Bones: The He in The She
October 15th 2008 05:33
Two guys sitting on sandy Chesapeake Bay Pier are trying to fish while discussing the problems of global warming. Plus there’s that whole pollution thing too. One of the guys notices a plastic pop can holder floating in the water.
“What’s that?”
“Global warming is when…”
No no, not global warming, THAT! The guy goes over to pull out not trash, but something even worse. The top half of a skeleton.
~*~*~
Booth and Bones sit on the couch opposite Sweets. Nobody is talking.
…
Still no talking.
Booth plays with a slinky. Bones just sits there staring at nothing in particular. Sweets waits patiently for something to happen.
Booth continues to play with the slinky.
Still no talking…
Finally, Booth’s phone vibrates, and he grabs it up, listens for a second, and slams it shut. "Thank God somebody got murdered." Booth and Bones both jump up and run for the door. Sweets tries to remind them that their session is not over, but they’re long gone. He slumps back into his seat sadly.
~*~*~
At the pier, Booth and Bones meet up with Cam and this week’s grad student, Vincent Nigel-Murray (or Mr. Nigel-Murray as Bones calls him and Booth refuses to). Bones is confused. Why is he here? Cam thought it might be nice for one of Bones’s smarter students to see how she worked in the field. Vincent is eager to help out any way he can, and Bones thinks that way would be to take her car back to the lab. Vincent again tries to tell her that he think he can be of help in the field, but she just tells him, "I need a forensic anthropologist in the lab so I can spend my time aiming Agent Booth in the right direction." Booth doesn’t believe he needs “aiming”. Bones gives Vincent her car keys (she’ll catch a ride with Booth), and the grad student regretfully leaves.
Booth, Bones, and Cam go back to the skeleton lying on a tarp near the water’s edge. Bones can’t give a positive ID on the gender seeing as how the bottom half of the skeleton (and thus the pelvic bone) is missing.
Cam believes the victim has been dead two to three weeks and predicts that the skeleton is that of a female due to the remaining blue swimming suit. Besides the severed spine, the skeleton also has trauma to the fingers, which Bones says suggests foul play.
Cam notes a breast implant, and Booth pipes up. Breast implants, that’s his area. He’ll get his guys to see if they can ID the victim from the serial number in the implants.
What now? Bones stands up. Find the lower half of the skeleton. Easier said than done, seeing as how their crime scene is basically the rest of the ocean.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Cam and Vincent study the skeletal remains. Vincent notes that the eye sockets have been ground down, suggesting plastic surgery. Hodgins walks in to tell Cam that, "The victim died in the same body of water in which she was found. Probably within six miles." Hodgins thinks the new grad student with definitely disappoint, and Vincent assures him that he won’t. He has a retentive memory. Ah yes, that explains the uh, “informative tangents” of random information he keeps spouting off.
Hodgins: Does Brennan put “Mr.” in front of your name?
Vincent: Yes.
Hodgins: That’s her very subtle way of saying you’re not a doctor.
Cam: Don’t tell him that.
Hodgins walks off and Vincent asks Cam what “large breasted women and fish remind me of?” She warns him to “be very careful what you say next,” and he tells her that topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool. But only in tropical fish stores. And that relates to the case how? Cam is handed a file and reads that "The FBI's traced the breast implant to a Baltimore plastic surgeon. He replaced a leaking implant for this woman."
~*~*~
Booth and Bones drive to Maylor Island, Maryland, as Bones reads the file on Patricia Ludmuller, their victim. Turns out she went for a swim one morning and never came back. Bones notes the “very striking facial features” which, according Vincent, were also mostly artificial. Booth tells her that Maylor Island is one of those “end of the world” places where not many people live. Bones wonders why a person would make themselves beautiful if they wanted to hide. Booth tells her that according to records, Patricia didn’t exist until five years ago. Witness protection? Not according to the Marshals, but as Booth points out, “sometimes they lie.”
Bones thinks Maylor Island is very peaceful, and Booth points out that these types of places usually have a seething underbelly.
