No trust, no trust, no trust.
That's the major takeaway from this week's episode of Bones, which sent the Jeffersonian and FBI teams back to doing what they do best - solving the murder of the week.
Booth's stint in prison, along with the death of a former partner, has him keeping Brennan and new FBI agent Aubrey at a distance; not sleeping by his wife's side, walking into a dangerous situation without someone who can have his back, and (according to Brennan) avoiding church. Booth brushes off these allegations, choosing instead to focus on the facts of the case, so I guess this review is going to have to follow suit...
This week's victim was a radio host who ran a politically conservative talk show alongside a liberal co-host (aka punching bag) and a hyper-rich man's man of a producer. From the very first scene featuring these two colleagues, there was enough friction to put one or both of them in high suspicion, but of course the show found several other potential suspects: an even MORE conservative political activist so desperate for attention that he confessed to murder, a dominatrix who insisted her services were therapeutic in nature, and a secretly drug-addicted wife who stood to gain millions from the victim's death.
So politics, kinky sex, and big money; that should make for a great episode, but somehow I ended the episode feeling a little let down. To explain this, I'm going to talk spoilers, so if you don't want the episode ruined for you, stop here.
For starters, I guessed the killer by his second line. The young punching-bag liberal who co-hosted the victim's show may have seemed mild-mannered, but he displayed a knack for vocal imitation during the argument with his boss; distinguishing features like that often end up being the telltale traits that mark characters as killers later on in the episodes, like the woman who tended to flip her hair or the groundskeeper who treated her shrubs like children. Even though the show explored some spicy alternatives, I found myself waiting for the clues to lead back to this character as the murderer...and they did.
Instead of using the dungeon scene and the dominatrix discussion as an opportunity to explore ways of helping Booth sort through his mistrust in those around him, they focused on the pain and abandonment the victim craved, which left him vulnerable to the murderer who confronted him later.
In the end, the episode solved the mystery, but left us wondering how long it'll be before Booth begins to trust again. Here's hoping it won't be too long before he embraces Sweets' final words, "...the world's a lot better than you think it is."
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Couple of things I'd love to hear about in the comments section:
- This episode broke away from a multiple-episode storyline we've been seeing so far this season and dealt with a one-episode mystery. Were you happy to see the transition? Frustrated? Why?
- How does new agent James Aubrey seem to be fitting in? At the end of the case, he brought a bottle of cheap wine to the Booth/Brennan abode, but is that enough to embrace him as a member of the team?
- Any fellow kinksters out there? What did you think of the BDSM representation in this episode? Anyone else think it's really obvious that Emily Deschanel has never wielded a flogger before?
- How long will Booth remain mistrusting? What will break down those walls? Will it drive Brennan away?
seem to me Booth in the FBI because of what happen to Sweets.........I still think he will leave because of his mistrust of what happen..........if this is in fact the final season I could see him take early retirement or go to the private sector
ReplyDeleteWow!! last week I agreed with everything you said but this week I don't think we watched the same show LOL!!! I thought they made it abundantly clear that the ONLY person Booth trusted was Brennan. In the car scene he made it pretty clear that Brennan is currently his whole world - hence Brennan saying "you have to make your world bigger than just you and me" to which Booth replied "I trust you" and "I believe in my family" Whatever is going on with Booth the one person he trusts and is hiding behind is his wife - and I thought they made the entire episode centre around that one fact. Go figure LOL!!
ReplyDeleteI still feel a huge disconnect between the squint "family" and Booth and as Hodgins said years.s ago, it was Booth that gave them purpose. No one asks, even to Brennan, how he's doing or tell him to say I said "Hi" The one person who did ask about Booth is a rotating intern. The FBI trainee is a douche, pushy, wants in on "high profile" cases and has already asked Booth for a recommendation. Brennan pushing Booth to trust him isn't rational, would Booth get between her and a member of her team? I dont think so. He would let her manage her workplace.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading. :)
ReplyDeleteI totally see Booth putting his faith in Brennan; that's practically a given! But it's putting all his eggs in one basket, and Brennan knows that's not healthy...and it's not the Booth we all know and love.
He took an itty bitty baby step at the end of this episode, sure, but I suspect this episode was meant to reinforce how hesitant Booth is to let anyone new in his life...and it'll be a while longer before that changes.
Stay tuned, hopefully we'll get back on the same page. :) If not, I welcome your thoughts to the contrary!
That's a great point about the team! Although they did see Booth was okay at the crime scene, you're right; he's been in the lab with the squints less often than usual.
ReplyDeleteI'm on the fence about Agent Aubrey as well. He does seem awfully keen on worming his way into Booth's work, but he also had Sweets's stamp of approval, and that's a pretty big point in his favor. I'm holding off on my judgment of him for now...but eventually his true colors will show. I look forward to writing about it, so I hope you stay tuned. :)
Well, given that Sweets' recommendations were not always that great, I would not hold Sweets' as the gold standard in judging Aubrey. I find Aubrey pretty obnoxious (douche WAS a good word for him!) and not someone I would see Booth taking a shine to. I don't like him. I liked Booth's female trainee agents much better.
ReplyDeleteI did not like this episode, and I almost never say that about Bones. I found the portrayal of the conservative talk show host (poorly disguised take off of Rush, and I'm not even a big fan of Rush) really offensive. It was as though they needed to make him a total jerk and a hypocrite (the ultimate liberal epithet), because no one could EVER sincerely hold conservative beliefs and values, and so would have to punish themselves secretly for their "evil" ways. They would HAVE to be a hypocrite and only be doing it for the money. H&S have shown liberal colors in the past, but not in such a blatant, in your face, way. I was greatly offended.
Now, since there actually is no constitutional right not to be offended, contrary to today's popular beliefs, I deal with it, but if H&S feel an ongoing need to keep on offending, I may stop watching my all-time favorite show. So I hope they don't do that. I would hate to see them spoil what may be the last season with a lot of liberal "moralizing."
Interesting! I am always frustrated when BDSM practices are written off as a way for someone to cope/punish themselves for being "wrong" or "bad", and they certainly painted the character that way.
ReplyDeleteYou can't fault an industry of artists for having liberal views; it's all sad-but-true fact of artists to have slightly squishier, more relaxed opinions on society's hard topics. At least H&S are not Sorkin-level in their expression of those opinions.
While I didn't find the politics particularly upsetting here, I agree with you that this episode wasn't very likable. In fact, I struggled to come up with really anything worth writing about it! It seemed more like a filler episode than anything else, and those are few and far between on this show. Let's hope it's because they worked INCREDIBLY HARD on making the upcoming episodes intriguing and appealing!
Thanks for commenting. :)