After “Bones” took a sadistic and nearly two month-long hiatus, viewers were finally reunited with the crime-solving Jeffersonian team in a big way. The episode begins with the wunderkind psychologist Lance Sweets sitting on a subway, striking up a conversation with a young man who has apparently just learned he has defeated a long bout with cancer.
When an earthquake suddenly causes the water mains to break and flood the subway, the man is flung into a pole and killed instantaneously, while a body washes up in the process. Wow writers, way to welcome us back with a really depressing intro.
In a very post-coma-Booth-esque moment, Sweets begins to reevaluate his life. He begins avoiding Daisy (who happens to be the intern du-jour) and seems generally morose, which is understandable considering the circumstances.
Thankfully, the episode doesn’t go overboard with the sappy “Carpé Diem” revelation, and Sweets’ ordeal remains pleasantly on the periphery of most of the episode.
The Squints determine that the remains belong to Martin Aragon, a blind “scribe” or essentially, a professional letter-writer. They suspect that he was killed by someone he criticized in a letter or by someone who had used his service. Brennan tries to work on the case while simultaneously interviewing with a Japanese journalist interested in her career as an author of fiction, and particularly her newest novel. As expected, there’s a great deal of conjecture about who the characters represent, and the famous “page 187” is eventually revealed to refer to Angela and Hodgins. Regardless, she continually eludes to the constant “are they/aren’t they” relationship between Booth and Brennan.
I was especially pleased with the decision to out Angela as an important contributor and influence on Brennan’s books; the über-rational Brennan writing romantic sex scenes always seemed a bit unlikely to me. Angela’s role as a sounding board for Brennan’s books made perfect sense and expanded on their often-neglected friendship, and the scene with Brennan handing Angela a giant check for her contributions was perfect.
Ultimately, it is determined that Martin’s murderer is McKenna Grant, a transit cop. She killed Martin when she learned that he had authored a letter supposedly from her boyfriend, and was enraged by the “lie.” Though, to me, killing the poor schmuck who wrote the letter seems to make less sense than killing her boyfriend who paid for it.
Sweets finally resolves to talk to Daisy about his new life philosophy, and she’s fully expecting him to break up with her. My friend and I had been arguing earlier in the episode about whether or not Sweets was planning on ending their relationship or taking it a step further, I was pretty resolved that Sweets was going to propose to Daisy. And propose he did. Although I’m not Daisy’s biggest fan, I did think that it was nice to see two characters on the show in a semi-healthy, open, long-term relationship. After Angela and Hodgins and the ever-unrealized Booth and Brennan, we need some honest declarations every now and then to keep us hoping.
Next week is the much-anticipated 100th episode, revealing how Booth and Brennan first met. The promo proclaims this is the episode we’ve “waited 5 years for,” so with a promise like that, it ought to be good.
