TV Review: Bones Episode 1.10

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

From FOX: Dr. Temperance Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth travel to Los Angeles to determine the identity of a woman whose body parts were found near Los Angeles International Airport. With Booth at the wheel of their convertible rental car, the pair is assisted by young FBI agent Tricia Finn, who is a little too eager to help. Brennan is surprised to learn Agent Finn knows her books inside and out, and, in typical fashion, Brennan downplays a meeting with a Hollywood producer about making her latest book into a movie. When Brennan and producer/director Penny Marshall meet face to face on the set of an entertainment news show, Marshall is impressed and a little taken aback by Brennan’s dedication to her latest case. Brennan’s skills are put to the test as she discovers the victim’s identity is hidden by the fact that she’d had extensive plastic surgery.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

Bones returns to FOX tonight in an all-new time slot, which will change once again in March. However, that is still a month away. Let's talk about tonight's episode titled The Woman at the Airport. Booth comes to Brennan looking for help in identifying the body of a woman found at the airport, but instead of the body coming to her. Brennan has to go to the body. This is something she isn't to thrilled about because she has work to do at the Jeffersonian. However, Booth goes over her head and convinces Dr. Goodman the case would be good publicity for the museum.

The case takes Booth and Bones to Los Angeles, California. Bones almost immediately determines this case is going to be difficult. The structure of the woman's face has been so altered by plastic surgery that determining her identity might be next to impossible, and this frustrates Temperance because she hates anonymous deaths. Everyone deserves to die with their identity known if they need to die at all in such a senseless manner as murder.

Booth and Bones do go forward with the case, and the crew back in D.C. also help out as much as they can. Brennan even takes her frustrations out on Angela when Angela tells her it might not be possible to reconstruct the woman's face with all that has been done to it. Bones and Brennan do start to pick up some clues. They find that it appears the woman was a call girl, and her name was Rachel. That was the name she used at the service in any case.

It appears everyone that knew her knew her by another name, even her doctor's. She seemed to love plastic surgery, perhaps a bit too much. That is why so much work was done on her. This work totally changed her, and the only way Booth is able to find her identity is by searching through old papers about a young woman suffering a crushed leg in some accident. He does find out who she is by the end of the episode though, and this does help Brennan's mind at ease. However, this case has more twists and turns to find out who the young woman's killer is.

In a surprising twist, we find it was the woman's best friend that killed her out of one of the oldest reasons in the book, jealousy. Her friend was taking her man, or so she thought. The only thing "Rachel" was getting from the doctor is unlimited plastic surgery. That is until he cuts her off. Booth has even interviewed the young woman earlier in the show, and you could see the discovery she was the killer saddened him.

Booth also had some dealings with the FBI agent assigned to assist him and Brennan while they were in town. She seemed to be using the agency as a stepping stone to her big career. She wanted to write screenplays. In fact, when she learns that Bones will be meeting with a producer in Hollywood to talk about turning her book into a movie, the young agent is all over that. However, something this major in Brennan's life doesn't even seem to register in her mind at all as important.

Meanwhile in D.C., Dr. Goodman has taken over the identification of a man that died 1500 years ago from Brennan, but there are problems almost immediately apparent when Hodgins doesn't see eye-to-eye with the anthropologist. In fact it gets close to the point where Goodman wants to fire him, but we know he won't Hodgins doesn't only work at the Jeffersonian. His family is one of the financial contributors to the museum as well. Firing him might be a huge mistake.

I had missed this series during its hiatus. Yes, another hiatus this season. We've had two now, and I hope we don't have another. My main concern right now is seeing how Bones holds up against Lost. It won't have to compete for long because Bones will be moving to an hour earlier time-slot in March.