Bones 1.02 - The Man in the SUV

[Violaine]

Recap (briefly, mostly just a collection of thoughts) on the DVD version.

Oh, I remember this one. This is where the man goes *splodey* right when the episode starts.

Victim: Hamid Masruk. Suspected of being an Afghani terrorist.

TJ opens up this episode in the lab, portraying the role of the resident lab skeptic/conspiracy theorist. He nails it. I think at this point, I'd written him off as "the weird conspiracy theory guy, rocking a mini Bob Ross 'fro". Wow, how wrong I was, and how I'd be proven wrong in later episodes, to some degree.

I think some of the remarks in the early part of this episode start to lay the framework for the ongoing conflict between Booth and Bones, and their fundamental differences on religion.

Flesh-eating beetles! Awesome.

Zack gets his first cranial reconstruction. Go Zack!

"This is an educational institute"... reminds me of, "This is a teaching hospital.."

Angela's sage advice: "It's best to just ride it out. Like an earthquake."

Ethnic profiling is mentioned. This would still be very relevant for the timing of the show's premiere, in the fall of 2005.

We discover that Hodgins was: valedictorian (well, "top of his class"), a Rhodes scholar, and the youngest person to be inducted into the Academy of Physical Sciences.

Loving Angela's "undercover" work regarding Booth's lover, Tessa. Spilling the purse and making an acquaintance out of your target? Nice. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Aha! Jack has discovered the poisoning agent: Dioxin. Our smart Hodgins, oh, we love him so.

End of the episode: Bones and Booth at the bar.
Song playing: "Every Ship Must Sail Away" by Blue Merle.

There are mentions on other sites of other songs in this episode, but I didn't recognize any that I could use Shazam! to identify.. at least, none beyond the usual instrumental added to each episode. I could be totally off base on that one, though.


Quotables:
"Please! She's been sleeping alone for months. She has enough pent-up sexual energy to power a small Midwestern city." --Angela

"You know, you have to quit using the word "segue" and "eschew", all right? Th- They sound French!" -Booth

It was determined that Hamid was being poisoned by his brother, who was using dioxin. It was my suspicion from the start, when I saw his skin. It reminded me of the Victor Yuschenko case, when he was poisoned by dioxin in 2004. That was likely the inspiration for this episode. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yushchenko

Other tidbits from Wiki that I found to be interesting:

*This episode also marks Booth's 47th kill.
*The climactic scene was filmed in University Hall on the campus of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

[AmyLynn]

I loved the fact that Brennan was quick to admit that while unfortunate - the victims ethnicity played a role in the investigation. Why can't we be honest about that? And why shouldn't an innocent person of that ethnicity be understanding. It is what it is.

Wasn't one of my favorite episodes, but it was still good.

I liked that they were consistant with keeping the same guy 'head of homeland security' as was in the pilot. I extrememly liked her attitude toward him and the little 'rebellions' against his 'jurisdiction'.

Of course I loved Angela's PI work and how creative she was with the whole purse thing and her observations on Tessa.

I absolutely hated the whole Ladjavardi questioning thing and Booth's boss letting him go claiming they don't want his cover blown. Wouldn't there be less chance of his cover being blown if he was being looked at as a suspect than if they ignored his affair with Sahar?? Just my opinion.

I love that they reinforce time and time again that taking a life doesn't come easy to Booth.

[skftex]

So this episode starts off making it look like a terrorist blew himself up-you can definitely tell the time period this show was made, not because terrorists aren’t still an issue, but just the way they handle it, and it made sense to start with a story like this one. I like seeing the Homeland security guy from the pilot episode. That is cool, he shows up later in the series as well. That leg is gross that Brennan picks up at the beginning. Poor Angela can’t handle picking up body parts. Wonder why Angela was there anyway, definitely not a place for her.

Hodgins is ranting about the FBI and conspiracies again. You know, for a really happy guy TJ did angry really well. I sometimes miss angry Hodgins even knowing that TJ prefers him to not be quite that angry, it made for some good scenes. I love it when Booth walks up behind Hodgins while he is ranting about the FBI and says they have to work together and Hodgins wants to hug Booth. So cute. “Don’t touch the table. DON’T TOUCH THE TABLE!!” HEE HEE.

Oh the bugs to clean the body. I remember the first time I watched that it really freaked me out. After 9 seasons though, it now seems just part of the everyday thing!

