The Graft in the Girl (1-20)

Originally aired: Wednesday April 26, 2006 on FOX

Writer: Laura Wolner, Greg Ball
Director: Sanford Bookstaver
Show Stars: T.J. Thyne (Dr. Jack Hodgins), Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), Eric Millegan (Zack Addy), Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance Brennan), David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth)
Guest Stars: Kendra Johnson (Doctor) , Matt Winston (Nick Martin) , Katie Mitchell (Maddie Hastings) , Sumalee Montano (Alexandra Combs) , Mark Harelik (Dr. Peter Ogden) , Paul Keeley (Dr. Ken Ralston) , Kathleen Mary Carthy (Julia Cullen) , John M. Jackson (Dep. Director Sam Cullen) , Alexandra Krosney (Amy Cullen)
Production Code: 1AKY19

BRENNAN, BOOTH, and ANGELA arrive at Washington General Hospital to present lab results to DEPUTY DIRECTOR CULLEN. They are meeting Cullen at the hospital because his daughter has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, or lung cancer. When told this, Brennan notes how extremely rare cancer is for someone of Cullen’s daughter’s age. Booth doesn’t want her digging her nose into Cullen’s business.

They arrive at AMY CULLEN’S room to brief Dep. Cullen. A bedridden Amy works on some drawings as her mother, JULIA, watches. Angela, an artist, takes an interest in Amy’s artwork. They have an instant connection. Brennan, being the curious scientist she is, disobeys Booth’s wishes and begins to question Julia about Amy’s health progression. Brennan knows that asbestos is the most likely cause of mesothelioma, but Julia and Dep. Cullen say they’ve checked everywhere Amy has been and there have been no signs of asbestos. Through further questioning Brennan discovers that Amy broke her leg a year prior and received a bone graft. Brennan asks for the X-rays of Amy’s leg.

At the Medico-Legal Lab HODGINS holds up Amy’s X-ray and to his surprise, he spots pores in the bone where the graft was laid. ZACK reminds them that records say the bone graft came from a twenty-five year old. Brennan doubts it. Her forensics knowledge tells her it came from someone at least sixty.

Back at Washington General Booth and Brennan investigate where this sixty year old bone graft came from. They start with DR. RALSTON, the doctor that performed Amy’s bone graft. He tells them to check with the hospital’s transplant coordinator, but first they want him to perform a biopsy on Amy’s leg to find out the exact age and pathology of the graft.

While the biopsy is under way, Booth and Brennan question the hospital’s transplant coordinator, DR. OGDEN. He pulls out his records which state that Amy’s bone graft was harvested from that of a twenty-five year old. The graft came from BioTech Tissue Services. They take BioTech’s info and keep Dr. Ogden under suspicion.

Back at the lab Angela is scanning Amy’s artwork into her high-tech illustration program. Hodgins comes in to ask about Amy’s work, but it seems he is there for other reasons as well. On the other side of the lab Zack and Brennan are at work on the biopsy sample from Amy’s bone graft. All data shows that the graft came from someone in their sixties. Further examination shows that the graft is riddled with cancer, most likely what spread to Amy’s lungs.

In Booth’s office Brennan briefs Cullen on the findings of Amy’s graft. Although Cullen is pleased to know more about what has happened, the news is crushing. He decides that he does not want them to continue to investigate and commands them to pass the case to the local authorities.

In Booth’s car he and Brennan discuss that they can’t quit on this case just yet. They need to find out how to make it a federal crime so that it enters their jurisdiction.

Angela is at Washington General visiting with Amy. She’s put her artwork through a digital projector and it covers the entire wall as Amy dances in its light and explains to Angela how miserable she is in dealing with her illness. Angela ensures Amy that things will turn out OK.

Booth and Brennan arrive outside the offices of BioTech. They enter to find an empty office. The building manager explains that BioTech went belly-up two years ago and doesn’t know what happened to the company. Brennan mentions that Amy’s bone graft was sold only twelve months ago. It becomes clear that someone else must be posing as BioTech.

Booth and Brennan run back to Dr. Ogden’s office to question him further. They find only his assistant ALEXANDRA who stands by the claim that BioTech is reputable until Booth tells her that it don’t exist anymore. Alexandra reveals that she did a little investigating herself when they last left and she found that the hospital had done another bone graft on Kelly DeMarco the same day as Amy’s, also with samples from BioTech. Booth calls the FBI offices to run a check on Kelly DeMarco only to find out that she is dead. Brennan needs to know if Amy and Kelly had the same cancer.

At the lab Brennan and Zack compare Amy’s bones to those of Kelly DeMarco as Booth watches. They discover that they are from the same donor and consider that hundreds of people could have received bogus grafts from this donor. Booth then receives info from his office that Dr. Ogden has a sketchy background.

In the FBI interrogation room Booth grills Dr. Ogden with Brennan. He admits to taking a bribe from a patient for an organ donation at the last hospital he worked at, but only did it to keep the hospital afloat. They press him about BioTech and he explains that all interaction with BioTech is strictly via email and online transactions.

Outside Washington General Angela visits with Amy and they share their artwork. They discuss life, art, and boys. Amy’s spirits are low and Angela will do anything to raise them.

At the Medico-Legal Lab they’ve discovered that many more people are sick or have died after receiving a graft from BioTech Tissues Lab. These people are from multiple states which to Booth’s amusement makes this officially a federal case.

Booth is in his FBI office with Cullen telling him what he and Brennan have uncovered while using sick days to investigate. Cullen is touched. He gives Booth permission to continue the investigation.

At Washington General each of the living patients who received a graft from BioTech is given a biopsy to find out if cancer is present. Amy waits outside the biopsy room wondering why these people have a chance to live while she doesn’t. Brennan explains that the only reason these other people will live is because of Amy. Amy doesn’t care. She is devastated.

At the lab Zack shows Brennan a puzzle that he put together using X-rays of the bones from each patient that received grafts from the same donor at BioTech. Looking at it they can tell that he was a male that did consistent heavy lifting, like that of a construction worker. They pass the baton to Angela who scans all of the X-rays into her computer program. She constructs a rough composite of what the donor looked like. With this information Hodgins will examine his remains to find particulars that would link him to any particular geographic location.

Hodgins’ tests reveal that the levels of strontium isotopes suggest that he lived most his life on the East coast and that he also had very low levels of fluoride in his bones. Brennan notes that the only place without fluoridated water is in the Appalachian Mountains. Hodgins also finds high levels of C8, a key ingredient of Teflon. Zack knows that there is a Teflon plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Knowing the age, physical description, location and probable cause of death, Booth and Brennan are ready to track down the anonymous donor.

While driving Booth explains that they’ve come up with three people that fit the description of their anonymous donor. Zack calls Brennan and Hodgins calls Booth at the same time and they confirm that two of the three are not the donor. Booth and Brennan are now looking for someone who knew William Hastings.

At William Hastings’ ex-wife’s home, Booth and Brennan question MADDIE HASTINGS. She confirms that he was a construction worker and that he died of lung cancer from asbestos. Booth knows that Maddie was left with nothing after Mr. Hastings died and asks her if she sold his body parts for money. She claims to have had him cremated at Martin Funeral Home. She spread the ashes in her garden.

Booth and Brennan update Cullen at Washington General. Angela is in Amy’s room. Amy tells Angela that the final treatments she received didn’t affect the cancer. She is scared.

At Martin Funeral Home Booth and Brennan confront NICK MARTIN, the funeral director. He claims to have never worked with the Hastings family. Booth and Brennan doubt it. They decide to head back to Maddie Hastings’ home and take a soil sample of her garden in hopes of detecting William Hastings’ ashes.

As they return to the lab, Booth and Brennan get soil test results from Hodgins. The soil does show that ashes of a human were spread over it, but Brennan isn’t fully convinced. She and Booth consider the possibility that Maddie Hastings could have been given someone else’s ashes while her husband's body was sold for its parts. Booth thinks Nick the mortician is in on it.

Booth and Brennan arrive at the Martin Funeral Home to find Nick Martin prepping a body for a funeral. He denies any knowledge of William Hastings’ body ever entering his parlor. Booth gives Nick their search warrant and he and Brennan have a look around. They enter the casket showroom and find an old water line. Brennan also notices that the floor slopes towards the center of the room. She looks under the carpet to find a drain, which would only be found in a bodywork room. Nick enters to shoo them out, but Brennan is not finished. She climbs up to an air vent in the room and takes a dust sample from it. She hopes to find bone dust from when they sawed the bone fragments off the bodies.

In the lab Zack runs the dust found at Martin Funeral home through his lab equipment. He is certain that there is bone dust in the vent sample. Zack then compares it with the biopsy sample taken from Amy’s bone graft and it is a sure match. In addition, Zack has detected bone dust from at least seven other people. Nick Martin is guilty, but Brennan notes that harvesting bone graft requires medical training and Nick Martin is just a mortician. He must be in cahoots with someone else.

