Monday, August 6, 2012

The Secret in the Soil

Brennan and Bones go to see a Clinical Psychologist on a Saturday, on FBI orders. They agreed to see another therapist, Lance Sweets. I ask why? Who decided to make "the troubled relationship theme" the focus of the season.

Booth makes fun of the therapist's youth. Lance says that the FBI is considering separating them, because Booth arrested her father and will have to testify against him and that's got to cause tension in the relationship. She says he was just doing his job. Lance says that could have awakened scary feelings between them. Booth says he doesn't have scary feelings. Really? Lance points out that Booth's been trying to intimidate him, Lance, since he got there.

It's stupid that the FBI should be worrying about how they get along, since it didn't put them together in the first place. Booth did. Their efficacy in solving cases hasn't changed. They haven't shot each other. Booth shot the clown head before he arrested her dad, not after and he did it because a suspect fell to his death out of Booth's arms. None of Booth's crazy behavior can be traced back to Bones. Why would the FBI investigate their dynamic further? Of course, it's a story gimmick, but why not concoct a believable one?

Of course, the threat of separation might bring them even closer. Lance gives them questionnaires to fill out. It will help him evaluate whether Bones should be assigned to another agent.

Bones told Sweets to do it on Saturday, because she wasn't free during the week. Bones said he had seats just behind the dugout (with whom?) and is upset that she ruined his weekend. My guess is the show will end with them at a baseball game together [I was wrong on this call].

Before they can salvage their weekend, they are called to a body discovery at the V. A. grounds, which is used as a Lover's Lane on weekends.

Booth starts to tell a story about how he took a girl to make out at a golf course once when he was young. She had long hair all the way down to . . . Cam says, "You're so going to regret telling this story." Why? How could a story about youthful frivolity embarass him later?

The body is still warm, even though it is badly decomposed and had been dead for awhile. It was cooked. At the lab, Hodgins wonders if it could be connected to the "widow's son" case involving cannibalism, even though the body was not eaten.

Hodgins is talking to a bug saying, "hello my exotic princess" when Cam walks in. She says it's a charmingly inappropriate greeting and when Zach says he was talking to a bug she says now she feels rejected. Interesting, because they don't usually allude to her race and the "exotic" reference seemed to do so.

Booth asks Bones what her answers to the questionnaire are, but she refuses to cheat.

The victim owned an organic food chain. He used to force smaller farmers off of their land if they would not convert to organic, so he made enemies.

Booth is not into organic food. Bones mischievously tells him that alligators who swim in water with pesticides have smaller genitalia. He gives her a sideways glance. "No way." Yes, way, she confirms. [So, what's her point? Do the genitalia get smaller or are they just born smaller? Because if it's the latter, it just means Booth's sons might have problems in that arena, because of what his parents were exposed to, not Booth.]

As Booth and Bones are investigating a hot house, Booth theorizes that Sweets is jealous of him because he is a former jock and Sweets is scrawny. When he saw Booth, he probably wanted payback, "threatens to take my partner away from me." This is nice, because it is a possessive mention of Bones as his. Is she worried that he will be taken away from her? She doesn't say so, just concentrates on the plants in the hothouse.

Booths smells something in the hothouse and blames her. She says, "he who smelt it dealt it." He says what I'm thinking: "How do you even know that phrase?" The owner says that there's a community compost nearby and that's where the fertilizer smell is coming from. This gives her a clue and she drags him out of there, before he has finished his pineapple smoothie. Glad to see her tugging on him for a change.

The body probably came from a compost heap, which is why it was warm, since composts have a lot of heat. Hodgins is excited about the prospect of them going to a compost heap and Booth hears him over the phone talking to Bones (though I'm surprised he can hear the conversation, from his side of the car) and says it's wrong how excited Hodgins sounds about compost. "Wrong."

I think Ron Howard's brother just showed up as a farmer at the compost heap. Formerly of Gentle Ben. If that's him, I bet he's the murderer. The named guest star always is [checked the cast list and it wasn't Howard].

They are back at Sweets'. Booth isn't paying attention and an irritated Bones says that even though it's her case and she wants to solve it too, she can concentrate on the therapy as well. Looking on, Sweets asks how they resolve arguments. Booth says they bicker. She denies it. He said, "You pretty much told me my penis was going to shrink, if I didn't eat organic food." She said, "that's not bickering. That's just being a good friend."

"My penis is just fine, thank you." Sweets likes it: "now, we're getting somewhere."

Impatient, Booth fingers his colorful, striped socks. Booth just wants Sweets to sign the release form. Sweets says Booth should let his anger lead him to his fear.

Sweets says that he and Bones are going to close their eyes and follow the anger. He closes his and says he can feel the anger softening. Bones doesn't close hers and both she and Booth look and laugh at Sweets. "Very mature, guys" Sweets says when his lids open and he sees both of them mocking him.

They find another corpse in the compost heap.

Seeing Zach and Cam in the lab together and thinking of how in past episodes he's confided in her (well, with him it's not really a confidence, he just answers whatever you ask him, no matter the circumstances) and she has encouraged him in her own helpful, but non-mushy way, I think it would be interesting for these 2 to get together. Unlikely considering age, his social awkwardness and sexual inexperience, but an all the more interesting pairing because of those differences.

