TV Review: Bones Episode 1.14

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

From FOX: When three small, random bone fragments are discovered at the site of a plane crash, but do not belong to any of the plane crash victims, Brennan must use every trick she has to find out who they belong to and how they met their end.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

Bones returns to FOX with an all-new episode after a three week hiatus. Tonight episode titled The Man in the Fairway was a welcome return of the series, but I found myself having a difficult time getting into the Bones mindset. How are these breaks and time switches hurting this series? It is possible. Next week, the series moves times again.

This week, Brennan and Zach arrive on the site of a private plane crash. The jet that crashed had two Chinese Nationals on board, and a total of five bodies on board. However, Bones and Zach soon find the remains of two additional bodies. One of a what appears to be a man on the ground, and the other someone on board the plane that was no where on the flight manifest. Finding out the identity of the unlisted body becomes Brennan's top priority. However, she is more interested in the bone fragments she found on the ground.

Her interest is peeked further when a man arrives at her lab asking about the bone fragments and the plane crash. He knows more than he should, and he tells Booth and Bones he thinks the bone fragments belong to his long missing father. Jesse also knows a lot about Temperance and the disappearance of her own parents. He gives her the case files of his father's disappearance.

Brennan moves forward on the bone fragments, even though Goodman told her and her team to find the identity of the sixth plane passenger. The team works on both cases simultaneously, while keeping it secret from Goodman. As for Jesse, he continues to talk to Bones, focusing on the disappearance of her parents as some kind of bonding tool. She does eventually give her parent's file to the man. He even tries to bond further with her by trying to kiss her in her office.

They continue to work on the bone fragments, working towards a cause of death and suspect. Jesse believes his step-mother, a much younger woman, killed his father. The woman is a bit rude, but she does bring to the light that Jesse has his own reasons for killing his father. When Bones and Booth go to him, He does tell them that what his step-mother said is true, but he didn't kill his father.

As for cause of death, the body was frozen, cut up and then fed through a wood chipper. Zach and Hodgins are given the task of putting a body through the wood chipper once the actual machine is located. This is something they take great pleasure in, and although the scene is a bit disturbing, I found humor in it as well. Even if I had trouble watching the scene without flinching.

As for the sixth body, it appears to be a female prostitute. The team is able to put a face to her, and then Angela is given the task of locating the girl in Escort service files. They put together a list of names, and then they send it to the F.B.I. That is when Goodman tells them to move on to the bone fragments. They had already done that though.

Once they found the wood chipper, they find a possible second suspect which clears the man's wife. He is questioned, but it doesn't appear he was available at the time of death due to his being in jail at the time. They go to the golf course to find more bone fragments, and they are successful.

Studying these bone fragments actually makes it clear that Jesse's father wasn't the victim. They do have their suspect though, and they discover that he had in fact killed his brother. By the end of the episode, Bones has retrieved the file on her parents from Jesse, and she then asks Booth to help her by looking into it.

A good episode with some humorous moments. I am glad to see the series back. I think the extended breaks are lessening my interest in this series. I hope it stays around a while now, so that doesn't happen. This began as one of my favorite new series this season, and this time hopping and several breaks are now hurting it. Don't forget to catch Bones in its all new time slot of 8/7c next Wednesday night!