'Bones' recap: Reading between the lines

Image Credit: Greg Gayne/FoxWhat is on page 187?! That will be a question the cast and crew of Bones will be asked at every fan-attended event from here on out. Could we actually publish the answer, I’d reach out to the writers myself. But alas, family website. So, we wait.

Two big storylines last night: In an opening that made me physically angry, Sweets watched a young man who battled leukemia for half his life (and just found out he’d beaten it) die in a freak subway accident after an earthquake broke a water main, flooded the tunnel, and caused a derailment. He’d told Sweets about all the exotic women he was going to sleep with in exotic places, and it got Sweets thinking about what he wanted out of life. The show did an excellent fakeout making us think it wasn’t girlfriend Daisy. He didn’t want her to comfort him, he didn’t return her calls. She became even more annoying in the lab, and Cam made Angela take the self-proclaimed sexual dynamo for a ride to find out what was bothering her. Daisy was convinced Lancelot was going to be the first man to break up with her. Cut to Sweets finally coming to her in the Bone room. Seeing her standing on the ladder was the first time it hit me that maybe he wasn’t going to crush her. He’d been deciding that he didn’t want to spend another minute apart from her. He knelt and proposed using his mother’s ring — which represented 60 years of love. I cheered. I’ll admit it. It could be because the idea of making a strange setting suddenly romantic with a ladder reminded me of Singin’ in the Rain, or because I can’t wait to see if Daisy tries to make Brennan, Cam, and Angela a part of the wedding party.

During the flood, a skeleton floated by the window of Sweets’ subway car (made me think of Jaws 3), and that was the case that a writer for a Japanese magazine doing a piece on Brennan’s latest novel got to watch her and Booth investigate. I ranted yesterday about how that journalist would’ve been using a tape recorder in the real world, so I’ll spare you that. Clearly, she was just interested in finding out how much of Booth and Brennan were in Agent Andy and Kathy. The writer’s desire to talk about the relationships in the book — coupled with everyone talking about that explicit act on page 187 — made Brennan realize that the forensics aren’t what make her a bestseller. (A metaphor for the show?) It’s got something to do with Angela, who comes over, pours herself a glass of wine, and lets Brennan read her manuscript to her while she offers suggestions on when characters should get naked and laugh and kiss. Page 187 is a Hodgins move. I would’ve thought he’d have wanted credit for what is clearly a top-notch maneuver (Daisy and Sweets have tried it, Brennan is dying to). But when he confronted Angela, he said he was happy she didn’t reveal his identity to Brennan because he didn’t need her looking at him that way. He also told Angela every man will now be doing this move, so she will never truly be rid of him unless she dates someone illiterate. If the move’s that, um, successful, I don’t think she’ll mind copycats. Angela didn’t want credit for her contributions to Brennan’s novels — but she did accept a check for 25 percent of her payday. I wonder if we’ll ever find out what Angela does with the money?

The case itself was about sex. The victim was a professional letter writer, who’d been hired to pen love letters that would woo a transit cop (guest star Clea DuVall) away from her boyfriend. She killed the letter writer when she found out about the scheme because he’d gotten her to leave a good guy for a total ass. She’d just wanted a little romance, and apparently, her ex giving her the concealed weapon that had brought them together (engraved!) wasn’t good enough. I have a problem with a cop — even a lovestruck one — keeping her murder weapon, but whatever. She did. That, combined with the leather Hodgins and Daisy found in the tunnel rat poop matching her shoes, nailed her. Favorite line delivery of the episode had to be Hodgins when they prepared to gather that evidence: “Well, I’ll need some help. You seem to know your poop.” Second favorite: Cam, when Daisy got a little too excited that the photos she’d taken of the rats’ nest were instrumental in the case: “Let’s not get emotional, Miss Wick.”

Our episode-ending Booth and Brennan moment found them discussing the idea of soul mates. Booth dropped by Brennan’s place to tell her the transit cop’s boyfriend got her an attorney and vowed to wait for her — he’d fallen in love with her again hearing that she’d murdered someone because of her feelings for him. I don’t find that romantic, but to each his own. Brennan, wearing a robe and pouring them a drink, talked about how Plato said humans originally had four arms, four legs, and two faces. Zeus was threatened by our power and cut us in two — which means we spend the rest of our lives looking for our other half, our soul mate, to complete ourselves. It’s a nice, albeit gross thought that neither of them buy. But obviously, we’re supposed to think they complete each other. The only question is whether they’ll admit it to one another like the traffic cop and her pawn shop owner soul mate, or whether they’ll pine for one another quietly and respectfully — like the victim had actually done for his married letter-writing partner. I love that Sweets told her how that man had felt about her. It made Sweets see that unlike the victim, he had nothing stopping him from trying to make himself happy.

Your turn. What did you think of the episode? Did the idea of someone (Angela) being able to access your web camera without you knowing it freak you out? Which made you happier: Sweets proposing to Daisy or Cam calling Hodgins King of the Lab? And seriously, how sexy is Big Andy Booth when he draws his gun (and shoots someone)?

More Bones: 24 fun facts from the production team in honor of next week’s 100th episode