They bring Nick into the FBI interrogation room and Booth grills him, asking Nick about calls he received from disposable cell phones. Brennan and Cullen watch through the two-way glass. Nick reveals nothing. Cullen has had enough and charges into the room, grabbing Nick by his lapels, shoving him into the wall, and demanding to know who he’s been working with. Booth detains the irate Cullen and turns to find that Brennan has left.

At Washington General Dr. Ogden’s assistant Alexandra is startled when Brennan enters her office unannounced. Brennan notices a box of cell phones and asks how they are used by the hospital. Alexandra explains that they are for the recipients of the organ donations, so that they can be informed as soon as organs arrive. Brennan finds out that Alexandra had medical training before she took her assistant job. Brennan presses further asking if Alexandra is feeling healthy and how often does Dr. Ogden give her prescriptions. Alexandra says never, but Brennan was just told by the pharmacy downstairs that Alexandra came to them to get a prescription filled for a bad cough. Alexandra wrote the prescription herself. The reason Alexandra has the cough is because she must have inhaled the bone dust into her lungs and now that cancerous bone dust has spread into her lungs as well. She is guilty and the lung cancer is the evidence to prove it.

Back at the lab, Brennan fills Angela and Hodgins in on how the case panned out. Angela is still concerned about Amy’s wellbeing. Brennan can’t provide her with any positive news on Amy’s situation. Angela storms off and Hodgins follows.

Hodgins catches up to a distraught Angela and consoles her. She pours out her heart about how Amy just wants to have a boyfriend and visit the Louvre. Angela knows Amy won’t get that, but Hodgins gives her an idea.

At Washington General, in Amy’s room, Booth, Brennan, and the Cullens sit as Angela gives Amy a set of high tech virtual reality goggles. As Amy puts them on she is sent right into the center of the Louvre and is awestruck. It is her dream come true and this gives Angela and everyone else in the room closure to her untimely terminal sickness.

Quotes

add » (Angela, Booth and Brennan in front of Amy's hospital room)
Booth: Is it ok if we come in, sir?
Cullen: (to Amy) What do you think, sweetheart?
Amy: Booth's cool, most of the time.
Cullen: You heard the lady, you're cool.
Booth: (smiles) Mm-hm.
Brennan: (under her breath audible only to Booth) Yeah, right. (edit) (Booth and Brennan in a hospital. They are having one of their arguments)
Cullen: Booth. Dr. Brennan. (they stop and turn to him) How appropriate, you two bickering in an adolescent wing. (edit) Angela: Just have fun. You know, every once in a while you might meet somebody who´s worth is.
Amy: What if he´s not?
Angela: Then you´ve got something else to paint about. (edit) Amy: It´s hard you know... One second I´m at school and I´m gonna be an artist and the next... My friends don´t know what to say. My parents are scared. Things change I guess.
Angela: Yeah. Yes, sometimes they do. (edit) Angela: What about love? What have you got to say about love?
Hodgins: It's overrated...(smiles) most of the time. (edit)

All The Graft in the Girl Quotes »

Trivia

add »

Mark Harelik (Dr. Ogden) and David Boreanaz (Booth) have worked together on Angel season 3 episode 13 "Waiting in the Wings." (edit) Although the show is set in D.C. area, but also filmed in L.A. there's a scene were the camera shows a mortuary and you can read a street sign name on the left "Cahuenga" a large road in Los Angeles/Hollywood. (edit) When Amy hands over her painting of the landscape to Angela, we first see that it covers most of the page. In the next cut, we see her handing over the pad of paper with a smaller painting in the center, and the larger one on the page just flipped back, but when Angela is holding it, in the third cut, the painting is back to its full size. (edit) Back in the lab, after exhuming Kelly DeMarco's body, Zack says that she died two months ago. Not even a minute later, in the same scene, Booth says that Kelly died 8 months ago. (edit)

Allusions

add »

Hodgins: (at the cryogenic center) He's right here squeezed next to Walt Disney.

Walter Disney, obviously the creator of Disney World and its characters, requested before his death that he be put in a cryogenic center, a place where they freeze people, so that he may wake up in the future.

The Man in the Morgue (1-19)

Originally aired: Wednesday April 19, 2006 on FOX

Writer: Noah Hawley, Elizabeth Benjamin
Director: James Whitmore Jr.
Show Stars: T.J. Thyne (Dr. Jack Hodgins), Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), Eric Millegan (Zack Addy), Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance Brennan), David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth)
Guest Stars: Noel True (Eva Benoit) , Giancarlo Esposito (Richard Benoit) , Tom McLeister DUPLICATE GUIDE (Peter LaSalle) , Scott Lawrence (Sam Potter) , Victor Togunde (James Embry) , Judd Trichter (Dr. Ryan Halloway) , Michelle Hurd (Det. Rose Harding) , Colby Donaldson (Dr. Graham Leger) , Kevin Rankin (Mike Doyle) , Patricia Belcher (Caroline Gillian)
Production Code: 1AKY18

DR. BRENNAN has come to New Orleans offering her talents to identify the bodies found in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Operating in a makeshift morgue within a church, Brennan is working on what seems to be an endless task of identifying bodies that have unearthed from cemeteries. The makeshift morgue is split into three areas: an open area where autopsies and identification takes place, a small cold room holding identified bodies, and a much larger cold room where unidentified bodies are stacked high in boxes and body bags.

MIKE DOYLE wheels a body into the autopsy area with DR. GRAHAM LEGER by his side. They joke about Mike’s kinky new girlfriend before Dr. Brennan’s presence embarrasses Mike, but none of this phases Brennan. Dr. Leger goes on to tell Brennan that Mike’s girlfriend likes to get wild in the morgue cooler at night. ZACK chimes in via computer video link awkwardly ending the kinky conversation.

Mike exits as Zack talks to Brennan about information she’s sent him regarding the bodies she’s identifying. She informs Zack that she’ll be back in D.C. in two days.

Later, Brennan begins an autopsy on JOHN DOE 361, male, 40’s, badly decomposed, and found in the Ninth Ward sticking out of the mud with a small hole in the front of his skull. DETECTIVE ROSE HARDING and ASSISTANT M.E. DR. JAMES EMBRY are assisting Brennan. Det. Harding is there to find out whether the hurricane or foul play killed 361. Upon further inspection, Embry finds something lodged in 361’s mouth. Brennan asks orderly SAM POTTER to conduct X-rays on 361. Sam wheels 361 away with Embry and Det. Harding as Dr. Leger asks Brennan out on a date. Brennan says she’ll consider it after they look at the X-rays of 361.

FLASH! Brennan finds herself in her motel bathroom, lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. Her head is cut open, her hands are covered in blood, and one of her earrings has been ripped out through the lobe. She thinks to herself, trying to figure out what has happened. Images flash through her mind; she sees blood, a knife or spike, Dr. Leger smiling, dangling feet, a panicked person running down the stairs of a house, and a wrist nailed to a wall. Brennan shakes her head and tries to stand up using her arm to help. She collapses, grabbing her wrist in pain. Brennan gets to her feet and the phone rings. She answers. It’s the hotel clerk telling her the airport shuttle is waiting. Brennan is confused because she wasn’t scheduled to leave until Thursday. The clerk informs her that today is Thursday. Brennan wonders what happened to Wednesday.

Brennan is in the hospital being treated by DR. RYAN HALLOWAY. He notes that Brennan had her ear ripped open. Brennan has no recollection of what happened to her. Det. Harding arrives in response to a call Brennan made. She asks Dr. Halloway for blood samples off Brennan’s clothes hoping to find the killers blood on them as well. Det. Harding asks if Brennan remembers anything and Brennan can only recall her flirty interaction with Dr. Leger at the makeshift morgue. Brennan tells Det. Harding that she has been inspected for evidence of rape, but Dr. Halloway found nothing. BOOTH enters in a hurry to Brennan’s dismay. She’d told him not to come. Booth makes sure Brennan is OK. Det. Harding wonders if they’re more than just partners. Brennan tells Booth about all of her physical injuries, but is caught on the fact that she has lost one of her favorite earrings, one that belonged to her mother. Booth wonders why she can’t remember anything and asks Dr. Halloway when the tox screen results will be available. He tells Booth at least twenty-four hours.

Back in D.C. at the Medico-Legal Lab HODGINS brings ANGELA and Zack the latest shipment from Dr. Brennan via New Orleans. The package contains X-rays of John Doe 361. Zack is eager to get to work on this one.

While Booth and Brennan cruise through the destroyed neighborhoods of New Orleans, Brennan gets a call from Zack on her cell phone regarding 361’s X-rays. Brennan doesn’t even remember 361, let alone sending his X-rays to D.C. Zack informs her that he is of mixed race, late 40’s, with uncertain anomalies on the spine, and that he was most certainly murdered. Zack found crush fractures on the pelvis and what appears to be a bullet hole in the skull, but no exit wound. Brennan tells him to keep looking.

After the call, Brennan tries to remember 361 to no avail. Her memory is foggy and she is hungry. After all, she hasn’t eaten in two days.

