Bones: The Pain in the Heart (Season Finale)
June 6th 2008 19:01
Hodgins: It’s time, Dr. Brennan.
Bones continues to study the remains on her table.
Cam: That’s enough. We’re going.
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That's right. It's time for this season's shocking finale, and when they say "shocking", they mean shocking. Grab the Kleenex box people, you're gonna need it!
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The team continues to get her to stop working, and Bones just tells them that she’s not going. She’s already made that clear. And where, you ask is it they’re all going?
Sweets: It’s Agent Booth’s funeral, Dr. Brennan. Losing a loved one—
Bones: A partner, Sweets. I lost a partner.
Sweets rephrases his words and tells her that she needs to go to Booth’s funeral to get some closure. The entire team feels awful for her as Bones falls back to what she knows best. Science and work. She argues that she doesn’t get the whole point of standing around a hole in the ground. Booth’s already gone.
Finally Angela breaks in. “Brennan, a word.”
Sweets: Excuse me? Professional psychologist?
Angela holds up a finger, just give her a second while she talks to her best friend.
Angela pulls Bones aside and tries to talk some sense into her. “Look. I know how you see things. And I respect that. I need to ask you a favor.” Angela holds up Booth’s memorial picture. “I have to go to the funeral. I’m not going to be able to get through this alone. I’ve been crying for like days.” Fighting back tears, Angela tells her, “I really need your shoulder here. I need my best friend.”
Bones sighs, but shakes her head. She’s going to the funeral.
~*~*~
At the cemetery, Caroline attests to Booth’s bravery and loyalty. He gave his life for his partner, “and in that brave act, he showed us what greatness we are all capable of.”
Bones cuts in, “That woman was aiming at me, I gladly would have taken that bullet!” Angela assures her that they know that.
Caroline finishes her speech and lays a rose on the coffin as a man hanging near a tree in the background glances around nervously. As the drummer starts up, Bones asks, “If there were a merciful God why wouldn’t have saved Booth?!”
The 21 gun salute gets ready as the man by the tree begins to move. We close in on a familiar looking soldier…
The guy makes his move and the soldier rushes through the crowd, “Excuse me!” He hits the mysterious visitor and the punches fly, knocking off the soldier’s hat. That soldier is Booth.
The two men crash into the coffin, letting everyone see the dummy inside as it falls to the ground. Bones is shocked. She rushes forward to grab one of the dummy’s fake arms and hits the bad guy BAM!
Booth: Bones, nice shot!
Furious, Bones stomps up to her partner and punches him in the face!
Everyone is shocked as she stomps off.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Booth, Sweets, and the squints follow Bones around as Booth explains that after he got shot the bureau faked his death so he could catch that guy! Bones doesn’t care. Booth argues that he drove the guy underground, the only way he said they’d see him again was at Booth’s funeral!
Hodgins: Who was he?
Booth: What part of National Security don’t you get Hodgins?
Hodgins: National Security. A catchall phrase for “we can do anything we want.”
Bones argues that she knew she shouldn’t have gone to his funeral. “It was a complete waste of time, just like I said.”
Ouch! Booth continues to follow her through the lab. “Wait a second, you thought that my funeral was a waste of time?”
“I thought it was a lovely service Booth,” Cam offers.
“Thank you.” He did expect more people though.
Bones: Just so you know I won’t be at your next funeral.
Booth: Bones, I’m telling you, you were supposed to know I wasn’t really dead, I swear! I thought that’s why you weren’t crying!
Cam asks who was supposed to notify her and Booth tells them all that he gave a list of people who were supposed to know to the bureau. It’s not his fault if they didn’t tell her! Sweets cuts in that Bones is actually upset because “She had to face strong emotions that she’d rather deny.” Bones just glares at him.
Sweets: Hitting Agent Booth indicated the depth of your feelings for him! It was a very passionate act!
Booth: Yes! You hear that? Passion—
Bones: Yes. Passion because anger is a passion! Anger at being manipulated!
“Dr. Brennan?” Zack interrupts, holding out a small brown package. “Someone left you a package.”
Bones opens the package up to find a mandible…with silver screws in the sides…Gormagon. There’s no doubt about it, the serial killer is back.
Cam: Who was he eating this time?
~*~*~
Everyone at the lab watches Sweets being interviewed on TV about the fifth Gormagon victim. He tells the news reporter about the cannibalism and how the killer has apprentices. “One at all times” to help eradicate the bodies, get rid of the evidence….They’ve seen enough.
Cam shuts off the TV and they all turn around to see Booth standing on the platform looking troubled.
Bones: Booth?
Booth: I’m thinking.
Booth: About what exactly?
Cam: Well it’s a pickle. The platform’s a crime scene, but we need to access it to investigate the crime.
Angela: Kind of a ‘cake and eat it too’ situation.
Zack: Is it a cake or a pickle?
Hodgins: It's Schroedinger's Cat.
Zack: That I understand. Cakes and pickles mean nothing to me.
Bones still doesn’t get it. “Are you paralyzed by the paradox Booth?” Cam decides to make it easy, “What do you need first?”
“Identity.”
“Let’s go people.”
Before Booth can even protest, the entire team crosses the police tape and hones in on the mandible. There are markings, mineral traces…They continue to stare at it then break apart to all begin their separate jobs.
Booth: Okay, I, uh, give you all permission to do, whatever it is that you squints do…*still no one pays attention to him* I’ll uh, just…*breaks apart the police tape* Call me.
Booth leaves.
~*~*~
Booth’s bathroom
Booth is relaxing in the tub with his beer hat, cigar, record player, and comic book—excuse me, graphic novel, when suddenly the door busts open and Bones rushes in, “I need to talk to you.”
Booth sits up, what the—how did she…? “I’m in my house in my bathroom, in my bathtub!”
Bones just goes over to pull the needle off the record player. How’d she get in anyway?
“Well that fake rock by your front door wouldn’t fool anybody,” she argues, going right into asking, “Why are wearing a hat that dispenses beer?”
“Hot bath plus cold beer equals warm beer. Hat?” he taps his head. “Equals solution.”
Bones is not amused. “And that cigar? Very unhealthy.”
Okay, what does she want, because Booth’s not exactly feeling too relaxed here. She wants to talk to him about the whole not-telling-her-he-wasn’t-dea d-thing. He already explained this! He was just following protocol.
Bones: Protocol?!
Booth: Yes!
Bones: We’ve been partners for three years Booth, and you’ve broken protocol before! And sometimes putting my life in danger, which makes since because you clearly don’t have any real concern for me—
Okay, that’s it. Booth leaps to his feet. “I took a bullet for you!”
“Once!” Bones flings back. “That only goes so far!”
They both stare at each other, breathing hard in arguing aftermath, until Bones finally asks, “Would you like a towel?”
Booth suddenly remembers where he is and slowly sits back down in the tub. “Fine. What is it that I should have done Bones? What did you want me to do?”
She argues that he could have called her, she didn’t need to go through his boss, I mean “don’t you trust me?”
Of course he does! Booth has no idea why she wasn’t told. Well, isn’t he curious why she wasn’t?
Booth: Yes, what, do you want me to find out why you weren’t told?
Bones stares at him and then answers, “If it’s important to you.”
Booth: Fine. I will. Next time I die I promise that I will tell you.
Bones: I’ll look forward to that.
Booth: Me too.
Booth picks up his graphic novel, but Bones doesn’t leave.
Bones: What are you reading?
Booth: A novel. *At Bones’s reaction* A graphic novel.
Bones glances down at the tub and tells him, “Just so you know, I find your lack of puritan modesty very refreshing.”
Booth lowers his comic book to watch Bones walks out and restarts his music. He sticks his beer hat straw back in his mouth and goes back to his relaxing.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Zack tells them that the markings on the skull were made by someone wearing dentures. Homemade dentures.
Cam: Well, a toothless cannibal just can’t cut it in today’s competitive serial killer climate.
Cam calls Booth to tell them him Gormagon’s last victim was indeed the lobbyist. Booth was wondering when some part of him would turn up. Cam overhears the sound of Booth’s bath draining and asks, “What’s that sucking sound?”
“You know what?” Booth asks. “This is MY house, okay? You come into my house, there’s no telling what you’re gonna hear!” With that, Booth hangs up.
Zack and Hodgins rush off to do one of their experiments.
~*~*~
Booth rejoins Bones and sweets in Bones’s office, and Sweets tells them they should place the jaw in the silver skeleton because it’s the killer’s obsession. He gives them something, they give him something. He’ll find out some way or another. By the way, why hasn’t anyone mentioned seeing him on TV this morning?
Booth and Bones ignore him, and Booth eventually brings up his complaints about Bones busting into his bathroom. This catches Sweets’s attention.
Sweets: Broke into your house?
Bones: There was a key.
Booth: And barged into my bathroom.
Sweets: *laughs* What were you doing?
Bones: He was drinking beer and reading comic books.
Booth: I was taking a bath.
Sweets: You read comics and drink beer naked?