I like the scene with Angela and Brennan when Angela apologizes for not being able to help at the crime scene. Angela does see it and actually I think she still does even by season 9.

Hodgins and Zack were rebuilding the bomb to see who was better, even though it was the FBI’s job. Nothing like that is the FBI’s job anymore is it? They do everything at the Jeffersonian now. So it is weird to see them say there is something forensic that is the FBI’s job.

“In Thailand they’re sautéed in peanut oil.” EWWWWWWWWWWWW HODGINS!!! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Booth doesn’t like the words segue and eschew. They sound French.

The WWI soldier Brennan identifies at the end was 18 years old. I think the place they send unidentified remains of soldiers is in Hawaii, but it is cool that they show Brennan doing this, it shows a connection to what Booth does, very subtle but nice.

Another episode comments complete! Yay.

[Sinkwriter72]

This is an episode that continues to establish who the two lead characters are, and the squints, and how they sometimes clash (Jeffersonian team versus FBI), which is all good stuff, but I never really felt like I was pulled into this episode. It's not one of my favorites from Season 1.

The opening explosion is obviously a surprise, and when you find out the guy wasn't a terrorist, that he was murdered, it becomes very sad. But overall, the episode just doesn't grab me. As a series the show hadn't fully pulled me in yet. I loved the squints, I liked Booth, but I wasn't sold on Brennan yet, when I first saw this episode.

I did enjoy how worked up Hodgins would get, and how Booth walked in during his rant about the FBI, which was really funny. Especially when he tried to hug it out with Booth afterward and Booth just pushed him away. Heee.

I was surprised that Hodgins wasn't the one to put the beetles into the tank (to remove the flesh from the victim's bones), but it turns out later in the episode that those beetles are Zack's, so... there you go.

Hodgins was pretty funny in this episode overall, the way he was highly suspicious of the Homeland Security guy, always turning his computer screen away from him, telling him not to touch his stuff, etc.

And I liked that Zack got a shot at reconstructing a skull for the first time (that Brennan gave him that big responsibility) and that he did it well. Yay, Zack!

Always kind of eye-rolled at the audacity of Booth's girlfriend Tessa, talking to Brennan while in her underwear. It was like, seriously? Do women really do that around people they don't know at all? Or was this some sort of male fantasy on the part of the writers? Please.

This episode has the first sighting of Wong Foo's, hooray! (But no Sid yet.)

Hodgins rebuilding a bomb "for fun." HAHAHA Love that. I also love how throughout this episode he's shown to be very smart, always coming up with good ideas and smart evidence that will help the case.

And as mentioned in the pilot thread, this was one of those episodes where I was annoyed that even when Booth told her to stay there in the doorway as he entered the home of a terrorist, she kept right on going in anyway. She pushed right past him. She may be tough but she can't dodge a bullet if she doesn't wait until Booth clears the apartment of any violent criminals inside. Why do they write her as if she has a death wish or like she's stupid/foolish? I know they want to establish she's tough, but they've already done that, with all the guys she's flipped onto the ground and outsmarted. She doesn't need to be "foolish tough." She's well educated and highly logical; wouldn't she exhibit more "smart tough" behavior?

I do love seeing her doing her job at the end of the episode, how she identifies a soldier from WWI. I like seeing that she does have other duties as part of the Jeffersonian. After all, they have said that she is one of only a rare few who can do what she does, so it's cool to see her working to identify these missing people, separate from her partnership with Booth.

Overall, this was a fine episode, but not an especially interesting one to me. I like all the squint stuff. They continued to make me laugh. I did like the snarkiness between Booth and Brennan when in the car.
The Tessa stuff, I didn't really care about.

Question for TJ: Do they have crew members' names written on the lit-up skeleton drawers? That would be a fun detail.

Some fun lines from the episode:

HODGINS: Terrorist 101, man.

HODGINS: Don't touch the table. DOOOOON'T TOUCH THE TABLE!

HODGINS: I graduated top of my class, Rhode Scholar, youngest member inducted into the Academy of Physical Sciences but she still makes me feel like a cretin. (Sherry's note: this one's probably my favorite of the episode. Not only does it highlight just how smart Hodgins is, but it also is really funny and shows the complex relationship he has with his boss/friend/colleague.)

BOOTH: Believe me, you do not wanna see me angry.

HODGINS: (to Brennan, about Angela) She's SPYING for you??!