At the restaurant Booth questions Brennan more about what she last remembers. All she can think of is Dr. Leger. Booth wants to talk to this Dr. Leger. Then PETER LASALLE, the restaurant owner, approaches Brennan wondering what she’s still doing in town. He also wonders what happened to her head and face. Brennan explains that she believes she was assaulted Tuesday night. Mr. LaSalle tells Brennan that she was at his restaurant with Sam Potter on Tuesday night between eight and nine p.m. Brennan tells Booth that Sam is an orderly at the makeshift morgue who practices voodoo.

At the makeshift morgue Brennan asks Sam Potter why they went to dinner. He explains that they found a chicken’s claw and some black gum root lodged in 361’s mouth. Those were telltale signs of voodoo work, mojo. Brennan wanted to discuss that. Sam explains that voodoo is all about balance and that the hurricane, brought on by Secte Rouge, has destroyed the balance of New Orleans. Secte Rouge consists of those that follow evil. He goes on to say that he believes the things found in 361’s mouth were the work of the Secte Rouge. Black gum root can only be found one place, a voodoo shop run by Richard Benoit. He’s a good man and he’ll tell you who has come in for black gum root.

En route to Benoit’s shop Brennan and Booth discuss voodoo. Booth thinks it’s all hocus pocus, but Brennan approaches it with a more worldly view and compares it to Booth’s religion, Catholicism. Booth says Catholics don’t believe in zombies to which Brennan compares the raising of Jesus after death. Booth doesn’t approve of this comparison. Brennan’s cell phone rings. Zack is on the line with info on the X-rays of 361. There is evidence that his body was roughed up badly, as if being tossed around in floodwaters. He’s also found a diminished disc in his spine. Brennan asks Zack to cross-check that info with the files of missing flood victims. Booth has explains to Zack why Brennan hasn’t returned to D.C. yet, and people at the lab are thinking that something is up. They aren’t buying the whole “voodoo” story and they are beginning to think Booth and Brennan are up to no good.

Brennan and Booth arrive at Richard Benoit’s voodoo shop and Booth is immediately taken by a picture of Benoit with a vintage Cadillac. RICHARD BENOIT appears and explains that this is his car and they used it to evacuate the floods. Booth cuts to the chase and drops an evidence bag containing the items found in 361’s mouth. Richard knows right off the bat that this is an evil spell, the work of Secte Rouge. Richard’s daughter EVA is brought out to search their records to find out who has purchased black gum root recently. Brennan takes a look at the print out to find Dr. Graham Leger on the list.

Booth and Brennan enter Leger’s home quietly and call out for him. No answer. Then Booth notices a black cloth hanging over a mirror. Brennan’s memory flashes: a bloody spike, Dr. Leger smiling, blood splattering a wall. Brennan heads upstairs. Booth follows. She knows something bad happened here and that she fled from this place Tuesday night. They enter the master bedroom to find a man with his face cut off, crucified to the wall three feet off the ground, with a mojo bag around his neck.

The police have arrived at Leger’s house and the place has become a crime scene. Photos are snapped and Leger’s body is placed into a body bag. Det. Harding is on the scene. She questions Brennan and Booth as to what they were doing there. As Brennan explains everything to the doubting Det. Harding, Booth spies Brennan’s missing earring under a table. A crime scene technician approaches and shows Det. Harding a split cow’s tongue found on the body. Booth slyly grabs Brennan’s earring without notice. Brennan points out that the cow’s tongue is the work of Secte Rouge. Det. Harding isn’t buying it and she still suspects Brennan of foul play, but without evidence Brennan and Booth are free to go.

At the makeshift morgue Brennan and Booth join Dr. James Embry who re-informs Brennan of what she was doing on Tuesday before she blacked out. Brennan asks to see the file on John Doe 361. Embry says there is no file for a John Doe 361.

They head into the cooler room to find 361’s body and Sam Potter is inside with a snake across his shoulders giving a final blessing to the deceased. Zack calls on Brennan’s cell speakerphone. He and Angela are having trouble with the X-rays of 361. Angela says they won’t scan in for some reason. They need the real remains of they’re going to find anything. Booth wonders why they haven’t questioned Sam Potter, as he waves a snake over the bodies. Sam explains that he does not practice evil voodoo and Brennan thinks Booth is just too closed-minded to understand that there are good and evil voodoo practices.

Back at the Medico-Legal Lab Zack and Hodgins continue work on the X-rays. Hodgins is frustrated because there seems to be dirt showing up on the X-rays, but without the actual samples he can’t do his work. Zack furthers this frustration by thinking out loud and ignoring Hodgins’ cry for understanding.

Brennan and Booth stand in Brennan’s motel room. Brennan has started to doubt herself. She thinks there is a possibility that she killed Dr. Leger. She has no recollection of what happened and it scares her. Then Booth notices a mojo bag on Brennan’s bed. Inside are sea shells, flesh, a strip of leather, and a human tooth. Det. Harding bursts in to arrest Brennan because they found Brennan’s blood at Leger’s home. Booth sticks up for her, but Brennan gives herself up and Harding takes her into custody.

At the police station, Brennan is interrogated by Det. Harding. Brennan is cooperative. After denying that she had any sexual relations with Dr. Leger, Booth and attorney CAROLINE JULIAN enter to shut Brennan up before she convicts herself. Det. Harding leaves after Caroline informs her that Brennan will not be saying anything else.

At the lab in D.C. Zack has discovered that John Doe 361 had Spina Bifida as he combs through files of New Orleans residents that suffered from the disease.

Back in the Big Easy, Brennan and Booth have lunch with Sam Potter and learn a little about voodoo. He believes that all of these mojo bags are to prolong Brennan’s amnesia. He thinks that someone doesn’t want her to remember what happened on Tuesday night. He leaves Booth and Brennan with that. Booth seems bothered that someone has done this to Brennan. She wonders why Booth is so nice to her. He explains that it is because she gets the bad guys and makes them pay for what they did. She accepts that, but wonders to herself if that’s the whole truth. Brennan’s lawyer Caroline arrives to break things up. She tells them that the tox screen was negative and they can’t believe it. Caroline wonders if they should go for another story just to get Brennan a minimal sentence. They think not. Brennan pulls her wrist X-rays from Caroline’s hospital records and discovers that the doctor was wrong in his first diagnosis. Brennan explains that the fracture in her wrist had to have come from either a defensive motion or because someone slammed her wrist into something. With this line of reasoning, Brennan couldn’t have stabbed someone in the chest and then had them break her wrist. Caroline likes the sound of that. Zack calls Brennan with an ID on John Doe 361. His name is Rene Mouton. Angela asks Brennan when she’ll be back and after Brennan spills the beans about her murder charges Angela grows concerned about Brennan’s wellbeing. Hodgins consoles her.

Booth briefs Brennan on info he’s gathered on Rene Mouton as they walk though the makeshift morgue. Mouton was the head of a voodoo church, a good guy that helped a lot during Katrina, and then disappeared. People thought he got swept away when the levies broke. Sam Potter overhears and interjects that he thinks all of this is the cause of a bokor, a Secte Rouge sorcerer. Brennan agrees with Potter. Booth thinks it’s questionable to say the least, but he agrees that this person would need access to this makeshift morgue to get those missing files and hide the body. That suggests Sam, Dr. Embry and Mike Doyle, the assistant with the kinky girlfriend. They head to the cooler to go through all of the bodies in search of Mouton. Instead they find Mike Doyle’s freshly killed corpse and in the cardboard casket with him is Mouton’s decaying body.

Police have arrived at the makeshift morgue where Booth and Brennan are trying to piece things together. They’ve found that Mouton’s skull is missing. Dr. Embry approaches to let them know that Mike Doyle was probably drugged, and then a spike was driven into his skull during or immediately after sexual intercourse. Det. Harding is there to hear this and she points the finger at Sam Potter, Dr. Embry and Dr. Brennan as prime suspects. Dr. Embry reminds Det. Harding that there is no security at the morgue. People can come and go as they please. Brennan restates that Mike Doyle was killed during or after sex, which reminds her of Mike’s kinky girlfriend who liked to have sex in the morgue, but nobody knows her name. Det. Harding has heard enough. Sam Potter butts in asking if he can scatter farine guinée across Mouton’s body. Farine guinée is a type of ashes used by voodoo practitioners to purify the remains. As he scatters the ashes they briefly outline a distinct shape on the ribcage of the body. Brennan notes that it must be an electrostatic charge, most likely what made it hard for Angela to render the X-rays back in D.C. Booth notes the shape the ashes made, the emblem of a 1959 Cadillac Brougham. The same car owned by Richard Benoit, the voodoo shop owner. His daughter, Eva, must be Mike Doyle’s kinky girlfriend. She must be the killer.

At the voodoo shop Brennan, Booth, and Det. Harding confront Richard Benoit. They ask if his daughter is dating Mike Doyle. He confirms that she is and Det. Harding demands to see Eva. They explain that Mouton was the victim of a hit and run by Eva and that when she asked Mike to hide his body at the morgue, he said no so she killed him. They also tell him that she is a member of Secte Rouge. She had access to the voodoo shop for all of the mojo bags they found. Mr. Benoit comes to terms with the possibility that she is guilty and leads them to her in the basement of the shop.

