Bones: The Bones That Foam

Posted by: Jolee  •  March 17, 2009 @ 7:35pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

A skeleton is found at the bottom of an ocean cliff by some bungee-jumping newlyweds. B&B determine that he was not a bungee jumper, and that he was thrown over after he was already dead.

At the Jeffersonian, our intern of the week, Mr. Useless Trivia sees the victim's skin "moving". With a quick cut of the scalpel, green foam oozes out of the body and Cam locks down the lab because of the unidentified and potentially deadly yuckiness.

The victim is identified by dental records as Alex Newcome, a car salesman. B&B head down to the jungle themed car dealership to visit the victim's brother (another salesman) and his wife – Chet and Vanessa. It turns out that Alex had left the jungle dealership, and started working at another one. After chatting with the owner and his monkey, it turns out that Alex left because the owner wanted him to apologize to the monkey for pushing him. Seriously.

Back at the lab, we've discovered that Mr. Useless Trivia actually uses trivia to focus himself when he's stressed. Cam starts using that knowledge to get him to work better. It's interesting. After many tests, the foam is determined to be non-deadly, which means Hodgins and Trivia-intern are allowed to analyze the body. The bones have become gelatinous, and are continuing to foam. They might lose the evidence before being able to solve the murder.

At the other dealership, the Indian salesmen point out a customer, "angry lemon guy" that may have gone after Alex. Angry Lemon Guy is brought in for questioning, and while watching Booth do his stuff, Brennan decides she wants to learn to "manipulate people" like he does. Sweets agrees to give her some pointers. Lemon Guy is taken off the list of suspects, not really much motive.

Hodgins finds body glitter from a lap dancer on the victim's clothes:

Hodgins: This makes me king of the lab!

Trivia-Intern: A large percentage of the monarchy are actually mentally handicapped due to inbreeding.

Hodgins: (Long pause) Can't ruin it for me. KING OF THE LAB!

The lap dancer tells Booth (during a very awkward lap dance that Brennan paid for and is observing) that Alex was in there with one of the Indian car salesmen. Booth takes him for a "test drive" in a sweet sporty car, and after scaring the willies out of him, Booth gets the salesman to admit that he had a fight with Alex at the strip club, but that Alex took off in a cab to go get his job back at the jungle dealership. The taxi company collaborates the story.

Hodgins and Trivia-Guy turn on a lamp that accidentally sets the victim's body on fire, and makes the lab lock down again. It turns out that the foam was secreting flammable hydrogen gas. The bones are dissolving even faster now, Trivia-Intern had found the cause of death – fractures to the ribs – but that evidence is gone already. Hodgins has a brain-wave, and comes up with the reason for the bones dissolving: the body was dumped in highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid. They use antacid to stop the foaming, but it also calcifies into a hard casing around the body. Once again the lab locks down. Cam looks like she might have a break-down.

After a lesson with Sweets, Brennan thinks she's ready to interrogate a suspect, a pushy female salesman from the jungle dealership. She does very poorly, but does rule out the salesman as a suspect, and finds out that the victim was helping out his brother with sales for some reason.

Hodgins finds monkey poop on the victim's shoes, from the same day that he died. B&B go back to the dealership since they know for sure that he was there that night. They find a blood pool near a big vat of "Gleemo" - a tire cleaner, and a highly concentrated hydrofluoric acid.

Before Cam can go crazy and smash the calcified body with a big stick, Angela comes up with a program to virtually examine the body. With a lot of neat computer tricks, they determine the cause of death was tailor shears. Angela also explains to Brennan that while Brennan has the book-smarts, Booth has the people-smarts, and that Brennan should just let him do the interrogating. It's what he does.

B&B go talk to Alex's brother and wife at the dealership again. Booth remembered that the wife was a seamstress. When her husband leaves for a moment, Vanessa admits to killing Alex. He caught her having sex with the dealership owner – her husband was going to lose his job, so she said she'd have sex with the owner if he let her hubby keep his job. Alex caught them and threatened to tell his brother, so she killed him to save her marriage by stabbing him with shears, dumping him in hydrofluoric acid, and tossing him over a cliff. Case closed.

B&B have a post-case drink, and Brennan admits to Booth that he is better at interrogating that she is, which is a big deal for her to admit. Booth calls her awkward, but then thanks her. Cute moment here, before going outside where Booth has rented the sweet sporty car. Brennan drives, but terribly, and when she stalls it in the middle of an intersection, she and Booth get out and have an "old married couple fight" in the middle of the street. Tee hee!!

Tags: Bones, Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz

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