Booth: Wait a second, Bones bursts into my bathroom, alright, and I’m weird for being naked?
~*~*~
Zack and Hodgins are getting ready for their experiment.
~*~*~
Sweets and Bones are now following Booth through the lab.
Sweets: So you didn’t tell her to leave, you just sat there naked?
Booth: My own bathroom, okay? What do you wear in the tub, floaties?
~*~*~
Hodgins and Zack are geared up and ready. Hodgins asks Zack if he’s ready for the monomer and Zack is adamant that he get to be the one to add it. Then the mold.
Hodgins: When did I become the assistant?
Zack: When I became uncontested King of The Lab.
Hodgins hands over the monomer with a sign.
Zack sprinkles the monomer over their experiment and BOOM!! It explodes with enough fury to shatter the protective glass and send both Hodgins and Zack flying.
Booth, Bones, Sweets, and Cam come rushing in. Hodgins sits up, glasses askew but otherwise fine. Zack on the other hand…
Bones: Is he okay?
Booth: He’s in shock Bones.
Zack is lying on his back, his gloved hands still poking through the holes in the safety glass. Both his hands are severely burned, rubber smelting onto skin. He is indeed going into shock.
~*~*~
In the hospital, Zack asks if Hodgins is okay. Yeah, he is. Booth assures Zack that he’s going to be fine. Bones and Zack, ever the pragmatists, argue that his cartilage was destroyed, he has third degree burns, among other serious injuries.
Booth: Hey, what about a little optimism here?
Zack believes he can still be useful with prosthesis. Angela and Hodgins enter, asking how he is. Zack asks Hodgins if he’s okay. He reassures him that he is. Anything he needs, Angela tells him, “Just ask.” Cam asks him if he knows how it happened, and Zack just says he only added the three grams of monomer. Hodgins starts in on how that doesn’t make sense, but Booth just reminds him that Zack has third degree burns.
Bones: *to Zack* The doctor says you should rest.
Hodgins: She’s right. Hey, we’re gonna figure this out okay?
Cam: And you won’t be alone Zack. One of us will be here all the time.
Zack: That’s not necessary.
Angela: Yes it is. Because we love you.
Hodgins rustles his friend’s hair as Angela volunteers for the first shift. Everyone starts to head out and Bones assures Zack, “I’ll get you whatever you need to keep your job. We’ll get through this.”
Zack thanks her, and Bones kisses his forehead and heads out.
~*~*~
Back at the lab Hodgins tries to figure out why a simple monomer exploded. Sweets asks, “Isn’t the FBI handling the analysis of the explosive residue?”
Hodgins continues his own analysis. “Excuse me if my faith in the Bureau isn’t absolute.”
So he doesn’t trust the Agent working across the room? No, Hodgins is sure he’s…fine, he’s just getting his own results.
Sweets: You suspect that there could be a conspiracy within the bureau?
Hodgins: *turns to look at him* Do I hear a little ‘tude young man?
Sweets: No, no. But why would there be a conspiracy in this case? Totally tude-less question.
Hodgins: Prominent public figures being murdered and eaten. Evidence that secret societies are being targeted. Societies that have great influence in the halls of power like the Bureau.
Sweets: You don’t think that’s a bit extreme?
Hodgins: You went on Larry King to talk about this case. And TMZ, because you know how big it is. And to get your piece of it.
Sweets: I’m a doctor. I’m merely studying the case like you.
Hodgins: Right.
Hodgins goes back to his work, and finds what he was looking for. Something he should have known. Agent Madison looks over, “What?”
What, he’s expecting Hodgins to tell him? Madison replies, “It’s tricyclic acetone peroxide.”
Hodgins: That’s not bad.
It reacted with the molten thermal plastic and, Boom. Zack thought he was adding one thing, but it was really something else. Someone had to be near enough to switch it up.
~*~*~
Booth interrupts Sweets’s phone call, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into Bones office, forcing him to hang up.
Booth: So go ahead, tell her.
Sweets: Tell her what?
Bones: Tell me what?
Booth: Tell her now.
Sweets: What?
Booth: Fine, I’ll tell her. I sent my list to the Bureau, they sent it to Sweets. *turns to Sweets* YOU were the one who decided not to tell Dr. Brennan that I was still alive. HE’S the one you should have slugged, so do it. Go ahead, and do it now.
Bones is shocked. “What, you chose not to tell me?”
Sweets quickly defends himself, “Yes it’s true. Technically.”
Booth: Technically?
Sweets argues that he reviewed his list and decided that it wasn’t necessary to tell Bones because, knowing her as he does, he knew she would be able to handle Booth’s death. It was a national security issue, and the fewer people who knew about Booth, the better.
Bones: I think that was a good choice.
Sweets: Awesome.
Booth: You do?
Yes, she does. She argues that Sweets knew she could take it because she can compartmentalize.
Whoa, wait a minute, Booth argues. Then why was she mad at him?
Bones: Because you should have told me personally.
Booth: Oh, I should have just ignored national security concerns, broken the law, and told you.
Bones: Yes. You know I’m very trustworthy.
They argue about Sweets some more, and Booth finally turns to him, telling him there has to be something else going on here right? Sweets pretends not to know what he’s talking about.
Booth: Transference. Paranoia. Come on! I mean, when I offer her a piece of pie you say there’s some deeper meaning.
Bones: I don’t like pie, Booth.
Booth: Well, apple pie, she doesn’t like baked pie.
Bones: I don’t like my fruit cooked.
Sweets cuts in that he thinks Booth’s way of changing the subject is just a way to avoid his feelings. Booth just stares at him. “My feelings? Okay, now you’re attacking my feelings?”
Suddenly Cam appears at the doorway to tell them that there’s something in the Gormagon vault she things they should all see.
Booth mumbles, “Slug him” to Bones on his way out.
Sweets turns to Bones and tells her he thinks there is something interesting in Booth’s constant efforts to persuade her to enjoy fruit pie. “It could be interpreted as a kind of seduction.”
Booth sticks his head back in to tell them whatever they’re talking about, “Just stop it. Zip it. Let’s go.”
Everyone heads down to the vault.
~*~*~
Booth and Cam lead the way down the stairs, and Bones suddenly turns around, blocking Sweets’s way.
Bones: You think I don’t recognize an experiment when I see one? You experimented on us.
Sweets: I beg your pardon?
Bones: Not telling me Booth was alive? You wanted to quantify our reactions for your own research? You took advantage of us. Booth and I agreed to let you observe us, we did not agree to be used as lab rats, so you BETTER cut it out.
Sweets: Dr. Brennan, why are you talking so fast?
Bones: Because if Booth hears why you did what you did? He’d beat you up.
Sweets: Don’t you think that’d be an overly aggressive act?
Bones: Not at all, so you better not do it again.
Booth calls out wondering where they are, and Sweets tells him they’re on their way.
Down in the vault, Cam tells them all that the vault was secured yet…
Booth: Where’d it go?
He’s talking about the skeleton. It’s gone. Hodgins is also there, and tells them that he came down to see if the screws matched the silver in the skeleton, but the skeleton was gone.
Wait, weren’t there security cameras?
Cam tells them that when Zack’s explosion went off, “every security camera in the building failed.” Ten minutes before the explosion everything was working fine. At 12:03:22, nothing. Since a chemical accident takes precedence over everything, all security personnel went to secure the lab or any point that went to the museum proper. During that time, the vault and the skeleton was unguarded until 12:18:41 when the system was brought back up.
Cam: The explosion was a diversion. Set up by Gormagon.
Booth: He’s here in the lab. It’s an inside job. Gormagon works at the Jeffersonian.
Bones: Either Gormagon or his new apprentice.
Sweets: That is a totally freaky thought.
Booth gets on his cell phone to call in a fall forensic team.
~*~*~
Cam comes in to ask the FBI techs if they’ve found anything, and Caroline tells her she’s compromising the crime scene. Cam argues that it’s her people they’re suspecting, and Caroline points out that she has full security clearance and access to the lab. Someone’s going to be putting her on the list sooner or later. “Wouldn’t you?”
Cam: You’ve got over 30 agents here. Find something.
With that, she leaves.
~*~*~
At the Diner, Bones comments on how many people work on the lab, and Booth points out that all they’re records are being looked at right now, “including yours and mind.”
Suddenly Bones realizes he’s just having coffee. “Don’t you want pie?”
“I’m fine.”
“But you always have pie.”
“Can we stop talking about pie?”
“Because of what Sweets said?”
“I’m just going pieless okay?”
Speaking of Sweets…He sits down to tell them he thinks he knows who the killer is. He’s brought a profile to, wait—he looks at Booth. “No pie? You always eat pie.”
Booth brings the attention back to the profile Sweets has brought along and Bones asks, “You’ve been spying on us? What, more experiments?” No, he’s not been spying, it’s just his job. Booth tells him to just get on with it, and Sweets tells them, “I believe it’s Dr. Hodgins.”
Both Booth and Bones are shocked. No way.
