BONES Recaps With MEL
Episode 3.07 “Boy In The Time Capsule”

Ah, high school… it was a wonderful place, yes? No? Yeah, mine wasn’t really either. I could have formed a club with the vic of the week, but he’s kind of dead and all, so whatevs. This week’s case centered around a body of an 80’s teen found in a time capsule. A few of the people from his high school class were there to open it (The Jock, The Cheerleader, The Nerdy Friend, etc.), so obviously one of them turned out to have done it, albeit by accident. I picked the nerd buddy as the responsible party within about 14 minutes, but that didn’t really take away from the episode, which I thought was really great. This one was definitely more main character driven then your average Bones episode, and I love it when the writers (Sob! Come back writers!) toss one out every so often.

There wasn’t a whole lot of Squint-age going on in the episode, but we did see the return of the adorable Dr. Sweets, whom I have fallen completely in love with. We see him first after Bones tells Booth an embarrassing story from high school (during Christmas, her Secret Santa taped Brainy Smurf onto her locker, even though he totally knew she wanted Smurfette, the jerk), and Booth laughs at her:

Dr. Sweets: You look angry, Dr. Brennan.
Brennan: I told Agent Booth a private story about my childhood, and he laughed.
Booth: What?! No, I- [whispering] I was appreciating it- don’t get him involved!
Brennan: Snorting does not suggest appreciation.
Booth: It was about a cartoon character from the 1980’s! I didn’t think you’d be so sensitive!
Dr. Sweets: Well, childhood icons have great significance to us, Agent Booth, alright? I myself was very attached to Voltron.

Hee! Defender of the Universe, huh, Sweets? JFD has such a sharp sense for awkward comedy, which just happens to be my favorite kind:

Dr. Sweets: [discussing a suspect] He’s emotionally immature- totally dependent on outside validation. Cheap and greedy, too. They’re always cheap and greedy.
Brennan: You got all this off TV?
Dr. Sweets: The point is, at the age of 17, John Adamson gave Roger Dillon money and a watch. If he had killed Roger, he would’ve taken his watch back.
Brennan: Very convincing. The watch part, anyways.
Dr. Sweets: All that insight into the intangible enigma of human behavior, and you zone in on the banal and tangible.
Hodgins: I bring more banal and tangible evidence.
Dr. Sweets: Wow! With you people it’s really “Go, go, go!” isn’t it?
Hodgins: We’re catching murderers.
Dr. Sweets: And that is so dope, alright? I’m running up a profile right now to help. I love being in the field!
Hodgins: Uh, you’re in a secure lab.
Dr. Sweets: Dude, for 8 hours a day, I’m surrounded by neurotics, okay? To me, this is field work. Uh, no offense, Dr. Brennan. I’ll… finish the profile.

He’s just so sincere and upbeat, and though I love and miss Stephen Fry, John Francis Daily is just excellent in this role. Hodgins was a little (okay, totally and fully) bitchy in the above scene, but Sweets wasn’t even phased. Love!! He
suggested that Booth tell Brennan an embarrassing story to sort of level the playing field, but it didn’t take well at first. Booth, the requisite Golden Boy of his high school, spends 35 minutes telling Brennan about his teenage sexcapades (which she refuses to accept as humiliating stories), until FINALLY, he gets a clue:

Booth: [telling Brennan about a kid he and friends used to bully] My buddy picked Kenny up and dangled him over the stairway. You know, he begged and cried and everyone laughed.
Brennan: How is this about you?
Booth: [quietly] I laughed.
Brennan: I don’t understand.
Booth: I could’ve stopped it. I could’ve stepped in and helped the kid out. Instead, I… I didn’t. I chose my side and it was the wrong side.
Brennan: So you were humiliated because you didn’t… act like a hero?
Booth: Fine. Fine, you know what? I’m perfect, my life was perfect!
Brennan: It’s a good story, okay! Well, it’s a bad… well, it’s both, I guess. I get it.
Booth: Yeah?
Brennan: [spies something in Booth’s hand] What is that?
Booth: [tries to hide what he’s holding] Nothing.
Brennan: Well, you’ve evolved, and evolution is very impressive, and that is definitely not nothing.
Booth: [sheepishly shows her a Brainy Smurf toy] This?
Brennan: Did you bring that for me?
Booth: No.
Brennan: Good, cause that’s the wrong smurf. I liked Smurfette- that’s Brainy smurf.
Booth: Smurfette was Stupid, Shallow Smurf who only had her looks. Look, you’re better than Smurfette. You have your looks and a whole lot more.
Brennan: You did bring that for me. To charm me, in case I didn’t find your humiliation story impressive, but I did.
Booth: Ah ha, so I DID impress you.
Brennan: That’s what impressive means, dummy. You’re such a Philistine.
Booth: [laughs] I’ll tell you what, you can hold onto this [smurf], and it will remind you how far I’ve come.
Brennan: [grabs smurf] I forgive you for snorting, Booth.
Booth: Evolution is a long, long process. It takes hundreds of years.
Brennan: [smiles] Thousands.
Booth: [smiling back, quietly] Why do you have to always correct me?
Brennan: [softly] To help you evolve.

Then we fade away, while Pete Yorn sings sweetly in the background, and it is lovely and perfect and poignant. Whenever Brennan is upset, her voice cracks a little bit, and it seems to really hit Booth where it hurts, which is obviously a testament to how fantastic Emily and David portray their counterparts. The last scene was a smoky mirror image of the scene at the end of ‘The Blonde in the Game’ from season 2. Booth gave Brennan a tiny pig figurine named Jasper, because she’d always wanted a pet pig. During both end scenes, Brennan and Booth gradually lean closer and closer towards each other until you swear they’re gonna kiss or touch foreheads or something, and it almost hurts to watch because you want them touch so, so badly. It was such an intimate ending, and really sealed my beliefs that they’re two of the more talented actors today.

P.S. If anyone’s wondering, the song at the end is called “Bandstand in the Sky” by Pete Yorn, and it’s available for download on iTunes. So pretty!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 4:39 am and is filed under Bones, Ducky Does TV, Mel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.