Last week, Bones kicked off season 11 with a very big mystery and a medium-sized cliffhanger. If you read this blog regularly, then you probably know that I really liked the season premier, and was looking forward to seeing the mystery continue to unravel.
After watching episode two, though, I'm a bit disappointed. It's not that there was anything particularly wrong with "The Brother in the Basement", but it just didn't keep the momentum going...let's try to figure out why.
RECAP
Last week's episode left us fearing for Booth's life; he was sporting a gunshot wound to the gut in the midst of thieves. His intentions were left unclear; his brother, Jared, seemed to have been involved in a heist of some kind.
Back at the lab, Brennan had chewed out Arastoo for some oversights he made in a case. Cam discovered Arastoo intended to propose. And Angelodgins (yes, I just smooshed their names together) were their usual sweet and brilliant selves.
Over at the FBI, Aubrey and Caroline were butting heads with a secretive (and stubborn) Internal Investigations agent named Miller, who hadn't told the whole truth about her investigation into Jared Booth's death.
This week, we learned that Miller's former partner, Richard Bannerman, had printed off a list of undercover agents in the field just before he went suspiciously missing. Booth was part of the team that intended to buy this list, and (presumably) he hoped to keep the list from falling into the wrong hands, while simultaneously protecting his brother.
Back in the lab, Arastoo continued to underwhelm Brennan, who was shocked to discover that the Jeffersonian has produced lower-quality results since she left. As Brennan came to the conclusion that she wanted to return to the Jeffersonian, Arastoo decided to leave. This made for some sad news at the end of the episode; check out the discussion section (below) for more.
We knew, however, that neither of them was Booth; Booth was in a basement somewhere, steadily worsening from his gut wound. Even worse, though, we discovered that whoever struck the deal with the team of thieves was insisting that Booth be killed or they would back out.
But (SPOILER!) wouldn't you know it, the handsome man turned out to have brutally bludgeoned Miller's partner with a set of brass knuckles. Brennan impatiently risked assaulting him in order to learn Booth's location, and rushed off to save him.
DISCUSSION
So why the disappointment? Well, partly, I was hoping Booth would have more intricate motivations for participating in a robbery; perhaps because he and his brother were looking to "stick it" to some of the conspiring monsters who got Sweets killed last season, or to catch a notorious bad guy, or to save the president of the United States. Something as simple as a list of names felt anticlimactic.
Additionally, the episode brought some delightful conflict between Miller and the other FBI folk to a grinding halt. This show has presented a long stream of creepy killers that want to cause headaches for Booth and Brennan, but an internal villain would have made for an intriguing new set of challenges this season. As much as I enjoyed the budding chemistry between Aubrey and Miller, I wonder - did they miss an opportunity to create a new and interesting antagonist?
But the really disappointing aspect of this episode was the casual justification of Booth's involvement in the heist. Aubrey and the FBI folks assumed that he was protecting those on the list by participating, while Brennan focused solely on his fraternal motives (and completely forgave him, despite lacking facts for nearly two entire episodes). Seems to me like there should be legal complications here; why wasn't Booth arrested? How could the FBI possibly consider re-hiring an agent that just contributed to the theft of 2 million dollars? And most importantly, why is Brennan so quick to forgive him? I think I'd have a few more misgivings than she did if my husband decided to take up a secret life of crime.
However, I thought Emily Deschanel performed particularly well this week in the scene where she speaks to her daughter, Christine, over the phone. Even as she tries to placate the little girl, you can hear the strain in her voice. You feel the uncertainty Bones is feeling about finding her beloved Booth. It makes the automatic forgiveness she grants to Booth at the end of the episode all the more frustrating to me; he left her in the dark, to worry about him and make excuses to their kids. I've often praised this show for slowly softening Brennan over the years, but is she getting a little too soft these days?
As always, I hope you'll chime in on this week's episode! Use the comments section to agree, disagree, and remind me of what I missed. (I remembered to talk about the handsome man in this post, didn't I?)