In the basement they enter a storage room and find Eva dead, her body thrown onto a large spike fixed on the wall. Benoit pulls her off, crying. Brennan and Booth search the room. They find Mouton’s skull and the spike used on Mouton and Mike Doyle.

Later, in the basement still, the police have arrived and Eva’s body has been taken away. Dr. Embry and Sam Potter are searching the room. Sam Potter confirms that this is the lair of a bokor, one who calls on the dark spirits. He informs Brennan that the spike on the wall is used for animal sacrifice. It is heated red-hot to cauterize the wound. Brennan is confused as to how she killed herself. Dr. Embry notes that it had to be difficult to drive the spike through the sternum, chest cavity, heart, and spine. Brennan doesn’t buy it. The room is only twelve feet wide and even with a running start, that much damage is impossible. They all look at Richard Benoit. Sam Potter accuses him of being the sorcerer and killer claiming that he killed his daughter so they would stop looking for the killer of Mouton. Brennan knows there must have been a struggle with him throwing Eva on the spike and tears Benoit’s shirts open to reveal a freshly bandaged injury. Det. Harding cuffs Benoit as he begins to curse Brennan. Brennan’s heard enough. She pokes him in the eyes and exits with Booth.

Brennan and Booth are back in D.C. at the Medico Legal lab and they tell Angela, Zack and Hodgins about their case in New Orleans. They debate whether voodoo or any other types of mysticism are real. Brennan is adamant that they do not and Booth along with the rest of the crew is little uncertain. Brennan feels cornered when she can’t explain why she couldn’t remember the Tuesday night or Wednesday, or why the blood test came up negative. When Booth teases that Benoit might send her a little mojo bag from prison she declares that objects carry no intrinsic power, and that things are just things. Then Booth reveals Brennan’s lost earring that he picked up at Leger’s house. Brennan stands corrected.

Quotes

add » Caroline: A jury is never gonna believe this amnesia story.
Booth: But it's true.
Caroline: Maybe this is true, too. (turns to Brennan) Leger tried to rape you. He was a notorious horndog. We claim self defense, you're out in three years.
Booth: No, I don't care what it looks like or how you're reading the evidence, Caroline. She didn't do it.
(Brennan looks at him with a smile, obviously touched) (edit) (Brennan at the New Orleans police station, Caroline and Booth have just joined her)
Brennan: I've told Detective Harding everything I know so far.
Caroline: (to Booth) She's a fool? You didn't tell me she's a fool.
Booth: She's a brilliant forensic anthropologist.
Brennan: I have three degrees, I've pioneered research in -
Caroline: (Pointing to the little bag) What's that?
Brennan: A gri-gri bag. I found it in my hotel room. I'm assuming the person who left it there is trying to frame me, so the tooth is probably Graham's.
Caroline: Three degrees and still a fool. This interview is over Rose, I need to speak with my client alone before she gives herself a lethal injection.
Detective Harding: Of course, of course. (leaves)
Booth: Ok, Bones. what the hell where you talking to her for?
Brennan: I was just trying to help.
Caroline: Sew those lips together girl, because there is no such thing as helping the New Orleans police. They just wanna close the case as quickly and easily as they can and you are making it Christmas time for them.
Booth: Ok, listen, there is no way that Bones could have killed Leger. I mean, it's just not her, I mean, look at her. (edit) Detective Harding: I'm here to arrest Dr. Brennan for the murder of Graham Leger.
Booth: (standing in front of Brennan between her and Harding) That's not gonna happen.
Detective Harding: I'm pretty sure it is.
Brennan: I told you Booth.
Booth: (exasperatedly) Bones, please, just for once in your life will you be quiet!
Detective Harding: That's good advice because everything you say can and will be held against you in a court of law. (sees the little bag Brennan is holding) What is that?
Brennan: It's a...I found it on my pillow. (hands it to Harding)
Booth: (more exasperatedly) Bones!
Detective Harding: Thank you Dr. Brennan.
Booth: What's the probable cause?
Detective Harding: Traces of Dr. Brennan's blood in Leger's home, Leger's blood on her clothing, from the clinic.
Booth: Is that it?
Detective Harding: All that I'm prepared to share with the federal government. Now please, step away from my collar.
Booth: I'm afraid I can't let that happen. (Brennan steps away from
behind him and lets herself be arrested) Bones! Jeez!
Brennan: It's better if nobody else dies while we get to the bottom of this. (Booth hits himself on the forehead)
Booth: You know what, I wasn't planning on dying.
Brennan: It's not you I worry about. (while being dragged off in handcuffs) You're welcome to the room, it's paid for. (edit) Brennan: (talking about Dr. Graham Leger's murder) It could have been me.
Booth: No, it couldn't.
Brennan: Yes. What? How do you know?
Booth: I just know, ok? I'd bet my professional career on it. I already did.
Brennan: What?
Booth: Nothing.
Brennan: What did you do?
Booth: Bones, stop! This is the last time and place that you wanna be rational, ok? Let's just be wildly emotional and assume that you didn't psychotically murder a co-worker who invited you over for dinner! (edit) (Brennan is fascinated with Sam Potter's snake and takes its head in her hand)
Booth: Hey Bones, how's about while you're a murder suspect, you act more like a normal woman and less like Lily Munster, ok? (Booth pulls her away from the snake) Byebye, good snake, that's it. (edit)

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Trivia

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In the end of the episode, Dr. Brennan says that things are just things and they don't have magical meaning or powers and when she finishes her phrase Booth shows her missing earring and gives it back to her and she just gazes at it while Angela asks "Does that prove something?" and Brennan replies "Yes, that proves something". Although the squints are clueless we can clearly see that she changed her mind about this particular belief due to Booth's influence on her personality. (edit) Goof: Angela tries to get an image from impact marks on Mouton's pelvis bone. However when Sam Potter sprinkles fwan ginea (various ashes) on the remains of Mouton, the image appears on the ribcage. (edit) At the start of the episode, a TV station giving a news report in New Orleans is identified as "8 News." In New Orleans, channel 8 (WVUE) is the Fox affiliate, which broadcasts "Bones." (edit) Booth compromises evidence by taking Dr. Brennan's earring from the house of the murder, displaying his loyalty to Dr. Brennan above his loyalty to the case. He trusts and cares enough for Dr. Brennan to know that she could not be a part of a ritual murder voluntarily. (edit) The jacket Booth was wearing in this episode was the same one that he was wearing at Brennan’s house in “Two Bodies in the Lab.” When the refrigerator blew up, the left sleeve caught on fire. The jacket did not have burn marks in this episode. (edit)

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Allusions

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Angela: You're hopping the Streetcar Named Desire with Booth? Oh, I love this.

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams set in New Orleans. (edit) Booth: Hey Bones, howsabout while you're a murder suspect, how 'bout you act more like a normal woman and less like Lily Munster, k?

Lily Munster was the mother/homemaker of the "creepy" sitcom family on the television show The Munsters which aired in the mid 1960's. (edit) Booth: All right, great then we just toss the ring into the molten river and blah blah.

This is a reference to the Lord of the Rings

The Man with the Bone (1-18)

Originally aired: Wednesday April 5, 2006 on FOX

Writer: Craig Silverstein
Director: Jesús Salvador Treviño
Show Stars: Eric Millegan (Zack Addy), T.J. Thyne (Dr. Jack Hodgins), Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance Brennan), David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth), Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), Jonathan Adams (Dr. Daniel Goodman (Season 1))
Recurring Role: John M. Jackson (Dep. Dir. Sam Cullen)
Guest Stars: Michael Chieffo (Mayor Frank Ney) , Lindsey Stodart (Katie Ney) , Harris Shore (Anthony Kendall) , Chris Payne Gilbert (Eric Hughes) , David Wells (Harley Frankel) , Brian D. Johnson (Worker) , Teddy Lane Jr. (Deputy) , Rodney Rowland (Dane McGinnis) , Fredric Lane (Giles Hardewicke) , Robert Foxworth (Branson Rose) , Cullen Douglas (Harry Tepper)
Production Code: 1AKY16

Booth and Brennan walk the cold, lonely hallway of the FBI morgue. They meet with HARRY TEPPER, a Medical Examiner residing over a naked corpse. The body, identified as TED MACY, was found in a national park. The victim expired from an accidental drowning. Brennan questions why she was called – after all, she doesn’t “do skin.” Booth explains, “I didn’t bring you to examine the body. I want you to look at what they found in his hand.” The examiner reveals a finger bone, steeped in a lethal cleansing solution. Brennan emasculates the examiner for his shoddy preservation techniques, “You’ve removed particulates and trace elements that could potentially lead us to his killer. Is this your first day on the job?”

In the lab, members of Team Bones trade guesses as to the origin of the finger bone. Angela presumes “Native American,” while Zack speculates “British Colonial.” Hodgins jumps in with “American Revolutionary.” Brennan continues to study the bone, “Alternating sclerotic and porotic areas on subperiosteal surface demonstrates that whoever this was suffered from tertiary syphilis” (Sc.3 / Pg. 4). Radiocarbon dating puts the finger at three hundred years of age. When Booth offers the location of the bone, “ Assateague Island,” Hodgins’ tone enthusiastically changes. “The Money Pit,” he remarks in disbelief. The team learns Assateague Island is home to Blackbeard’s treasure. For three hundred years, people have dug, searched, and risked life to uncover Blackbeard’s hidden loot. The possibilities open the case wide for Booth, “So the victim finds evidence that the treasure exists, maybe even finds some of it. Someone else wants it all for himself. Certainly a good motive for murder.”

