BONES: The Gamer in the Grease
December 3, 2009 by Sarah Curtis
First things first, BONES fans – Don’t forget about our live chat during next week’s episode. Be sure to check back in with GMMR for the link. I’ll post it on twitter, too. YAY!
Secondly…AAAHHH! The body. Ugh! I was just saying the other day that they haven’t been that gross this year (exception: Boot), certainly nothing like last year, but you guys, yuck. But then, I guess the BONES writers know how to balance, because as disgusting as the corpse was…well, one word: Hodgins. Two more words: Not disgusting.
Did any of y’all ever work in fast food? I totally rocked the front counter of an Arby’s for my high school and college days, and I just know exactly what a grease pit smells like, you know? So gross. So seeing that body in the grease was visual and olfactory.
The CASE:
A man’s body is found in a grease pit. He has stab wounds and indications that he was beaten, but those aren’t what killed him. His lungs were filled with grease, indicating that he drowned. Brennan, Cam and Fisher look for occupational markers, and using his sloping shoulder and the bite marks on his leg, they come to the conclusion that their victim was a mail carrier. Booth identifies the victim as Steve Rifton, a 26 year old mailman (and compliments Brennan in the process). Steve’s wife tells Booth and Brennan that he was the reigning world champion of Punky Pong. Suspects in the murder include the former reigning champion “Bill”, “Deandra”, the current contestant for the highest score, as well as a man on Steve’s regular mail route. The man was disturbed by the way Steve often looked at his son, the autistic Dougie. When it turned out that Steve was just interested in watching the Punky Play game Dougie was playing, the dad felt remorse. And in the end, it turns out that this murder was more about family than games. BONES has been leaving these cases with some ambiguous endings. We know the murderer was Dougie’s dad, of course, but what was his sentence? I’m not sure the writers care. They just want the heart.
The SQUINTS:
I kind of liked the ‘old boys club’ of Hodgins, Fisher and Sweets. What did you think? The show has gotten some criticism about basically being a commercial for AVATAR, but I thought the case was strong enough that I didn’t mind.
- Angela: She is actually seriously working on the case, analyzing the video of Steve’s alleged perfect game. Turns out the injuries Steve suffered were the same as the victim in the video game. In other news, even though I am over Hodgela, I was intrigued by her reaction to Hodgins’ tattoo. I’d kind of forgotten about that.
- Sweets: Ah…I was kind of torn on Sweets in this one. On the one hand, his being unfaithful to Daisy wasn’t cool. On the other hand, I hate Daisy, and I wish they would break up and we’d never see her again. No, no…cheating is worse than Daisy. Right?
- Cam: She’s smart, right? But sometimes she just doesn’t care enough to find out what’s really going on. I guess that’s pretty smart, too. Whether it’s Booth and Brennan’s bickering or Hodgins and Fisher’s excuses, she’s staying out of it.
- Fisher: He’s still kind of a weirdo. Some people love him as a squintern; I’m still on the fence. You?
- Hodgins: He almost always makes me laugh. This episode was no exception. I enjoyed him tossing out science terms that may or may not be true. And of course, “Who wants to know about peacock poop?” Ha! I also loved when he called “King of the Lab” in a rush.
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
“You need to Google Venn Diagram”. Hahaha! I will also say that B&B’s analysis of cheap porno music was funny, too.
This episode was another interesting study in Brennan’s character, and one thing I’m enjoying most about this season is how subtly they are exploring her character. Tonight, Mrs. Rifton makes a comment that people with high IQs are often absentminded. Brennan quickly disagrees. And I will also admit that it was a little dusty in my apartment when she smiled at Dougie. She has empathy (to quote Booth). She’s just kind of awkward sometimes, that’s all.
I love Booth. “Someone breaks your kid’s heart, your own heart… rises up, gets fierce. Just a natural response.” David Boreanaz just has a way of saying lines like these with such conviction. Never corny, just awesome.
I think you’ll agree that Booth and Brennan are very fond of one another. It was cute how Booth wanted Brennan along at the crime scene (even though there was the dreaded flesh), and when they were talking with the victim’s wife, Brennan was quick to point out that Booth would never think of video gaming as a sport. Possibly one of the sweetest moments was when Booth couldn’t fold his map and Brennan grabbed it and folded it in like 0.2 seconds. It just feels like they are at the point where they are comfortable discussing their differences, and if you’ll remember, their lack of compatibility was one of Booth’s main points against their being together. So it’s interesting to see that ‘wall’ getting dealt with.
Not to be too spoilery, but is “just evidence” the new “just partners”?
EEK! See you next week!
