BONES FINALE RECAP: The Secret in the Siege

BONES 8.24 The Secret in the Siege

Case of the Week: 

A decomposed corpse is found in a state park. The victim was shot at dozen times, potentially by a hit man judging by the shots and the weapon of choice. Sweets is suspicious that the killer could be Pelant. Angela IDs the body and Booth realizes that the victim, Alan Friedlander, used to be his partner.

Booth and Brennan at home
Courtesy of FOX

Booth is put in charge of coordinating the investigation into Friedlander’s death. They realize the MO of the murderer fits the scenario that Sweets used in his doctoral thesis. Another agent is soon killed with a shot to the face. A young woman witnesses the attack but is left unharmed.

Pelant is holed up in a mansion watching multiple surveillance feeds and collecting pictures of Booth and Brennan. While Booth is at the second crime scene, Pelant calls him and demonstrates that he has him under surveillance. He tells Booth that the rules have changed.

Cam and Brennan realize that both agents had healed injuries from dog bites 10 years earlier on their bones. They were both attacked by guard dogs during a Waco-like raid on a religious cult. Sweets thinks that Pelant is using a surrogate killer who was likely a child during the raid, according to the principles discussed in Sweets’ dissertation. With this profile, they are able to identify a likely killer based on the witness report and other evidence from the second murder scene.

Booth sets up a fake work crew on a road that runs through the man’s land to lure him out. Cornered, he tries to kill himself but Booth intervenes just in time. They interrogate him and he denies killing the agents and his alibi checks out.

Meanwhile, Pelant takes a break from spying on Booth and Brennan and is using some fancy wizardry to make a video with his face looking like someone else, speaking with someone else’s voice.

Turns out that the surrogate isn’t one of the children of the cult followers, but one of the children of one of the FBI agents that were killed in the raid. One of

Brennan proposes to Booth
Courtesy of FOX

the dead agents left behind a young daughter that he’d taught to be an excellent marksman. She ended up with psychiatric issues after her father’s death. They pull up a picture of the daughter – it’s the witness from the second agent’s shooting. Pelant is controlling her by sending her videos from her “father”, who is a product of Pelant’s technical prowess.

The girl, Anna Samuels, blamed the FBI for her father’s death. Pelant is using her to do his dirty work and he’s not done yet. Anna calls Booth and asks to talk to him more about the murder she witnessed. Booth and Sweets go to meet Anna as the FBI and Jeffersonian try to warn them (a cell phone tower is out). Pelant watches everything from his lair and trips some traffic lights to cause a traffic jam which traps Sweets.

Angela and Pelant have a hacking battle and find out that Sweets is actually the target and Booth is the decoy. Booth finally checks in from a payphone when neither Sweets nor Anna shows up at the meet site and learns about Sweets. He heads to the middle of the traffic jam on foot, trying to save Sweets. Brennan also runs into the traffic jam after Booth. Booth manages to get to get to Anna in time.

They take her into custody, and everything seems good. Except that Pelant is still on the run. Booth and Brennan take Christine to the playground and Pelant calls Booth on his cell phone. He’s watching them and tells Booth that he won’t marry Brennan and if he tells her that he called, he’ll kill 5 innocent people.

Later, at home, Brennan is reading a bridal magazine when Booth walks in and tells her that they need to talk. He tells her that they can’t get married because they’ve been under so much pressure and he doesn’t think they’re ready. She finally concedes that it might not be a good time yet but they are both upset and won’t show the other.

 Character Development:

Booth’s mother gets remarried, leading them to discuss marriage, but Brennan still isn’t ready to propose initially. However, as they realize that Pelant is back in their lives, her fear of losing him leads her to ask Booth to marry her (finally!)

Hodgins is feeling guilty that he didn’t kill Pelant when he had the chance

Booth sets a trap for a suspect
Courtesy of FOX

My Thoughts:

From all the hype, I was expecting someone close to Booth and Brennan to die, but instead we get the deaths of two of Booth’s old coworkers, and the emotional damage of forcing Booth to break off his engagement to Brennan. Although it was pretty unrealistic, I did like the plot of Pelant using Anne’s dead father to convince her to do his bidding – it was pretty twisted and seemed pretty original, too. As far as things that *weren’t* original, Pelant’s access to every computer system everywhere reminded me of Person of Interest, although perhaps because it’s only two years into its run, the writing is much tighter on POI and so it all seems more believable most of the time.

It wasn’t the cliffhanger that we’ve had in past years, but I’m okay with that. Overall, I enjoyed the episode and I am oh so happy that they didn’t kill anyone off! I’m sure that Booth and Brennan will eventually capture Pelant and get married, the question is how far into season 9 the story will continue.

Memorable Quotes:

Recent research suggests that cycles of attraction might run as few as four years… – Brennan
So, why did you catch the bouquet at my mother’s wedding? – Booth
Reflexes! – Brennan

You’re not allowed to die. Do you understand? – Brennan

It’s completely irrational, but I feel that I could never find a better man to spend my life with – Brennan

The archaic catholic wedding ritual is important to you and even as an atheist, I can see the beauty in it. Besides, I speak Latin.  – Brennan