TV Review: Bones Episode 1.09

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

From FOX: Construction workers find a skeleton in an old fallout shelter from the 1950's. When Zack cuts into the bone, he accidentally releases spores of Valley Fever, a deadly fungus that causes the team to be quarantined in the lab over Christmas. While the rest of the team members try to maintain their holiday spirit, Brennan buckles down to solve the mystery of the fallout shelter. Brennan explains that this is a rough time of the year because her parents went missing right before Christmas when she was a kid. The team figures out that the man in the shelter was murdered before he could elope to Paris with his pregnant girlfriend. Angela tells Brennan she should contact the girlfriend and give her the answer about her missing loved one, the answer Brennan never got about her own missing parents. After exchanging handmade gifts in the lab, the team is finally released from quarantine on Christmas Day.

My rating: 4 out of 4

I might be the sappiest person alive, but I think I cried on and off during the last half hour of tonight's episode of Bones titled "The man in the fall out shelter." It is December 23rd, and everyone is gearing up for their holiday plans. That is until Booth brings in the skeletal remains of a man. Bones decides to look into the bones, and while Zach is assisting her, the alarm goes off for a decontamination warning. All would have been well, if Hodgins hadn't also been in the room with Zach unprotected.

Turns out spores that can cause Valley Fever are released into the air, and since someone was unprotected, they can all be affected by the illness. This means the group will have to remain in quarantine until their test results come back. Those results may take a couple of days, so they will more than likely miss Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with their families.

They are given a preliminary treatment for the disease as a stopgap measure, and this causes Booth to get a bit loopy. Not sure which was funnier high, Bones or Booth. Any thoughts? In any case, with all of them locked up together, this means all their individual plans are out the window. Booth had plans to spend time with his four-year-old son.  Goodman had plans to spend Christmas with his five-year-old twin daughter and wife. Hodgins planned to go to Quebec with his girlfriend, and Zach had plans to spend time with his family, as does Angela.

The only one with no plans for the holiday is Bones. As it turns out, her parents disappeared just before the Christmas holiday, and this makes the holiday especially difficult for her.  She has basically sworn off Christmas, and she almost ruins it for everyone else with her talk about Christmas. Angela wants to make the holiday special, even with them all being locked up, and she tries to enlist Brennan's help, but there is no go there.

Bones continues to work on the skeleton Booth brought in, and a story of love lost begins to unfold there. The skeleton is of a white man that has left behind the woman he loved, an African American. He was killed in 1959, when it was still illegal for the two to be together. She was also pregnant, and the woman thought she had been abandoned by her fiancé. The team makes it a point to find out all they can about the man, and once they figure out who the woman is, Angela urges Bones to find the woman and tell her what happened to her fiancé.  

Bones is able to track her down, and the woman comes to the lab once the quarantine is up. Brennan tells her what happened, and the woman gets the best gift possible on Christmas - the gift of knowing the truth.

Bones never received this gift herself. She still doesn't know what happened to her parents, and in a rare opening up scene, Brennan tells Angela what happened with her parents. Booth overhears the tale, and it was a quite sad scene. I know it brought tears to my eyes.  The only contact the group has with their own families is a short visit on Christmas through glass. However, all is well by Christmas afternoon, and they are all released in time to spend some of the time with their families.

This was probably the best episode of the entire series for me. It had a combination of a good case with an extensive story to it, and we were also able to learn a lot more about our cast of characters. Bones opened up some. We learned a secret about Booth that I never saw coming. We learned more about everyone, and this episode was just perfect for the holiday season.

Next week's episode is a repeat, so I'll be back with more new reviews of this show once it returns. Be aware that might be after the holidays.