BONES Recap: ‘The Fury in the Jury’

Hello, BONES fans, and welcome to our first Friday night discussion! Marisa and I discussed why the move to Fridays wasn’t such a bad thing (and you can read that here), and I have to say the show picked a good episode in “The Fury in the Jury” for the Friday night debut.

I really only had two main issues with this episode:

1. While it’s not impossible that Brennan is an almost expert-level sketch artist of the human skeleton, as far as I know, this is the first time we’ve seen that skill of hers, making it somewhat implausible. It served the plot, and I can absolutely see where she would analyze the skeletal structures of everyone in the room when she’s bored, but I thought it was a bit of a stretch.
2. It’s also not like Brennan to want to force evidence to match who she wants to be the killer.  There was a dichotomy in her character when she was on the jury vs. afterward, when she wanted revenge on Kidman. I think it was a combination of her pride/guilt and wanting justice. I found it more plausible than the sketch artist thing, but still just a little bit off.

Other than that, I really liked this episode. Let’s discuss!

THE CASE:

The Scene of the Crime: The episode begins with the Jeffersonian team (sans Brennan) watching courtroom footage. Brennan’s on the jury, and a famous international soccer star, Peter Kidman, is on trial for killing his wife. Peter’s sister Alison is the first defense witness.

As the trial continues, Booth and the team find out that the murdered victim they are working on is Peter’s friend — an expert witness for the prosecution.

The Victim: Christopher Barnes, a longtime friend of Peter’s. He originally was going to testify for the defense, but flipped sides. His no-show in the courtroom led the jury to find Kidman not-guilty in the death of his wife.

The Case Progression:

While Brennan is on the jury, she encourages her other jurors to examine information that is only relevant to the case, including the dismissal of personal opinion. While the mix of jurors was somewhat caricature-eqsue, as the episode continued, I really enjoyed the scenes with the jury. It was fun to see which people agreed with Brennan and which didn’t.

The Jeffersonian team keeps tabs on the trial as well, and they are angry (especially Angela) when the not-guilty verdict is announced. Of course, they know what Brennan doesn’t — that the victim whose murder they are trying to solve is the same person who would have (likely) presented enough information to the jury to convict.

When Booth tells Brennan Barnes was murdered, she is shocked and angered. She re-joins the Jeffersonian team to solve the murder. His body had a couple of gun wounds, but it seems drowning was the real cause of death. His body suffered blunt force trauma to the head and was also wrapped in a vinyl material.

Booth interrogates a possible drug dealer, who admits he has a baseball bat and a boat, but it turns out the vinyl on the victim doesn’t match his tarp.

Sweets and Booth then question Kidman. He has his lawyer present, and tells them that he was on house arrest — the media was camped outside his place all night long; there was no way he could have committed the murder.

Barnes’ body was also covered in some sort of spray, like that which would be on a car. Brennan determines one of the bullets cut through his Achilles tendon, making it impossible for him to escape his killer(s). Hodgins is able to trace some freshwater algae and locate the exact pond where Barnes was killed. He also finds a small piece of citrine.

Meanwhile, Sweets and Booth track down records of Barnes’ solicitation of sex calls, and find he was supposed to meet a Kinky Kelly on the night he died. They trace her email back to a local library, and Angela is able to pull up security footage. This reveals that Kinky Kelly is Kidman’s sister, Alison.

Booth and Sweets interrogate her, proving that her car cover matched the vinyl found around the victim AND her street was sprayed the day Barnes was killed. Sweets pushes hard for a confession, playing on her emotions and suggesting that she loved her brother enough to kill the witness for the prosecution. She cries, but doesn’t say much at the advice of the Kidman family lawyer. But it’s still enough for Booth to arrest her.

Brennan and Daisy continue to examine the skeleton, which shows markings of a strong kick…like that an international soccer star might deliver. Brennan suggests to Booth that maybe the “fact” that Peter never left his house is somehow not a fact. She asks Angela for the media footage of Kidman’s house. The only person seen entering and exiting the house is Peter’s bodyguard.

The Verdict: Brennan watches side-by-side footage of the bodyguard entering and exiting the home and is able to quickly identify that it isn’t the same person. Booth brings Peter back in for questioning, and he admits he went out. His hubris shows, and he says it’s not a big deal if he wanted to get out of the house for a while. But then Booth points out a citrine brooch on the bodyguard’s coat. Peter admits to wearing it. He doesn’t know it lost a stone — the one Hodgins found. This puts him at the crime scene, and when Brennan pulls out the brooch, he and his lawyer know he’s doomed.

THE SQUINTS:

All of the squints were well utilized in this episode. I loved the scene where Hodgins tried to get Brennan to blink once for guilty, and I really loved the continuation of the identity theft story for Cam (and the way Angela has been trying to help her with it). It will be interesting to see where that goes, since Cam revealed she knows the person who has been stealing from her.

While I normally don’t like Daisy, I thought her storyline of trying to be Queen Bee at the lab worked pretty well.

As far as Sweets, I laughed when he talked to Booth about there being a juror who interrupted the defense attorney, and I thought he was good in the interrogation room.

BOOTH AND BRENNAN:

I really liked that Booth and Brennan had several scenes together in this episode:

1. First SUV scene — It was flirty and fun, and I liked that Brennan said that going to the lab helps her relax but also promised she’d be home for dinner with Booth.
2. Phone call — I loved that we saw and heard both of them on this call. We could see the strain of their situations and not being able to tell the other one about it, and also able to see how well they know one another to know something was NOT being said.
3. Second SUV scene — This was more serious, but just as special, as Brennan confessed she was upset by the turn of events. Emily Deschanel’s expressions of explanation, then shock, then anger and hurt were very good. Also loved how Booth comforted her with words and promises of actions
4. End scene — I hope every time Booth means “something more” it’s not banana splits, but even so, this scene was cute and fun. It was a good conversation about jury duty, how they don’t always have to agree to get along, and how in fact, that is what makes them work so well together. It was sweet, and as they both said, they do fit well together.

Okay, enough from me. What did you think of this episode? Did you like the case? Do you think Cam’s ID thief is a single issue or part of something more that could affect the entire team? Was Brennan a good juror, and how did you like her scenes with Booth? The comments are open; sound off!