BONES Recap: ‘The Geek in the Guck’

Hello BONES fans, how did you like this episode “The Geek in the Guck”? There won’t be a new episode next week, so we need to make the discussion of this one really count. Let’s get to it.

THE CASE

The Scene of the Crime: Two kids try to search for nudie pics on a computer, but come across an image of a dead body. No word on who they told, or whether or not they are smart enough to delete their browser history.

The Victim: Hayes Robertson, a rich and famous video game creator. He was known for being a controlling genius.

The Suspects

• Noah Gummersall: Hayes’s roommate and fellow gamer. He is distraught at Hayes’ death, but when B&B learn he shared a checking account, they realize he stood to gain a lot of money.
• Ann-: Noah’s former girlfriend and Hayes’s second in command at Immersion Games. Now that Hayes is dead, she’s the acting lead programmer/game creator.
• Travis: A gamer who, through the use of motion sensors, acts out the very moves Hayes creates for his game. When the team realizes Hayes suffered similar wounds, they bring Travis in for questioning.
• Jen: The CEO of Immersion Games, her rude attitude tells Booth and Aubrey that she has no interest in cooperating with the law.
• Chloe: Noah’s new girlfriend. When Angela realizes Hayes was frequently visiting an apartment in her name, Booth brings her in for questioning as well.

The Case Progression

In the lab, Brennan, Cam, Hodgins, Angela, and intern Jessica Warren all examine Hayes’s remains. His arms, nose, ears, eyes and lips were all removed, and he suffered intense fractures to many bones. They determine he was dropped from a fairly great height, but that most of those injuries were postmortem; the killer had to have dragged his body to a bridge and dumped it off.

Hodgins completes an experiment (and draws the assistance of Jessica, Angela, and eventually Cam) of dropping test-dummies into a small pool. He is able to find the correct height to cause the injuries and identify which bridge featured the same height and was upstream from where Hayes’s body was found.

Once Hayes’s arms are brought to the lab, the team is able to examine them and determine additional defensive wounds and fracturing. Meanwhile, Angela pulls all of Hayes’s digital files, and traces his whereabouts.
Booth and Aubrey question each suspect, but when they bring Chloe in for questioning, Aubrey tells Booth she has an alias — Alice Kelly. And when Noah sees her at the FBI building, she has no idea who he is.

Booth realizes Hayes was catfishing Noah to keep him under his control. But if Noah and Alice weren’t in on it, they need to figure out who Noah has been texting with, even after Hayes’s death.

Hodgins finds gray paint and parts of the motion sensor markers in the victim’s leg bone. Brennan puts the clues of his injuries together and knows that the murder weapon was a shield — likely the one used in the game sensor simulations. She tasks Angela with recreating the fight scenario, using Hayes’s measurements and the shield’s measurements to determine the height and weight of the killer. They determine the killer was a right-handed female who favored her left side.

The Verdict: Booth and Brennan bring Ann back in for questioning. Brennan asks her to remove her sweater and reveals that Ann is stronger on her left side. She posits the scenario for how Hayes was killed, and Booth suggests the “why” — Ann was mad at Hayes for breaking up her relationship with Noah. With Hayes out of the picture, she took on the identity of Chloe enough to “break up” with Noah and presumably return to that relationship. She admits to it all — she was angry that Hayes treated them like characters in one of his games.

THE SQUINTS

I liked how much Angela, Cam and Hodgins worked the case. I know I said last week that I didn’t really need to see Aubrey at the lab (and everywhere else), but I thought it worked here when he came to visit and was impressed by everything. Calling Angela the “cute squint” was…interesting. Just…interesting.

I still am not a huge fan of Jessica, even from last season, and the whole cooperative storyline was kind of strange — especially because it seems as if it is over. So at this point, Jessica has been in two episodes and been very strange/quirky in both, but since Sweets is dead and the cooperative is breaking up, she still has no real identity on the team. If she is in more episodes, I hope they figure out a way to either ignore her personal life or make it less obnoxious. I did like the moment where she and Booth had a little camaraderie over the video chat about using gut reactions in the lab.

I also liked how Hodgins maintained his King of the Lab status with the experiment AND interpersonal skills by talking with Jessica to see how she was doing emotionally.

I loved, loved, loved the Brennan and Angela scene at the park!

BOOTH & BRENNAN

I really liked the family interactions between Booth, Brennan and Christine. I thought it was cute and very clear that they love one another. I liked that the public vs. private school debate between B&B wasn’t about money but more about their own personal experiences. It makes a lot of sense that Booth would want to validate his own past as something he experienced and turned out okay from, while Brennan sees her past experience as something she wants to improve on for Christine’s sake. Both of those reactions are very in character for them. I could tell Booth was moved by Brennan’s confession at the diner, and I think he will do fine choosing a school.
I also liked seeing Brennan in the field and in the interrogation room with Booth. After last week’s end scene with the two of them seemingly deciding Brennan would be in the lab and Booth with Aubrey in the field, I was a little wary of what would happen next, but for this episode at least, I thought the balance was really good.

There are times when I miss the raw UST heat that used to flare up between B&B. In comparison, I love that they are a happily married family, but yes…those past times were hot. But I’m not one who needs to see them having sex to feel like they have a healthy sex life, and I think this episode did a good job proving that.

Okay, enough from me. What did you like or not like about this episode? Were you surprised by the killer? Do you like Jessica? And how about Aubrey? The comments are open — speak your mind!

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