Bones: Really?
Booth: What do I know? I’m from Philly where the underbelly’s on top.
They search the victim’s house, finding a bunch of spiritual books from various religions. “She herself seems to be Protestant,” Bones comments, and Booth finds a picture telling them that Patricia was a pastor. Booth is surprised that a pastor would be so vain to get breast implants and other plastic surgery, and Bones just argues, “The Pope sits on a throne. He wears robes worth thousands of dollars. Isn't that vanity?”
“Oh really?” Booth can’t believe she just said that. “You’re going after the Pope now?”
They listen to Patricia’s answering machine with a man named JP telling “Pattie” that he’s sorry and he desperately needs to see her. Lost sheep or desperate boyfriend? Booth’s phone rings. “Yeah, where?” Seems they found the lower half of the body. They have them send it over to the lab. Now.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Cam tells Vincent that just because they have a top half of a body and a bottom half doesn’t mean it’s the same body. Vincent points out that this half of the body begins at exactly the same point that the other one ends. “Coincidence? I think not.” Cam and Vincent determine that the victim is both male and female. "We have one victim with two sexes."
~*~*~
Sweets joins Booth and Bones in Booth’s office to discuss the fact that the victim was transgendered. Booth wonders aloud how they do that, and when Bones starts to tell him in her blatant scientific way, both men start to squirm. Too much information!
Booth: New rule. No surgical details, alright?
Sweets tells them that generally speaking, transgendered people believe they were the victim of a “cosmic mistake”. Booth wonders if pastors are allowed to think that God makes that kind of mistake. Sweets asks him if he thinks so and Booth answers, “I think God expects us to overcome certain things.”
So what if someone found out “Sister Patricia used to be Father Paul” and murdered her? It would make sense, except that Booth is sure that there is no way that the guy on the answering machine knew that “He—she, he knew that she—he was transgendered.” Bones asks him how he knows that, and Booth tells her he can recognize an “ain’t too proud to beg” phone call when he hears one. Bones asks if he’s made many of these “ain’t to proud to be calls in the past”, and Booth gets them back on track. “What do you say we just stay focused here?”
Sweets wonders if Patricia was killed because of something that happened when she was still a he. Booth put in a request to try and find out Patricia’s previous identity.
Booth: But from now on, he is always a she. She was a he when she died so she deserves the respect due to him, or her, okay? Person.
Bones: Okay, I’m a genius and I’m confused.
Booth lets out a sigh, resting his head on the baseball he’s been tossing back and forth this whole time.
~*~*~
Booth and Bones show up at the beach just in time to honor Patricia. Bones asks if he released the name of the victim, and Booth reminds her that the congregation’s pastor went for a swim and never came back. Ah, Bones gets it now. “Intuitive leap.” Everyone drops their heads to pray, including Booth, and Bones asks him what he’s doing.
Booth: I’m praying! Will you keep your voice down?
Bones: You’re not a member.
Booth: It’s not a gym, Bones.
She leaves him alone to finish praying.
The congregation all pay their respects, and Booth and Bones approach Wade Schmidt. Booth asks if there was a vice pastor they could talk to. They don’t have one, but a man named Chuck Kennedy was kind of an unofficial assistant to Patricia. Wade calls Chuck over to talk to the FBI.
Chuck wheels his wheelchair over, not too happy to see them. He’s sure Patricia’s death was accidental and defends that everyone in his church has a past, including him. “Of course God has absolved me of my past,” he tells Booth. “How ‘bout you?” Chuck wheels off and Wade tells them that Chuck’s just taking Patricia’s death hard. Booth asks if they have a congregate named JP. Yes, they do.
~*~*~
Booth interrogates JP while Angela stands behind the mirror looking at some of the pictures of JP. “He holds himself separate from the congregation,” she notices. Booth asks him how long he’s been a member of the church, and JP tells him six months. “Ah, he’s a latecomer.” Angela is impressed by Booth’s tactics.
