Home‘Bones’ recap: Swan Song?
May 13, 2008, 11:33 AM | by Abby West
Categories: 'American Idol', 'Bones', Mini TV Watch
What a way to race toward the season finale: a relatively tight murder mystery, a lot of humor, and an emotional (if not suspenseful) cliffhanger. Not to mention combining Bones with another PopWatch favorite, American Idol.
Season 6's Brandon Rogers helped set the open mic scene with his version a Pippin song, and season 5's Ace Young (pictured) played the talented victim. As with all our vics, more than one person had motive to kill the not-so-nice and ambitious singer, from the cheated gym owner to the stalker client, Pam Nunan (Jennifer Hasty). But it was his hyper-sensitive artist neighbor who took a clay string to the stoned singer's throat and tried to cover it up. (I do wonder, though, why, after killing someone in the name of getting peace and quiet, would he live with the ongoing alarm instead of just breaking into the apartment to silence it? Or was that supposed to be all Tell-tale Heart-esque?)
The ideas of status and power were threaded throughout the episode, but Brennan's praising of Booth while noting her own elevated status ("Since I'm the best in my field, it would be self-destructive to work with someone who's beneath me.") was particularly choice. And Zack was full of surprises that affected his status last night: citing his home workout regimen that accounted for his deceptively strong physique and later bursting into song to prove to Hodgins that he had achieved some measure of status because of his singing voice. Was it me or did Angela and Cam seem to view Zack in a new light after his rendition of "Love is a Many-Splendored Thing"?
Speaking of love, it seemed more than a little easy for Pam (I will
not call her that three-letter "f" word) to transfer of her irrational
love to Booth, thanks to a few kind words and a comforting touch. But
for someone with good instincts, Booth was slow to acknowledge the
woman's progressive obsession with him. Even when she lured him into a
solo meeting and gifted him with funky socks because she'd noticed he
had "a thing for socks," Booth answered all of her personal questions
before putting a stop to it with his "Ma'am, this is way inappropriate."
I continue to loooove the integration of Sweets in the cases. Not only is he funny and insightful, but he's great for eliciting interesting things from Booth and Brennan. Brennan's Booth-like response to his psycho analysis ("Take your powers of observation and focus them on her."), complete with hand gesture and snark, was unexpected. That was almost as good as when she said, "Then why am I laughing?" after Booth and Sweets told her it wasn't funny that Pam had given Booth socks. Sadly, Sweets had to play the part of Cassandra, warning Booth and Brennan that Pam was not just kooky but also dangerous, only to have them dismiss his insight (Sweets: "I've been mocked many, many times before.") But soon, the poor, deluded woman was following Booth around and taking her stalker pics from her car.
So while we reveled in getting to see the entire cast out of the lab
to witness Brennan singing, we kind of knew what was coming next. (BTW:
We shouldn't have been too surprised that Brennan's got a great singing
voice, though Booth seemed to be. Emily Deschanel's sister Zooey is the
singer in the duo She & Him, so it wasn't a stretch that Emily
could also carry a tune. But couldn't they squeeze in David Boreanaz
singing, even just a little? The scene with him singing "Mandy" on Angel is one of my husband's favorite TV things ever. Shout-out to our own Mandi. She knows why.)
When Pam walked in and saw Booth waving his lighter and enjoying Brennan's jumping around and singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," she had to pull focus. Raising her gun and yelling to Booth that she was doing this for them, she shot at Brennan. Of course, our hero jumped in front of the bullet, never managing to get his gun out in time and taking a round to the chest. Shortly after, Brennan executed a perfect shot to the dead center of Pam throat. As Brennan put pressure on Booth's wound and called out for him to stay with her, I remembered Sweets' courtroom analysis last week that she's capable of rationalizing murder, "the danger of the totally rational person." But since the whackjob was about to shoot at her again, it was totally justifiable.
Okay, I've got to say that the teaser line "Is Booth dead or alive" is the least suspenseful question ever. Could they really kill off Booth? But with the finale coming up, the Gormogon killer returning, and Booth's life hanging in the balance, what questions would you like to ask Bones' exec producer Hart Hanson, whom I'll be chatting with later this week?
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