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I liked the episode tonight. Gotta say a/b halfway through hubby and I figured out that the vic had taped the kid’s screen, but I wasn’t sure exactly who killed him(I thought maybe the dad was going to cover for the kid).
The Avatar thing wasn’t as in your face as I thought it would be and the characters they picked to be geeks….well, they are, so it worked. Plus, them running around covering for each other made for a bunch of great laughs and took be back to The Man on the Fairway. Poor Cam.
I really liked that they touched on Hodgins’ tat again finally and Angela’s reaction was great. I have no idea how TJ spits out all of that techno-babble so rapidly, though. Have to say that the most thought-provoking lines of the night were from Jack to Sweets a/b doing the sex math; it was sweet in a way but funny too(silent math, LOL).
You nailed it with how B&B are showing how fond of each other they are. My favorite line between them tonight, though was when Brennan talked a/b Booth operating on a different number base than she is. She’s really trying to understand the differences between them within her frame of reference and being a math person I just really thought that line was sweet and showed growth.
Can’t. Freakin’. WAIT. For. December. 10th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gum 🙂
OMG! I can’t wait until next week!!! That preview was just, oh my god!!!!!!!!!!
I found the Avatar product placement very annoying. It was among the worst I have seen.
Darn it! I was watching on DVR, and it cut off the preview! What was so exciting?
I really thought that it might have been the kid in this episode – I was confused all the way up until he admitted knowing about the video in the interrogation room.
Sweets really bugged me. Maybe it is because I have been the victim of a cheater, but even if the girl is insistent, he could have stopped her. Like right when she shows the tattoos – it has to stop it there. Don’t look surprised when she kisses you after you have had her on your lap and then have gone into a closed-up tent with her. I have really been starting to like Sweets, and making him so insecure that he would cheat on his girlfriend simply because some other guy claims to have slept with a lot of women seems out of character to me.
In defense of Lance Sweets, he is just a kid. I am not happy that he kinda, sorta cheated on Daisy but…. I guess I just can’t stay mad at the kid – I love him far too much.
What happened to Wendell? It has been weeks since he was on and got with Angela. I’m interested to see if that is going anywhere else and if it is awkward between them now.
That body was GROSS. I did not need to see all the skin and organs sliding off. Nasty. Did we find out why the victim was dumped in the grease? Did the dad have a connection to that place some how? I also really thought the autistic kid would be the one to have stabbed the victim since it was just like in the game.
Finally, I did not have a problem with the Avatar product placement. While this can be annoying sometimes, I’d rather have my favorite shows do odd product placement than get cancelled! In the age of the DVR, I expect we will see more of this which is fine with me if it keeps things on the air.
This post is a bit rambling and all of the place…I’m trying to get all my thoughts out before I have to get back to work! 🙂
I am with smurfs – Sweets didn’t really cheat on Daisy. He may have considered it but in the end he didn’t. One kiss and some boobs do not a cheater make. If they did there would be no such thing as a guy who didn’t cheat. All the young’uns with the perky boobies might disagree but this old fart can deal with a man looking at someone else’s boobs and even the kiss. As long and no good parts were touching? I am good.
Loved Hodgins in this episode! When he yelled “king of the lab” while running out of the lab? Excellent! I liked that they touched on the Angela tat even if it was only for a brief moment.
I didn’t mind the Avatar tie in thing because those three guys are super nerds and I know people (no me!) who would do the whole team thing to stand in line.
B&B were really cute. Bones seems very into this case after the skin (gross I was eating again!) was gone. Between the game and the boy and everything about the case, she seemed very interested from an anthropological perspective.
My DVR didnt’ get the preview either but Angie was kind enough to fill me in! Yeah! Cant wait!
Do we get two episodes next week? IMDB is listing The Goop on the Girl and The X in the File both for Dec 10th.
I’m a casual viewer of Bones (I like it when I catch it but don’t remember every week). I obviously caught it this week and was surprised to see this episode was very, very loosely based on the very real tension that exists between Billy Mitchell and Steve Wiebe and the Donky Kong record as depicted in the documentary King of Kong. There is no murder of Steve Wiebe in real life, of course, but the fact that the two antagonists in the episode are Billy and Steve, that the Kill Screen is mentioned so prominently, and the whole business of video taping your play and sending the tape into the ‘governing body’ of classic arcade games are too much to consider coincidences. The writers obviously saw this documentary and worked it into their story line.
Even if you don’t geek out to Donkey Kong (which I do not – I’m not even much of a gamer) I’d suggest you check out King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is an interesting look into the world this Bones episode touched on and may even give you a little more insight to this episode itself!
Yeah, the Avatar thing bugged me. I could see the characters geeking out about it, but it was so in your face… just annoying.