If you're anything like me, you were a little bit confused by the back-to-back showing of episode 17, "The Lost in the Found", and episode 18, "The Verdict in the Victims". The episodes had no mutual ground, thematically or structurally. They weren't two parts of an overarching storyline...in fact, one of them was the conclusion of a storyline that began a few episodes back!
As such, I won't spend an abundance of time discussing them. At the end of this post, however, I will reveal the one thing that the two episodes have in common. Let's see if you saw what I saw.
Episode 17, "The Lost in the Found", focused on the death of a bright-but-quiet teenage girl named Molly. Unlike most deaths on the show, this one turned out to be self-inflicted; a bitter attempt to convict some high school mean girls of a murder they didn't commit. Bones found herself relating to Molly's struggles, and deeply lamented that Molly didn't realize that her quality of life would improve once she escaped boarding school and youthful hormones.
Back in the lab, Daisy (the squintern of the episode) was struggling with the possibility of new romance after Sweets's death and the birth of their child. Unfortunately, the show didn't focus much on the love interest, just on Daisy's deliberations, but Hodgins managed to inject some humor into the whole ordeal with some well-timed comments about how quickly she went from thinking about the date in abstract to creating an entire potential relationship. Slow down, Daisy!
"The Verdict in the Victims", episode 18, touched back to the murders uncovered in episode 13, "The Baker in the Bits". Those of you who regularly visit this blog might recall that I mentioned something about that storyline feeling "off", and hey - Brennan and I had something in common!
In the earlier episode, an ex-convict named Alex Rockwell was accused of killing multiple ex-cons in a ritualistic manner. One of the 4 bodies discovered was still unidentified, but the other 3 held enough evidence to convict him, and we reconnected with him as he awaited his execution. While reviewing the details of the case, Brennan began to question her own findings. The bulk of the episode was committed to finding out who the mysterious 4th victim was and determining any other connections that may point to another killer. It works, too; the Jeffersonian team saved Rockwell and caught the right man at the very last minute.
This was an interesting break from the traditional format of the show; I wish they did two-parters like this more often! At its core, Bones is a procedural drama, and after 10 years on the air, that formula can start to get a little stale.
Another potential show shake-up hit us from Angela and Hodgins, who started contemplating a move to Paris. It would break my heart if this couple left the show, but Hodgins made a damn good point when he admitted, "After 10 years I think we deserve to let life surprise us." Let's just hope it's good surprises.
All right, thanks for bearing with me through these less-than-thrilling episodes! As promised, I'll close out the post by discussing the common thread between these two: Brennan wore Booth's necklace, bought with money he won by gambling behind her back.
