“I’d say King of the Lab, but that just depresses me.”
BONES: Season Four
The Finger in the Nest
Hodgins!
I’ll say it again. Hodgins!
He’s not the only good thing in this episode, but he is very, very good. I’ll be honest, this episode is hard for me to watch, and I think it’s because it’s quite harsh. The case is very intense. That isn’t new though, for BONES. But what makes it even more intense is that everything else in the episode is very, very…innocent.
This episode always makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s not bad at ALL. I’m just too sensitive, I guess. Sorry in advance that this post is so short, but I’m just not feeling much love for this episode. So I would rather talk about what I do like and not worry about the rest. The thing of it is, though, is that it IS a good episode. I just don’t love it, I guess. But you can tell me if you love it. That’s where the comments come in handy!
THE CASE:
Booth (very cute in Dad-mode. Very, very, very cute Dad. Single moms in that park are fighting one another over him, haha) and Parker are playing football in the park when Parker spots a bird’s nest. Booth hikes him up and is horrified when Parker finds a human finger. It’s a darn good thing he knows a forensic anthropologist!
The team discovers that the finger once belonged to veterinarian Seth Elliott, and the further into the case they get, the deeper they get into the world of underground dog fighting.
There are lots of suspects, and I was surprised by the outcome.
In the B-plot, Booth is worried about Parker and asks Sweets for help.
THE SQUINTS:
I like that the writers allowed Hodgins to be mad. And now that OTHER things have happened to Hodgins, I’m even MORE mad on his behalf. Obviously he has made some of his own choices, but still…he’s so great, and he’s kind of getting the shaft. He’s good with the hate, though!
I love his conversation with Sweets, and I like that Sweets is in his office. That always works best.
There is not much in the way of story line as far as Cam and Angela, and that’s okay. I don’t mind a little less squintage when there is Parker around.
Not really a squint, but there’s not really any other place to put him, is Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer. That is pretty cool. I like when Booth tries to give it a shot.
I TOTALLY loved the Dad squint. I so wish he could have been around more.
Booth & Brennan:
I really appreciate the writers’ making Brennan a very heartwarming character in this episode. She is very passionate, and once again, we see that she is not coldhearted at all.
If you watch this episode again, pay attention to the look on Booth’s face right after Brennan asks him what will be done with Ripley’s remains. It’s very fleeting, but he just kind of smiles a bit, like he thinks she is really special, and he knows that whatever idea she has going on inside her head, he’s going to end up helping her complete it. In this episode, it’s digging a dog grave.
So…are you one of the people who believes that Ripley represents Zack? That when Brennan was giving her eulogy, she was really expressing her feelings to Booth and the Universe, that what happened to Zack was not fair, and not his fault because he was just obeying ‘the Master’? The first time I watched it, I did not even put two and two together. Then after people mentioned it, I thought…okay, yes, I can see that. But as I watched it this time, I wasn’t 100% convinced. But to be fair, it’s because now there is more information about Zack’s motives. I don’t know; it’s a toss up, I guess. What do you think?
There is ONE thing that is completely indisputable, however, and that is that Booth truly does have warm, reassuring, brown eyes, like this pic from The Bones that Foam, Season Four.
Peace, Love & Bones
~S
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February 22, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Two things:
1) Daddy Booth is swoon-worthy. 😀
2) The end scene is some of the best cinematography I think I’ve seen in BONES. The image of them hugging on the river next to the brillant green trees…lovely.
Overall, I liked this episode too, but it’s not one I go back to over and over again. The all can’t be like that, right?
February 23, 2010 at 10:16 am
I love the Booth dad stuff in this episode, and I love the end scene – funny how he says that it’s not his fault when she talks about the harsh world and looks at him – also funny when they touch on doggie vocabulary in that scene. i think we see a lot of Brennan’s humanity in that end scene, and it’s very well done.
February 23, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Yes — yes I have noticed those brilliantly brown eyes that man has because on more then one occasion, they get really bright brown, I get hot, and think I’m going to faint. 🙂
Love those eyes.
And I agree with most everyone else. If I watch this episode for anything, it’s the beginning stuff with Parker. Why can’t we all have such cool dads!?
And I myself did not notice the whole Zack thing, but I think it’s a possibility. And if that was the writer’s intention, I thank them because I love seeing a human Brennan that just can’t hide her emotions beneath her huge wall all the time.
And Booth never seems to fail at being a good, gentle sledgehammer(in a good way), knocking down those enormous walls and being ready to catch her when she feels like she could fall. Love it to pieces.
