I've put off writing about this episode a little longer than usual.
It may have something to do with a big work event happening during my writing time. It may have something to do with my best friend moving and me lending an extra pair of hands.
But mostly, it has to do with the fact that this episode of Bones hits on a topic that I feel a bit squeamish discussing: human trafficking.
Part of it is probably my American guilt; I was raised in the southeast region of the country, where many of the most historic structures and stories are tainted by decades of slavery.
But apart from some very cold capitalists, I think the idea of human trafficking is a universally heartbreaking concept, and it was hard to watch Bones explore this very dark aspect of our global culture.
Phew, okay, it felt good to air that out. I'll try to be brief in my recap, and focus on the good stuff for the rest of this post.
Here's a recap of the plot:
This week's opening scene shifted away from Booth and Brennan or civilians discovering a body, and instead spent a little time exploring the relationship between Cam and Arastoo. He's stressing about the doctoral dissertation proposal he's submitted to Brennan, and Cam is assuring him he's brilliant and the proposal will be approved. Cam also gets a recipe from Arastoo's mother for a traditional Persian wedding dish...and as he says "when we get married", Cam says "if". We can watch Arastoo's face fall as Cam then has to rush off to handle the latest crime scene.
A young Chinese woman has been discovered in a goat field. Although we later learn the atrocities that happened to her, the showrunners do offer us a moment of levity: Dr. Hodgins and Agent Aubrey chasing after a goat. I'm not going to lie, guys, I laughed really hard at that one.
Back at the lab, the Jeffersonian team determines that the girl is from China, and works as a housemaid for a company called Sunny Helpers. Although they originally suspect a client of hers who reportedly got a little fresh, Booth and Aubrey eventually discover that the manager of Sunny Helpers, Victor Lee, is actually imprisoning his workers in his basement, and using them as cheap labor.
Meanwhile, Arastoo learns that Brennan has rejected his dissertation proposal. He picked a topic that he thought Brennan would like, rather than one that breaks new ground, and Brennan defends her rejection by stating, "It's my job to nurture trailblazers, not sycophants." Cam tries to defend the proposal without Arastoo there, which just leads to a bigger argument about whether or not Cam has any faith in Arastoo...or their relationship.
Remember that goat? So it turns out that the goat swallowed a photograph of a man from the victim's village - the man who killed her father. However, when they get the man into the interrogation room, they discover that he was actually betrothed to her back in China, and he killed her father to save her. She had come to the U.S. to find him.
It's in the final act that Brennan and Arastoo finally discover the victim's cause of death, and with some help from the Angelatron, they determine that a manicuring tool was used to sever an artery. This points back to Tammy, the woman who came forward and spoke on behalf of the women held hostage by Victor Lee; he threatened to kill others if the victim didn't give up looking for her fiancee. Tammy couldn't let anyone else's safety be jeopardized, and so she attacked.
Arastoo lands on a better dissertation topic (cataloguing indicators of human rights violations), but his future with Cam seems hazy, at best. I guess not every relationship can be as solid as Booth and Brennan's.
Here's what I loved this week:
As I already mentioned, I laughed very hard at Hodgins and Aubrey attempting to catch a goat. There's something about a thrice-doctorate earner and a hardened FBI agent chasing an animal around a dusty field that just tickles me.
I also love that the show explored a relationship that tends to stay under wraps; Cam and Arastoo have always followed an odd course, and they occupy very unique roles that make for an interesting dynamic. She's the boss, and has a history of avoiding marriage. He's a poet and a political protestor who is still finishing school. Even though I think they missed an opportunity to dive into Cam's reticence to commit (Sweets would have been really helpful here), I fully enjoyed shifting focus away from Booth and Brennan for a bit - even if they did close out the episode anyway.
Finally, I want to give some kudos to the show for taking on the nightmare that is translating conversation scenes. It's always funny to me how crime and police procedurals are spoken in almost all English, despite having characters from every corner of the Earth. This episode took a chance to stay true to the situation, and one of its most powerful scenes was mediated by a translator - with great effect.
Here's a few more things I observed (and would love to hear your thoughts regarding):
Man, Aubrey is still so hard to like! I thought the really big lunch that he wasn't willing to share was a funny character trait, but then he was a jerk, and his apology for being "ass-like" felt hollow. Is anyone out there getting fond of him? Why or why not?
Thanks to goat poop and bat guano, Hodgins got to deliver the line, "Man, excrement is our friend on this one." Who else loved this line?
Brennan determined the murder weapon, but not the murderer. When she shared the info with Booth, he immediately made the connection and rushed off to make the arrest, leaving Brennan feeling "disconcerted" in his wake. It was amusing to see this action turned on her - she's usually the one who gets to walk off with all the answers! Who else misses the days when Brennan was more involved with interviews and field work?
