Bones - The Boneless Bride In The River

By: Merin
Date: Monday, March 26, 2007

Bones – Season 2, Episode 16 – The Boneless Bride in the River

One Sentence Synopsis: A trunk with the boneless corpse of a young woman not only interrupts Temperance Brennan's (Emily Deschanel) “vacation” with her boyfriend Sully but it also baffles the whole Jeffersonian crew.
--
The Meat: The forensic crew is working at trying to identify a corpse found in a trunk in the river, one that had all the bones removed from it. Since Brennan is “on vacation” with her FBI Agent beau, Tim Sullivan (Eddie McClintock), she tries to sneak out of the investigation since she's “Bones” and “no bones, no Bones.” Despite her repeated attempts to slip away, Booth keeps dragging her back in. The deeper they investigate the more they delve into ancient customs, obsessions, and greed.

The body was not professionally cut and they did find a knee cap. While Bones and Sully are trying to “christen” Sully's new boat, Booth (David Boreanaz) happily drags Tempe back to the case due to the bone found. Between the hair and the bone (signs of Fong disease) Angela (Michaela Conlin) narrows down search through immigration and find the girl's identity – she was a mail-order bride, and Booth is off to interview Mr. Drew Harper, her fiance.

The fiance, a caucasian who is really into oriental things, is evasive during questioning and makes a break for it when Booth brings up that he is a fence. After some impressive acrobatics, Mr. Harper escapes. Booth does manage to recover one of Harper's books but it is in Chinese. He uses it as another excuse to interrupt Bones and Sully as they try to enjoy their time off. They agree to help just to get the case over faster. Bones takes the book to the Jeffersonian's expert on Asian culture, a man who's trying to integrate himself into local circles for an anthropological study of burial customs and such.

In the course of the investigation they witness a bizarre marriage-burial, look into the world of match-making services specializing in finding foreign spouses, and cultural misunderstandings. By the end of the episode the least likely suspect is the culprit. There's little in the way of twists, just an ongoing investigation that goes from point to point. Again, as I've said before, this show doesn't try to surprise with plot twists, its not that kind of story-telling. I see it as character drama of people who work in these fields and solve these kinds of cases. The most interesting parts of the cases, to me, are the scientific or cultural things it teaches – like the burial rituals in this one.

Booth continues to exhibit difficulty accepting Sully and Bones and their growing relationship, though he does his best to stay out of the way. However, when Tempe confronts him more about his recent therapy (she doesn't believe in psychology, join the crowd) he continues to attribute most of his stress to her. Very enjoyable, and again my favorite aspect of the show is their clashing personalities.

This episode sees Tempe's relationship come to a head – Sully wants to travel on his boat for a year, and invites her to come along with him. Bones is unable to process this on her own, and asks for advice from others. Angela is all “go.” Even Booth, in a very selfless act, tells her to go. Her decisions will probably not shock anyone, but I'll refrain from any spoilers past this point.
--
Character Watch: We see Tempe far more animated and cheerful than is normal for her, even when she had previous “relationships.” But when it comes to running off she gets very confused. A lot of great Angela Montenegro, just as I like it. She's the heart of the group and a great sounding board for Tempe. She is the one who pulls everyone back from the science of their investigations to realize these were human beings they are poking and prodding – this episode she does a wedding portrait of the corpses that were buried, a very touching moment. Zach (Eric Millegan) has screen time, especially moments like him and Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) inflated the head, but his normally appearing social inadequacies are again underused. Camille (Tamara Taylor) only really exists to provide exposition in this episode, which is also a bad use of a good actress but not every episode can use the whole ensemble. Hodgins continues to get good scenes, and this episode he gets to give fun explanations and get off some witty rejoinders with Booth and others.
--
Favorite Line: (Bones to Booth as they discuss her past relationships) “Condescending.”

Favorite Moment: During a nearly failed sting, Sully is taken down by Drew Harper who makes a break for it and evades both Sully and Bones easily through alleyways, over fences and up fire escapes . . . seemingly getting away, until Booth has cut him off and knocks him out.

Cool Forensic Moment: Inflating a balloon inside the skull-less head

Awww Moment: When you see Sully named his boat “Temperance.”
--
Overall Grade: B
– We get some nice advancement on the sub-plot of Bones and Booth. The case this time around had a nice easy flow to it and definitely kept up with the “unusual factor” that prevents the investigations from being boring. The resolution, though understated when it happened, was satisfying without being overly drawn out. I am very eager to see the next episode, especially since it brings back the always very excellent Stephen Fry as Booth's psychiatrist, Dr. Gordon White.