Booth and Brennan travel to Assateague Island, home of the “Hardewicke-Macy” excavation. They interrupt an argument between BRANSON ROSE and GILES HARDEWICKE. Branson, a billionaire funding the dig, wants to pull out of the project. GILES threatens him with a lawsuit. The two continue to bicker, ignoring Booth and Brennan’s presence. Brennan cuts in by identifying herself as FBI, on assignment to investigate a murder. Rose is thrown by the accusation of murder. His eyes grow wide with excitement, “What did Macy find that was worth killing him for?” Rose orders the workers to put his stuff back. The dig must go on.

Zack and Hodgins fantasize about the lore of “Blackbeard’s curse.” Zack maintains a scientific approach while Hodgins obsesses over the mythology, “(In) 1902 two men disappeared while digging, never found their bodies.” Brennan and Booth enter and instruct Hodgins to analyze soil samples taken from the pit. The soil and water found in Ted Macy’s throat and lungs potentially came from the top of the shaft. They want to make certain he was murdered there. Hodgins pleads to dive the shaft for “silt abstracts.” Booth calls him out, “You just want to look for treasure.”

FBI agents guard the crime scene on Assateague Island. Booth is pressed by MAYOR NEY to be more diplomatic with his investigation. Blackbeard’s curse is the core to the island’s tourism economy. Booth keeps a hard line, “This is a murder scene.” Hardewicke introduces Booth to DANE MCGINNIS, a salty diver working on the dig. Dane reluctantly prepares Hodgins for his dive.

Brennan examines the finger bone under a microscope on the forensic platform. Angela initiates a philosophical discussion on the “curse.” “Worth killing for?” she asks pointedly. Brennan considers the irony, “Stealing all that (treasure) and never enjoying the spoils.” Either way, to Brennan, the real curse is greed.

Dane updates Hodgins on the dangers of the “shaft.” After working on the dig for more than ten years, Dane resents any outsider like Hodgins getting to break the two hundred foot barrier. His envy turns mournful when he tells Booth and Hodgins his brother died searching the same shaft. Hodgins then descends into the depths of Blackbeard’s curse. Passing a flood trap and the site of the first pit collapse, Hodgins lands safely at the bottom where he discovers a human skull.

The skull matches the rest of a recovered skeleton laid out in the bone room. Brennan, Zack and Hodgins review their analysis. Zack learns, “C-14 dating matches at three hundred years.” And bowed legs are the “result of visible calcium and phosphate deficiency” (Sc. 10 / Pg. 22). The skeleton suffered from scurvy and tertiary syphilis, adds Brennan. The evidence is clear: they found a pirate. If true, Booth suggests a motive, “Macy was killed because of what he found.” Hodgins validates Booth’s assumption, “Silt in his throat and lungs confirms he was killed at the top of the shaft.” The investigation comes to a halt when Goodman calls Booth and Brennan to his office to calm an irate Branson Rose.

Branson charges Team Bones with thievery. He claims he was granted a permit to dig at the site and keep whatever he uncovered, bones included. His attorney assures him the Jeffersonian has no right to keep the skeleton. Booth doesn’t flinch at the threat, sending Branson from the room in a rage. In the aftermath of Branson’s fury, Booth puts the pieces together. With Macy out of the picture, Hardewicke doesn’t have to split as much of the pot with Branson.

At the dig site, Booth fishes for answers with Hardewicke. Hardewicke’s business has been under pressure for quite some time. In fact, Branson is his last investor. If Branson pulls out, Hardwicke is finished. The theory hits a snag – Ted Macy was like family to Hardewicke. He has the scars on his body to prove it. In 1992, Hardewicke pulled Macy out of a sinkhole, saving his life. A fresh set of bruises next to the scars sends Booth down another trail. Hardewicke confesses Macy was sleeping with the mayor’s wife. When the mayor got suspicious, Hardewicke took the fall for his friend.

Brennan frantically searches the bones room. She calls to Zack, “What did you do with the bones?” They are gone. Someone stole the skeleton.

Brennan goes on a tirade about the lack of security at the Jeffersonian. Booth, Goodman, and Angela helplessly absorb her venting. Booth spins the burglary into something positive, “Whoever took those bones obviously had something to do with the murder.” Zack saved the finger bone in his lab, but the missing remainder of the skeleton conveys a message to Brennan, “There’s something they don’t want us to find…”

The mayor’s wife, KATIE, defends her affair with Macy to Booth. It was a mistake. She dismisses the notion of the mayor avenging the affair by killing Macy. “Look, it’s Hardewicke and the rich guy you should be looking at,” she contends. They were always fighting over money.

Brennan, Zack, and Hodgins work on the finger in the lab. They can’t extract any particulates because the Medical Examiner cleaned the bone too thoroughly. Brennan notices a small hole in the tip of the finger, possibly “man-made.” As she heads out, she orders Zack, “…don’t let that bone out of your sight.”

Booth and Brennan meet with the Medical Examiner to see if they overlooked any type of weapon involvement. The Medical Examiner holds to his initial report, “The larynx is crushed.” But Brennan’s trained eye sees more, “The fractures” on C2 through C4 “are all left to right, approximately forty-five degree angles on each bone… that means the head was jerked to the left and up, making sure the spinal cord would tear. The larynx was crushed when his neck was broken” (Sc.17 / Pg. 33). But that doesn’t account for the hole in the finger. “Something damaged that bone. And it didn’t happen three hundred years ago…” Brennan states as a matter of fact. This triggers an idea, which sends her hurriedly out of the room.

Zack determines the hole in the finger came from “a disposable acupuncture needle.” Brennan runs a UV light over the bone and explains, “Diminished fluorescence. That only happens if the bones have been cleaned and treated. These bones didn’t start out in the shaft. They were placed there.”

On the forensic platform, Booth and Brennan listen to HARLEY FRANKEL, the Jeffersonian’s museum curator. He positions himself over a skeleton, assuring Brennan of his exhibit’s authenticity. Brennan removes one of the bones from the case and snaps it in half. The bones are artificial, acrylic. She compares the finger bone with the other “bones.” “You can see the hole where the wire was threaded when the skeleton was assembled for display,” she presents. The evidence enlightens Booth, “(the original bones) were planted in the shaft on Assateague Island to make the whole treasure business seem real. But someone found out.”

Brennan, Booth, and Goodman face FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR SAM CULLEN. Cullen reviews the security issues tied to their missing skeleton. He informs the team Branson Rose has some friends in very high places. Rose wants the FBI out of his excavation. Booth can’t remove the team just yet. The stolen bones were obviously used to “salt the shaft” in order to lure dollars from investors. Cullen asks, “Who do you like?” Booth and Brennan agree, Giles Hardewicke. As Booth puts it, he has “Access, motive, ability…”

Hodgins and Dane share a couple of beers as Dane recounts his foray into diving and treasure hunting. Dane is unphased when he learns the bones were planted in the shaft. Years of disappointment, the loss of his brother, Dane’s jaded outlook is permanently ingrained. Hodgins can’t wait to get back in the shaft to search again. “When you got three doctorates and you tell the FBI you need more samples, who’s gonna argue?” (Sc. 21A / Pg. 40). Dane takes his queue, “You wanna go down again, don’t you?” Hodgins can barely contain himself, “I could use your help.”

Brennan and Booth take another crack at Hardewicke. They mention Katie’s information about the company breaking up. Hardewicke laughs off the accusation. Macy told wild stories as a part of his act to get women in bed with him. It was his way of positioning himself as a heroic explorer. Hardewicke drives his feelings home, “There is not a single way in which I’m better off without Macy.” As a final gesture, he offers full access to his company books without a search warrant.

Angela and Goodman watch security tapes from the night of the theft. A blip of static on the screen indicates a moment when the cameras went down. For one minute and forty-six seconds the cameras were shut off. Goodman and Angela run a test with a stop watch. The only person who could have enough time to get to the bones before turning the cameras back on would be a security guard.

Jeffersonian security guard ERIC HUGHES defends himself in front of Booth, Brennan and Goodman. He admits to stealing the bones, selling them for a “couple hundred bucks.” Booth produces a wire transfer for ten thousand dollars in Eric’s name. Eric fingers Macy and Hardewicke as his contacts.

Booth and Brennan return to Hardewicke’s trailer at the dig site. They find him motionless, blood trailing from his nose and mouth. He’s dead.

The Medical Examiner declares Hardewicke died from a crushed larynx, the same cause of death for Macy. This isn’t enough for Brennan. She reviews the x-rays and observes the same damage “between C-2 and C-4, forty-five degree angle.” Booth recognizes the pattern as a Special Forces move.

