Bones: The Pain in the Heart (Episode 315)

We'll miss you, little brother.So remember last week when Booth got shot? Well, apparently, he’s dead.

Or so we’re told, as the team, dressed in black, gathers around Brennan and tries to get her to go to the funeral, despite her adamant refusal. Brennan has always thought visiting cemeteries stupid unless there are remains in need of identification, and right now, she’s grieving and hostile. Angela takes her aside and pulls the best friend card: she’s been crying for days, she’s not going to get through this alone, and she needs Brennan.

Cut to the funeral, where Caroline eulogizes one of the few people she actually likes. Brennan puts up with it impatiently; when Caroline says that Booth sacrificed himself for his partner, Brennan grouses to Angela that she would have taken that bullet herself gladly. A random dude stands off in the background. Caroline brings up God, and Brennan loudly demands why, if there is a merciful god, he wouldn’t save Booth? Sweets cocks an eyebrow. The assembled military guard prepares for the salute. And there on the end? That guy with the rifle? Totally one Special Agent Seeley Booth, totally not dead. Shocker.

The onlooker approaches the coffin, and Booth breaks ranks. They scuffle, and the coffin falls open to reveal a dummy. Which is sort of apropos, because he’s the only one who bought this set up. As the fight continues, Brennan grabs the dummy’s arm, knocks out Booth’s opponent, and after one furious look at her so-called-dead partner, lays Booth out flat with a mighty punch to the jaw.

At the Jeffersonian, Booth explains that the Bureau faked his death because once, Booth investigated someone who went underground, vowing only to resurface at Booth’s funeral. Brennan doesn’t care. The others follow as Brennan strides to the lab, saying she knew going would be a waste of time. Booth is disappointed at the attendance rate. Brennan tells him she won’t be going to the next one. He protests that Brennan was supposed to be told that he was still alive, and it’s not his fault if the Bureau didn’t do it. She rolls her eyes. Sweets psychofilters that Brennan’s only pissed that Booth’s "death" made her deal with her feelings. Punching him only proves the depth of her passion. Brennan grits that she was angery at being manipulated. Zack interrupts to hand her a package left in the lab for her. She opens the wooden box to reveal a jawbone and a set of silver screws. Everyone comes to the same conclusion: Gormogon has made himself another meal.

Sweets talks to a reporter about how creepy Gorgomon is, and how he has an apprentice doing his dirty work. Booth tells the team he needs an ID, so the squints circle around the jawbone in a fantastically nerdy way, each looking for clues in his or her own specialty. Booth takes off to let them do their work.

While he takes a Man Bath. Nothing so frilly as bubbles for our Booth, no, just a beer-can hat, some hot water, a cigar, and blasting music. He’s lounging and drinking when the door slides open, and in rushes Brennan, demanding to talk. She cuts the music, spluttering and asking how she got in (answer: fake rock hide-a-key, which is SO lame for an FBI agent). Also, you’ll be happy to know that his oozing GUNSHOT WOUND TO THE CHEST is easily covered after two weeks with a small square of bandage. Oh, show.

Anyway. Brennan asks why he’s wearing the ridiculous hat. Booth’s like, to keep the beer cold, now why are you intruding on my personal time in the bathroom, please? Brennan tells him that he should have told her he wasn’t dead. He groans that he explained this: he made a list, the Bureau had to vet everyone on it, and he was following protocol. This is not good enough for Brennan, who yells that after three years of partnership, he could have broken protocol the way he has before, times when he’s actually put her life in danger. “Which makes sense,” she seethes, “because you clearly don’t have any real concern for me.” This is too much for Booth, who gets to his feet and reminds Brennan he took a bullet for her. She tells him it was once, and it only goes so far. And, as sort of dismissive as that is, I actually love it: you saved my life, but you can’t use that every single time you do something to piss me off and you need to get out of it. It takes a second for the anger to burn out of both of them and for them to realize that Booth is standing there fully naked. Brennan offers him a towel, but instead, Booth slides back down into the water.

He asks her what she would have had him do, and she says he could have called her. Doesn’t he trust her enough? He says he does, and he doesn’t know why she wasn’t told. He asks, incredulously, if she wants him to find out why. And in a rare display of passive-aggressiveness, Brennan tells him to do so if it’s important to him. He promises and snaps open a graphic novel, dismissing her. Brennan tells him that his lack of Puritan modesty is very refreshing. And the delivery of that was hilarious. She turns the music back on and leaves.

Zack and Hodgins tell Cam that the mandible has been chewed on by someone wearing dentures. Someone hands her a folder, and Cam dials her phone as the boys explain that the dentures were homemade. Cam tells Booth she has the DNA results, and the victim is the lobbyist. He says he wondered when pieces of the guy would start showing up, and Cam asks what she’s hearing in the background. Booth, in his beer hat and with a rubber ducky on his knee, snaps that this is his house, there’s no telling what you’re gonna hear. I love Boreanaz, I swear, and when I watched Buffy, I never would have said that. But he’s consistently great on this show. Zack and Hodgins tell Cam they can figure out how the dentures were made. She tells them to say so if they want to do one of their experiments, and they say in unison that they do. She tells them to go for it.