“Thank you,” Booth tells her. JP, who can’t see or hear Angela, looks at him strangely, and Booth adds, “For sharing that.”
Uh yeah, why would someone lie about when they joined a church? Booth steers the conversation back to the case, and Angela tells Booth that from the pictures, it doesn’t look like things were going so great with the wife. JP doesn’t deny it. Did he always call Patricia “pastor”. JP says that he did, but Booth plays back the phone message to “Pattie.” JP tells Booth that it’s not what he thinks.
Angela picks up the last photo and tells Booth, “He knew.”
“You can’t tell that from a photo,” Booth answers her, and again JP is confused. “I beg your pardon?”
Angela: I can. He knew that she used to be a man.
Booth: It doesn’t show in the photographs.
JP just stares at him, and Booth just says, “You know what I’m saying.”
“About what Patricia was before?” JP asks.
Angela: I told you he knew.
Booth asks what JP did when he found out that Patricia used to be a man, how it affected his relationship with his wife, and JP said that he didn’t want to have feelings for her, but he did. She helped him rearrange his life. He insists that “She was not a man.” Angela looks at a picture of Patricia with JP and says, “Yeah, I’m with him on this one Booth.”
~*~*~
Cam finds evidence of vaccinations that are all required for travel to the Far East, and Vincent offers, “Did you know that only 20% of Americans have passports.” Cam and Bones just stare at him, and he quickly goes on to explains that this fact is not irrelevant, he was merely explaining how Patricia’s sex change could have happened in say, Thailand, and there could be no record of it. Cam congratulates him but Bones is quick to tell him that “conjecture is not really what we do here in the lab.”
Feeling sorry for Vincent, Cam gives Bones a warning look, and Bones adds, “But very good Mr. Nigel Murray.”
~*~*~
Vincent asks Hodgins what happened to whoever it was who was here before him, and Hodgins tells it to him straight. "He joined forces with a serial killer who was the last in a long line of cannibalistic murderers specializing in knocking off members of secret societies and building skeletons out of their body parts." Oh…well, Vincent can only hope that doesn’t happen to him. So he’s not coming back? “No, he’s locked up for the rest of his life. But we all still like him.”
Angela appears, and Vincent is immediately taken with her. “Why hello, hello, hello.”
Angela just stares at him and Hodgins asks, “Have you ever heard the expression ‘that’s way too much car for you’?”
“I believe that’s one of ours, so yes actually,” Vincent replies.
Angela tells Hodgins that she wants to show him something, and Vincent answers, “I want to show YOU something.” Angela has had enough. “Vroom vroom kid. You’re already in my rearview mirror.” She tells Hodgins that Booth couldn’t find any information about who Patricia was before the operation, and Vincent suddenly says, “In England the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.” Okay…
Ignoring Vincent, Angela shows them the sketches she made. The first one as a woman, the second more masculine, the third with facial hair. Hodgins and Vincent recognize the face now.
~*~*~
Vincent, Hodgins, Cam and Angela watch a video on the computer of Pastor Patrick Stephenson. He preaches to the crowd, throwing his money around because it doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to God. He encourages everyone else to join him. Hodgins points out that Patrick disappeared six years ago. Angela fast-forwards the tape to the end. “Check this out.”
Hodgins: She had a wife and son before she became a he.
~*~*~
Patrick’s wife Cecelia tells Booth and Bones that she thought her husband was robbed and killed on their World Tour six years ago. Bones tells her how much money an operation like this would cost in Thailand, and Cecilia can’t believe that her husband would blatantly offend God like this. Bones asks if she’s talking about the theft of that sex change, and Cecilia tells her that “we are made in God’s image Dr. Brennan. Who are we to alter that image?” Bones tells her that she obviously dyes her hair, “there’s evidence of plastic surgery—”
“That’s different.” Cecilia cuts her off, ready to leave. Booth quickly steps in, telling Bones that “it’s augmenting God’s work, not undoing it completely.” He stands up with Cecilia and she remains in the room, albeit none too happy with Bones.
