An ex-Wall Street guy plows a field of kale (of course it’s kale. Does kale even grow near DC?) and finds something not so green. He doesn’t know how to stop his tractor, so the body is brought up on the wheel’s spikes. Brennan is not going to like that.
Yep, it’s the first thing Brennan comments on. Hodgins says the remains have been there five days and that they’ve been scavenged by coyotes who maybe have the head. Even without the head, Brennan can tell it’s a Hispanic male.
New intern Dr. Wells says that he’s deduced (induced, actually) that the head was removed by coyotes and finds no evidence to the contrary. Some glowing substance in the nostrils leads to an ID: Benjamin (Benji) Garcia. Booth and Sweets head to the victim’s brother’s body shop (which used glow-in-the-dark paint on cars). According to the brother, Benji was in college, finals were coming, so his brother gave him the week off to study. Benji was the first one in the family to go to college. A surly guy in the shop asks about Benji’s truck, a tricked-out ’59 El Camino, and thinks that’s why he was killed. Courtney, his ex-girlfriend, hated that truck. They broke up a week ago.
Courtney claims that Benji was the love of her life. But she’s the one that dumped him because he loved the truck more than her. The kid apparently saw a picture of his dad with an El Camino and needed a truck just like it. Other than the truck, Benji spent his time doing scientific experiments, like time travel. Courtney last talked to him Saturday night, when they argued about the truck. That was the night he was killed.
The squints note a contusion on the skull around time of death, but find no fatal wound. Wells also notices scoliosis, leg fractures, and some microfracturing to the ribs, which created fatal damage to the liver. Angela checks out Benji’s hard drive and finds lots of time travel theories. Hodgins thinks it’s interesting that he was trying to go back in time. Benji was also spending a lot of time on the Collingdale University server (which he didn’t attend), logged in as Professor Scott Hunter. Booth checks his background: Professor Hunter was fired for electrocuting a student two years ago. He was supposed to meet Benji the night he was killed. And hey, those microfractures could have been caused by electrocution.
B&B head to Hunter’s house. He and Benji were working together for about a year. They check out the lab, which has lots of exposed wiring. Hodgins and Wells check out the electrocution theory in the lab, but it doesn’t check out. Wells suggests hydrostatic shock, and another experiment. Cam gets to use a gun for this one, testing out a shot just below the ribcage. It matches, which means the victim was shot.
It turns out that a burner cell called Benji while he was at Hunter’s. Then, Benji got cash as he was leaving town, but the body was found far, far away from where the timeline suggests. From the soil on his shoes, he was killed elsewhere and then moved. B&B head to the strawberry farm that matches the soil and it appears abandoned, but there’s a light in the barn and Benji’s truck. Brennan finds another body. It’s another Hispanic male with the same wounds and same everything as Benji, but this guy is 20 years older. Wells totally thinks it’s a Looper kind of thing. Well, he doesn’t really, but he is open to the possibility. Wells found remodeling of a fracture that victim two was walking around on for days. DNA confirms that the second victim is Benji’s father. Which is, you know, the simplest explanation.
Sweets brings the brother back in. The brother wasn’t aware that Benji was in contact with their dad. Benji thought their dad was dead because it was just easier to tell him that. The brother thinks the dad must have been in trouble with one of his dealers and that he was looking for a bail out. The trajectory of the bullet matches the trajectory that would happen if the victims had been one in front of the other when shot. Booth gets a call with the name of Felix’s dealer and, surprise, it’s the shady guy that worked at the body shop that was all concerned about the truck. His name is Sidney. He says he hasn’t dealt since 2009. Booth reveals a tactical baton they found in Sidney’s truck that matches knee wounds. The baton doesn’t match Benji’s wounds, though. They’re looking for something at a 45 degree angle.
Sweets wants to question Alex Garcia again, thinks he’s hiding something about his dad. Alex knew that Sidney used to deal drugs. Booth notices that doors on a car in the shop come down at about a 45 degree angle and it all comes out. Benji was going to give their dad his college money. Alex didn’t want to let him. He didn’t mean to kill him.
The B-Plot
A disheveled guy comes into the Royal Diner looking for Brennan and says he’s “got something” for her. As he reaches into his coat, Booth pulls a gun on him, and for once, I’m not going to say that Booth was overreacting. Especially after all the Pelant crap. Booth tells him to roll whatever he’s got over and it’s the victim’s skull. “I’m your new intern. Hi.” That’s how Wells introduces himself. Apparently, Brennan doesn’t read her emails. Cam thinks she’ll like him though. And Hodgins wants to keep him because he makes a rational explanation for ghosts.
Angela calls out Wells for being a douche and tells him to tone down his arrogance. Brennan gives him a little ego smack-down later, too.
The C-Plot
Booth wants Brennan to invest in asteroid mining. Brennan is suspicious, but Hodgins thinks it’s a great idea and “the only way the species will survive.” Brennan is not happy with the encouragement. Wells provides rational reasoning that makes Brennan think about it. So she invests $10K.
The D-Plot
All this talk of time travel makes Hodgins think about what he’d go back to: the moment he met Angela. Angela unenthusiastically agrees that yep, same for her. Later, she asks Cam what she would go back to do and Cam sheepishly admits she’d want to bang Angela’s hot ex-husband again. Angela admits that was her first thought too, and wonders if she should tell Hodgins. That’s a no.
Booth would go back to Ford’s Theater and stop Lincoln from being shot. Aww, nice reference to his dirty ancestor secret. Brennan says she’s already at the place she’d want to go back to. Everything she wants or needs is here, now.
The Verdict
We’ll have to see how this new squintern grows on me. I’m kind of disappointed that they didn’t use the opportunity to bring on another female squintern, though.
One reply on “New Show Recap: Bones, Episode 8.17, “The Fact in the Fiction””
So I finally watched this episode today (I know, I’m way behind), and I must say this new squintern kind of bugs me. I mean he’s basically on a trial run with Brennan to see if he can work well with the lab, and he’s rude to her. He spends a lot of time talking down to all of the people working in the lab who are higher up in the lab hierarchy. I do think he’s kind of a good representation of what Bones could have been if she hadn’t found a goal to work towards and developed friendships with who ground her, but his not-it-all douche-baggery is frustrating still.