Bones – Episode 4-8 Review

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For those of you who’ve long wondered what happens when tear gas meets a meth lab, the answer is summed up in six letters: K-a B-o-o-m.

And it’s on that premise that Bones’ “The Con Man” in the Meth Lab centers, after State Police discover a body during a what-not-to-do drug raid demonstration.

Lucky for the state police, the guy was already deceased; unlucky for the cadets in training, his crispy disembodiment wasn’t such a pretty picture.

“We’re going to need a fire extinguisher,” the instructor says, “then maybe some sort of trauma counselor.”

The discovery comes on the heels of Special Agent Seeley Booth’s Rico case, one he says will propel him into legendary FBI status, replete with a pay raise, a birthday celebration in Hawaii, a parade and most definitely his face on a coin. (Is that where all our tax dollars go?)

In a celebratory mood, he introduces the Jeffersonian Squint Squad to his brother Jared, a naval officer who just landed a lush job at the Pentagon.
After meeting him, Angela gives him her seal of approval.
“Are you thinking of leaving lesbianism?” asks Dr. Temperance Brennan.
“I prefer not to be labeled,” she says.
After Cam has to bail on Jared – the two planned to attend a White House gala together as friends – Brennan offers to go with him. If you’ve waited four seasons to see a Booth kiss Brennan, this was your night.

It was just the wrong Booth.
“I bet Seeley never took that risk,” Jared says.
“Nope,” replies Brennan.

So Brennan becomes a little infatuated with this “Booth Lite,” as Angela calls him, and listens to his theories on the real Booth’s self-sabotaging ways.

Meanwhile, the team discovers the human bomb collateral was shot before the explosion. In his pocket is a book of schematics, and they tie him to a local inventor. Turns out, he’s the inventor’s long-lost father – or at least that’s what they thought.
When the facts really shake out they discover he was only posing as the man’s father to profit off the inventions. He was involved in a scheme that included a police officer, and when Booth and Brennan go to confront the two-timer she gets nicked by a bullet before the bad guy goes down.

If my summary sounds less than cinematic, don’t blame me. Because of the Booth-Brennan-Booth drama, most of the episode’s actual crime solving is played out in expository dialogue, characters seated on a sofa or riding to and fro in a car.
It may as well have been broadcast over the radio, the information was so dense and the screen movement so still.
Bones usually walks the drama/science line well, but this episode played heavier to matters of the heart.

Including: a Booth vs. Brennan blowout of surprising proportions. Brennan confronts Booth about his aversion to success after he loses the Rico case to the state police. What she doesn’t know is Booth traded the glory so that the police wouldn’t go public with Jared’s recent DUI arrest.

It’s what he’s done all along, protect his younger brother from the big bad world, despite it being to his own detriment. To that end, Brennan has some angry words herself for Booth Lite, and encourages the real Booth to end the pattern.
The episode fades out with the two of them taking a breather from Booth’s birthday celebration, which ends up not in Hawaii, but the standard diner. She shares with him her piece of cake and listens, as he finally begins to explain to her why he‘s the overprotective brother he is.
An explanation that may not be a good night smooch, but it’s a risk right up his alley.

Jennifer Morris is a journalist and frequent contributor to the What’s Up Arts and Entertainment movie review column The Screening Room.