February 23, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I have to watch this episode when I’m in the mood to withstand it. I’m a dog lover; I volunteer at the animal shelter every weekend and wish I could take all of them home. It’s a good thing I live in a college dorm where I can’t or I would have 50 dogs by now. So while I really do love Bones for raising awareness of dog fighting and how wrong it is, this episode always makes me bawl like a big baby.
In the good side of this episode the case kept me guessing, Booth with Parker is super hot, we get to see Parker come out of the black hole he hides in for many many episodes, and the dad squint is amazing. I too wish he could have stuck around longer.
If anything this episode made me love Brennan more than I did before. I feel like I understand Brennan and her decisions and the way she thinks a lot of the time but her burying Ripley and crying over the loss of him endeared her to me that much more.
February 24, 2010 at 11:11 am
Their conversation in her office is a favorite scene of mine. He walks in and turns all Protective-Booth on her because Ripley is out of the cage. Then he becomes defensive. Then he finishes awed by the beautiful woman that just paid him a dear compliment about how she sees him: warm and reassuring. I love it!
April 24, 2010 at 7:58 pm
I too am a huge dog and Caesar Milan fan so I actually quite enjoy it too. (I actually have some footage of my dog reacting to all the dogs on screen – its really cute, but can’t find it at the moment – will post it if I do).
I love Brennan’s reactions to a dog – I don’t know about her using it as a zach replacement, but maybe moreso as something to love that she knows will love her back unconditionally.
May 9, 2010 at 10:10 am
My dog watching this episode of Bones – http://www.flickr.com/photos/victoriabansey/3071321720
November 14, 2010 at 7:09 pm
I did love this one, for several reasons: mainly because it makes me love Brennan even more, from the time she starts playing with the dog while Booth is interrogating someone (which is exactly what I would have done in her place); and because, as you pointed out, Booth’s admiration and affection are so obvious here.
Then there’s this exchange:
“I’m satisfied with your coping technique.”
“My coping technique… of hate?”
I think Brennan was only thinking of Ripley, at least at the start of her speech, but the line “It’s not his fault his Master was bad” definitely made me think of Zach.
January 11, 2011 at 12:22 pm
I hope it’s ok to still comment on these reviews so long after the fact, but I watched this last night and couldn’t help but come here today to see what had been said about it.
In short, I LOVE this episode. There are some absolutely priceless moments in it, wrapped up in an interesting, heart-aching case and brilliant character work. I have seen it several times before, but yesterday I found a whole new love for it. Maybe now looking back at episodes after knowing where we are now gives them a nice glow of possibility and innocence.
I found so many things in this ep that I love, I had to make a list!
Daddy Booth. Oh my, be still my beating heart. He’s just so lovely with Parker, takes the time and enjoys being with him. It’s unusual that we see him in that kind of playful mood with Parker. Really affectionate interaction, you can see how close they are. And of course, this is the episode that delivers the photograph that we then see in future episodes. When Booth’s teaching him how to hold the football and they’re both kind of looking down with their heads close together. Lovely moment (showcases his amazing profile haha)
Booth and Sweets – I know that these days we’re getting more used to the Bromance, indeed some people think it’s one of the highlights of season 6, but back in season 4 it wasn’t as usual for Booth to trust him and look to him for help. Which is what makes the fact that he drags Parker into see Sweets so lovely.
And then starts what is just a scene of pure gold. Booth goes to see Sweets to find out the results of his conversation with Parker. Sweets winds Booth up by saying that Parker is traumatised. There is a very quick shot of Booth’s reaction, which is screw his face up and slump down in the chair behind him. You can literally see the expletives run through his head haha.
Sweets tells Booth that Parker is having trouble with a girl. ‘Girl?’ Booth says, and then ‘he’s six’. I IMPLORE you to go and watch this scene again, because the moment where Booth says ‘he’s six’ – he looks totally delicious. All long, suited-limbs, collapsed, relaxed over that chair, slight stubble and disbelieving, questioning and confident. There’s just something in that single moment that made my breath hitch.
And then it almost, wait for it, get’s better!
Sweets tells Booth that Parker is being bullied by a ‘large’ girl who likes to carry him around under her arm, ‘like a monkey’. Booth is a bit incredulous and asks ‘why doesn’t he just run away?’ and Sweets gives Booth something wonderful – ‘when I asked him that, he said, very proudly, that his father never ran away from anything’. And Booth gets this massive proud-Dad smile on his face. Honestly, watch it, and you realise how rare it is to actually see Booth smile like that. Booth is generally attributed with having one of the sunnier countenances on the show, great sense of humour and fun, optimistic nature etc. But it is actually very rare to see him honest-to-goodness grin like he does here. He’s SO proud of himself. It’s gorgeous.