Branson Rose meets with Booth and Brennan in the presence of his attorney. Although he spent time in the Special Air Services, an elite Special Forces unit, Branson denies any connection to Ted Macy’s death. Macy salting the shaft disappointed him, but didn’t inspire murder. His lawyer abruptly ends the meeting, causing Brennan to slap Branson across the face. Branson doesn’t react, prompting another slap. His lethargic reaction time absolves him of the crime as Booth realizes, “No way he’s Special Ops. It’s PR crap.”

Dane helps Hodgins suit up for another dive. He complains about never getting to the bottom. Hodgins offers to share the experience the way the Three Musketeers would, “All for one and one for all.”

Booth and Brennan drive in his SUV. Booth calls in Dane’s background to find out which branch of the military he served. Brennan thinks it’s a “Hail Mary Pass.” Booth explains, “He said Hodgins swam like a squid.” Squid is military slang for a sailor.

Hodgins drops deep in to the muddy waters.

Dispatch returns to Booth, “Mcginnis, Dane served in the Navy. Rating: Chief Petty Officer, Naval Special Warfare.” He was a Navy Seal. They confront Dane at the shaft holding an air hose. Hodgins voice transmits over the intercom. Dane threatens to cut Hodgins air. Booth draws a bead on him with his Glock. The standoff begins. Dane wants Booth to throw his gun in the water. Unaware of the activity above, Hodgins continues his dive, offering details at each new depth. Dane wants the truth to be known. Macy and Hardewicke turned his dead brother’s passion into a con job. Planting the fake bones dishonored the people who gave their hearts to the dig. Hodgins finds a gold coin, but it isn’t enough to distract Dane. Brennan convinces Dane to save Hodgins in the name of the treasure, for his brother. He releases his grip on the air hose.

Team Bones stare at the gold coin in awe. Hodgins can barely let go of the experience, “An original Breen 984 half doubloon, designed by Ephraim Brasher, engraved by Ephraim Brasher.” Zack translates, “A real, gold, pirate coin.” Hodgins reluctantly releases the coin to Goodman. With Blackbeard’s treasure located, a little of Hodgins’ childhood disappeared in the process.

Quotes

add » Booth: (to Branson Rose) At least let us know if your reputation is for real, sir. Hey, we'll just contact the SAS, they'll tell us.
Rose: Don't expect a speedy response.
(Brennan approaches Rose and slaps him really hard)
Booth: Woah, Bones!
Brennan: Would a special forces guy have been able to stop that?
Booth: I don't know, you kinda got the jump on him there.
Brennan: Well, this one won't be a surprise. (turns to Rose) You ready?
Rose: What? (before he knows it Brennan has slapped him a second time)
Booth: No way he's special ops. It's just a bunch of PR crap.
Brennan: Alright, no more questions. (edit) Booth: At this point it appears as if the stolen 300-year-old bones were being used to, you know, salt the shaft.
Brennan: Salt the shaft?
Booth: Yeah, you know, an investor spends a million bucks, he gets antsy when nothing happens and voilà, pirate bones appear and the golden goose keeps, you know, pr-pr-pr, laying those eggs.
Brennan: Ok, that is a convoluted metaphor, Booth.
Goodman: It's a hoax, Dr. Brennan. Like the Piltdown Man?
Brennan: Oh, got it. (to Booth) Why can't you be clear like that? (edit) (Brennan and Booth have nailed down the suspect)
Booth: The guy was a Navy Seal.
Brennan: So? You were a Guide.
Booth: Ranger, I was Ranger Bones, okay? I was not a guide, guides they show you waterfalls, they sell you cookies, I was a Ranger.
(Brennan wants to rush in on the suspect, Booth holds her back)
Brennan: Are Rangers afraid of Seals?
Booth: What? No, come on Bones, Rangers aren't afraid of anybody, okay?... Though Seals are pretty good though. (edit) Harry: A crushed larynx is fatal, therefore it results in death. (edit) Zack: Scurvy, syphilis... pirate. (edit)

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Trivia

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Goof: At the end, when Dane threatens to cut Hodgins' airline, he holds the blunt edge of the knife to the hose. (edit) crew and equipment visible: When Dr. Brennan and Booth arrive at the dive site parking lot, a camera boom is visible in the reflection of their car.


In the next shot, the crew and camera are again visible in reflection, when Dr. Brennan opens the door. (edit) The entirety of Assateague Island is a national park; there are no towns on the island as depicted in the show. Assateague is most famous for its wild horses; the herd on the Virginia side of the island is rounded up every year and swum to Chincoteague Island, where many of the foals are sold as population control. One of these foals was the inspiration for the children's book _Misty of Chincoteague_ by Marguerite Henry. (edit) Rodney Rowland (Dane) appeared with David Boreanaz (Booth) in the TV serie Angel, episode 5.01 "Conviction". (edit) In the first scene, the x-ray nearest the corpse is upside-down. (edit)

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Allusions

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Navy SEAL

The United States Navy Sea, Air and Land (SEAL) forces are the elite Special Operations Forces of the U.S. Navy, employed in unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, direct action, Counter-Terrorism, and special reconnaissance operations. (edit) Dr. Daniel Goodman: A hoax, like the Piltdown Man.

The so-called Piltdown Man was fragments of a skull and jaw bone collected in the early years of the twentieth century from a gravel pit at Piltdown, a village near Uckfield, in the English county of Sussex. The fragments were claimed by experts of the day to be fossilized remains of a hitherto unknown form of early man. The Latin Name Eoanthropus dawsoni was given to the specimen.

The significance of the specimen remained the subject of controversy until it was exposed in 1953 as a forgery, consisting of the lower jaw bone of an ape combined with the skull of a fully developed, modern man. It has been suggested that the forgery was the work of the person to be its finder, Charles Dawson, after who it was named. This view is strongly disputed and many other candidates have been proposed as the true creators of the forgery.

The Skull in the Desert (1-17)

Originally aired: Wednesday March 29, 2006 on FOX

Writer: Jeff Rake
Director: Donna Deitch
Show Stars: Jonathan Adams (Dr. Daniel Goodman (Season 1)), David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth), T.J. Thyne (Dr. Jack Hodgins), Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), Eric Millegan (Zack Addy), Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance Brennan)
Guest Stars: Brent Briscoe (Larry Stansfield) , Mercedes Colón (Professor Inez) , Clayton Rohner (Wayne Kellogg) , Kalani Queypo (Alex Joseph) , James Parks (Sheriff Dawes)
Production Code: 1AKY17

Zack and Brennan examine a rib cage on the forensic platform while Hodgins distracts himself with pictures of Angela’s desert vacation. He stops on one photo of Angela relaxing in the arms of a man on a sun-kissed ridge. Brennan explains that Angela has a “boyfriend” for three weeks every year. His name is KIRK PERSINGER. Zack clicks on a videolink and Angela appears in her resort room. She asks to speak with Brennan in private.

Brennan retreats to her office where Angela reveals information that a human skull in a box arrived on the local Sheriff’s porch. Her boyfriend, Kirk, went in to the desert five days prior on a photo shoot and hasn’t come back. Nobody can find him, or his guide.

Against Goodman’s wishes, Brennan packs her bags and heads to the desert on “vacation.”

Angela and Brennan ride in Angela’s jeep. Angela feigns reassurance that the skull isn’t Kirk’s, asking Brennan to look at it for verification. Kirk was with a good guide, a friend named DHANI WEBBER, and it isn’t like them to be gone this long.

SHERIFF BEN DAWES is quick with Angela and Brennan. He orders the Navajo police to search the canyons. He doesn’t have any patience for city folk like Brennan. Low on water and gone for more than a week, he’s concerned that time might be running out. Reluctantly, Sheriff Dawes offers the skull to Brennan. A cursory examination reveals a, “prominent brow ridge” indicating “a male.” The cranial shape and nasal features paired with a “pattern of maxillary suture fusion” suggests a Caucasian around thirty to thirty-five years of age. The mood changes considerably when Brennan discovers “bevel marks” indicative of “perimortem-contact gunshot.” This man wasn’t caught “unawares” by the desert. He was shot.

In Angela’s Bungalow, Brennan and Angela discuss Kirk. Brennan regards some contact sheets with pictures of Kirk’s guide, Dhani, who also happens to be a beautiful model. She does her best to comfort Angela, which alarms Angela even more, “If you hug me and be all caring, it’s because you think either Kirk is dead or sleeping with Dhani.” Angela reaffirms her connection to Kirk and the special bond they share, tugging the few heart strings Brennan knows.

Brennan calls Booth and asks if he’ll come to the desert to assist in the investigation. The Sheriff can’t accept some book-smart hayseed blowing in to tell him his business. Brennan needs Booth to “get federal on his ass,” a request he gladly accepts.

Booth arrives to rally the troops. He uses his “FBI powers” to force the Sheriff to send the skull to the Jeffersonian for analysis. Brennan and Booth then head to Dhani’s trailer to poke around. Booth runs down the likeliest scenario - boyfriend runs off with an attractive model/guide and crosses a scorned lover. Brennan dismisses the possibility. Regardless of Booth’s “stodgy,” traditionalist beliefs, Angela and Kirk were in love. Their conversation is interrupted by ALEX JOSEPH, a Native American aiming a rifle at them. He is on edge and paranoid. After a brief showdown, Alex enters the trailer to retrieve some potential evidence. It’s a picture of Dhani arm-in-arm with Sheriff Dawes.