Sweets talks about Hodgins's paranoia and constant conspiracy talk, and Bones refuses to believe it. Booth points out that Hodgins does know all about secret societies. Not to mention the fact that he pointed out all the patterns that led them to the vault. Bones argues that he was just doing his job, they argue that he had access to the chemicals Zack was using.
Bones argues that she also had access to the chemicals, why is she not a suspect?
Sweets: You have a reverence for life, which belies the cold, calculations of a killer. And the emotional connection you share with Agent Booth—
Bones interrupts, “No, no I can’t deal with this.” She jumps up from the table and leaves.
Booth leans over to Sweets on his way after his partner. “Don’t you know that you can’t rush her?” He chases after her as Sweets says he was just trying to catch a killer. He thought it best not to waste time.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Booth tells Bones that Sweets was just trying to help. She argues it still doesn’t give them any real evidence.
Cam shows up, wondering who they’re talking about, and Bones tells her that Sweets thinks Hodgins is the killer. Cam thinks it makes sense.
Cam: Throws suspicion off of him.
Booth: Who?
Cam: Sweets.
Booth: You think Sweets is the killer?
Cam points out that Sweets did show up right after they found the Gormagon vault. Not to mention that in their counseling he plays them like a cheap piano. Booth quickly cuts in that nobody plays him like a cheap piano, but Cam ignores him. Plus, she gave Sweets security clearance when he agreed to help them in the profiling. A
And he’s the only one they can’t account for after the explosion.
Bones isn’t buying it. Cam tells her she was a cop for 10 years. She can smell it on him. Bones argues they need something more than just Cam’s gut to go on here. Cam tells her she better find it. “Because trust me. Sweets is your boy.”
~*~*~
In her office, Cam stares at her computer as a shadowy figure steps in behind her. She jumps, telling Hodgins he should really not sneak up on people right now. He asks about the rumor that one of them is a suspect and she reminds him that she can’t talk about it. So, is he there for a reason or...?
Yes, he is. Hodgins has found something, something disturbing. He pulled trace evidence from the mandible and found lead. He focused on neighborhoods with pipes that have higher lead. He shows her on her computer.
Cam: Isn’t that your house?
Hodgins: Yes. It is.
But there’s other people who live in the area. Right. Cam says she’ll pass on the info, and Hodgins tells her that he could have fudged the results, left out his house. Yes, she argues, but that would have made him even more suspicious.
Poor Hodgins just tells her if anybody needs him he’ll be at his station, before heading out.
~*~*~
Back at the Diner, Booth and Bones find Sweets at the counter.
Sweets: Well this is a surprise!
They each take a seat on either side of him. They need to talk. Booth asks Sweets where he was after the explosion, and he says that he was with them. No, he was with them during the explosion, but what about afterward?
Sweets thinks about it. “I ran to call 911.” Where? Bones’s office. Then he went to the door to show the EMTs where to go.
Bones: But you didn’t come in with them.
Sweets: No, I find it’s best to stay out the way of the professionals in those situations…Oh wait, I’m sorry I forgot one thing.
Booth: What’s that?
Sweets: I went down to the vault and I stole the silver skeleton ‘cuz um, I’m Gormagon’s apprentice.
Booth: That’s a confession. You know I can lock him up for 72 hours.
Sweets: You’d lock me up for sarcasm?
Bones: I think you should.
Sweets: Wait, you guys actually thing that I’m Gormagon’s apprentice?
Booth: Well somebody is. That way I can lock you up, check out your story, and not worry about you running off to Bolivia.
Sweets: This is fierce wretched.
Bones: Better safe than sorry.
Sweets finally gets serious, telling Booth that he’s projecting. He has a reasonable hostility towards Gormagon, but he has no outlet for those feelings, “so you’re just using me—”
Booth cuts him off with a heavy hand to the shoulder. “Am I gonna have to bring out my cuffs?”
Sweets stares at him, unbelieving. Finally he says, “Yeah, you know what? You are gonna have to bring out your cuffs because I’m not about to make this easy for you.”
~*~*~
Angela is asleep next to Zack’s hospital bed. She starts awake when Hodgins kisses her on the cheek. He kisses her again and asks, “How’s Zack?”
She tells him that Zack’s in pain but he refuses to let her push the pain button. Zack mutters how, “Drugs give me bad dreams.” He goes on to explain, “I’m walking somewhere, and someone takes me by the hand. And I look, and it’s a skeleton and the skeleton’s on fire. And my hands hurt.”
Angela tries to get him to take the drugs again, and he just starts talking about how no one else could have switched the ingredients in the lab because he was the only key and…he starts to drift off, as Hodgins has been pushing the drug button.
When Zack sleepily comments on what the drugs do to his intellect, Hodgins gently tells him that, “Sometimes your friends’ gotta step in. Dumb it up for you.” Poor Zack.
~*~*~
Bones is alone in her office at her computer when Cam scares her. She tells her not to worry about it, they’ve all been on edge. “Don’t you think it’s time to go home?”
Bones has been working trying to figure out something that’s been bothering her this whole time. When she first looked at the jaw bone it was lighter in color than she expected. As in treated in UV light…And who would do that?
Bones: We would.
Guess it’s time to call in the grad students! They’ve got a LOT of bones to go through!
~*~*~
Angela brings in yet another tub of remains, welcoming “All of Dr. Brennan’s grad students to Limbo.” Bones tells her she doesn’t like the name, but Angela tells her, “It’s a good name, go with it.”
Each box contains the remains of one person. What they want the students to do is go through the boxes and make sure all of the bones belong to the person who’s named on the card and computer records.
When one of the guys asks if this will count toward their final grade, Caroline just tells him, “Listen Brennan’s Grad Student. What we’re trying to do here is catch a serial killer. Not get a gold star from Teach.”
Angela explains that they think Gormagon’s hidden the remains of one or more of his victims here where they don’t belong. She things it’s fair to say that if they help catch a serial killer, it’ll help toward their grade. Bones is quick to correct her. That’s not necessarily true.
Bones tells all her students if anyone comes down to ask what they’re doing, tell them. Why?
Caroline: Because serial killers get mean when you get close to catching them.
Alright then.
~*~*~
Bones comes down to check the progress, and Caroline comments on the fact that all these people going through bones, “Is just creepy.” Bones tells her it’s just the natural order of things and now Caroline is not only creeped out, but depressed as well.
The gung-ho Grad student from before comes up to tell Bones that he found an extra femur in one box and fibula in another. They were definitely not part of the same remains, and had been recently boiled. Another student comes up to tell Bones she also found bones that didn’t belong, as did many others. They’ve already placed them all out in anatomical order.
Bones goes to check it out, telling the girl, “Nice job.”
The happy student proudly tells her she’s third in her class, and Bones answers, “I’d like the names of the two students in front of you.”
She looks at the bones and decides it’s a male, 45-50 years old, about 5’8. She tells the Grad student to have Cam compare them to Gormagon’s other victims. When Caroline picks up that Bones suspects something, Bones points out that someone removed the mandible. They need to compare the DNA.
Another student comes to tell Bones there’s really something she needs to see.
Bones goes over to a table full of skulls, only to find that all of their canine teeth have been removed. Just the canines.
Caroline asks for all the security tapes from this room for the last 6 months. Bones tells her that this room isn’t covered.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s Limbo.”
Bones needs to go re-examine the bones Zack was working on before it exploded.
~*~*~
Cam makes a positive ID. The remains belong to the missing lobbyist. She found other teeth marks and guesses they’ll probably match the denture markings Zack found.
Bones is busy examining the mandible, and without even looking up says, “They won’t…”
She tells Cam and Caroline that the markings on the mandible, “where not made by artificial dentures.” This doesn’t make since to any of them. “Zack should have known that...”
Caroline: He made a mistake, it happens.
Cam: Not often.
Bones suddenly leaves without explanation.
~*~*~
Booth joins Bones in her office.
Booth: Hey, I heard Zack was wrong on the dentures.
Bones: *looks up from her computer* No.
Booth: What do you mean? Cam and Caroline just said—
Bones: He knew they weren’t artificial, any first year student would know that.
She gestures to the 3D animation on her computer, explaining that these dentures, “were made from real teeth. All canines.”
Booth cringes. “Whoa.”
Bones tells him that canines are symbols for the wolf, which were found on the tapestries in the Gormagon vault. Certain ancient sects revered the wolf as symbols of freedom, delivering us from persecution.
Booth cuts her off, “OK bones enough about the wolf, what’s going on?”
Bones: Zack lied.
Booth: Why?
Bones: He…he took the teeth from bone storage and he made Gormagon’s dentures.
Booth: Zack has complete access to the lab…He arranged for the explosion himself.
Bones looks at him as it hits them both hard at the same time. “It’s Zack. He’s the killer Booth. It’s Zack.”
~*~*~
At the hospital, Cam is trying to read a very complicated scientific journal to Zack, one that she doesn’t get at all but he seems to enjoy.
Cam: And this makes since to you?
