Dr. Sweets’s book on Booth and Brennan’s partnership is about to be published when Booth and Brennan tell him he’s wrong about the first time they worked together. It wasn’t the Cleo Eller case (shown in the series pilot). It was the Gemma Harrington case, a year earlier. “The Parts in the Sum of the Whole,” the hundredth episode of Bones, flashes back to that first case, as Sweets asks for details.
Like the Cleo Eller case, which involved a Senator suspected of killing his intern, the Gemma Arrington case was high profile. A federal judge was suspected of killing promising singer and musician Gemma in DC and dumping her body in New York. Booth already knew the remains were Gemma when Cam–then a New York coroner–recommended he consult Dr. Brennan at the Jeffersonian to gather evidence against the judge.
The draw of this episode was getting to see the characters a year before the pilot. How would they be different and how would their core traits resonate six years later? This was the story of not only the first time Booth and Brennan worked together, but also the first time Hodgins, Zack, Angela, and Brennan worked together. The show did a nice job of dressing the actors and sets to simulate how they looked years ago. I was impressed how Eric Millegan fit right back in as Zack. He’s still better than any of the rotating interns, in my opinion.
Most interesting were Brennan and Booth’s first reactions to each other. They say you can tell right away if you’re in love with someone. I was curious if this would show in Booth and Brennan’s case, and it did. Brennan makes such an impression on Booth that he decides to defeat his gambling problem. In fact, Booth and Brennan almost slept together back then, disproving the premise of Sweets’s book.
The session with Sweets also made Booth remember he was a gambler, which gave him the courage to kiss Brennan in the present and declare his love. Brennan was predictably flustered by this and backed off. I knew the episode would end this way, but I was still invested in the characters’ emotions. I don’t know that the episode was a “game-changer,” but it was a fine way to celebrate the series as a whole.
