime. B&B find the tree and are confident it’s where Adam was killed. Booth also finds a set of car keys and tire tracks, getting them closer to cause of death.

The Verdict:

Once Hodgins finds a piece of chrome alloy on Adam’s body, Brennan realizes the Schumaker’s had a car that matches. Booth and Sweets put it together, checking the history and figuring out that Bill and Evelyn would check into marriage retreats, get the car keys from other couples, and then rob their houses. But with Emma still at home, their plan failed. Adam caught them, and so they killed him. They easily confess and are completely insane, but still manage to offer Booth some advice on love. Okay then!

The Squints:

Outside of the case, the squint action revolved around two unresolved (by episode’s end) storylines:

• Sweets feeling unsettled in his current work and role
• Cam being the victim of identity theft

I like the idea of Sweets rethinking things. I don’t necessarily like him pouting and verbally kind of whining about everything, so hopefully that evens out a little bit. But I am interested to see what happens there in future episodes, especially since Sweets feels him taking a break is joining “the real world.”

I really liked Hodgins in this episode, from his work on the case to his helpfulness toward Cam and his conversations with Angela. “Nice Higgs reference!” was a great line.

Speaking of Cam, I will also say that this is the first time I really felt any interest in her relationship with Arastoo. They do love each other, and it worked for me here. I liked Arastoo recognizing her hard work in life, but also showing her that her relationships with people also tell the tale of her success in life, and no one can take that away from her. What did you think? Are you a fan of this relationship?

With B&B undercover, it was interesting to see Angela be the one who really talked with Sweets and Cam about their issues. But, like with the premiere episode, while I find Angela’s reasoning to be sound, her execution of “helping” people and giving advice is always incredibly rude and condescending, i.e. calling Sweets a tightwad who doesn’t belong anywhere else, calling Cam insane for not wanting help, and not accepting Brennan’s answers as valid at the BB hut and in the lab. She might be a good “friend,” but she is not a nice person.

Booth and Brennan:

Well, a lot has changed since we last saw Tony and Roxie in season 2’s “The Woman in the Sand,” including that B&B have the right to really touch one another whenever they want. I liked that the episode wasn’t over the top with B&B revealing things that annoyed one another. The beer helmet and the fertility statue were good enough, in my opinion.

I also loved that B&B/T&R were nearly perfect in the retreat trust exercise — it was fun to see them succeed and I’m glad the show didn’t make it something for them to bicker about. Blindfolding one person in a fat-suit and having the other walk them through an obstacle course is just horrifying to probably be something people have experienced in real life. I’ve never been to a marriage retreat, but I’ve been to enough corporate team building exercises to see that anything is possible, haha.

I like that Brennan is confident in her decision to trust Booth, despite Angela’s attempts to sway her in the other direction and/or make her feel like an idiot for doing so. I wasn’t surprised that Booth was annoyed to see Angela dissing him in their home.  And it was cool to see Brennan tell her that, compared to other couples, she and Booth are doing just fine.

The final scene proved that to me. It was lighthearted and fun, keeping in line with the rest of the episode. I liked that Brennan wanted to try one of the exercises with Booth and that he was resistant at first, but then went for it. It was cool when he told her about Sweets taking a break. I also loved their banter in that scene, and the way they lost their robes and fell into bed. Good B&B times. Maybe it’s a nice contrast/mirror to the end hotel room scene from “The Woman in the Sand.” Hey, that comparison might be a stretch, but I’ll give the writers the benefit of the doubt on that one!

Okay, enough from me. What did you think of this episode? Were you surprised by the killers? What do you think will happen with Sweets and with Cam? Do you have any marriage retreat horror exercises of your own to share? The comments are open, so speak your mind!