Zack: It doesn’t to you?
Cam just laughs. Suddenly Booth and Bones appear at the door, both very solemn.
Booth: Cam...I’m gonna need the room.
Cam stares at them a second, then her smile fades and she turns to Zack. He’s staring at Booth as if he knows it’s time. Cam is shocked.
Slowly she gets out of her chair and asks them, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Are you absolutely certain because—” They both nod. On her way out, Cam says, “I did not see that coming…”
Cam leaves and Booth and Bones take another step into the room. Zack doesn’t bother denying it.
Zack: You looked at the mandible.
Bones: You had to know I’d see it eventually.
Zack: I didn’t foresee the extent of my injuries. I was going to sneak out of here but—
Bones: Your friends never left your side.
Booth: And you intended to steal the jaw bone and add it to the silver skeleton.
Bones: But you designed the explosion, you must have known exactly how big it’d be.
Zack explains that he did have it all calculated perfectly, but at the last second Hodgins pulled it away from him to argue and the delay allowed the thermoplast to reach the boiling point. As a result, the explosion was three times more powerful then he’d calculated.
Bones: You must have known how badly you’d be burned.
Zack: Yes.
They all stare at each other for a long time, the Booth finally asks, “Who’s Gormagon Zack?”
Zack tells him that that’s not what he’s called. He’s called “The Master”. He can’t tell Booth his name because he’s The Apprentice. The Apprentice is expendable. Booth is getting frustrated and Bones quickly steps in.
Bones: Zack responds to logic.
Booth: Really? Cuz’ I’d really like to hear the logic of killing and eating people to change the world.
Zack: The Master’s logic is irrefutable.
Booth: Irrefutable?! I saw him choking a child at the bottom of a pool.
Zack: If you knew what I knew, you’d understand. You’d be proud of me.
Bones looks at Zack tells him, “I’ve always been proud of you Zack. I’ve never met anyone more rational or intelligent. But there’s a fault in your logic.”
Zack: With all do respect, you aren’t cognizant of his logic.
Bones works it out for him. “Assumption number one: Secret societies exist.”
Zack: Accepted. Hodgins has been explaining this to me for years.
Bones: Assumption number two: the human experience is adversely affected by secret societies.
Zack: Accepted.
Bones: Assumption number three. Attacking and killing members of secret societies will have an ameliorating effect on the human experience.
Zack: Accepted.
Bones: *leans in to face him* All of your assumptions are built upon a first principle, Zack. To wit, the historical human experience as a whole is more important than a single person's life.
Zack: Yes.
Bones: …Yet you risked it all so you wouldn't hurt Hodgins.
This hits Zack hard. He’s seen the fault in his own logic.
Booth swallows hard as Bones places her forehead against Zack as a tear runs down his cheek.
Zack: There’s…you’re correct. There’s an inconsistency in my reasoning.
Booth: Bones I need a name.
Bones: We know.
Zack: He first approached me three months ago on a symposium on burning plasma diagnostics.
Booth: Zack, I need to know who this guy is. I need to go get him now.
Zack finally tells them that he doesn’t know his name. But he does remember how to get to his house. He was blindfolded whenever he was taken there, but he remembers every turn it takes to get there. He tells booth the name of the street and that it’s a big place. “Almost as big as Hodgins’s place, but rundown.”
Booth and a SWAT team make their way through the dark following Zack’s instructions: “There’s a flight of stairs at the back, outside…there’s a blue door. It’ll be locked but there’s a key in the crevice to the left of the door just above eye level.”
*Booth grabs the key and the SWAT team enters as Zack’s VO continues*
“You will see a hallway…if he’s found someone, you’ll smell meat cooking. And that’s how you know you’re getting close…”
In a room full of candles, Gormagon cuts his meat with a knife…
“One last door, and you’ll have to be fast. He’ll be at the bottom of an incline in the floor…*
Booth and his team swing around the corner, guns ready.
“He’ll have a knife. He’s very fast. And he’s very strong.”
Gormagon turns around, smiling to show his canine dentures as he flings the knife towards the SWAT team, hitting one guy in the shoulder. Booth doesn’t hesitate. He shoots.
Gormagon goes down, eyes staring lifelessly at his dentures on the floor in front of him. He is no one. But a no one who’s caused a heartache of problems.
~*~*~
Back at the hospital, everyone watches as Caroline talks to Zack. Hodgins grabs Angela into a hug as Booth arrives and Cam asks, “Got him?”
Booth: Got him.
Booth: Who was he Booth?
Sweets: Nobody. Am I right? He was nobody. An invisible man angry at history for not seeing him.
Angela: Yeah for a nobody he sure wrecked a lot of lives.
Caroline and her people come out of Zack’s room telling them, “Zack confessed to killing the lobbyist. Stabbed him in the heart.”
Angela asks, “He never ate anybody?”
“No.”
“So how does this happen?”
Bones: Logic.
Caroline isn’t buying it. “This might cut it with you eggheads, but this happened the way it always happens. A strong personality finds a weak personality and takes advantage. I hope we fry the guy.”
Booth: That’s not going to be necessary.
Cam: Good riddance, I say.
Hodgins: What’ll happen to Zack?
Caroline cut a deal. He pleads guilty, cooperates, they send him to a secure psychiatric facility instead of going to prison.
Sweets argues that it won’t stand up in court. Zack isn’t actually insane.
Booth cuts him off, pulling him aside.
Sweets: What?
Booth: Sweets, you’re gonna give this one to Bones, you understand?
Sweets: I understand.
Guess they'll call that even.
It’s a seriously sad moment as Bones raises a hand to the glass and everyone stands to give Zack one last look before leaving.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, everyone is surrounding a table with a single box on top. The mood is definitely grim.
Booth: I probably could have spent some more time with Zack. You know, get him to see the world a bit more.
Hodgins: Those things I say about secret societies, conspiracies, I never knew he was listening.
Angela: I should have gotten him a girlfriend.
Cam’s had enough. She breaks in to argue that, “People are who they are, there’s nothing we could have done for the guy.” Sweets looks at her knowingly.
Bones: We love Zack, Cam.
Cam: Yeah, well he killed someone. And he deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life.
After a second, Sweets explains, “I feel I must point out that what Dr. Saroyan just said is obviously her way of handling grief. She doesn’t mean it, quite the opposite in fact.”
Cam chokes back tears admitting, “I knew the day I met Zack he’d cause me pain.”
Nobody knows what to say. Everyone is still in shock. Leave it to Booth to break the tension.
He gets up, asking Hodgins what’s in the box.
Hodgins: This is uh, Zack’s favorite stuff.
Angela: Well what are we going to do with it?
Cam: Where he’s going they might actually let him have it.
She let’s out a sad laugh as everyone looks at the box. Cam spots something and smiles, pulling out the “King of the Lab” trophy.
Cam: I got him that.
Hodgins: Yeah thanks. He waved that in my face every day.
Hodgins grins and pulls out another item. “Pocket Kama Sutra. I got him that so he’d stop asking Booth sex questions.” He laughs and Angela smiles.
A harmonica sounds from behind Hodgins, and everyone turns to find Booth playing it. He explains, “Got Zack this before he went to Iraq.” He flips it in his hand and places it back in the box.
Angela pulls out an old restaurant placemat. “I drew this for him.” It’s a cartoon drawing labeled “ZACK “King of the Lab”.
Bones stares at the box wordlessly as Sweets smiles and comments, “It’s interesting that all of his favorite things were objects you people gave him.”
Bones finally speaks. “I never gave him anything.”
Angela: He totally loved you. As much as he was capable.
Bones gets up. “But I never gave him anything…”
She starts to walk away, and Angela immediately starts to follow her best friend. Booth stops her though. He’s got this one.
~*~*~
Bones sits down on the darkened museum steps, burying her face in her hands. Booth goes to sit down next to her, pulling out an envelope he pulled from the box. He opens the letter and begins to read.
“Dr. Mr. Addy,
It is my pleasure to offer you the post of my intern in forensic anthropology. I chose you from hundreds of applicants because of your knowledge, your desire to learn, and because I feel you will find a home here.”
Booth folds up the letter and looks at her. "I think you gave him something great Bones.”
He hands her the letter, and she takes it, then lays her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.
END.
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Where do I even start with this one? Zack was the killer?! Talk about a title living up to its name! I can’t believe it! It’s so very sad it makes me cry…
This episode has caused a lot of controversy among Bones fans, many who believe that the writers sold out one of their favorite characters just for that “shocking finale”. Like Cam, I didn’t see it coming at first. I refused to believe it was Hodgins, didn’t want it to be Sweets, and didn’t even think of sweet little Zack until Hodgins brought Cam the results pointing out his own house. *sniff*
All I can say is, well, “Wow.” Why do I feel like Zack died? I think fans would have been happier if the writers’ strike hadn’t forced the writers to cut back on Zack’s PTSD after returning from Iraq. I can see why they chose to go the way they did, and it'll be interesting to see where they go from here, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it! LoL
To read what Eric Millegan and the rest of the cast thought about the season finale themselves, go HERE.
