Bones ~ The Dentist in the Ditch

A gay football playing dentist, civil war reenactors, spiders, rhubarb, and love – this episode had it all! Well, at least it had all of those things, which I think is pretty impressive. Let’s break this episode down a little differently this week, shall we?

The Case

The remains were found by a couple of bickering civil war reenactors who impressed Brennan with their unexpected knowledge of the soil and geological conditions which caused the body to be incased in hard red clay. The body turned out to belong to a dentist, who turned out to be gay. It also turned out that he was a football player on an all gay team. There were various red herrings along the way with fairly reasonable motives for murder: a bitter ex boyfriend; a possibly disgruntled ex-employee; a member of an opposing team whom he fought with (turned out that they were secret lovers). In a classic Bones move, the killer turned out to be the first person we met, a schlubby contractor whom the victim caught reselling paving tile that he had paid for. The murder was accidental, but the cover-up – not so much. To jail with you sir!

The Lab

The drama/comic relief in the lab this week revolved around one of our favorite interns, Vincent Nigel-Murray, desperately trying to earn a word of praise from Brennan. Despite some excellent creative thinking to clean the bones (Rhubarb bath!) he just couldn’t seem to get an approving word out of her. We haven’t seen her this obliviously cold to an intern since Zach’s early days, or the very beginning of the era of rotating interns. Hodgins even tried to set him up for praise:

Hodgins: Do you know what Vincent Nigel-Murray is? He's a genius.
Brennan: Yes, but so are we all. Except for Angela.
Angela: Oh, right, and yet who do you turn to when you need pretty pictures?

Eventually Cam got through to her and Brennan threw a “good job” his way, which made him down right giddy. An approving smile from her later in the episode had the same effect.

This week in the lab we also learned that Cam hates spiders:

Hodgins: Are you okay there, Dr. Saroyan?
Cam: I'm just itchy all over. I'm gonna go burn all of these clothes and maybe my hair.

And that Vincent Nigel-Murray is a sexy beast:

Vincent: If I had killed everyone who looked at me lustily I wouldn't have made it out of school.

The Heart of the Matter

Hehe, see what I did there? I took the name of Sweets’ study and made it a plot category! Ain’t I clever? Anyway, Jared Booth returned this week and brought a girlfriend/soon-to-be fiancé (Padme) with him. Booth being the overprotective brother that he his ran a background check on this girl and discovered that she was an escort. When questioned by Brennan about this, he said he did it because he cares about Jared. She asked if he runs a background check on everyone that she goes out on a date with. If he doesn’t already, he probably should. I mean seriously, there have been a couple of murders mixed in there!

Booth tells Jared about Padme’s past and Jared is really pissed that he ran the background check, and storms out. Everyone is pretty much on team Jared on this one. Bones is having a serious crisis of logic because she can’t understand why Booth would encourage her to have a relationship with her father even though he killed a man, but cannot approve of Jared dating a reformed escort. In the end it turns out that Jared always knew about Padme’s past, and that she knows about his. They are going to get married and Booth will be the best man. So the mysterious wedding couple spoiler that has been bopping around the internet these last few weeks is finally revealed! Brennan then decides to make a toast, because (as Booth explains) that is kind of her new thing and she’s pretty good at it.

Brennan: When Booth and I first met, I didn't believe that such a thing as love existed. I maintained that it was simply brain chemistry, but perhaps Booth is correct. Perhaps love comes first and creates the reaction. I have no tangible proof, but I'm willing to accept Booth's premise.
Booth: To love.
Jared: To love.
Padme: To love.
Brennan: To love.

And these fangirls’ hearts melted with joy.

PS: I don’t think we’ve had a good old fashioned “Brennan stares at bones alone while some hip music plays until she sees something no one else could possible find” moment since the first season. Possibly even the first episode! Was this a nice throwback, or a little too jarring?