And then one of the funniest moments between Booth and Sweets that I can remember happens. Sweets says that we’ve all experienced something like what Parker’s going through, and Booth says in the most awesomely amusingly fashion ‘no one’s ever, picked me up and carried me around like a monkey’ (slight shake of the head)….’specially not a girl’ (eyebrow raise). And he says it in this quietly confident, no nonsense way. It’s a brilliant delivery, as is Sweet’s reaction, of ‘no, no me neither’ Blatant lie! Ha! Just made me laugh out loud. And there ends one of my newly favourite Bones scenes ever.
How the hell I missed this next thing first time round, I have no idea – it’s brilliant. Booth and Brennan are in the SUV at a suspects place waiting in the car, because Booth is scared of the dogs (basically). They’re having a conversation about dreams, because Parker had has been having nightmares. Brennan says she’s one of those people who thinks ‘if you dream about a banana, it’s probably just a banana…’ No big deal there, until a few moments later, after discussing something else, Booth asks a throwback question as he gets out the car ‘do you dream about banana’s often?’ and she just frowns at him, like, ‘so what if I do?’
Which got me thinking. What if Booth reads a bit more into dreams than Brennan? What if he knows a bit about what dreams mean? I looked it up (yes I really am that sad, apparently) and found this interpretation: ‘To see bananas in your dream, may be a metaphor for repressed sexual urges and desires. It is a phallic symbol and represents masculine sexuality’ Um HELLO?! AWESOME MUCH?! There is no way that was an accident. There is no way the Bones writers didn’t know that it could be interpreted like that before they put it in there, which is just amazing. Made me grin and hope hope hope that Booth went home, looked it up and found the same website as me ha. That would have caused a slight smile and eyebrow raise I bet.
Another great Booth scene in the episode is when he’s interrogating the drug dealer. What a great bit of supporting casting, he was brilliant. I love the way Booth’s slightly mocking of the dog’s name ‘Shatzi?’. And the way he very deliberately got his gun out of its holster when he asked to see Shatzi’s teeth. There were a couple of great moments in this scene. I loved the dealer’s delivery of ‘you got a warrant for my dog?! That’s cold!’ and ‘were you really gonna shoot my dog?’ and Booth’s ‘I got nothing against your dog…I was gonna shoot you’. The dealer looks at him like, ‘I’m really not sure you’re kidding’ ha brilliant.
I love Booth knowing that it would make Brennan feel better if they tried really hard to find the people who’d been at the dog-fighting, he really felt for her. I loved him telling Brennan and Angela not to get all ‘Xena warrier princess on him’ ha. I love Angela saying she’s going to go to Dubai and sell beautiful art to gazillionaires.
I love Brennan saying that Ripley reminds her of Booth ‘he’s got warm, reassuring eyes and he’s capable of great violence’. And Booth’s response: ‘yeah great, thanks a million’ haha. These days Brennan wouldn’t say something like that because she’d say something like, ‘it’s a myth that someone’s intentions or desires or character can be read through the eyes’. She didn’t used to think so.
Booth helping her bury the dog was gorgeous. And I miss that long sleeved black top. Where did that go? I need that in my life again please. And they hugged, without words. She just looked at him with tears in her eyes and leaned on him. Beautifully simple.
Finally, I love this episode because it planted the idea in my head that if Booth and Brennan ever sort their stuff out and get together, build a life together; I have a feeling that it might just include a dog. And Brennan will play with it while Booth’s trying to talk to her, and Booth will take it out with him and Parker and they’ll both sit snuggled with it on the sofa at the end of a long case. One of the many, many things we will almost certainly never see, but nevertheless it’s nice to think that might happen for them.
March 6, 2011 at 12:06 am
HAHAHAHA i like the scene where b&b are interviewing Seths ex-wife, and their like, and Brando is……??… Your cat. that’s a dog booth. i… thank you. and then a little later, Brando barks and booth jumps. lol.
March 6, 2011 at 12:53 am
and i loved when Brennan admitted she kept staging her own death when she was i kid…….im 13 and i do that too
February 1, 2012 at 10:56 am
I understand how people might interpret Brennan talking about Ripley as her talking about Zack, but I think I always saw it as her talking about Booth. She even states earlier in the episode that Ripley reminds her of Booth. And she talks about him only killing to please his master (i.e. Booth killing for the American government). I do see that ultimately it could be Zack…but I think under the context it almost seems more likely that she was talking about Booth. I don’t know.