Down in the vault, Sweets tells the Bs to put the jawbone in the silver skeleton, because it’s what Gormogon wants them to do, and he’d totally find out, but more importantly, did they see him on TV? Brennan snarks that for all they know, Gormogon is dead and they’re not on the list of people who can know. Sweets loves this, so, as they walk back to the lab, Booth tells him about Brennan’s break-in of his bathroom. Sweets: “You read comics and drink beer naked?”

Zack and Hodgins are melting plastic, and they have to do something more complicated. They use a lot more words.

Sweets gives Booth a hard time, some more. Booth gives it back. They are still en route to the lab.

Zack suits up to add a monomer to their concoction, wearing a face shield and rubber gloves, handling everything through a plexiglass partition. He asks Hodgins for the mold and the monomer, but Hodgins wants to do the mixing. Zack nixes it and asks for everything. Just before he hands the monomer to Zack, Hodgins asks how he ended up the assistant. Since Zack became the uncontested king of the lab, he says. Shaking his head, Hodgins hands it over. Zack sprinkles in the powder, and the whole cauldron explodes upward in huge bursts of flames. The glass walls shatter, and out in the rest of the lab, the others duck and run towards Hodgins’ area. Zack has fallen beneath the plexiglass, his hands bloodied. Booth lifts it away as Brennan kneels to Zack’s side and Cam takes off to call for help. Zack’s hands are a mess, and he’s in shock.

Brennan and Booth are at Zack’s bedside. He asks after Hodgins, who’s okay. Booth tries to be positive, but Brennan and Zack keep talking about the extent of his injuries, which are pretty bad. Zack says he can still be “quite useful.” Everyone else files in, and Cam asks how it happened. Zack says he just added the monomer. Hodgins doesn’t understand this and tries to talk through it until Booth tells him to chill. They all tell Zack to rest, and Cam adds that one of them will be with him at all times. He says it’s unnecessary, but Ange tells him it is, because they love him. Brennan tells him she’s going to do whatever it takes to help him keep his job and kisses his forehead maternally.

At the lab, Hodgins is trying to figure out what happened, because there’s no way a simple monomer would have caused the explosion. The Bureau also has someone there testing, but Hodgins so doesn’t trust their results. Sweets wants to know why, so Hodgins spins some conspiracy theories. He and Sweets front a little bit until Hodgins figures out what happened. The FBI tech has come to the same conclusion: a tricyclic acetone peroxide reacted with the molten plastic and boom. Hodgins thinks the containers had to been switched for Zack to have added an explosive to the mix.

Out in the hall, Sweets is canceling all his appointments when Booth grabs him and drags him to Brennan’s office. Booth reveals to Brennan that Sweets is the one who received the list of people to know of Booth’s not-deadness, so she should punch him now for not telling her. Sweets thought that Brennan could handle the information, and given that it was a question of national security, Sweets thought the fewer people to know, the better. Brennan immediately says it was a good choice, and she repeats what Sweets says about her being able to handle it. Booth wants to know why she’s only mad at him. She tells him he should have told her himself, whereas Sweets made a professional decision. Booth turns to Sweets, like, help me, because there has to be a reason she’s so mad. Then there’s a whole thing about pie, and how Booth and Brennan know each other so well they know about each other’s pie preferences and that Sweets somehow compares to seduction. Cam breaks in to tell them something’s going on in the vault. Booth leaves, telling Brennan to slug Sweets.

On the way down to the vault, Brennan lets Cam and Booth get ahead so she can rip Sweets a new one. Hissing through gritted teeth, she tells him she knows he was doing an experiment to quantify her reaction to Booth’s death for his research, and while they agreed to work with him, they never agreed to be lab rats. She tells him if Booth hears any of this, he’ll beat Sweets up, which she doesn’t think is that unreasonable, so he should just not do it again. That was so excellent.

Down in the vault, the silver skeleton is gone. Hodgins discovered it when he went to compare the screws to the rest of the skeleton. The door to the loading dock of the vault was left unlocked, and someone got in and stole the skeleton. Cam explains that the security cameras failed during the explosion. She brings up the footage and narrates Hodgins giving Zack the explosion; Hodgins says he thought it was just the monomer. The cameras cut out for fifteen minutes at the time of the explosion. It was a diversion to give the thief enough time to get in and get out with the skeleton undetected. Booth realizes that this is an inside job: Gormogon or his new apprentice works at the Jeffersonian. He calls for a forensics team.

Cam is all over the crime scene, even going head to head with Caroline over how the investigation is going. Caroline basically tells her that she, and everyone else in the lab, is a suspect. Cam tells her to just find something.

