Bones - The Priest in the Churchyard

By: Merin
Date: Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Bones – Season 2, Episode 217 – The Priest in the Churchyard

One Sentence Synopsis: When flooding unearths the graves of an old church cemetery and Bones (Emily Deschanel) one of the bodies was murdered the investigation causes ruffled feathers not only with the priest in charge of the grounds but also between Bones and Booth (David Boreanaz.)
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The Meat: The case this time is about a five year old murder. The catch is the victim was buried in a church cemetery which hadn't been used since the fifties. Yes, yes, very interesting – now what's going on between Temperance and Seeley?

Immediately we see the elderly priest in charge of the church is at odds with a younger priest working there. He also does not approve of the investigation, nor of Brennan's overt skepticism of all things supernatural. She constantly, throughout the whole episode, makes pithy but critical comments about religion and its practices. This, to no end, aggravates Booth who is very Catholic. The younger priest is having some real stomach problems. There is also a woman who's been with the church for 23 years and works as a church administrator who tries to help them with the case.

It turns out that the body belongs to a former priest who supposedly left the church about the time of his death. Investigations also show that the graves were being looted. The team begins to really question people at the church and turn up some interesting details, including that the older priest feels threatened by all the other priests sent to help him and that rumors are going around about the new priest because he coaches boys wrestling.

As they continue to butt heads even more than usual, Booth asks Tempe to go with him to see his therapist. These scenes are awesome (Booth constantly going “You see! Wait, what?” is hysterical.) Bones is won over by the good Dr. Gordon White (the wonderful Stephen Fry) and, by the end, he indeed seems to have set them right.

Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) asks Angela (Michaela Conlin) to move in with him. This causes Angela no undue amount of stress, as she wants to keep her place, and by the end of the episode Bones has brought Angela to the therapist for help (what a turn around for Tempe!) He, of course, helps her in moments. . . but after Brennan leaves Angela calls the White on his analysis of Bones and Booth, and it is quite apparent that when it comes to the relationships of others that Ms. Montenegro is every bit as skilled as Dr. White.

The investigation is well paced for the story. Several red herrings pop up, the obvious ones when dealing with Catholicism especially, and are summarily dismissed The solution to the mystery is a little flat but overall satisfying. The end of the episode is a nice twist on the seemingly resolved Bones - Booth relationship.
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Character Watch: This episode we see lots and lots of Angela. Not only with Hodgins, who gets a good amounts of screen time and shares with her a sub-plot of the episode, but with Booth and with Dr. White. Dr. Gordon White, one of my favorite bit-parts for the show, had some good moments as well. Little of Zach (Eric Millegan) as has been the pattern for much of this season. And Camille (Tamara Taylor) has what I call “Smallville Syndrome.” That is she walks into a scene, says a couple of lines, then walks out of the scene. A lot. Of course we get a good amount of Bones and Booth as well, especially them combating over religion and conversing with Dr. White.
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Favorite Line: “Can we take this with us or do we need to serve a warrant on God?”

Favorite Moment: Booth and Angela at mass during the investigation, and Angela won't be quiet. She's there because Bones and Booth are spending “time apart” as part of their therapy, but Angela thinks this is a “couples” issue. Best part – she asks, during prayer, if Booth slept with Bones. The looks on the faces of the others in the congregation - classic!

Favorite Innuendo: “Lunch” at the Egyptian place.

Oddest Thing In Awhile: Priest and altar boys wrestling. (Maybe it's just me.)
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Overall Grade: A-
- I did really enjoy this episode. It had lots of humor, it had not only Booth and Bones but Angela and Hodgins, it had a good little mystery with the church, and it had Stephen Fry! The sessions Booth and Brennan have with Dr. White are worth bumping the B show up to an A alone. As always, it is the character interactions that make the series great.