Bones continues to study the remains on her table.
Cam: That’s enough. We’re going.
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That's right. It's time for this season's shocking finale, and when they say "shocking", they mean shocking. Grab the Kleenex box people, you're gonna need it!
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Sweets: It’s Agent Booth’s funeral, Dr. Brennan. Losing a loved one—
Bones: A partner, Sweets. I lost a partner.
Sweets rephrases his words and tells her that she needs to go to Booth’s funeral to get some closure. The entire team feels awful for her as Bones falls back to what she knows best. Science and work. She argues that she doesn’t get the whole point of standing around a hole in the ground. Booth’s already gone.
Finally Angela breaks in. “Brennan, a word.”
Sweets: Excuse me? Professional psychologist?
Angela holds up a finger, just give her a second while she talks to her best friend.
Angela pulls Bones aside and tries to talk some sense into her. “Look. I know how you see things. And I respect that. I need to ask you a favor.” Angela holds up Booth’s memorial picture. “I have to go to the funeral. I’m not going to be able to get through this alone. I’ve been crying for like days.” Fighting back tears, Angela tells her, “I really need your shoulder here. I need my best friend.”
Bones sighs, but shakes her head. She’s going to the funeral.
~*~*~
At the cemetery, Caroline attests to Booth’s bravery and loyalty. He gave his life for his partner, “and in that brave act, he showed us what greatness we are all capable of.”
Bones cuts in, “That woman was aiming at me, I gladly would have taken that bullet!” Angela assures her that they know that.
Caroline finishes her speech and lays a rose on the coffin as a man hanging near a tree in the background glances around nervously. As the drummer starts up, Bones asks, “If there were a merciful God why wouldn’t have saved Booth?!”
The 21 gun salute gets ready as the man by the tree begins to move. We close in on a familiar looking soldier…
The guy makes his move and the soldier rushes through the crowd, “Excuse me!” He hits the mysterious visitor and the punches fly, knocking off the soldier’s hat. That soldier is Booth.
The two men crash into the coffin, letting everyone see the dummy inside as it falls to the ground. Bones is shocked. She rushes forward to grab one of the dummy’s fake arms and hits the bad guy BAM!
Booth: Bones, nice shot!
Furious, Bones stomps up to her partner and punches him in the face!
Everyone is shocked as she stomps off.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Booth, Sweets, and the squints follow Bones around as Booth explains that after he got shot the bureau faked his death so he could catch that guy! Bones doesn’t care. Booth argues that he drove the guy underground, the only way he said they’d see him again was at Booth’s funeral!
Hodgins: Who was he?
Booth: What part of National Security don’t you get Hodgins?
Hodgins: National Security. A catchall phrase for “we can do anything we want.”
Bones argues that she knew she shouldn’t have gone to his funeral. “It was a complete waste of time, just like I said.”
Ouch! Booth continues to follow her through the lab. “Wait a second, you thought that my funeral was a waste of time?”
“I thought it was a lovely service Booth,” Cam offers.
“Thank you.” He did expect more people though.
Bones: Just so you know I won’t be at your next funeral.
Booth: Bones, I’m telling you, you were supposed to know I wasn’t really dead, I swear! I thought that’s why you weren’t crying!
Cam asks who was supposed to notify her and Booth tells them all that he gave a list of people who were supposed to know to the bureau. It’s not his fault if they didn’t tell her! Sweets cuts in that Bones is actually upset because “She had to face strong emotions that she’d rather deny.” Bones just glares at him.
Sweets: Hitting Agent Booth indicated the depth of your feelings for him! It was a very passionate act!
Booth: Yes! You hear that? Passion—
Bones: Yes. Passion because anger is a passion! Anger at being manipulated!
“Dr. Brennan?” Zack interrupts, holding out a small brown package. “Someone left you a package.”
Bones opens the package up to find a mandible…with silver screws in the sides…Gormagon. There’s no doubt about it, the serial killer is back.
Cam: Who was he eating this time?
~*~*~
Everyone at the lab watches Sweets being interviewed on TV about the fifth Gormagon victim. He tells the news reporter about the cannibalism and how the killer has apprentices. “One at all times” to help eradicate the bodies, get rid of the evidence….They’ve seen enough.
Cam shuts off the TV and they all turn around to see Booth standing on the platform looking troubled.
Bones: Booth?
Booth: I’m thinking.
Booth: About what exactly?
Cam: Well it’s a pickle. The platform’s a crime scene, but we need to access it to investigate the crime.
Angela: Kind of a ‘cake and eat it too’ situation.
Zack: Is it a cake or a pickle?
Hodgins: It's Schroedinger's Cat.
Zack: That I understand. Cakes and pickles mean nothing to me.
Bones still doesn’t get it. “Are you paralyzed by the paradox Booth?” Cam decides to make it easy, “What do you need first?”
“Identity.”
“Let’s go people.”
Before Booth can even protest, the entire team crosses the police tape and hones in on the mandible. There are markings, mineral traces…They continue to stare at it then break apart to all begin their separate jobs.
Booth: Okay, I, uh, give you all permission to do, whatever it is that you squints do…*still no one pays attention to him* I’ll uh, just…*breaks apart the police tape* Call me.
Booth leaves.
~*~*~
Booth’s bathroom
Booth is relaxing in the tub with his beer hat, cigar, record player, and comic book—excuse me, graphic novel, when suddenly the door busts open and Bones rushes in, “I need to talk to you.”
Booth sits up, what the—how did she…? “I’m in my house in my bathroom, in my bathtub!”
Bones just goes over to pull the needle off the record player. How’d she get in anyway?
“Well that fake rock by your front door wouldn’t fool anybody,” she argues, going right into asking, “Why are wearing a hat that dispenses beer?”
“Hot bath plus cold beer equals warm beer. Hat?” he taps his head. “Equals solution.”
Bones is not amused. “And that cigar? Very unhealthy.”
Okay, what does she want, because Booth’s not exactly feeling too relaxed here. She wants to talk to him about the whole not-telling-her-he-wasn’t-dea d-thing. He already explained this! He was just following protocol.
Bones: Protocol?!
Booth: Yes!
Bones: We’ve been partners for three years Booth, and you’ve broken protocol before! And sometimes putting my life in danger, which makes since because you clearly don’t have any real concern for me—
Okay, that’s it. Booth leaps to his feet. “I took a bullet for you!”
“Once!” Bones flings back. “That only goes so far!”
They both stare at each other, breathing hard in arguing aftermath, until Bones finally asks, “Would you like a towel?”
Booth suddenly remembers where he is and slowly sits back down in the tub. “Fine. What is it that I should have done Bones? What did you want me to do?”
She argues that he could have called her, she didn’t need to go through his boss, I mean “don’t you trust me?”
Of course he does! Booth has no idea why she wasn’t told. Well, isn’t he curious why she wasn’t?
Booth: Yes, what, do you want me to find out why you weren’t told?
Bones stares at him and then answers, “If it’s important to you.”
Booth: Fine. I will. Next time I die I promise that I will tell you.
Bones: I’ll look forward to that.
Booth: Me too.
Booth picks up his graphic novel, but Bones doesn’t leave.
Bones: What are you reading?
Booth: A novel. *At Bones’s reaction* A graphic novel.
Bones glances down at the tub and tells him, “Just so you know, I find your lack of puritan modesty very refreshing.”
Booth lowers his comic book to watch Bones walks out and restarts his music. He sticks his beer hat straw back in his mouth and goes back to his relaxing.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Zack tells them that the markings on the skull were made by someone wearing dentures. Homemade dentures.
Cam: Well, a toothless cannibal just can’t cut it in today’s competitive serial killer climate.
Cam calls Booth to tell them him Gormagon’s last victim was indeed the lobbyist. Booth was wondering when some part of him would turn up. Cam overhears the sound of Booth’s bath draining and asks, “What’s that sucking sound?”
“You know what?” Booth asks. “This is MY house, okay? You come into my house, there’s no telling what you’re gonna hear!” With that, Booth hangs up.
Zack and Hodgins rush off to do one of their experiments.
~*~*~
Booth rejoins Bones and sweets in Bones’s office, and Sweets tells them they should place the jaw in the silver skeleton because it’s the killer’s obsession. He gives them something, they give him something. He’ll find out some way or another. By the way, why hasn’t anyone mentioned seeing him on TV this morning?
Booth and Bones ignore him, and Booth eventually brings up his complaints about Bones busting into his bathroom. This catches Sweets’s attention.
Sweets: Broke into your house?
Bones: There was a key.
Booth: And barged into my bathroom.
Sweets: *laughs* What were you doing?
Bones: He was drinking beer and reading comic books.
Booth: I was taking a bath.
Sweets: You read comics and drink beer naked?
Booth: Wait a second, Bones bursts into my bathroom, alright, and I’m weird for being naked?
~*~*~
Zack and Hodgins are getting ready for their experiment.
