BONES Recap: Dancing Fools

Bones 8.10  The Diamond in the Rough

Case of the Week:

Sweets is at Booth and Brennan’s place, watching “Paranormal Abnormalities” on TV and enthusiastically talking back to the TV. The host of the show is investigating a report of apparitions in a quarry and finds a skeleton that appears to be made of jewels. Sweets is blown away.

It’s Sweets’ lucky day because the host of the show brings the skeleton to the Jeffersonian. They determined that the body is female and had been dead for about 6 days. The “jewels” are crystals that have adhered to the bones everywhere but the feet, which are decomposing (of course) in boots. The crystals are really common in the quarry where she was found. The victim had a pair of shorts around her ankles, suggesting a sexual assault. The feet have multiple healed fractures – like might be seen with a dancer.

Angela and Brennan find a dancer in the missing person reports – Katarina Wirz. Sweets interviews her dancing partner, Kendrick, a rather arrogant (and hot) guy who tells them that Katarina would never have missed the chance to dance with him but had not been at the top of her game lately. He’s moved on already, though and has found a new partner for a big upcoming audition for a show called Dance to the Top.

Booth and Sweets discuss the case and Booth wonders if Katarina was sleeping with Kendrick. Sweets doesn’t think so, and not because Kendrick is gay as he assumes that is what Booth means. Booth gets kind of bent out of shape that Sweets assumes he would have that stereotype. Sweets disparages dancing a bit and Booth admits that he put himself through college teaching dance lessons for $30/hour. His mom was a dancer and taught him how to dance. Sweets suggests that it was exotic dancing and then teases Booth that he was a gigolo for older ladies.

Back at home, Brennan wants to go undercover as a dancer – she’s been watching it all on TV and will teach Booth. Sweets breaks the news that Booth knows how to dance. Booth admits it, but he’s pretty sure that Brennan can’t dance. He wants to just go to the competition and badge people, but Brennan and Sweets agree that going undercover is the best way to catch Katarina’s murderer.

Hodgins and Wendell try to figure out how to get the crystals off the bones – they are stuck quite well. Hodgins designs a crazy contraption that manages to remove the crystals from the bones, albeit with the concern that it might shatter the entire skeleton up until the last possible minute when it actually works.

With that, Buck and Wanda Moosejaw are reborn and sign up for the dance competition. In the practice room, they check out their competition. Apparently Brennan thinks she can watch people dance and then manage to duplicate it reasonably well, but she can’t, so Booth is feeling like she’s going to hold him back.

Booth dons a wife-beater and some crazy tight pants and white high tops and tries to talk to Kendrick’s new partner, but she thinks he’s a creep and tells him to beat it. Bones tries to cozy up to another female dancer, Laila, with a crazy stage mother who seems like she just might be willing to kill to protect her daughter’s chances. Brennan does her typical awkward social routine with Laila and the crazy mother tries to drive her off, threatening that she’ll wind up like Katarina. Booth talks to Kendrick but doesn’t get any more information.

Hodgins determines that maggots actually moved the victim’s shorts to her ankles (ew!), not a sexual assault. They also learn that although the cause of death was a broken neck, the bones were also full of lead – someone also tried to poison the victim over time and was either incompetent or not actually trying to kill her. The victim had made an appointment with a neurologist for the day after her death – likely showing neurological signs of lead poisoning.

As lead is used to dye clothing, Booth and Brennan check out the dancer’s various costumes, especially those made by the crazy mother. Brennan hid her forensic kit in her makeup kit, so she’s got her mobile lab, as long as they can keep out of the eyes of the competition security. She gets a positive lead test on a dress that belongs to Laila, the crazy lady’s daughter, confirming that her mother had access to lead.

The competition starts and Booth and Brennan watch the dancers and confront Laila after her audition and she confesses to trying to poison Katarina so she could get her big break. She didn’t break Katarina’s neck, though. Booth suspects her boyfriend and sees him in the audience during the next dance number. Booth flashes his badge and the guy bolts and they both chase him onto the stage, ending up as part of the current dance number. The judges and audience assume it must be part of the dance. strange as it is.

Backstage, Booth cuffs the guy and he admits the crime – he thought if Laila hit it big time that they could finally get out from under her crazy mother.

As Booth and Brennan are ready to leave, their number is called and Brennan really wants to stay and audition. Team Jeffersonian has all showed up to watch. Instead of the rumba, Booth suggests a waltz, and they start out okay until Brennan goes rogue and it gets really awkward before finally ending up rather romantic.

Character Development:

Angela is having an identity crisis. She’s tired of the death, destruction and ugliness in the lab and wants to have more beauty in her life (like jewel-encrusted skeletons on x-rays, apparently). Cam offers her some time off *after* they solve the case., but this isn’t enough for her and she talks to Hodgins, who talks to Cam. Cam approaches Angela and tells her that she has to cut her hours because of budget cuts. Angela immediately sees through it and realizes Hodgins put Cam up to it. She admits that he did, but asks her to take the reduced hours anyway. She agrees.

Memorable Quotes:

You should offer him $30, he’ll dance with anyone for $30!  – Sweets

All I heard there is that you want me to get fired! – Wendell

Booth and I intend to win the rumba competition – Brennan
And catch a murderer? – Cam
Of course, that is the main objective! – Brennan

You wanna confess to that, Miss Bossypants? – Booth

Catch BONES on Monday nights at 8/7c on FOX!