If the Tower Bridge opens and you're present, but not paying attention, does it still bring good luck? Technically, probably not, but I don't think that will hurt Brennan and Booth any.
These were my first episodes watching on Blu-ray dvd and the English scenery was breathtaking.
Having Booth and Brennan work with theie London counterparts, Wexler and Pritchard was amusing. Since Brennan usually falls pretty quickly for jerks, I was glad she didn't succumb to Wexler, but not for the reason she gave: that Booth wouldn't like it. When does he get a say in her sex life? He can have one, if he admits an emotional commitment that would make him feel bad about her romantic dalliance with someone else, but that paternalistic nonsense about him not wanting her to be a notch on someone's belt was ridiculous. When Brennan thought his tense driving could be due to the fact that he thought she slept with Wexler and she tells Ian that one hour of pleasure with him is not worth upsetting her partner, I think she felt that Booth's objections were more deep-seated than what he stated: that she's special and Ian is not.
However, Brenann is usually embarassingly good at blurting out exactly what she thinks. If she thought that Booth was jealous, she would normally say so. She didn't. So, it irks me that she did what he wanted for reasons he had no right to feel. It could be that she did not want to sleep with Wexler herself and used Booth as an excuse, because he's the reason she declined -- not because he told her not to, but because she wanted him not to want her to do it. Even if that's the case, I would think Brennan would be more self-aware about her true motives. I hate to admit it, but maybe I needed Sweets there to analyze them. I'm happy to have Brennan make a choice in her personal life simply to avoid hurting Booth, but I want them both to be honest about why he would have been hurt.
As for the case, Booth's insistence upon having a gun reminded me of Brennan's back home. Although she investigated with Booth (something that Ian did not do with Pritchard), she didn't ask for a gun herself, until almost the end. She pointed out that she was responsible with a weapon and found out that killing didn't bother her as much as she'd thought it would. Booth, not really wanting her to have a gun, said it bothered her some. But Brennan said not that much!
Pritchard told Booth if he did something reckless, she'd be the one who would hang, not him. That's how Brennan's reckless use of her gun gets Booth in trouble, back at home.
Since the deceased heiress' mother had died 21 years ago, I'm not sure how Brennan knew she hadn't inherited the generic bone disease from her. Maybe she looked at the mother's medical records, but I didn't hear that part. It seems like she found out about the genetic defect, had observed the American billionaire didn't have it (just by looking at him), deduced the aristocratic family did have it (because the father used a cane and the grandmother was in a wheelchair, which looks like normal aging to me, not a birth defect) and assumed that the Duke was the heiress' real father. When she confronted the family with this news, the Duke's wife didn't seem too upset one way or another. Didn't care that her husband had cheated on her, that the truth had been revealed or that her son had slept with his half sister. Also, whether the Duke or their butler killed the girl, how come no one seemed that sad that someone who turned out to be a blood relative was murdered. Wouldn't the grandmother care more about the lost granddaughter than about getting the butler the best defense team money could buy?
The fact that we didn't know whether the Butler really did it or was just protecting the Duke and they were happy to leave that story ambiguous was a bit troublesome. If you care enough to write a mystery, at least wrap it up for the audience. I thought that would be explored more in the second part of the episode, but instead we got another murder. Considering that the last one was so scandalous, Duke's family implicated in murder and incest, you'd think we'd hear about fallout from that investigation in the 2nd part of the opener, but not a peep.
When Ian died, it sort of annoyed me that Brennan was rattled. She didn't know him enough to be almost as upset as Pritchard was. The most upsetting thing, which no one mentioned is that she could have been in bed with him. She was thinking of going home with him that night.
As for Pritchard and Wexler, they illustrate something about our lead couple, just as the other agents in Detour informed us about Mulder and Scully. Even though Wexler and Pritchard were sleeping together, they didn't come close to having the bond that Bones and Booth did, because theirs is based on so much more than sexual attraction. For Mulder and Scully the sex was quite an afterthought, way down at the bottom of the things that bound them together. With Bones and Booth it's rather higher up in the mix. Since Booth was just "killed" in the last episode (which surely must have been on Bones' mind when she talked to Pritchard about Ian's lost) and Bones didn't show that much emotion, it's hard to argue that she would be much less objective about Booth's death than Pritchard is, but I think she would.
The distinction Bones makes between her and Pritchard -- that Bones is not sleeping with her partner -- is meaningless. Bones and Booth are obviously closer friends and more respectful than their doppelgangers were to each other.
Odd that they get a call about something being wrong with Ian and when they get to his burned abode, Brennan still has to ask if a shellshocked Pritchard thinks its his body inside. Well, duh? Why else would they be there in the first place? Why would Pritchard be looking like that? Maybe Brennan was just in denial. Booth didn't seem in doubt.
Back at home in the lab, the romantic denials are 10 times more frustrating. If the writers just wanted to break Angela and Hodgins up for plot purposes, I could have found 50 more believable ways for them to do it than this. As it is, I don't like Angela any more. She jumps up into her ex's arms and kisses him lingeringly on the mouth. We don't see her lower torso, but in order to bring herself level with Grayson, she must have wrapped her legs around him. Can't get more sexual than that. She doesn't even do it with quick, eager "Oh, I'm so happy to see you after all of this time," squeals. Those would have told me she was acting on pure impulse. No, she moves with a slower, "you're so delicious" swagger, which makes me think she's hot for him. Then, she doesn't tell Hodgins that she kissed him that way. THEN, she does get mad at Cam for sleeping with Grayson. Not only was she divorced from Grayson at the time, but she hadn't seen him in years and it had never been a real marriage in the first place.