~*~*~
Sweets and Bones are now following Booth through the lab.
Sweets: So you didn’t tell her to leave, you just sat there naked?
Booth: My own bathroom, okay? What do you wear in the tub, floaties?
~*~*~
Hodgins and Zack are geared up and ready. Hodgins asks Zack if he’s ready for the monomer and Zack is adamant that he get to be the one to add it. Then the mold.
Hodgins: When did I become the assistant?
Zack: When I became uncontested King of The Lab.
Hodgins hands over the monomer with a sign.
Zack sprinkles the monomer over their experiment and BOOM!! It explodes with enough fury to shatter the protective glass and send both Hodgins and Zack flying.
Booth, Bones, Sweets, and Cam come rushing in. Hodgins sits up, glasses askew but otherwise fine. Zack on the other hand…
Bones: Is he okay?
Booth: He’s in shock Bones.
Zack is lying on his back, his gloved hands still poking through the holes in the safety glass. Both his hands are severely burned, rubber smelting onto skin. He is indeed going into shock.
~*~*~
In the hospital, Zack asks if Hodgins is okay. Yeah, he is. Booth assures Zack that he’s going to be fine. Bones and Zack, ever the pragmatists, argue that his cartilage was destroyed, he has third degree burns, among other serious injuries.
Booth: Hey, what about a little optimism here?
Zack believes he can still be useful with prosthesis. Angela and Hodgins enter, asking how he is. Zack asks Hodgins if he’s okay. He reassures him that he is. Anything he needs, Angela tells him, “Just ask.” Cam asks him if he knows how it happened, and Zack just says he only added the three grams of monomer. Hodgins starts in on how that doesn’t make sense, but Booth just reminds him that Zack has third degree burns.
Bones: *to Zack* The doctor says you should rest.
Hodgins: She’s right. Hey, we’re gonna figure this out okay?
Cam: And you won’t be alone Zack. One of us will be here all the time.
Zack: That’s not necessary.
Angela: Yes it is. Because we love you.
Hodgins rustles his friend’s hair as Angela volunteers for the first shift. Everyone starts to head out and Bones assures Zack, “I’ll get you whatever you need to keep your job. We’ll get through this.”
Zack thanks her, and Bones kisses his forehead and heads out.
~*~*~
Back at the lab Hodgins tries to figure out why a simple monomer exploded. Sweets asks, “Isn’t the FBI handling the analysis of the explosive residue?”
Hodgins continues his own analysis. “Excuse me if my faith in the Bureau isn’t absolute.”
So he doesn’t trust the Agent working across the room? No, Hodgins is sure he’s…fine, he’s just getting his own results.
Sweets: You suspect that there could be a conspiracy within the bureau?
Hodgins: *turns to look at him* Do I hear a little ‘tude young man?
Sweets: No, no. But why would there be a conspiracy in this case? Totally tude-less question.
Hodgins: Prominent public figures being murdered and eaten. Evidence that secret societies are being targeted. Societies that have great influence in the halls of power like the Bureau.
Sweets: You don’t think that’s a bit extreme?
Hodgins: You went on Larry King to talk about this case. And TMZ, because you know how big it is. And to get your piece of it.
Sweets: I’m a doctor. I’m merely studying the case like you.
Hodgins: Right.
Hodgins goes back to his work, and finds what he was looking for. Something he should have known. Agent Madison looks over, “What?”
What, he’s expecting Hodgins to tell him? Madison replies, “It’s tricyclic acetone peroxide.”
Hodgins: That’s not bad.
It reacted with the molten thermal plastic and, Boom. Zack thought he was adding one thing, but it was really something else. Someone had to be near enough to switch it up.
~*~*~
Booth interrupts Sweets’s phone call, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him into Bones office, forcing him to hang up.
Booth: So go ahead, tell her.
Sweets: Tell her what?
Bones: Tell me what?
Booth: Tell her now.
Sweets: What?
Booth: Fine, I’ll tell her. I sent my list to the Bureau, they sent it to Sweets. *turns to Sweets* YOU were the one who decided not to tell Dr. Brennan that I was still alive. HE’S the one you should have slugged, so do it. Go ahead, and do it now.
Bones is shocked. “What, you chose not to tell me?”
Sweets quickly defends himself, “Yes it’s true. Technically.”
Booth: Technically?
Sweets argues that he reviewed his list and decided that it wasn’t necessary to tell Bones because, knowing her as he does, he knew she would be able to handle Booth’s death. It was a national security issue, and the fewer people who knew about Booth, the better.
Bones: I think that was a good choice.
Sweets: Awesome.
Booth: You do?
Yes, she does. She argues that Sweets knew she could take it because she can compartmentalize.
Whoa, wait a minute, Booth argues. Then why was she mad at him?
Bones: Because you should have told me personally.
Booth: Oh, I should have just ignored national security concerns, broken the law, and told you.
Bones: Yes. You know I’m very trustworthy.
They argue about Sweets some more, and Booth finally turns to him, telling him there has to be something else going on here right? Sweets pretends not to know what he’s talking about.
Booth: Transference. Paranoia. Come on! I mean, when I offer her a piece of pie you say there’s some deeper meaning.
Bones: I don’t like pie, Booth.
Booth: Well, apple pie, she doesn’t like baked pie.
Bones: I don’t like my fruit cooked.
Sweets cuts in that he thinks Booth’s way of changing the subject is just a way to avoid his feelings. Booth just stares at him. “My feelings? Okay, now you’re attacking my feelings?”
Suddenly Cam appears at the doorway to tell them that there’s something in the Gormagon vault she things they should all see.
Booth mumbles, “Slug him” to Bones on his way out.
Sweets turns to Bones and tells her he thinks there is something interesting in Booth’s constant efforts to persuade her to enjoy fruit pie. “It could be interpreted as a kind of seduction.”
Booth sticks his head back in to tell them whatever they’re talking about, “Just stop it. Zip it. Let’s go.”
Everyone heads down to the vault.
~*~*~
Booth and Cam lead the way down the stairs, and Bones suddenly turns around, blocking Sweets’s way.
Bones: You think I don’t recognize an experiment when I see one? You experimented on us.
Sweets: I beg your pardon?
Bones: Not telling me Booth was alive? You wanted to quantify our reactions for your own research? You took advantage of us. Booth and I agreed to let you observe us, we did not agree to be used as lab rats, so you BETTER cut it out.
Sweets: Dr. Brennan, why are you talking so fast?
Bones: Because if Booth hears why you did what you did? He’d beat you up.
Sweets: Don’t you think that’d be an overly aggressive act?
Bones: Not at all, so you better not do it again.
Booth calls out wondering where they are, and Sweets tells him they’re on their way.
Down in the vault, Cam tells them all that the vault was secured yet…
Booth: Where’d it go?
He’s talking about the skeleton. It’s gone. Hodgins is also there, and tells them that he came down to see if the screws matched the silver in the skeleton, but the skeleton was gone.
Wait, weren’t there security cameras?
Cam tells them that when Zack’s explosion went off, “every security camera in the building failed.” Ten minutes before the explosion everything was working fine. At 12:03:22, nothing. Since a chemical accident takes precedence over everything, all security personnel went to secure the lab or any point that went to the museum proper. During that time, the vault and the skeleton was unguarded until 12:18:41 when the system was brought back up.
Cam: The explosion was a diversion. Set up by Gormagon.
Booth: He’s here in the lab. It’s an inside job. Gormagon works at the Jeffersonian.
Bones: Either Gormagon or his new apprentice.
Sweets: That is a totally freaky thought.
Booth gets on his cell phone to call in a fall forensic team.
~*~*~
Cam comes in to ask the FBI techs if they’ve found anything, and Caroline tells her she’s compromising the crime scene. Cam argues that it’s her people they’re suspecting, and Caroline points out that she has full security clearance and access to the lab. Someone’s going to be putting her on the list sooner or later. “Wouldn’t you?”
Cam: You’ve got over 30 agents here. Find something.
With that, she leaves.
~*~*~
At the Diner, Bones comments on how many people work on the lab, and Booth points out that all they’re records are being looked at right now, “including yours and mind.”
Suddenly Bones realizes he’s just having coffee. “Don’t you want pie?”
“I’m fine.”
“But you always have pie.”
“Can we stop talking about pie?”
“Because of what Sweets said?”
“I’m just going pieless okay?”
Speaking of Sweets…He sits down to tell them he thinks he knows who the killer is. He’s brought a profile to, wait—he looks at Booth. “No pie? You always eat pie.”
Booth brings the attention back to the profile Sweets has brought along and Bones asks, “You’ve been spying on us? What, more experiments?” No, he’s not been spying, it’s just his job. Booth tells him to just get on with it, and Sweets tells them, “I believe it’s Dr. Hodgins.”
Both Booth and Bones are shocked. No way.
Sweets talks about Hodgins's paranoia and constant conspiracy talk, and Bones refuses to believe it. Booth points out that Hodgins does know all about secret societies. Not to mention the fact that he pointed out all the patterns that led them to the vault. Bones argues that he was just doing his job, they argue that he had access to the chemicals Zack was using.
