Bones 9.02 Review: Murder at the Couples Retreat

I’d like to take this time to let anyone that has yet to watch last nights episode of Bones, titled ‘The Cheat in the Retreat’, know that if you plan to watch it spoiler free, now would be the time to turn away from this review. THIS BLOG MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS! You’ve been warned.

All right, forgoing the recap for the last episode, being that I reviewed it last week, I’ll jump right into the review. I have to say that I substantially enjoyed this undercover episode a great deal more than the last one. Maybe because Tony and Roxy are a tad bit more interesting, with their flavourful accents and such, or maybe because this episode was about going into a couples retreat, rather than that terrible dance competition. Either way, this was much more interesting.

Does anyone get the feeling that this show sometimes likes to talk down to its audience? Well, maybe not so much talk down to, but trying to be educational, in teaching us some of these terms that have to do with forensics and anthropology, that it’s almost like I’m watching Bill Nye the Science Guy (and let me tell you I hated that guy as a kid)? What I’m trying to say is, the way – especially Cam – the characters speak sometimes, it’s like this show is on the discovery kids channel, teaching us about forensics and how to pick things up. I get trying to educate your audience, but I watch Grey’s Anatomy and the way they speak doesn’t come across patronizing. People are smarter than some give them credit for, I’d appreciate just being able to pick up things myself as the show goes on, not be talked down to.

Okay, I get the whole not being able to let racism go, and that identity fraud can be a big issue, but in the beginning of the episode it was almost like it was providing a public service announcement, rather than actually delving into something that could happen to anyone not careful (the not careful part in reference to identity fraud only, not racism). I do think the rest of the episode, and Cam’s deepening emotions about it, provided more depth, but in the beginning it could’ve been handled a little better. Also, when it comes to credit card companies, I’ve known people who’ve found charges that weren’t their own, and when they spoke to the credit card company they weren’t the ones held accountable for it. I don’t see how Cam would need definitive proof that it wasn’t her. And wouldn’t there be proof in the very fact they weren’t her usual charges? And how would it have taken her that long to catch it?

While I love this show a great deal, I do find it has some issues. I do think that things had already seemed to go back to normal way too easily for Booth, aside from Angela. She was the highlight of the episode in bringing this show tied into the last episode. Otherwise it would’ve felt like no big deal. I do still wish they had prolonged resolving the issue in the last episode just one more episode, and then pushed this to episode three.

This show is definitely a lighter noted series. Sure, it deals with gruesome murders at times, but it’s still kept on a light note. I do think it only seems to dip its toes into the deep end spectrum of emotions, and then almost bring it back around to the comedic aspect of the show. Balancing deep, honest emotions, and comedy, and horror, can be a difficult thing to grasp, and I don’t think this show always does that so well, but it doesn’t keep me from enjoying it.

My last issue with this episode was with Sweets. I definitely enjoyed the way the actor played him like he was starting to get a little nutty, but I don’t quite understand why it took until this episode for him to go that way about his profiles being abused by Pelant. I can’t seem to grasp the idea that that wouldn’t have caught up with him at the very least in the last episode, but it seemed to just now to pop up. He’s lost his mojo, and I can understand that happening, but why now?

My rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Best Lines:

“Feces! It’s your lucky day bugboy.” – Booth to Hodgins, after he’d gotten excited about bobcat excrement being found on their feeding grounds if your lucky, and it ends up falling on his face.

“Wait, those are my noodles.” – Sweets, beginning to lose his way.

“They’re mine now.” – Booth, after taking the noodles.

“I’m not an expert… on everything.” – Hodgins, a bit of a healthy dose of full of himself.

That’s all for now, check back in an hour or so for my review of Sleepy Hollow, and then after that The Blacklist. Later on tonight it’s New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Trophy Wife, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.