Bones tells her that they have a DNA match with the woman they found in the bay. Booth shows Cecelia copies of checks, $100 a month Patricia was paying back to the church. Cecilia sits back down. Booth asks her if her husband ever tried to contact her, and she tells them that she believed that he was dead. Can they talk to her son, Ryan? She hasn’t talked to him since Patrick disappeared and Ryan left the church.
Booth asks Cecilia if her husband had any reason to fear his life, and she tells him about a man named Arthur Ford who was arrested for assaulting Patrick because. Arthur’s son gave the church all of his rust fund and Arthur was definitely not happy about it. According to Cecilia, “the Lord touched him." Booth wonders aloud, "How much money did the Lord touch him for?"
~*~*~
$5 million exactly. It may be a ton of money, but Ryan couldn’t have killed Patricia, because he himself died of pancreatic cancer. As they drive, Bones wonders if Cecilia loved her husband. Booth points out that she only ever called him by his given name or “Ryan’s father”, never “my husband.” He believes she was angry at him before the sex change.
“I call you Booth, and I like you just fine,” Bones offers.
“Thank you,” he answers. “But we’re not married.”
Booth wonders if there might be more dead fathers, and Bones points out that it wasn’t Patrick but Patricia who was murdered. So does she think the moment Patricia became Patrick, Patrick just stopped?
Bones: When the butterfly emerges, does the caterpillar cease to exist?
Booth: Okay, what are you, like some kind of kung fu master? Why don’t we just figure out who killed this guy, gal…person. Okay?
Bones: Would you like me just as much if I were a man?
Booth: Oh yeah. Much better because I wouldn’t have to be so polite and accommodating. How about you, would you like me better if I were a woman?
Bones: No I would not.
Booth: Why?
Bones: I’d be jealous that you might be prettier than I am.
Booth: I would be too. I’d be HOT. Smokin’ hot!
~*~*~
Sweets joins Booth and Bones to watch Patrick’s son preaching on the computer. He suddenly stops. “I can’t do this.” He tells people that he is “not like my father. And I am not like my mother. I just want to do God’s work, not perform on television and milk you for your money. God bless us all. God forgive us all.” With that, he left.
The video ends, and Sweets says that, “Ironically, he was just like his father.”
Bones is surprised. “You think he switched sexes too?”’
“No, no. They both turned their backs on this kind of commercial worship. They both went out into the world looking for redemption.” He assumes Booth’s going to search for Ryan?
Booth: I work for the FBI, it’s what we do. It’s a big country, and we’ll try.
Sweets tells him to concentrate on hospitals, rehab centers, jails, halfway houses, the street. Not because things are that bad for him, but because he’s trying to atone for the sins of his father. He’s not in California. Sweets bets he’s within 20 miles of where he left that church. Booth will take that bet. Both he and Sweets take out $20 and give it to Bones. She asks why she gets the money.
“You’re the bank.”
“You’re the bank lady.”
Bones shrugs. Okay. It’s kind of fun being the bank.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Vincent has found out that Patricia drowned. The blows to the head and pelvis didn’t kill her, but she was most likely hit with a boat. Hodgins has found fiberglass and resin in the wounds to support the boat theory. They still don’t know how her fingers got damaged though.
~*~*~
Ryan is brought into the FBI interrogation room. The man sitting at the table is definitely not the same kid seen in the video. Now heavily tattooed with lots of piercings and black hair, Ryan was, in fact, found within Sweet’s guess.
Sweets: You owe me $20.
Booth: Get it from Bones.
Booth joins Ryan in the interrogation room. He tells Booth that they told him his dad died in Thailand. Ryan is very sad that he didn’t get the chance to meet the knew him—her. He realizes that they think he killed father, and Ryan tells Booth that he’s changed. “Do you believe in redemption?”
“Yes I do,” Booth answers.
“One of God’s challenges to us is to see past the surfaces.” Ryan rips off his Goth-like book cover to show his white Bible underneath. “To the deeper essential nature which lies just beneath.”