Bones argues that she also had access to the chemicals, why is she not a suspect?
Sweets: You have a reverence for life, which belies the cold, calculations of a killer. And the emotional connection you share with Agent Booth—
Bones interrupts, “No, no I can’t deal with this.” She jumps up from the table and leaves.
Booth leans over to Sweets on his way after his partner. “Don’t you know that you can’t rush her?” He chases after her as Sweets says he was just trying to catch a killer. He thought it best not to waste time.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, Booth tells Bones that Sweets was just trying to help. She argues it still doesn’t give them any real evidence.
Cam shows up, wondering who they’re talking about, and Bones tells her that Sweets thinks Hodgins is the killer. Cam thinks it makes sense.
Cam: Throws suspicion off of him.
Booth: Who?
Cam: Sweets.
Booth: You think Sweets is the killer?
Cam points out that Sweets did show up right after they found the Gormagon vault. Not to mention that in their counseling he plays them like a cheap piano. Booth quickly cuts in that nobody plays him like a cheap piano, but Cam ignores him. Plus, she gave Sweets security clearance when he agreed to help them in the profiling. A
And he’s the only one they can’t account for after the explosion.
Bones isn’t buying it. Cam tells her she was a cop for 10 years. She can smell it on him. Bones argues they need something more than just Cam’s gut to go on here. Cam tells her she better find it. “Because trust me. Sweets is your boy.”
~*~*~
In her office, Cam stares at her computer as a shadowy figure steps in behind her. She jumps, telling Hodgins he should really not sneak up on people right now. He asks about the rumor that one of them is a suspect and she reminds him that she can’t talk about it. So, is he there for a reason or...?
Yes, he is. Hodgins has found something, something disturbing. He pulled trace evidence from the mandible and found lead. He focused on neighborhoods with pipes that have higher lead. He shows her on her computer.
Cam: Isn’t that your house?
Hodgins: Yes. It is.
But there’s other people who live in the area. Right. Cam says she’ll pass on the info, and Hodgins tells her that he could have fudged the results, left out his house. Yes, she argues, but that would have made him even more suspicious.
Poor Hodgins just tells her if anybody needs him he’ll be at his station, before heading out.
~*~*~
Back at the Diner, Booth and Bones find Sweets at the counter.
Sweets: Well this is a surprise!
They each take a seat on either side of him. They need to talk. Booth asks Sweets where he was after the explosion, and he says that he was with them. No, he was with them during the explosion, but what about afterward?
Sweets thinks about it. “I ran to call 911.” Where? Bones’s office. Then he went to the door to show the EMTs where to go.
Bones: But you didn’t come in with them.
Sweets: No, I find it’s best to stay out the way of the professionals in those situations…Oh wait, I’m sorry I forgot one thing.
Booth: What’s that?
Sweets: I went down to the vault and I stole the silver skeleton ‘cuz um, I’m Gormagon’s apprentice.
Booth: That’s a confession. You know I can lock him up for 72 hours.
Sweets: You’d lock me up for sarcasm?
Bones: I think you should.
Sweets: Wait, you guys actually thing that I’m Gormagon’s apprentice?
Booth: Well somebody is. That way I can lock you up, check out your story, and not worry about you running off to Bolivia.
Sweets: This is fierce wretched.
Bones: Better safe than sorry.
Sweets finally gets serious, telling Booth that he’s projecting. He has a reasonable hostility towards Gormagon, but he has no outlet for those feelings, “so you’re just using me—”
Booth cuts him off with a heavy hand to the shoulder. “Am I gonna have to bring out my cuffs?”
Sweets stares at him, unbelieving. Finally he says, “Yeah, you know what? You are gonna have to bring out your cuffs because I’m not about to make this easy for you.”
~*~*~
Angela is asleep next to Zack’s hospital bed. She starts awake when Hodgins kisses her on the cheek. He kisses her again and asks, “How’s Zack?”
She tells him that Zack’s in pain but he refuses to let her push the pain button. Zack mutters how, “Drugs give me bad dreams.” He goes on to explain, “I’m walking somewhere, and someone takes me by the hand. And I look, and it’s a skeleton and the skeleton’s on fire. And my hands hurt.”
Angela tries to get him to take the drugs again, and he just starts talking about how no one else could have switched the ingredients in the lab because he was the only key and…he starts to drift off, as Hodgins has been pushing the drug button.
When Zack sleepily comments on what the drugs do to his intellect, Hodgins gently tells him that, “Sometimes your friends’ gotta step in. Dumb it up for you.” Poor Zack.
~*~*~
Bones is alone in her office at her computer when Cam scares her. She tells her not to worry about it, they’ve all been on edge. “Don’t you think it’s time to go home?”
Bones has been working trying to figure out something that’s been bothering her this whole time. When she first looked at the jaw bone it was lighter in color than she expected. As in treated in UV light…And who would do that?
Bones: We would.
Guess it’s time to call in the grad students! They’ve got a LOT of bones to go through!
~*~*~
Angela brings in yet another tub of remains, welcoming “All of Dr. Brennan’s grad students to Limbo.” Bones tells her she doesn’t like the name, but Angela tells her, “It’s a good name, go with it.”
Each box contains the remains of one person. What they want the students to do is go through the boxes and make sure all of the bones belong to the person who’s named on the card and computer records.
When one of the guys asks if this will count toward their final grade, Caroline just tells him, “Listen Brennan’s Grad Student. What we’re trying to do here is catch a serial killer. Not get a gold star from Teach.”
Angela explains that they think Gormagon’s hidden the remains of one or more of his victims here where they don’t belong. She things it’s fair to say that if they help catch a serial killer, it’ll help toward their grade. Bones is quick to correct her. That’s not necessarily true.
Bones tells all her students if anyone comes down to ask what they’re doing, tell them. Why?
Caroline: Because serial killers get mean when you get close to catching them.
Alright then.
~*~*~
Bones comes down to check the progress, and Caroline comments on the fact that all these people going through bones, “Is just creepy.” Bones tells her it’s just the natural order of things and now Caroline is not only creeped out, but depressed as well.
The gung-ho Grad student from before comes up to tell Bones that he found an extra femur in one box and fibula in another. They were definitely not part of the same remains, and had been recently boiled. Another student comes up to tell Bones she also found bones that didn’t belong, as did many others. They’ve already placed them all out in anatomical order.
Bones goes to check it out, telling the girl, “Nice job.”
The happy student proudly tells her she’s third in her class, and Bones answers, “I’d like the names of the two students in front of you.”
She looks at the bones and decides it’s a male, 45-50 years old, about 5’8. She tells the Grad student to have Cam compare them to Gormagon’s other victims. When Caroline picks up that Bones suspects something, Bones points out that someone removed the mandible. They need to compare the DNA.
Another student comes to tell Bones there’s really something she needs to see.
Bones goes over to a table full of skulls, only to find that all of their canine teeth have been removed. Just the canines.
Caroline asks for all the security tapes from this room for the last 6 months. Bones tells her that this room isn’t covered.
“Why not?”
“Because it’s Limbo.”
Bones needs to go re-examine the bones Zack was working on before it exploded.
~*~*~
Cam makes a positive ID. The remains belong to the missing lobbyist. She found other teeth marks and guesses they’ll probably match the denture markings Zack found.
Bones is busy examining the mandible, and without even looking up says, “They won’t…”
She tells Cam and Caroline that the markings on the mandible, “where not made by artificial dentures.” This doesn’t make since to any of them. “Zack should have known that...”
Caroline: He made a mistake, it happens.
Cam: Not often.
Bones suddenly leaves without explanation.
~*~*~
Booth joins Bones in her office.
Booth: Hey, I heard Zack was wrong on the dentures.
Bones: *looks up from her computer* No.
Booth: What do you mean? Cam and Caroline just said—
Bones: He knew they weren’t artificial, any first year student would know that.
She gestures to the 3D animation on her computer, explaining that these dentures, “were made from real teeth. All canines.”
Booth cringes. “Whoa.”
Bones tells him that canines are symbols for the wolf, which were found on the tapestries in the Gormagon vault. Certain ancient sects revered the wolf as symbols of freedom, delivering us from persecution.
Booth cuts her off, “OK bones enough about the wolf, what’s going on?”
Bones: Zack lied.
Booth: Why?
Bones: He…he took the teeth from bone storage and he made Gormagon’s dentures.
Booth: Zack has complete access to the lab…He arranged for the explosion himself.
Bones looks at him as it hits them both hard at the same time. “It’s Zack. He’s the killer Booth. It’s Zack.”
~*~*~
At the hospital, Cam is trying to read a very complicated scientific journal to Zack, one that she doesn’t get at all but he seems to enjoy.
Cam: And this makes since to you?
Zack: It doesn’t to you?
Cam just laughs. Suddenly Booth and Bones appear at the door, both very solemn.
Booth: Cam...I’m gonna need the room.
