TV Review: Bones Episode 1.16

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

From FOX: When the remains of a young documentary filmmaker are found in a ventilation shaft in an underground Washington, DC, tunnel, Brennan and Booth must venture into the maze of tunnels beneath the city and are surprised to discover a world of homeless shelters underground. Clues lead them to suspect that a man living underground was involved with the murder, but instead he gives them valuable information about the purpose of the victim’s underground project. When a valuable artifact is found among the victim’s possessions, the entire Jeffersonian team joins in the investigation to learn why the victim was in the maze of tunnels and what she found down there that led to her murder.

My Rating: 3 out of 4

Tonight episode of Bones titled The Woman in the Tunnel was more of a straight case episode instead of one with a great deal of character development and twists and turns like the last couple of episodes have been. On tonight's episode a body of a woman is found deep in the tunnels under Washington D.C. The woman is a documentarian doing a documentary on the people that are found living underneath the city. When her body is found, this leads Bones and her team to these people, and they learn more about them. Bones does identify with the woman because she is an anthropologist, and they have similar beliefs. One woman would like Bones and Brennan to believe that the woman had more than documenting in mind.

In particular, they find one man that has some of the woman's belongings in his possession, including her camera and bloody clothing. Within the woman's belongings, the team makes an interesting finding, a U.S. seal from the civil war period that leads to a treasure. This makes them believe that the man could be responsible for the death of the woman. The man proclaims his innocence time and time again, and he is believable. Though he lives underneath the city now, he had a distinguished military record. He also talks about a blonde woman that scares him. During the episode, Angela draws a sketch of this woman.

Bones also discovers that other people were involved. The woman had asked the assistance of two other men, but these men tell Bones and Brennan that they only trained her. They never went down with her into the tunnels. At first, it appears that the woman died from her fall down the shaft, but it turns out she was killed by a hit to her head with a climbing ax. Whoever killed her did so because of the artifact the homeless man had given her. The homeless man told Bones and Brennan that a blonde woman had killed Marty. Booth thinks the blonde woman is the social worker that initially took them down to the underground city. The woman didn't appreciate the documentarian because she felt she was exploiting the homeless by doing so.

Once Bones and Brennan interviewed the two men that helped her, they learn one of the men had an affair with her. This makes the fiance a suspect. However, he looks quite honest and believable when he is interviewed again. This leads them to return to Harold, so that he can show them where he found the seal he had given Marty. He is reluctant, but he does take them down far enough so that they can find the exact location he found the item. Once there they find another body, one from the Civil War. Bones and Brennan view the tapes again, and they find the men that said they hadn't gone down with Marty on her tapes. This leads the two back to down to the tunnels to find the vault, and they find the men there. They confront them, and it is one of them that killed Marty. With her killer discovered, Harold is released back to the home he knows.

This episode was more of a straight case. The team went from point to point to point until it was solved. We did see some minor character development in watching Bones identify with the process the documentarian took in her work. Other than that it was a pretty plain episode in my mind, which is much different than the cases the last couple of weeks. Bones returns next week with another all episode.