TV Review: Bones Episode 1.08

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

From FOX: Brennan's former forensic anthropologist professor and ex-lover – Dr. Michael Stires, surprises her with a visit to her lab at the Jeffersonian, while in town to interview for a job. While they make plans to have dinner together that evening, Booth wheels in a soiled refrigerator, revealing the decomposed remains of a young woman inside. As Brennan and her team go to work to uncover clues as to what may have happened, Booth discovers an old ransom note sent to the girl's parents shortly after she disappeared. Booth and Brennan determine the supposed kidnapping was a hoax and Booth makes an arrest in the case. When Bones is called in as an expert witness, she is shocked to discover the defense has brought in an expert of their own in "The girl in the fridge."

My Rating: 4 out of 4

We have another excellent episode with Bones and her crew. This time around a decomposed body is found stuffed into a refrigerator and brought to Bones and her team by Booth to investigate. Just before he arrives, a man enters the picture from Temperance's past, her professor and former flame. He immediately starts offering his own assessments of this new case of her, and she sets to work.

We soon discover it is a woman, and she's been dead and in the refrigerator approximately a year. The team also soon fleshes out exactly how she died. Seems she had been tied and bound, held in the refrigerator for a very long time before a drug being administered to her causes her to overdose. There had been a kidnapping case, but it had gone unsolved. Bones and Booth soon also discover that the kidnapping case was merely a ploy to get money out of the girl's family.

She was unhappy, and had made some friends. Not the best kind of friends to make because the couple she had befriended liked the kinkier side of life, and she had joined them in their sex games. The three liked to play a bit too rough, and this is what led to the young girl's death. That and the fact she also suffered from a thyroid condition that caused some of her injuries to be even worse off than normal.

While Bones works on the case, she also rekindles things to an extent with Michael. He has moved in for the duration of his trip, and they have resumed a sexual relationship while he is there. The job interview doesn't end up being the only reason why he is town however. Booth informs her that the couple arrested for the murder of the victim in this case has hired Michael, and this means the two will be going up against each other on either side of the case. She asks Michael to move out, and the two seem to go head to head a bit in this surprising plot twist.

If anyone knows how to discredit Temperance in a case, it would be the man that taught her everything she knows, and that is exactly what we have here in Stires. Plus, the people love him. While she is cold and distant, he is a definite people person that isn't too hard on the eyes either. She has the looks, but she is lacking in the warmth here. The jury preparation person on this case hits Brennan pretty hard when it comes to this point, trying to make Bones act more friendly once she is on the stand. Bones fails in doing this, and once Michael gets on the stand he rips her cold demeanor apart. In order to counteract his testimony, Temperance has to go back on the stand in defense of herself. In order to help win the jury over to their side, the lawyer and Booth bring her life story onto the stand, and this does end up angering Brennan a bit, especially with Booth because she had told him things about her life and the disappearance of her parents in confidence only.

Her emotional response to the question about her parents is what ends up turning the tide in their favor, and the couple is convicted. After the trying day Temperance has had, all she wants to do is bury herself in work, and Booth gives her the perfect opportunity when another body is found. As they begin to work on this case, the scene fades to black, and another episode is done.

Another great episode for Bones this week. I don't think I've had one disappointment when it comes to this series yet. I really enjoyed seeing Temperance break character a bit as she deals with someone from her past. This person allows her to find her a bit of a comfort zone, and we see a bit underneath her cold façade. Similar to how we see her with Angela. However, she is sent teetering off balance when the man she had trusted goes up against her. Definitely an exciting plot twist here. I wonder if we'll be seeing more of Michael Stires in the future. I know I wouldn't mind!

No new Bones next week, but the show will be back on December 13th with a holiday themed episode! See you back for more Bones thoughts then.