Back at the lab, Zack and Hodgins exchange words about proper conduct while Dr. Brennan is away. Hodgins, listening to his iPod, let’s Zack know how insignificant he is without Brennan around. After all, he is merely her assistant.

In the Sheriff’s office, Sheriff Dawes studies the search grid as Booth accuses him of avenging a love triangle. The Sheriff scoffs, claiming Dhani is his half-sister. The team considers the idea of Alex hurting either Dhani or Kirk out of jealous rage. To that, the Sheriff says deliberately, “It’s on my list of nightmares.” Brennan takes a call on her cell from Hodgins. The DNA results prove the skull belongs to Angela’s boyfriend. The hair sample tested “off the charts” for peyote. Zack discovered a full-grown male coyote with a malformed jaw dined on Kirk’s remains. Brennan orders the team to have Goodman locate a naturalist. Booth lays it out: a simple missing person’s case has now become a drug-related execution.

Driving to deliver Angela the bad news, Brennan listens to Booth puff his chest. He’s ready to take over the case on a Federal level, but Brennan thinks that will only shut them out. “Desert Dwellers are very insular,” she defends. It’s best that they work within the system. Now in agreement, they decide to find out who supplied Kirk with his peyote.

Booth grills Angela with the difficult questions about her boyfriend. Angela protects his reputation, “the peyote wasn’t recreational – Kirk took part in some Native Indian rites.” Booth and Brennan learn Kirk’s peyote supplier was a local artist, WAYNE KELLOGG.

Wayne Kellogg proudly boasts about his lucrative overseas art career. He then coolly brags about his participation in numerous peyote rituals. Booth sets him straight, “Peyote is only legal if you’re a member of the Native American Church. Which means you and Kirk bought it illegally.” Wayne refuses to give up his source. Brennan notices his HUMVEE outside. It’s the same HUMVEE from Dhani’s trailer, the day Alex stared them down with his rifle. They put two and two together, and assume Alex Joseph is connected to the peyote trade.

Booth and Brennan return to Dhani’s trailer to question Alex. They find his body sprawled on the ground, bloody and unconscious.

Booth tries to push the Sheriff’s buttons. He throws a number of situations his way, all of them tying Sheriff to the crime. Sheriff Dawes denies that Dhani could’ve been the trigger person. He also refutes a rape vendetta fantasy Booth conjures. Sheriff Dawes first priority is finding Dhani, nothing else.

Brennan and Booth are patched in to PROFESSOR INEZ and Goodman via Angela’s laptop. The professor coordinates research on tracking coyotes. She locates the coyote with the malformed jaw Zack connected to Kirk’s skull. Based on the packs feeding patterns, she prints out coordinates that should lead the team to the remainder of Kirk’s skeleton.

Angela opens up to Brennan about Kirk, “He’s the man I compare all other men to.” Brennan appreciates her warmth and candor. Angela then offers to help search for Kirk’s remains.

In the middle of the desert, Brennan, Booth, Angela, Sheriff Dawes, and a line of Navajos search for Kirk’s bones. Angela and Brennan reflect upon the spirituality of the desert. “If you stand still enough, the desert will actually speak to you,” Angela wishes vacantly. Sheriff Dawes informs Booth that Alex woke up from his beating. The men who beat him were Navajos protecting their peyote ritual. When one of their own breaks rites, as Alex did by selling the peyote to “white guys,” justice is swift. Booth worries the same men could’ve held a kangaroo court for Kirk. This is a notion the Sheriff dismisses. The “whites” are his responsibility.

The searchers find Kirk’s scattered bones along with his camera. Angela carefully cradles the camera. She can’t afford to have the film recklessly exposed. If the desert has any omens, they might show themselves on the film in the form of Kirk’s murderers.

Angela and Brennan negotiate with Sheriff Dawes to keep him from sending the camera to the State Police Crime Lab. Even if the Sheriff believes Angela is better at developing the film than the state lab, it doesn’t absolve her from being a potential suspect. Booth gets a tip that Kellogg only sold one hundred and twenty thousand dollars worth of art overseas, a meager number for someone who claimed to have a “beach house in Los Angeles.” They decide to follow up on the lead. Angela takes advantage of her moment alone with the Sheriff. He wasn’t aware that the relationship tilted in favor of Angela. Kirk wanted to marry her, but she couldn’t commit. She was friends with Dhani. Her guilt will only subside if she can put her skills to use. Sheriff Dawes relents.

Booth presses Kellogg about his success as an artist. He also pushes him on his vehicle capable of traveling great distances in the desert. However, it isn’t enough to detain him. Brennan comes across some quarter inch steel engraving plates with designs unlike Kellogg’s style. He contends they were commissioned from a private client. Angela calls Brennan’s cell. She was able to develop the film, but Sheriff Dawes ran off with the negatives the moment she showed him the pictures.

Booth confronts Sheriff Dawes in his office. The Sheriff took the photos to Joseph to help pinpoint an outcropping. The formation doesn’t match the location where Kirk’s body was found. Booth guesses he was killed and deposited in the area where they found his bones. The Sheriff suggests they travel to the site to check for clues.

Back at the lab, Hodgins and Zack have a battle of egos. Zack refuses to release the bones to Hodgins until he determines how the body expired. Hodgins needs to isolate the “particulates” to narrow down where the bones may have originated, a task more important to the case. Dr. Goodman settles the dispute by placing control with Hodgins.

Sheriff Dawes escorts Team Bones in his 4x4. They stop at the rock outcropping. Angela, Brennan, and Booth decide to locate the exact spot where the picture originated while the Sheriff takes a drive to see if he can find his sister. The moment the truck leaves their sight, Booth makes a startling realization: They are out of water, without cell phones. The Sheriff left them to die.

The sun bakes the team as they crest a small hill. They see a Jeep. It’s Kirk’s. The alternator is smashed, and all the wiring is pulled out. Blood on a rock and striated patterns in the sand tell a gruesome story for Kirk’s demise. The vehicle tracks leading away from the body appear much wider than the Sheriffs. They also stop at what appears to be a make-shift air strip. Booth was right - drugs. “ Mexico is about eighty miles that way,” Booth figures. Just as they are about to give up hope on their own survival, Sheriff Dawes appears with Angela in the passenger seat. The group determines Alex Joseph to be the prime suspect. He rolled up on Kirk and Dhani together, alone. The Sheriff calls the station and requests a deputy to “slap some cuffs on Alex Joseph.” However, Alex has disappeared. Sheriff Dawes decides to collect Wayne Kellogg’s Humvee instead.

At the Sheriff’s office, Brennan and Booth stand by Kellogg’s Humvee as Dawes and his deputies conduct a Luminol test inside the vehicle. “Any blood stains should flare bluish green when the luminal hits them,” Brennan reminds the investigators. The luminal flares on the shape of a body. The body could’ve been strapped to the hood, where it was transported two hundred miles before being dumped to the coyotes.

Brennan calls Zack and asks if Kirk’s bones show more damage than “can be explained by animal activity.” Zack eagerly offers, “The pubic rami are fractured and the left hemi-pelvis is severely displaced.” These are injuries congruent with a fall. Or, as Brennan hypothesizes, the murderer “Loaded his body on the airplane, then tossed it.” Brennan is miffed at the length of time it took Zack to get her the information, a screw-up at the hands of Hodgins. Regardless, Zack takes the bullet.

Wrapping up Kirk’s case doesn’t get Sheriff Dawes any closer to his sister. She could either be “kidnapped by drug dealers” or “dying somewhere out in the desert.” Dr. Goodman calls Brennan. The engraver plates she noticed in Kellogg’s home fit the dies for the Venezuelan 500 Bolivar bill. These are counterfeiters’ dies.

Kellogg and his lawyer, LARRY STANSFIELD, play a game of cat and mouse with Booth and Sheriff Dawes. Kellogg smugly admits to the counterfeiting, but vehemently denies any involvement in Kirk’s death. He arranged to meet with the counterfeiters at the airstrip in the desert. They noticed two people spying on them. The counterfeiters commandeered his vehicle and drove up the hill. A single shot was fired. The vehicle returned, and the men departed. Kellogg can arrange to have the FBI present at the next exchange, but only if Booth drops the murder charges against him. The Sheriff explodes on Kellogg. He wants to find his sister. Booth advises the Sheriff to ignore the deal. A trained Army Ranger, Booth offers to track Dhani himself.

At the Jeffersonian, Dr. Goodman levels with Zack. “You can’t assist Dr. Brennan forever,” he says delicately. Goodman implies that Zack is too comfortable in the lab. He needs to advance his studies. Being around Dr. Brennan is a distraction he can no longer afford.

Angela, Sheriff Dawes, Booth and Brennan spread out to search the arid landscape. For a moment, Angela stops, shuts her eyes, and is completely still. A vision of Dhani materializes. The spirit directs her to the near death Dhani collapsed in the shadow of a rock. Skin excoriate by the sun, lips cracked, Dhani is alive.

