This week's episode brought us back into season 12's overarching plot: the developing threat from one of Booth's former kills, a Bosnian warlord named Radic. We also learned a bit more about a secret that Max, Brennan's dad, has been hiding.
PLOT
The victim of the week - or at least, the first victim - was an Asian woman in her seventies named Margaret Kwan. Unlike most cases, hers was a bit unusual in that she was a bit of a shut-in; she ordered almost everything online and rarely left her home. In fact, the team soon discovered that one of her biggest contacts was the person who delivered her packages...and wouldn't you know it, it's another member of Booth's unit, Michael Reiss - who's been missing for a week.
Evidence on Margaret's body suggested she was tortured, and the team quickly deduced that she was used as leverage to get Reiss to tell their torturers who exactly killed Radic. Given the tenacity of the torturers, Booth and Brennan sent their kids and Max into hiding, and they brought in the Americanized son of Radic, a man named Mark Kovak.
Kovak was only 6 when his father was assassinated. After that, the Red Cross brought him to the United States and set him up with a family. Since then he'd married, did a few tours in Iraq as a medic, and worked as an EMT; none of which really suggested he was looking for revenge of the father he barely remembered. However, Kovak's wife's connections to certain properties used by the killer, his visits to a Serbian bar, and evidence on his defibrillator began to paint a darker picture: the portrait of a man capable of brutally torturing, killing, and reviving victims just to kill them again.
And the mayhem only grew when Booth and Brennan learned that the safe house where their family was hiding was invaded by a pair of Serbian shooters. Although the shooters were subdued, Brennan's father was shot. He seemed as though he might pull through, and shared a touching memory with Brennan in the hospital, but then passed away before her very eyes. The episode ends on that somber note with the promise of more to come next week.
DISCUSSION
The team seems hell-bent on proving that Kovak was the torturer and killer, and there's mounting evidence to suggest that they're right. But I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that Kovak's mother, Sasha Radic, is somehow involved in this whole scheme. During Booth's flashback to that fateful shooting, they make a point of panning over not only father and son, but also the mother. And later, it's revealed that one of the safe house shooters died with the Serbian word for "mother" on his lips. One could argue that she lost a lot more when Booth took that fateful shot, and we should never underestimate a woman with nothing to lose. What do you think? Could my idea have some merit?
On a lighter note, we also discovered this week that sleek, sophisticated Cam has a secret passion for a home shopping channel! Although she was upset with Arastoo for revealing this little secret, it did give us a little glimpse of their private selves, which I always love. Arastoo has come a long, long way from pretending to be the meek foreign intern! Have you particularly enjoyed any of the character journeys in this show? Which ones?
Looks like next week we'll get to sniffle our way through Max's funeral. What else are we looking forward to? Share in the comments section!
