This week on Bones: Angela goes undercover, Booth gets shady, and a Squintern has a birthday.
Two rookie cops get a call to check out an old slaughter house for a possible B&E. One thinks they’re being screwed around with and the other goes down a dark hallway to check something out. He trips and falls into something. You guessed it: a body. When they arrive at the scene, Brennan says that the killer chose a good place for a body dump. The body was a female, doused in some kind of corrosive liquid, which removed the skin from her hands. Cam needs the corrosive off the body so she can work with as much tissue as is left, and Hodgins suggests a pressure hose, but Brennan worries that will wreck the bones. Cam, as her boss, overrides her.
Squintern Wendell Bray is on this case and he finds a lot of marks of blunt force trauma all over the body, as well as three missing teeth, all indicative of domestic abuse. Cam pulls out the bridge of fake teeth and sends it off to have the serial number tracked. The ID comes back as Melinda Perkins, recently separated from her husband Dr. Bradley Perkins. Sweets brings him in for questioning. They’d been separated for a year after seven years of marriage. Bradley says that his wife was exciting but difficult, and that she was the one who wanted a divorce. He gives his alibi of being at the hospital until 2 a.m. the night of the murder.
Fortunately, Melinda was wearing a fancy GPS and heart rate watch, so Angela is able to discover that her heart rate was elevated for two minutes prior to her death. Which happened, according to GPS, 100m east of where she was found. B&B go check it out and find a roller derby practice in session. Nick Bennett introduces himself as the team owner and a player (Susan Carrol: derby name Emily Chickenson) speaks up and says no one “owns” the team. B&B ask about Melinda, whose derby name was Pummel-ya Anderson, and reveal that she was murdered there last night. They had a match last night against the Virginia Slims. Emily says she remembers Melinda not feeling well and skipping the after bout drinks. Someone points out that another player, Ivana Kick-Ass, didn’t show up today either. Booth brings Ivana in for questioning and she’s very defensive. She says that Melinda was her friend, but she lived a wild life. Ivana warned her she could get in trouble. She couldn’t get enough of guys, and even had sex with one on the lawn in front of her ex’s house.
Hodgins finds the cause of death: Melinda was beaten with a skate. And stabbed. Also in her system: hydrocodone, ecstasy, weed, and meth. Unfortunately, none of that really helps them get closer to a suspect. They need to get in the rink. Angela ends up offering to go undercover as Smackie Kennedy, kick ass derby girl. She’s excited to get out from behind the computer and get back in touch with her wild side. She does pretty good at the tryouts, despite getting crashed out a couple of times. After the practice, Angela waits until the room is clear and then gets her kit to check the skates, which all have blood on them. No help. Emily comes in and warns Angela not to leave her valuables in the locker room because things have gone missing. Angela invites Emily out for a drink and proceeds to get super drunk, then calls Booth to come get her. But really so that he can arrest Nick, who she tricked into coming out. She found out from Emily that Nick was skimming from the team and Melinda confronted him about it. Also (because wouldn’t you?), she makes out with Booth. You know, for cover purposes.
Nick says that Melinda was one of the best players, a main attraction, so he definitely wouldn’t kill her. Nick says that he thought that Melinda was the one who was skimming money from the door, but didn’t confront her about it. He admits to sleeping with her, and that he met her ex once, a few months ago at a bar. Wendell finds that there are signs of CPR after death, suggesting an accident at first, but then Brennan notices that the CPR was done to pump the blood out of the body to prevent spray during dismemberment, something only a medical professional would know. Booth calls in the ex again, upon finding that the night nurse said he was MIA between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. He says he was napping and contends that he would never hurt Melinda, but lawyers up when Booth tells him about the bleeding out.
Meanwhile, on the victim’s blood-spattered shirt, Hodgins finds black light visible orange stains: vitreous humor from an eyeball. Sure enough, they find fragments in an eye socket”¦ of a key. This clears the husband who doesn’t actually have any keys. B&B head back to the rink where a key on Ivana’s ring matches, but has no blood on it. It’s to the team van, and Brennan checks that, finding blood in the key chamber. Ivana was studying to be a physical therapist, so she had the requisite knowledge. She defends herself saying that nothing’s been stolen since.