She slept with a guy on vacation, got high and married him in a ceremony she can barely remember. It wasn't like they had a shared life or had been together long enough to feel possessive -- or hadn't been apart long enough to both sleep with many, many others. Why would she care about Cam? Yet, she does and has kissed him with desire, yet feels it's a dealbreaker that Hodgins is eager for Grayson to leave, because it means he doesn't trust her. What is there to trust? He can trust that she wants another man, but has decided to spend her life with him, anyway. That means they can probably have a happy stable life together, even if it doesn't compare to the primal excitement she shared with Grayson. So, I can see why he'd still want to marry her, but not why he'd be happy to find out that Grayson is still in town. Why should Angela be telling him he has no right to feel uncomfortable about (if not threatened by) that, after the way she's acted?? Brennan said she had physical reactions to Ian that let her know she was attracted to him. Why couldn't Angela just say this and then talk about whether or not Hodgins had a right to be threatened by that attraction, rather than not addressing her own reactions at all and telling him he was wrong to have his.
The fact that she uses that as an excuse to break up with him, tells me her feelings for him are not that deep and also makes me resent her for trying to put the blame on him. "All you had to do was trust me." Well, all you had to do was be trustworthy. She's a free spirit, free love kind of woman (they tell us as part of her backstory). So, she's decided to be monogamous. I understand that she wouldn't have slept with Grayson, but she should understand that it doesn't feel good for Hodgins (and the audience) to know that she wanted to. She tells Brennan that she broke up with Hodgins and she won't be able to understand why until she talks to Temp. That gives me hope that maybe Brennan will make her see that she was the problem, not Hodgins, but if she doesn't, then I can't root for them to be together. Instead of Hodgins sitting there saying nothing as she walked out of the restaurant (I'm glad he didn't stop her, which is what she said he would have done if he trusted her), he should have TOLD her exactly why Grayson still being around gave him no reason to celebrate and turned it back on her, instead of accepting her, "you've betrayed me" rant. He proved he could push all his doubts aside and trust that she wanted a future with him, when he kissed her and the bells rang (bells on passing bicycles), oblivous to Grayson on the other side of the street. He didn't have to prove that he's ok having her continue to be courted by someone she has the hots for.
As for her feminist claim that her heart was not his to claim, but hers to give, give me a break. When that fraud made a play for Hodgins last season, Angela was quick to tell her he was taken. If Hodgins has the same urge, it's human, not misogyny.
I don't know why people think a kiss is not a betrayal or why they don't take responsibility for compounding a loved ones insecurity through their own less than loyal actions. It's my Twilight problem all over again.
As for Cam, it bothered me that she slept with a guy she'd known for 15 minutes who was in love with someone else. I don't understand how the need for recreational sex can be that strong. Of course, her reactions were very humorous. Even the speedy way she offered to drive him to the airport was funny -- which made it strange when he asked for a ride from the airport and she walked in and coldly told him that she thinks that his "code." Well, it's not like he hoodwinked her. When she offered him a ride, she had sexual intentions in the first place. He did not seduce her. Why chide him, as if that's his modus operandi later? Hilarious when Hodgins asked her if she made sure Grayson got off and she's like, "I'm sorry??"
As much as I have hated her bossiness over the last seasons, Angela and Hodgins telling her off was really maddening. I understand that they were only angry over Grayson, but it's bothersome because there have been times in the past when they needed to stand up to her micromanagement of highly skilled adults and they have said nothing. This time, when she was not even doing anything and was giving them utmost professional respect and had not really insulted them personally either by sleeping with an ex Angela hardly even knew, for them to go off like that was infuriating. They would have been suspended had I been in her place. She needed to be told to go regulate herself 2 years ago.
Kind of amusing that Clark wanted to work and not get involved in everyone's personal life, since the Smithsonian group does like to entangle themselves in the other's business. At least the writers realize that this is not the norm and gave us an outsider's perspective. Since they do do that regularly, it always puts me off when one of them tells the other they have done something off limits or wandered into territory that is none of their business.
In England, loved it when the guy told Booth off, reminded him the FBI had no authority there and head-butted him. Booth barely flinched, but his attacker got hurt and remarked on Booth's hard noggin. Booth just crooked his neck to the side as his only response. DB was cute. Also talking to the Buckingham Palace guard whose sister Ian had slept with was fun.
Nice moment when Pritchard reminded Booth that she was in charge and, because he knew that she was distraught, he accepted it, but Bones took up for him and said Pritchard shouldn't talk to him like that, since he was staying for her benefit. Her power play was a way to keep control of her emotions and Booth realized it.
She made a pass at him in the end, but he didn't seem interested. Bones had to point out that Pritchard liked him and she did so without jealousy. He just didn't have eyes for her and hadn't been flirting back. Hadn't bothered to notice anything but her pain in losing a partner.
Nice when Brennan was taking home all of those packages, gifts she'd received and Booth was satisfied with his one goofy bobby bobblehead.
As a season opener, this two parter had looks and laughs, even if it did not probe very deeply into the characters. Well, it probed Angela and I didn't like the results. Other than that, fun romp over the pond. It did not feel like just a location shoot for ratings. Although the juxtaposition of all the London monuments with our own Washington D.C. landmarks told the story of how what Booth and Brennan share is constant on both continents as are the relationship problems of those who surround them.
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