Booth smiles. “You believe our bodies are just like dust covers.”
“That’s exactly what I think Agent Booth. Rip ‘em off and see what’s underneath.” All this time he thought his father was killed and had abandoned him, and he realizes that his father didn’t want him to have to choose between him and his faith. “And I love my father for that.” He asks if he can have his father’s Bible, and Booth tells him that unfortunately it’s still evidence. But once they figure out who killed his father, Booth will make sure Ryan gets the Bible.
Ryan nods, and Booth asks him, “You ever consider returning to the ministry Ryan?” Ryan looks at him.
~*~*~
Cam, Vincent, and Hodgins tell Bones what they’ve found, and Bones determines that it was definitely a murder. The wounds show that the boat hit her, someone smashed her fingers forcing her to let go, and then the boat turned around and hit her again. Bones calls Booth to tell him.
~*~*~
Vincent catches Cam on the way out to ask if there’s a way to quit working here without losing Dr. Brennan as his grad supervisor, and Cam asks why he wants to quite. Vincent tells her that “it’s absolutely impossible to kiss your own elbow.”
“And how is that relevant?”
“It isn’t,” he answers. “I’m someone who loves knowledge and all of you are very narrowly focused. It’s a good focus, I know, catching murders,” he quickly adds. “But all in all, I’d rather be like me than all of you, so if you could help me out…”
Cam will take care of it. He thanks her and Vincent heads out. Cam tries to lick her elbow. She can’t.
~*~*~
Booth and Bones track down the boat and Booth asks how she ended up split in two. Does he mean a man and a woman? No, physically, the body being split into two. Oh. Bones explains that it was probably fishing line.
Booth wonders if it’s significant that her body was found split in two when her life was lived split in two.
Bones: No I don’t think it means anything.
Booth: I didn’t think you would.
They find the boat. The entire congregation watches as Hodgins, Booth, and Bones investigate. Hodgins calls them over, and someone tells Booth that the boat is JP’s boat. Booth climbs into the boat. “This is just classic.” How long has he had it? Years, but he just started restoring it when he joined the church. The pastor told him it would be nice to do something for someone else.
Bones points out that it was the boat that killed Patricia, and JP is surprised. Was it because he found out that the woman he was sleeping with used to be a man? JP again insists that they never slept together. He said that he wanted to, but she refused because he was still married.
Booth climbs behind the wheel and realizes that the seats aren’t adjustable. Someone much shorter than JP must own this boat now. JP tells him that Pastor Patricia told him to restore it for “someone I love.”
JP’s wife suddenly speaks up, “Then you should have done it for her.” She tells him that she waited for him to get out of prison, and sober, and get tired of the church, “And all you did was fall in love with another woman.”
“I never slept with her Rita!” JP insists.
“I’ll never believe that.”
Booth arrests Rita.
~*~*~
Ryan begins his first sermon at his father’s church, telling them that “None of us look alike. On the outside we are gay and straight, black and white, fat and thin, man and women, saint and sinner. Should I keep going, or do you guys catch my drift?” There is soft laughter throughout the room. JP continues, “But inside, inside we are all the inside we are all the same.”
Bones leans over to Booth. “That is completely incorrect.”
“Not now Bones.”
“Our skeletons are wildly different or I wouldn’t have a job.”
“Shhh! Just listen,” he tells her.
Ryan continues to tell them that he’s sorry he didn’t get to know his father. “But I hope I will get to find him, her, that redeemed human being. Both in her old Bible, and more importantly in you. The people who she loved. And who loved her back.”
“Redemption through transformation,” Booth says quietly. “I get it. What do you believe in Bones?”
She turns to him. “I believe in always swimming with a buddy.”
“What?”
“You gather your wisdom, I gather mine.”
“Okay.”
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I love the dynamic between those two.
I also really like the whole mics in behind the interrogation glass thing. Very funny, and interesting way to bring in more people into the help Booth without the suspect knowing. | 43 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Lilith
Comment by Meggie
TV Chit Chat
Comment by Lilith