The B-Plot
While on the way to the crime scene, Brennan asks Booth about taking Christine to baby group, but he reminds her that he has “his thing” at the hospital. Sweets questions where he’s been going on Fridays, guessing that it’s confession, but Booth points out that he’s “living in sin” so he’s been avoiding confession for a while. When Angela overhears Brennan says “hospital” in a conversation with Booth, she wants to know what that’s about, too. Brennan says she’s not free to discuss that. Angela’s affronted and reminds her that she’s just asking because she cares.
Angela finds Cam and asks if she knows if there’s anything wrong with Booth. Cam hasn’t heard anything either and agrees that she hates it when Booth gets all stoic. Cam asks Brennan, who assures her that there’s nothing wrong with Seeley (aw, I love it when they get all concerned and use his first name), but says she’s not allowed to talk about it. Cam just can’t let it go, so she goes to see Dr. Crawford, who Booth’s been meeting with. Dr. Crawford says that she’s promised Booth she wouldn’t discuss it. It’s not what she would recommend, but she has to respect his wishes. Seriously, Cam, you’re a doctor. You know HIPAA, you know that she can’t tell you a damn thing. Anyway, Cam has some other questions and asks what Dr. Crawford treats. See, even confirming that Booth is seeing her and knowing her specialty is a HIPAA violation. Which, I guess doesn’t really apply given what we learn at the end, but I wish she had just said “Well, it’s not medical, so I’m not violating HIPAA, just Booth’s trust” or something. Anyway. Dr. Crawford specializes in neurofibromatosis, a genetic condition where tumors grow on nerves, affecting many children, and more common than muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and Huntington’s combined. Cam asks if Christine is sick, but Dr. Crawford says she’ll have to talk to Booth. Cam thanks her and Dr. Crawford suggests that she can thank her by making a donation to the Children’s Tumor Foundation.
That evening, Brennan takes Cam to observe a carnival near the hospital for the NF kids. Booth made it happen. Brennan’s not sure why, maybe because Parker’s in England or Christine’s so healthy, but Booth wanted to give these kids a carnival. Cam asks why he didn’t want anyone to know and Brennan replies with 1 Corinithians 13:4 – “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up.” He feels that real charity is anonymous. He didn’t even want Brennan to know, and she asks Cam to please not tell anyone. She just figured that Cam would keep asking questions until she found the truth. They end, agreeing that Booth is a very good man.
The C-Plot
It’s Wendell Bray’s birthday! He’s 29 and Hodgins thinks he’s much less excited about it than he should be. Hodgins asks if Wendell has a pre-30 bucket list, but everything Hodgins can think to put on one, Bray’s already done. Like posing naked for a student. Bray’s done that, but not a student. After saying that, he doesn’t want to discuss more and Hodgins realizes that he posed for Angela. Eventually, he comes clean to Hodgins: his brother bet him that by 29, he’d still be a loser. Hodgins doesn’t understand; he’s not a loser. Wendell says it’s not fair; he doesn’t want to ask for the $200 that he won because his brother barely scrapes by, but he can’t get the satisfaction of winning. Hodgins tells him to ask for it; he earned it.
After the case is done, Wendell, Hodgins, and Angela go out for birthday drinks (but Angela’s off the booze). They want to pay, but Wendell says that since they just lost their fortune, drinks are on him, especially since he got a little windfall. Hodgins smiles at him. He’s got a present for Hodgins, too: the picture Angela drew of him, with an addition of boxers over the private areas.
The Verdict
While I didn’t like the misdirection involving Booth and the hospital visit, I thought that overall, this was a solid episode. And I demand more drunk Angela. What did you think?
2 replies on “New Show Recap: Bones, Episode 8.14, “The Doll in the Derby””
There were moments in this episode I loved – Angela and the whole skating thing was great. So was her taking a chance to kiss Booth but to be honest, I was hoping for more of a reaction from her in the girl’s locker room. But, network hetero show so…..
Cam pissed me off – nothing unusual about that, though, as she is my least favorite character. Her crack to Hodgins about “losing” his money, though? Grrr. He didn’t “lose” it, it was stolen from him by a serial killer and by allowing it to be stolen, Hodgins saved a group of young girls. Bitch. Swear to God, I hate Cam.
And, to be honest, the whole St. Booth thing is wearing a bit thin for me. I get that this episode wanted to bring attention to NF but I’m just a bit over being beat over the head with the “Booth is a good man” theme.
I’m thinking the Cam crack about the money is maybe Hodgins trying to make light of the situation in general. Because, otherwise, the whole thing is just too horrific to think about and still lead your life.