In her Bungalow, Angela comes to terms with the loss of Kirk. She confides in Brennan her apprehension at ever finding another man like Kirk again. Brennan uses science to settle her fears, “…nothing in the Universe happens just once. Nothing.” Booth enters and breaks the moment. Sheriff Dawes and his deputies caught the counterfeiters. Dhani gave a statement saying it was Kellogg who pulled the trigger on Kirk. If Angela hadn’t pointed the helicopter in the right direction, Dhani wouldn’t be alive to set the record straight. The desert spoke, and Angela listened with her heart.

Quotes

add » Angela: [...] I'm a little afraid that... I'm just afraid that I don't have a generous heart. I'm afraid that I won't have the chance that I had with Kirk ever again.
Brennan: You will.
Angela: How can you be so sure?
Brennan: Because nothing in this universe happens just once, Angela. Nothing. Infinity goes in both directions. There's no unique event, no singular moment.
Angela: (laughs) I don't know what that means. (edit) Brennan: It doesn't make sense that the sheriff brings us to the scene of the crime and leaves us to die. Does it?
Booth: One godforsaken part of the desert is as good as another godforsaken part. We don't even know if Sheriff Dawes actually called Alex Joseph. I mean, he could've done all this himself.
Brennan: Could Dawes do that, Ange?
Angela: Well, I always thought Ben Dawes was a good man. It would take a lot to change my mind.
Brennan: Like beeing left to die in the desert? (edit) (The truck driven by the sheriff goes way)
Booth: Where's he going?
Brennan: He's looking for his sister.
Booth: Either of you two bring any water?
(Brennan and Angela show Booth their bottles of water)
Brennan: Why? Are you worried?
Booth: Yeah.
Angela: About what?
Brennan: Because we're way past where Jesus lost his sandals.
Booth: And I don't hear the truck anymore. (edit) Booth: I will call the FBI office in Albuquerque and take over the investigation.
Brennan: I wouldn't.
Booth: Why?
Brennan: Desert dwellers are very Insular. Mongolians, Bedouins of the Sahara, the Himba of Kanana. Good hosts, but extremely distrustful of outsiders.
Booth: Bones, this is the United States of America, not outer Mongolia. (edit) Brennan: (holding and looking at the skull) Prominent brow ridge indicates the victim is male. (pointing to the plate with a muffin) Do you mind?
Sheriff Dawes: Be my guest.
Angela: She wants the plate, Ben, not the muffin. (edit)

All The Skull in the Desert Quotes »

Trivia

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Goof: After Booth says they are a minimum of five days from the highway, you can see cars driving in the background. (edit) Here is the definition for the forensic term in this episode:
Luminol - The basic idea of luminol is to reveal minute blood traces with a light-producing chemical reaction between several chemicals and hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein in the blood. In this particular reaction, the reactants (the original molecules) have more energy than the products (the resulting molecules). The molecules get rid of the extra energy in the form of visible light photons. This process, generally known as chemiluminescence, is the same phenomenon that makes fireflies and light sticks glow. Investigators will spray a suspicious area, turn out all the lights and block the windows, and look for a bluish-green light. If there are any blood traces in the area, they will glow. (edit) Watch carefully through Booth's window when he and Brennan are driving through the desert arguing over whether or not he should take over the investigation. When Booth says, "This is the United States of America," a mountain appears out of nowhere in the background. (edit)

Allusions

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Engraver’s plates

Currency printing is a highly specialized craft. The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing prints currency on high-speed, sheet-fed rotary presses which are capable of printing over 8,000 sheets per hour. Printing plates are covered with ink and then the surface of each plate is wiped clean which allows the ink to remain in the design and letter grooves of the plates. Each sheet is then forced, under extremely heavy pressure (estimated at 20 tons), into the finely recessed lines of the printing plate to pick up the ink. The printing impression is three dimensional in effect and requires the combined handiwork of highly skilled artists, steel engravers, and plate printers. The surface of the note feels slightly raised, while the reverse side feels slightly indented. This process is called intaglio printing. Venezuela ’s currency is named for Venezuelan-born Simón Bolívar, who liberated much of South America from Spanish rule in the 19th century and became one of Latin America's greatest heroes. (edit) Peyote

The central and distinctive practice of the Native American Church is the ceremonial use of peyote, a psychoactive or entheogenic cactus (lophophora williamsii) regarded as a sacramental substance that has divine powers. It is often called “medicine,” and it is believed to have powerful healing ability. Peyote use among the Huichol and other tribes goes back thousands of years in Mexico, and was first documented among the Aztecs some 400 years ago. Its history in the United States beyond its native range (restricted to the Rio Grande valley), however, is much more recent. (edit) Booth: Ok, who are you, Dr. Phil?

Referring to the popular talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw.

The Woman in the Tunnel (1-16)

Originally aired: Wednesday March 22, 2006 on FOX
Writer: Greg Ball, Steve Blackman
Director: Joe Napolitano
Show Stars: T.J. Thyne (Dr. Jack Hodgins), Michaela Conlin (Angela Montenegro), Jonathan Adams (Dr. Daniel Goodman (Season 1)), Eric Millegan (Zack Addy), Emily Deschanel (Dr. Temperance Brennan), David Boreanaz (Special Agent Seeley Booth)
Guest Stars: Matt Huhn (Cop) , Keith Pillow (Michael Preston) , Brian Gross (Kyle Montrose) , Ryan Alosio (Duke Daillel) , Mary Mara (Helen Bronson) , Fay Wolf (Marni Hunter) , David Denman (Phil Garfield) , Glenn Plummer (Harold)

Brennan and Booth stumble upon a subterranean world of homeless people when they find the remains of a filmmaker in the ventilation shaft of an underground tunnel.

Quotes

add » Helen: Harold is afraid of the world, why do you think he lives underground?
Brennan: Penance.
Booth: (looks at her surprised) What?
Brennan: You catch murderers to pay off your penance, Harold lives underground. (edit) Brennan: Maybe you could try the "Hey, we'e brothers in arms" thing on him.
Booth: Ok, that, what you just said right there Bones, that was cynical. It was glib and cynical.
Brennan: (earnestly) Really?
Booth: Yes. Really. I know what that guy has been through.
Brennan: You killed a pregnant woman who was holding a child?
(Booth looks uncomfortable and doesn't answer for a while)
Booth: Look, if you really wanna know what I've done I'll tell you, but you better be ready for the truth. (Brennan looks at him and then looks away without answering) Good choice, Bones. (edit) Booth: You ever see Treasure of the Sierra Madre? It doesn't matter whether the treasure is mythical or not. People will still kill if they think it exists.
Brennan: It did exist.
Booth: What?
Brennan: In the movie it's gold dust. People didn't think it exists so it blew away. But it did exist.
Booth: But no one got it is the point. All of a sudden you know a movie.
Brennan: Everybody knows that movie. (edit) Angela: Brennan, I understand that this is what you do when things get too close to home, you get all analytical and academic. (edit) Booth: Kyle hit the Duke, in the crypt, with the candle stick.
(Booth and Dr. Goodman burst into laughter)
Dr. Goodman: That's very good! Very good!
Booth: Right?
Brennan: What? What's the joke?
Booth: Clue.
Brennan: What clue?... what clue!?
Booth: Unbelievable Bones!
(Angela walks in)
Angela: What's funny?
Brennan: I have no idea. (edit)

All The Woman in the Tunnel Quotes »

Trivia

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When Booth was watching the video that the victim made, he was wearing Converse shoes. (edit)

Allusions

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LeMat

A Civil War repeating pistol designed by Jean Alexander Francois LeMat, a French gun designer who was also the son-in-law of a Confederate major. To increase the revolver’s military utility, LeMat built a 9 shot, .44 caliber cylinder, giving it three extra shots and more punch than the .36 caliber Colt. The LeMat revolver is most often remembered, however, for the 10th shot. LeMat put a second barrel under the normal .44 caliber barrel, around which the cylinder revolved. This second barrel was a single shot, .65 caliber 18 gauge shotgun - short, with very little range, but a nasty weapon up close, effectively a sawed off shotgun hidden in the middle of the pistol. (edit) Rangers

The 75th Ranger Regiment, also known as the United States Army Rangers, is a Special Operations Force of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), with headquarters in Fort Benning, Georgia. The Regiment is a flexible, highly trained and rapidly deployable light infantry force with specialized skills that enable it to be employed against a variety of conventional and special operations targets. Their motto is “Rangers lead the way!" (edit) Tenth Special Forces Group

The 10th Special Forces Group was activated June 1952. It is assigned to the U.S. Army's Special Operations Command located at Fort Bragg, N.C. The group trains for and conducts combat, unconventional warfare, special reconnaissance, and foreign internal defense missions. (edit) The documentary about underground tunnels and the society found within bears a strong resemblance to Dark Days, a documentary by Marc Singer. (edit) Booth: You know Treasure of the Sierra Madre but you don’t know Charlize Theron.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the name of a 1948 movie starring Humphrey Bogart. (edit)