Can it really be finale time again, Bones fans? After a stellar season in which we witnessed Brennan and Booth tie the knot, Pelant’s death (hooray!) and Wendell’s cancer diagnosis, what do the creative minds at Bones have in store for us now? It seems as if the Ghost Killer case is resolved, but I think that remains to be seen.
This week’s episode, “The Recluse in the Recliner,” was directed by David Boreanez, so you know it is going to rock! It has been teased for quite a while that nothing will be the same again, and my hands tremble while even typing that statement.
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Booth Learns German
We kick off with a tense scene in an emergency room. Booth is wheeled in, the victim of a gunshot wound. He has massive blood loss, a collapsed lung and low blood pressure. He is wheeled into a room as Brennan watches in horror.
We go back to two days prior and see Brennan quizzing Booth on his German. She is excited that he will be running the Berlin field office, but Booth reminds his wife that he still has to go before a congressional panel. Booth seems a bit reluctant to uproot his family and move to Germany. I heartily agree that this doesn’t seem like a good change.
The Missing Link
Booth gets an anonymous call from someone who wants to meet with him about a connection between the McNamaras and the FBI. As you will recall, Giles McNamara bribed a medical examiner to lie and had someone in the FBI covering up for his daughter Stephanie’s little side hobby of being a serial killer. Of course, their home line is secure, so how the caller got the number is a bit of a concern.
Up in Flames
Booth asks Sweets to trace the call, and they have a location even though it was from a burner cell. Booth won’t be the first at the scene as the location, such as it was, has burned down. Booth arrives and talks with Cam. The trailer burned because the victim, Wesley Foster, apparently fell asleep and set himself on fire. His body actually exploded and his remains are now fused to his recliner. Pieces of skin and bones are all over the walls of the trailer. I have to say, kudos to the writers for finding yet another gory and disturbing way to die.
There is alcohol on the premises, and the power was cut to the victim’s trailer. Brennan believes that someone killed the man before he could talk to Booth.
In the lab, the team examines what remains of the body. The explosion originated in Foster’s stomach, which sounds absolutely gruesome. The only piece of (sort of) good news is that Foster was dead before the fire started.
Sweets digs into Foster’s background. He was a disgraced reporter who has been writing a conspiracy blog for the last five years, and some of his favorite subjects are the McNamara family and government corruption. Booth tells Sweets not to tell anyone they are looking into Foster’s death.
Secrets and Lies
When Deputy Director Stark questions Booth about the McNamara situation resurfacing again, Booth lies and tells him that Foster was a paranoid crank. Booth tells Sweets and Caroline that if there is a conspiracy in the FBI, he doesn’t want anyone to know about it yet. I’ll bet that Stark is involved somehow.
Brennan notices that the victim has chipped teeth, which may be from some type of funnel or hose being forced down his throat. Fisher tries to pull skin cells from the victim’s teeth. Meanwhile, Angela reports that the hard drive is missing from Foster’s computer. Resident Jeffersonian conspiracy theorist Hodgins knows that Foster would never leave anything important on his hard drive.
Angela uncovers Foster’s last job, and he worked as a night custodian at Crius Security, which is a holding company that is owned by the McNamara family. This certainly explains how Foster dug up dirt on the McNamaras.
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Warrant Denied
Booth and Brennan pull in Ms. Sprung, head of Crius Security, who maintains that all custodial services are contracted through another company. She scoffs at the mere possibility that anyone could breach their computer system. Booth asks if the company has provided consultants to the State Department or FBI. When she admits that they have, Booth asks for a list of names. Sprung refuses, and Booth tells her to expect a warrant. I have a really bad feeling about Ms. Sprung.
Cam, Hodgins and Fisher are still trying to get all the remaining pieces of the victim out of his trailer. They discover a weird nipple ring complete with memory chip. Yikes!
There are rib injuries to the victim, and because he has a history of a prior heart attack, Brennan wonders if the murderer accidentally killed him and then tried to resuscitate him because they didn’t get the information that they were searching for.
Caroline has bad news for Booth. Three judges have turned down her warrant request citing national security. Booth is late for his lunch with Stark and Congressman Hadley. Hadley reassures Booth that he will have his back at the subcommittee meeting. Booth gets a call and excuses himself over Stark’s objections.
Foster’s Research
Angela is able to pull a lot of information from Foster’s memory chip. There are copies of bank records, emails and photos. Booth spots a familiar face and asks Angela to pause on a photo. It is a picture of a girl with a syringe in her arm, and he took the surveillance photo. Booth was told that he was taking photos as part of a drug stake-out, but the girl is actually Senator Wilby’s daughter. Wilby was a lock to win a Senate race, but withdrew. Someone is using all of this evidence to force other people to do whatever they want. Booth thinks that the blackmail victims may not even know who is truly calling the shots.
