Bones Review: Honesty is Not the Best Policy

Anyone else who watched this episode have a strange desire to go out and buy a Prius?

Wonder what could have made me start dreaming about never having to parallel park my own car ever again. Weird.

Bones left me with several cases of the giggles, though two days later I’m struggling to recall what the case was even about.

I remember it began with a little pervert (which probably describes most middle school aged boys) standing on a planter to get a peek into a women’s locker room. He stumbles and falls face first into a decomposing body riddled with parasites. Hodgins (T.J.Thyne) is called to the scene to do his nasty bug thing, and quickly determines time of death.

The victim is a powerful advertising executive who recently left his big corporate job and started his own firm after making a big life change – committing to always telling the truth no matter what the consequences.

That life philosophy leads Booth (David Boreanaz) and Bones (Emily Deschanel) to the man’s support group, where they find a bunch of a-hole’s using honesty as an excuse to be rude to the people in their lives. One of the participants is a really nasty clown who admits (of course) to having outstanding warrants. They bring him in for questioning, although Bones is the one who has to cuff him due to Booth’s heretofore well documented phobia of clowns.

Every suspect they talk to – the victim’s old partners, his son, even other people in the group - pretty much hate him because of one truth told or another, so finding motive isn’t the problem. Our weekly squintern is back, and I nearly squealed in delight at the sight of Wendell (Michael Grant Terry), who I’ve missed. He’s having money problems again, and when Brennan informs him that Cam (Tamara Taylor) is looking to hire an intern for some extra hours he goes to her and asks for the job. She declines, saying the only fair thing to do it to split the hours between all the squinterns since they’re equally qualified.

Once the news of the victim’s life policy of truth telling makes its way back to the lab, however, Wendell (and the others) decide to put it into practice. By going to Cam and telling her all the reasons he deserves the position, she agrees to give it to him. He steps over the line shortly after when he confesses her perfume (or lotion, as she corrects) really smells terrible. Cam lays down the lab rules, insisting propriety and manners are the glue of society and no more truth will be told unless it pertains to the case.

Brennan of course doesn’t agree, and is obsessed with the idea Booth isn’t always honest with her. She, Booth, and Sweets (John Francis Daley) discuss this during a car ride, and Sweets gets very excited about the prospect of the two of them opening up to one another. Though Brennan asks several times, Booth deflects the questions but promises to tell her one thing he’s lied about at the end of the case.

The case is resolved when our team discovers the moderator of the truth group (a lawyer, who Brennan insisted from the get go could not possibly always be truthful) is discovered falsifying insurance lawsuits. Our victim discovered it too and had plans to blow the whistle, landing himself in a shallow grave.

Angela (Michaela Conlin) and Hodgins also have a frank discussion about how scared the possibility of their baby’s disability makes them both, and that they need to be there for one another and not pretend the fear isn’t there. I’m enjoying their evolution as a couple, their solid foundation and ability to work through life as it throws them curveballs. I can’t recall watching another “happy” couple being so well written on network television. It’s nice to feel confident in a couple’s relationship while still invested in their issues.

In the end, Booth thanks Bones for being there when he broke up with Hannah even though he tried to push her away. I’m starting to love their post-case moments again, now that the tension has largely bled out of the Relationship Question. The final line of the night gave me another giggle, and came when Bones asked Booth what became of the clown who had the warrant for his arrest. Booth replies that he received jail time and she responds “One more clown off the streets.”

Being that I’m not exactly comfortable with clowns myself, I appreciate the sentiment.

Season 6, Episode 20 “The Pinocchio in the Planter” (original air date April 28, 2011)

Bones airs Thursday nights at 9/8c on Fox.

Photos Courtesy of Ray Mickshaw and Fox