BONES Recap: The Lost Generation

Cay’s a bit busy this week, so I’ve stepped in for this episode and the recap will probably be a little bit different, but I tried to find the same notes as her usual recaps.

Bones 8.06: The Patriot in Purgatory

Case of the Week: The Squints are put to use into Purgatory–the cold storage for all the unidentified bones–as a team building exercise. In the collection of bones, a set of bones set the team on a journey not only to discover the identity of the unidentified person, but also the cause of that person’s death around September 11, 2001.

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All of our Squinterns are working on one case together, which is either going to end well or poorly given how much they bicker in the span of two minutes when they’re corralled together. As if on instinct, they all start looking at one body on the table next to them. Too bad that the body that all of them were examining is not the case of their week–instead of looking at the man who killed himself while juggling a chainsaw, an apple and something else–they are going to examine the countless unidentified bones in storage room, as a team. Brennan has been reading up on the philosophy of Phil Jackson’s coaching techniqu, after Booth introduced her to basketball, and trying to apply the principles that made him such a successful coach into her team’s collective work at the Jeffersonian.

(The Angeleno in me is now going to take a minute to think of how topical it is for Bones to talk about Phil Jackson as the Lakers look for a new Head Coach. Too bad it’s not taking over the Lakers again, but that’s just my personal aside.)

The Squinterns have now been helped by Hodgins, and that only results in more time watching the interns try to outmatch the others. The team has been able to idenitfy four sets of remains with the help of Hodgins, except Mr. Vasiri, who found some remains that don’t match anything that they the team had records for. Bringing in Booth as another expect, Brennan seems to have found a way to get everyone in the Lab into the mix. As Brennan tries to bring Booth into the work, Booth is hesitant, if only because it seems like a slight waste of time.

Vasiri’s body turns out to be someone who died after September 11, 2001. Though as a homeless man, he was not included in the counts by everyone after that day because he had no home. In the moment after Mr Vasiri heard about the day of death and after Fisher’s work on determining when the victim’s rib was broken, the whole team has confirmed what Mr Vasiri thought as he listened to Hodgins and Cam talk about the levels of decomposition and weather.

As more evidence is collected, Booth is sure that the homeless man in question is a Veteran from the First Desert Storm, before there was a military database for service personnel. But that discovery comes as Booth, Brennan and Sweets all try to come up to some conclusions without reaching too far into the realm of the unbelievable.

Tensions run high as soon as everyone is set on finding out more about this homeless man. It’s not just Booth who wants to find out who this serviceman is, but the Squints who don’t seem to know how to not say the wrong things as they work together on this case.

Booth, through old-fashioned means, determines the identity of the victim – a man who had not seen his wife or child in at least fifteen years after coming back from Desert Storm. Tim Murphy, was living in a homeless shelter, though it was clear that he couldn’t handle living with his family after the First Desert Storm battles.

Tim Murphy, the victim, was unable to find help when it was offered to him, from his wife to the VA. He was so traumatized by an explosion that he couldn’t sleep indoors, to the point where he would run away from his family for nights on end.

Hodgins has found out how the piece of metal that broke his rib came from the lampposts just before the building was struck by that plane. As the Squints look at that information, they slowly realize that they need to get issues out in the open before they can continue to examine the body. They all share their stories for where they were on that morning, each memory detailing a small amount of localized pain compared to something so much larger than the five of them.

Booth’s friend at the Pentagon arrives to say that Murphy had been yelling at anyone who walked into the Pentagon in uniform, yelling something about “Walk in Moore Park”. As that happened, the Squinterns realize that as they tried to find answers in Murphy’s bones that they should also look at the remaining clothing from him that was collected.

After more digging, Booth has figured that “Walk in Moore Park” was not a statement, but the name of three of his colleagues: Walken, Moore and Park. All three men died while Murphy survived an attack on an ammunitions dump, but even years later Murphy was unable to petition the Pentagon to aware his friends Silver Stars.

It also turns out that Murphy had the blood of three members of the Pentagon staff on his clothing, having rescued them after the plane crashed into the building. As Brennan and Booth talk to one of the survivors, Brennan announces that she knows how Murphy died.

All of Murphy’s injuries were the result of the work that he had done to save three people and the initial rib fracture that caused him to bleed out over the follow ten days.

As a true hero, Tim Murphy is given a funeral fitting of all Veteran’s, knowing that he did not die as just a homeless Veteran who did not seek help, but as the man who lifted too much to save others in a time of crisis.

Booth and Brennan have a conversation just after the funeral, and as they talk about making sure that Murphy’s friends are awarded Silver Stars, Brennan breaks down after she realizes that she never cracked as she helped to recover remains in New York. Her life has changed so much since she meet Booth, and she can not imagine doing the same sort of work without thinking of Booth and their daughter.