McNamara is also just a victim of the blackmailer, who has been playing this game for at least 20 years. Sweets suggest going public, and Booth refuses and urges everyone to play dumb until he can find out who in the FBI is behind all of these shenanigans.
DNA Miss
Fisher and Brennan are still looking at Foster’s bones. What seemed to be heat fractures are really injuries from having his limbs twisted. Cam found epithelial cells from three different people in Foster’s mouth, and there are no hits in the system.
Brennan finds an unusual mark on the victim’s neck from a particular stranglehold that is used by Delta Force operatives. The team is coming up with no evidence to link the perpetrators to Foster’s death. Brennan is angry that Booth is urging caution. He asks her to issue her report stating that Foster’s demise was an accidental death, not a murder. Brennan realizes that this will give them time to figure out who is behind the entire operation.
A Difficult Question
The next morning, at Booth’s hearing, Brennan tells Stark that Foster died from the fire. During the hearing, Booth is asked a strange question by Hadley: “Who is Daniel Johnson?” Booth looks perplexed, then states that he cannot answer that question because it is classified. Hadley tells the room that Booth killed Johnson, a US citizen, in Pakistan in 2002. Stark tells Brennan that he doesn’t know why Hadley is attacking Booth.
Booth jumps to his feet and yells at Hadley when he calls him an assassin. Booth grabs Brennan and pulls her into a corridor packed with photographers and press. So who leaked Booth’s classified information to Hadley?
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Losing It All
They escape to a private area where Booth tells his wife that he thinks that his entire promotion was a planned set-up because he looked at the McNamara family too much during the Ghost Killer case. Stark catches up with him and not only is withdrawing Booth’s nomination, but he is also being put on administrative leave. Brennan is furious as Booth calmly states that he knows he is being fired.
Brennan is back at the Jeffersonian helping Booth the only way she can — by working with the bones. Angela discovers why Hadley turned on Booth when she finds a picture on Foster’s hard drive of Hadley kissing another man.
It is terrible to watch Brennan help her husband pack up his office. She takes his hand, kisses him and slips him a note stating that they know what they used against Hadley. That’s my girl!
A Plan Set in Motion
Hadley goes to his car and finds Booth waiting inside. Booth shows Hadley the incriminating picture. The Congressman refuses to tell Booth who is running the operation and warns Booth to go away. Booth lets him know that there is no way he is keeping quiet. After Booth leaves, Hadley texts someone.
A Last Stand
At home, Booth orders Brennan to take Christine and leave the house. The conversation with Hadley was a set-up, and Angela heard Hadley call a burner cell. Booth is ready to stand his ground when a Delta Force team arrives to take him down, and Brennan is horrified to see that Booth kept C-4 in their garage. Is it me or is that against child-proofing recommendations?
Brennan tells Booth that she hates him for forcing her to walk away. He tells her that he loves her, and she orders him not to die as they kiss for a final time. This is such a stressful episode!
Hodgins whips up a chemical formula to try and clean off the burned parts of the chip, hoping that it will contain the names of the Delta Force agents whose DNA has been erased. While Angela is looking at the new information, the computer alarm sounds to let her know that they are being hacked. Brennan receives a call from Fisher that he has determined that two of the men who attacked Foster were right-handed. Booth won’t answer the phone now, so Brennan decides to turn back to pass along the information.
Booth’s Life Hangs in the Balance
Booth takes on the team members in a crazy gun and explosive fight inside his house. Booth is wounded while taking down the Delta Force members. Just as he is about to be shot again, Brennan fires and kills the assassin. She pulls Booth to safety and fires on the final team member. The last attacker pulls a knife and kicks Brennan out of the way before stabbing Booth.
Now we are back at the hospital while Booth is being operated on. Booth’s heart has to be shocked, while Brennan is joined in the waiting room by her friends. The surgeon comes out to tell Brennan that her husband is alive, and she rushes past.
Booth is handcuffed and being guarded. Stark informs Brennan that Booth killed three FBI agents who were there to serve a warrant on him. As she screams her husband’s name, she is taken into custody for questioning.
I enjoyed this episode of Bones, even though it was horribly tense and rather grim. So what does this mean for Brennan and Booth next season? Will Booth be in prison? What will happen to the Jeffersonian team for helping Booth and Brennan?
The excruciatingly long wait for season 10 of Bones starts now!
(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Kim has been covering television entertainment since 2013. She is addicted to Real Housewives, Pump Rules, Dancing with the Stars, and many more shows.