Cam stares at them a second, then her smile fades and she turns to Zack. He’s staring at Booth as if he knows it’s time. Cam is shocked.
Slowly she gets out of her chair and asks them, “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Are you absolutely certain because—” They both nod. On her way out, Cam says, “I did not see that coming…”
Cam leaves and Booth and Bones take another step into the room. Zack doesn’t bother denying it.
Zack: You looked at the mandible.
Bones: You had to know I’d see it eventually.
Zack: I didn’t foresee the extent of my injuries. I was going to sneak out of here but—
Bones: Your friends never left your side.
Booth: And you intended to steal the jaw bone and add it to the silver skeleton.
Bones: But you designed the explosion, you must have known exactly how big it’d be.
Zack explains that he did have it all calculated perfectly, but at the last second Hodgins pulled it away from him to argue and the delay allowed the thermoplast to reach the boiling point. As a result, the explosion was three times more powerful then he’d calculated.
Bones: You must have known how badly you’d be burned.
Zack: Yes.
They all stare at each other for a long time, the Booth finally asks, “Who’s Gormagon Zack?”
Zack tells him that that’s not what he’s called. He’s called “The Master”. He can’t tell Booth his name because he’s The Apprentice. The Apprentice is expendable. Booth is getting frustrated and Bones quickly steps in.
Bones: Zack responds to logic.
Booth: Really? Cuz’ I’d really like to hear the logic of killing and eating people to change the world.
Zack: The Master’s logic is irrefutable.
Booth: Irrefutable?! I saw him choking a child at the bottom of a pool.
Zack: If you knew what I knew, you’d understand. You’d be proud of me.
Bones looks at Zack tells him, “I’ve always been proud of you Zack. I’ve never met anyone more rational or intelligent. But there’s a fault in your logic.”
Zack: With all do respect, you aren’t cognizant of his logic.
Bones works it out for him. “Assumption number one: Secret societies exist.”
Zack: Accepted. Hodgins has been explaining this to me for years.
Bones: Assumption number two: the human experience is adversely affected by secret societies.
Zack: Accepted.
Bones: Assumption number three. Attacking and killing members of secret societies will have an ameliorating effect on the human experience.
Zack: Accepted.
Bones: *leans in to face him* All of your assumptions are built upon a first principle, Zack. To wit, the historical human experience as a whole is more important than a single person's life.
Zack: Yes.
Bones: …Yet you risked it all so you wouldn't hurt Hodgins.
This hits Zack hard. He’s seen the fault in his own logic.
Booth swallows hard as Bones places her forehead against Zack as a tear runs down his cheek.
Zack: There’s…you’re correct. There’s an inconsistency in my reasoning.
Booth: Bones I need a name.
Bones: We know.
Zack: He first approached me three months ago on a symposium on burning plasma diagnostics.
Booth: Zack, I need to know who this guy is. I need to go get him now.
Zack finally tells them that he doesn’t know his name. But he does remember how to get to his house. He was blindfolded whenever he was taken there, but he remembers every turn it takes to get there. He tells booth the name of the street and that it’s a big place. “Almost as big as Hodgins’s place, but rundown.”
Booth and a SWAT team make their way through the dark following Zack’s instructions: “There’s a flight of stairs at the back, outside…there’s a blue door. It’ll be locked but there’s a key in the crevice to the left of the door just above eye level.”
*Booth grabs the key and the SWAT team enters as Zack’s VO continues*
“You will see a hallway…if he’s found someone, you’ll smell meat cooking. And that’s how you know you’re getting close…”
In a room full of candles, Gormagon cuts his meat with a knife…
“One last door, and you’ll have to be fast. He’ll be at the bottom of an incline in the floor…*
Booth and his team swing around the corner, guns ready.
“He’ll have a knife. He’s very fast. And he’s very strong.”
Gormagon turns around, smiling to show his canine dentures as he flings the knife towards the SWAT team, hitting one guy in the shoulder. Booth doesn’t hesitate. He shoots.
Gormagon goes down, eyes staring lifelessly at his dentures on the floor in front of him. He is no one. But a no one who’s caused a heartache of problems.
~*~*~
Back at the hospital, everyone watches as Caroline talks to Zack. Hodgins grabs Angela into a hug as Booth arrives and Cam asks, “Got him?”
Booth: Got him.
Booth: Who was he Booth?
Sweets: Nobody. Am I right? He was nobody. An invisible man angry at history for not seeing him.
Angela: Yeah for a nobody he sure wrecked a lot of lives.
Caroline and her people come out of Zack’s room telling them, “Zack confessed to killing the lobbyist. Stabbed him in the heart.”
Angela asks, “He never ate anybody?”
“No.”
“So how does this happen?”
Bones: Logic.
Caroline isn’t buying it. “This might cut it with you eggheads, but this happened the way it always happens. A strong personality finds a weak personality and takes advantage. I hope we fry the guy.”
Booth: That’s not going to be necessary.
Cam: Good riddance, I say.
Hodgins: What’ll happen to Zack?
Caroline cut a deal. He pleads guilty, cooperates, they send him to a secure psychiatric facility instead of going to prison.
Sweets argues that it won’t stand up in court. Zack isn’t actually insane.
Booth cuts him off, pulling him aside.
Sweets: What?
Booth: Sweets, you’re gonna give this one to Bones, you understand?
Sweets: I understand.
Guess they'll call that even.
It’s a seriously sad moment as Bones raises a hand to the glass and everyone stands to give Zack one last look before leaving.
~*~*~
Back at the lab, everyone is surrounding a table with a single box on top. The mood is definitely grim.
Booth: I probably could have spent some more time with Zack. You know, get him to see the world a bit more.
Hodgins: Those things I say about secret societies, conspiracies, I never knew he was listening.
Angela: I should have gotten him a girlfriend.
Cam’s had enough. She breaks in to argue that, “People are who they are, there’s nothing we could have done for the guy.” Sweets looks at her knowingly.
Bones: We love Zack, Cam.
Cam: Yeah, well he killed someone. And he deserves to be locked up for the rest of his life.
After a second, Sweets explains, “I feel I must point out that what Dr. Saroyan just said is obviously her way of handling grief. She doesn’t mean it, quite the opposite in fact.”
Cam chokes back tears admitting, “I knew the day I met Zack he’d cause me pain.”
Nobody knows what to say. Everyone is still in shock. Leave it to Booth to break the tension.
He gets up, asking Hodgins what’s in the box.
Hodgins: This is uh, Zack’s favorite stuff.
Angela: Well what are we going to do with it?
Cam: Where he’s going they might actually let him have it.
She let’s out a sad laugh as everyone looks at the box. Cam spots something and smiles, pulling out the “King of the Lab” trophy.
Cam: I got him that.
Hodgins: Yeah thanks. He waved that in my face every day.
Hodgins grins and pulls out another item. “Pocket Kama Sutra. I got him that so he’d stop asking Booth sex questions.” He laughs and Angela smiles.
A harmonica sounds from behind Hodgins, and everyone turns to find Booth playing it. He explains, “Got Zack this before he went to Iraq.” He flips it in his hand and places it back in the box.
Angela pulls out an old restaurant placemat. “I drew this for him.” It’s a cartoon drawing labeled “ZACK “King of the Lab”.
Bones stares at the box wordlessly as Sweets smiles and comments, “It’s interesting that all of his favorite things were objects you people gave him.”
Bones finally speaks. “I never gave him anything.”
Angela: He totally loved you. As much as he was capable.
Bones gets up. “But I never gave him anything…”
She starts to walk away, and Angela immediately starts to follow her best friend. Booth stops her though. He’s got this one.
~*~*~
Bones sits down on the darkened museum steps, burying her face in her hands. Booth goes to sit down next to her, pulling out an envelope he pulled from the box. He opens the letter and begins to read.
“Dr. Mr. Addy,
It is my pleasure to offer you the post of my intern in forensic anthropology. I chose you from hundreds of applicants because of your knowledge, your desire to learn, and because I feel you will find a home here.”
Booth folds up the letter and looks at her. "I think you gave him something great Bones.”
He hands her the letter, and she takes it, then lays her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.
END.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Where do I even start with this one? Zack was the killer?! Talk about a title living up to its name! I can’t believe it! It’s so very sad it makes me cry…
This episode has caused a lot of controversy among Bones fans, many who believe that the writers sold out one of their favorite characters just for that “shocking finale”. Like Cam, I didn’t see it coming at first. I refused to believe it was Hodgins, didn’t want it to be Sweets, and didn’t even think of sweet little Zack until Hodgins brought Cam the results pointing out his own house. *sniff*
All I can say is, well, “Wow.” Why do I feel like Zack died? I think fans would have been happier if the writers’ strike hadn’t forced the writers to cut back on Zack’s PTSD after returning from Iraq. I can see why they chose to go the way they did, and it'll be interesting to see where they go from here, but that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about it! LoL
To read what Eric Millegan and the rest of the cast thought about the season finale themselves, go HERE.
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