BOOTH: Don't touch her... Told ya. She doesn't like to be touched.

[skftex]

I love the way Hodgins leans in when he says "group hug" and Booth just pushes him to standing up straight again. That part always makes me laugh. "Don't touch the table, doooon't touch the table!" TJ is so awesome the way he says things.

As far as Tessa, I don't know but I don't think I would stand there in my underwear talking to anyone. But then maybe she's more confident than we are? HAHA

[Sinkwriter72]

Personally, I don't think it has anything to do with confidence. She can be 100% confident about herself and her body, that's awesome, but she doesn't know Brennan and what Brennan would be comfortable with. It's plain old rude and disrespectful of the other person to not at the very least straighten up instead of flashing your bra and everything else.

I think the writers or director thought it would be sexy (enter eyeroll here) and also show off some sort of power play on Tessa's part, like "You may be Booth's professional partner, but he sleeps with me, honey." (insert second eyeroll here)

[ThyneAlone]

By sheer fluke I have just seen this one repeated on TV, so I thought I'd put in my twopenn'orth. I remember the first time I saw it I was a little dubious on seeing that it was dealing with possible terrorism - this is going to be complicated, can they really do it justice in 45 minutes? I think overall they did an ok job. The important thing to do was to ensure that they dealt with individuals so that the whole ethnic group was not tarred with the same brush, and in that they were successful.

As the episode has been dealt with in some detail already, I'll just give you a few random thoughts that occurred to me.

Brennan reacted sharply when Zack christened the victim 'Smokey'. Even when Zack explained that this is how he controls stress, she was disapproving. Respect for the victim (as also shown at the end of the ep) is paramount. I think this is a lot less clear later on in the series. There is more general respect too, for people, for beliefs. Sahar, grateful for Brennan's honesty and refusal to avoid difficult conclusions, is even more thankful that Brennan knows about the need for purification before burial.

Wow, TJ got some angry stuff here! I personally wouldn't want to be proclaiming that Booth was 'just another government stooge' when he could actually hear me. What I did think was interesting at this point was that Brennan stopped his flow of vitriol against unknown conspirators by saying "Jack! We're trying to work." How often has Brennan ever called Hodgins Jack. Anyone wanna count? Speaking of anger, Booth gets a couple of very nice furious moments in the car, notably the second instance when Homeland Security have removed his suspect from him. The system is something to which Booth belongs and must conform, but we see his frustration and the clash with his sense of justice the whole time.

Brennan and Angela have a nice BFF moment when Ange comes to apologise for being unable to help out at the murder scene. She asks Bones out at the weekend too, hoping she'll be able to bring Booth along:" I think Booth likes you. If I were you I'd buy a ticket on that ride." Brennan seems signally reluctant to deny her attraction, but also reluctant to make any sort of move.

I didn't feel that Tessa was particularly rude. She was, I reckon, a little jealous, which would have made her more likely to mark her territory by being a little inappropriate. She and Booth seemed pretty relaxed together. I loved that Angela actually investigated Tessa and reported back to the gang, and that the whole group turned to look at Booth as he approached, in that embarrassed manner visible whenever you've been talking about someone and they stroll in!

The squints have a really close relationship. Hodgins and Zack are set up early on as competitive 'brothers.' Hodgins complains about Brennan making him feel like a cretin, and Zack is instantly in for the kill: "She apologised to me". When the terrible trio are all together there is a chatty, gossipy feel about the lab (obviously Angela is the oil in the machine here) which belies the serious scientific work being done. Do you notice that slightly red soft-focus camerawork whenever the group is more social, less formal? Looks great on everybody! It certainly enhances that sleepy smile which clicks between Booth and Brennan at the very end.

Brennan can't understand why Angela and Booth are convinced of Sahar's infidelity. She's not into this instinctive, non-empirical evidence. Very true to character.

Some nice camerawork in the Hamilton Cultural Centre. All that glass and metal and different levels. It looks very elegant.

"In Thailand they're sautéed in peanut oil"
Oh Jack! They sound delicious. Even though you're just trying to wind Zack up.

[skftex]

Steph, I don't know how many times she calls him Jack, not many because Angela doesn't even call him that much, but she does call him Jack in "The Man with the Bone" as well. So that is 2 times. I never thought about it before but I read your comments before Sherry and I watched "The Man with the Bone" so it stood out to me! I couldn't say if it happened in any of the other episodes we've watched already though!