Bones – “The Dentist in the Ditch” – review

Brennan and Booth investigate remains found on a Civil War reenactment site that do not date back to the Civil War. Meanwhile, Booth’s brother Jared (Brendan Fehr) returns from India with a fiancee who brings out Booth’s overprotective nature.

The victim is identified as dentist Daniel Pinyard, and much of the episode was spent looking into Dan’s life as a gay man who played football in his spare time. The suspects in Dan’s murder were all good: (1) Dan’s contractor, Lucas Pickford, who lived above Dan’s garage and was found watching his big screen TV; (2) Dan’s ex-boyfriend Chris, a bowhunter whose arrow might have caused the damage to Dan’s skull but only with a prohibitively long shot; (3) Dan’s former hygienist who filed a complaint against him for infecting her with Hepatitis C; and (4) a football player with whom Dan may have fought.

Looking into Dan’s life held a mirror up to Booth’s reaction to his brother’s fiancee, Padme. Believing Jared hadn’t thought things through, Booth ran a background check on Padme and discovered she was a former prostitute. The logical Brennan struggled with the contradiction between Booth’s tolerance of homosexuality and his apparent intolerance of Padme’s past. Angela and Sweets commented that Booth should not have run the background check, and Jared reminded Booth that normally he wouldn’t care about someone’s past. He would come to his own decision. Part of me wanted to criticize Booth, too, but if he hadn’t confronted Jared, he wouldn’t have found out Jared was serious about Padme and not being his old impulsive self.

It’s Brennan who finally gets Booth to reconsider his actions, reminding Booth how much he has encouraged her to reconcile with her father despite Max’s criminal past. This was another example of how Brennan and Booth have come to value each other’s judgment.

My only complaint about the outcome of the murder investigation is that the trail led back to the first suspect, Lucas Pickford. I was surprised Booth wasn’t more suspicious of Lucas to begin. When Lucas first asked, “Why would I kill Dan?” Booth might have picked something fishy in his tone or mannerisms. I would have preferred if Lucas were the second or third suspect to come up, but this is a minor point in an otherwise fine episode.