The night before an evidentiary hearing in the Gravedigger case, Brennan has a nightmare revisiting what the Gravedigger has done to her and her friends throughout Bones‘ five-season run: Hodgins is buried alive, Booth is drowning in the hold of a Navy ship, and Brennan is powerless to help. Representing herself, suspected Gravedigger and former federal prosecutor Heather Taffet (Deirdre Lovejoy) convinced the judge that all previous evidence against her was obtained illegally. On her way out of court, she teases Brennan, asking, “Why couldn’t you find something as simple as the number?”
The number, the only phone number Taffet called when she was arrested, turned out to be GPS coordinates where she buried one of her victims, 10-year-old Terrence Gilroy. The team needed to examine Gilroy’s remains to obtain new evidence against Taffet, but Taffet knew they couldn’t act as expert witnesses in a case where they were also victims. They had to throw out their own cases against Taffet and hope Gilroy’s remains brought forth enough evidence for a conviction.
By breaking the show’s routine and opening with Brennan’s nightmare, the writers showed that she was truly emotionally invested in the outcome. At the same time, to go up against Taffet’s unfeeling arrogance, Brennan had to try and be her old logical self. This episode did an excellent job of establishing doubt. Would Gilroy’s remains provide enough evidence? Even if they did, Taffet might succeed in twisting the facts to help her version of events. Brennan’s father Max (Ryan O’Neal) had so little faith in the legal system that he tried to shoot Taffet as she was being transferred back to jail.
I was on edge until the verdicts on all counts against Taffet were read. Even then, I knew the case had gotten to Brennan like no other. When she said she was tired of dealing with murders and was thinking of giving it up, I believed her. Ironically, this is the kind of human connection fans have always wanted her to make, and by making it, she threw the future of the series into doubt.
Technically, “The Boy with the Answer” wasn’t the season finale, but I’m glad we have one more episode to deal with the fallout from this one. It’s interesting to consider that, in five seasons, the only one who could stop Brennan from solving murders was Brennan herself.
Check out promo pics to the next week’s ‘The Beginning in the End’, the season finale of Bones here and here.
This was definitely a break from the normal “bad guy is revealed at the end with no logical proof in the first 55 minutes” plot that the show usually has.
Again though, the show fell apart at the end. The defendant showed a great deal of reasonable doubt, yet she was found guilty. That’s highly suspect and I think it’s irresponsible for a show to show that the system could work so poorly and unfairly.