Angela drives with Booth and Bones to have a witness describe a suspect to her. She enjoys listening to their bickering in the back seat. Booth thinks it's someone in the compost facility and Bones' thinks he's grasping at straws and why should they chase leads based on nothing more than his gut instincts? [I think she's crazy. If police waited for evidence and never investigated possibilities, few crimes would be solved, especially since most law enforcement agents don't have million dollar Jeffersonian labs and squints to work on a case with them.]

Angela wonders if it's always like this with them? Booth says yes, Bones says no. Angela: "It's kind of hot."

They have the 2nd victim's stalker describe suspects to Angela, so she can do a sketch. Since he is a stalker (and stoner), I'm thinking that maybe Booth shouldn't have given him Angela's first and last name, once the looney starts eyeing Angela. She tells him she will crush him like a bug, "dude."

Thinking about Bones and Booth patented in-the-car, I know there has to be an episode where Bones does the driving and Booth comments on her prowess, like "Sure. Fine. Whatever" (Syzygy) for Mulder and Scully.

As the case winds up, we find that the victim's daughter killed 2nd victim (who turned out to be her half sister) and then her father (finding his illegitimate daughter dead and a clue that led him to someone who was involved in that death) went after his known daughter's boyfriend (who helped dispose of the body). The vengeful father was accidentally killed by the boyfriend in self-defense. The legitimate daughter thought father was having an affair with the 2nd victim and didn't know it was his other daughter, her half sister. The daughter cries and Bones' reaches out to comfort her, which is a rather strange move on her part. Other murderers have been sympathetic and she didn't hold their hands. Plus, killing the woman your dad is having an affair with (because he's made your mom so miserable for so long) isn't that sympathetic of a move, even if she'd been right about the affair. Maybe if she'd offed the dad I can understand it, but the other woman? Why feel sorry for her, because she went homicidal and got the wrong person?

They go back to Sweets when the case is over, looking somber. Sweets observes that they aren't happy to have solved it. Booth says no, because sometimes when you win, you end up with someone's pain and screwed up life. He thinks Sweets should know that, since he works for the FBI.

Bones objects when Sweets says it's a challenge for Booth to access those feelings of sadness he has about the case outcome. Tired of him reading Booth, Bones says he doesn't know Booth or her. He has limited data, a superficial standardized questionnaire and subjective analysis that is not at all scientific, "So, BACK OFF."

Sweets says he was trying to help. "What, by questioning his humanity?" Nice defense of Booth on her part.

Booth laughs it off, tells Bones not to go overboard and says Sweets is just a kid and the worst thing that happened to him is he lost in mortal combat.

Sweets: "Are you normally this protective of him, Dr. Brennan?"

She says as partners, their lives depend on them being protective of each other.

He asks if Booth feels the same way. Booth: "I can only hope that one day you know what a real partnership is." Most people don't wish a partnership on others. Instead, they would say that "I hope you some day know what true love is." So, it sounds intimate, the way he is placing the value of partnership up there with other relationships held sacred by society.

Sweets says that they are very close, that was evident in their questionnaire answers, even if Bones found the survey "superficial."

And even if his observations are "unscientific," Sweets says he concludes that they complement each other.

Booth says, "she never compliments me" and wonders if Bones complimented him in the questionnaire [yeah, she praised your tie in the questionnaire, Booth!]. Bones has to tell him that Sweets means com-ple-ment. "He means that we complete each other." Oh, no, they didn't just steal Mulder's line to Scully did they! "As a team," she adds.

This embarasses Booth a little. "Yeah, right," he says quickly.

I am tired of everyone telling Booth and Bones (and the audience) that they are so close. The producers created this series to woo shipper fans and you'd get that anyway, as long as you have two stars of the opposite sex. You don't have to constantly remind viewers in every single episode that they're supposed to want these people to be together. Let us come to that conclusion ourselves. You're aiming for what the X-Files had, but Chris Carter did it organically (and maybe against his own will). Doing it by such obvious design is tedious. The writers are very good with dialogue. Just give us their banter, let us make of it what we will and stop having everyone else analyze what that interaction says about them as a couple.

Sweets says they can remain partners, "We get to stay together?" Bones asks. Yes, but they have underlying issues to address over the next few months. [ Why? The issue was supposedly whether there was resentment because he arrested her father. If there isn't and they're so close and complementing, why would they still have to continue therapy? It's a plot device that wastes my time and exposes the writers' laziness.]

Sweets says 'there's a deep emotional attachment between you two.' Booth says they're only partners. Bones says they're professionals and there's a line that doesn't even have to be drawn. Sweets says why would he think otherwise? Booth says, "because you're twelve."

Again, I resent that they have these therapists telling them (and us) what the relationship is when, if it's written well, it would go unspoken rather than be talked about ALL the time, by Angela, strangers and the very corpses. Plus, it's something that can't even be put into words or dialogue, if it's done right. "Love" seemed to small a word for what Mulder and Scully shared, in the end.

Booth says that if there were no more murders he would probably not even see Bones. She says that's "very true."

[Yeah, he might go out and make murders to see her! Or, without their work creating a wall between them, then he could probably see her in another capacity without feeling awkward.]

Booth says, "We might have coffee." She says, "probably not."

Booth: "What?"

Bones: "What?"

Booth (a bit hurt): "you wouldn't even have coffee with me?"

Well, she said in his scenario they wouldn't know each other. No, he explains. They would. He said there would be no more murders, not no murders in the first place. [How could she have missed that distinction. It was clear.] Then, fine she says, they could have coffee. That's their relationship, she says: "coffee." He says yeah, let's move on.

Sweets looks at them and smiles and takes notes.















































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