At the diner, Brennan and Booth talk about how many people could be suspects. Sweets arrives with files, saying he has some ideas about Gormogon. He’s singled out Hodgins. He’s paranoid, what with the conspiracy theories and such. Booth is willing to hear it through, since Hodgins knew so much about secret societies and patterns that led them to the vault. Brennan is like, that’s his job. Sweets points out that Hodgins had access to the chemicals that exploded Zack and could have changed the labels. Brennan says she did, also, so why isn’t she a suspect? Sweets says she has a regard for life that suggests she couldn’t be a killer, plus she’s totally in love with Booth, so… I may have editorialized that last part. Brennan, impatient, takes off. Booth growls at Sweets that he can’t rush Brennan.

Back at Brennan’s office, Booth says Sweets is just trying to help. Cam arrives, and Brennan whispers that Sweets thinks Hodgins is the killer. Cam thinks that makes sense if Sweets is trying to throw suspicion off himself, because her cop’s instinct is telling her that Sweets is actually Gormogon.

Cam’s in her office, staring at her computer. Hodgins scares the bejeesus out of her. He gets all dead-voiced as he asks who the suspects are. He tells her he found something, and approaches as he explains that since Zack thought the mandible had been boiled, he took trace elements and was able to determine there was lead in the tap water used. He searched neighborhoods still using lead pipes; he brings up the map and shows her the area with the concentration of lead that matches the sample. Cam notes that it’s where Hodgins lives. Rocking the dead voice, Hodgins says it is, but other people live there, too. Cam thanks him. He tells her he could have left it out; she returns that would have raised suspicion of someone else had figured it out. Hodgins says he’ll be at his station, helping.

Diner. Brennan and Booth approach Sweets and ask where he was after the explosion. He says he ran to call 911 in Brennan’s office, then went to meet the EMTs. In the face of their questioning, he says he went and stole the skeleton, because he’s Gormogon’s apprentice. Emily Deschanel makes the best shocked face here, it’s hilarious. Booth says that with that confession, they can hold him 72 hours. He was being sarcastic, and he’s shocked that they think he’s really the apprentice. Sweets makes with the psychofilter and tells Booth that if he wants to bring him in, he’ll have to cuff him.

At the hospital, Hodgins continues to seem creepy, surprising Angela awake. She tells him Zack’s refusing pain meds and won’t let her push the button that lets him dose them out. His eyes still closed, Zack says drugs give him bad dreams. “I’m walking somewhere, and suddenly someone takes me by the hand, and I look, and it’s a skeleton, and the skeleton’s on fire, and my hands hurt,” he says. Hodgins reaches for the dosing button. Zack starts to say that no one could have switched the chemicals, because he locked them in the container and had the key. Hodgins hits the button, and Zack’s focus falters. He hits it again, and Zack starts to say Hodgins would know, but he drifts off, and Hodgins doses him again. TJ Thyne is so great in this whole episode, but this scene and the last with Cam were particularly good with the creepiness.

Cam makes Brennan jump. She’s looking at DNA from the jawbone, and after some scientific hooha, it seems that the bone has been treated with ultraviolet light. Brennan says that it’s what they do to bones kept in storage down in Limbo. Gorgomon was keeping the victim with the thousands of bones waiting for identification.

Caroline, Angela, and Brennan have gathered Brennan’s grad students in limbo to go through the boxes to see that all bones in them correspond to the records of what should be there. Sometime later, a few students let Brennan and Caroline know they’ve located the extra bones, and they’ve all been laid out anatomically. Brennan takes a look, and after some prodding from Caroline, she says the mandible’s missing, and DNA testing could confirm this is the same victim. Another student calls her over to a row of skulls from which all the canines have been removed. Worried, Brennan leaves to reexamine the mandible Zack was working with before the explosion.

In the lab, Cam confirms for Caroline that the bones are those of the lobbyist. She adds that Gorgomon chewed the hell out of them. Brennan, studying the mandible, tells Cam in a fretful voice that the marks made on the bone are not, like Zack said, from a set of homemade dentures. Brennan takes off, the bone in hand.

Booth finds her in her office, saying he heard about Zack’s mistake. Brennan curtly tells him that Zack knew they weren’t artificial: the dentures were made from real teeth, all canines. She shows him a computer image of the canine dentures. It’s sort of horrific even in CGI. She stories some about the symbolism of wolves and freedom. She tells Booth simply, “Zack lied. He took the teeth from bone storage and he made Gormogon’s dentures.” Booth realizes Zack has complete access to the lab and set up the explosion himself. Her eyes wide, Brennan says that Zack is the killer.

Cam’s on bedside duty, reading to Zack. About calculus. She’s laughing when the Bs arrive, but when Booth tells her they need the room, realization comes over in a devastating wave. Seriously, this clip of Tamara Taylor’s expression changing should be used in text books to describe the phrase “her face fell.” She rises, asking if they’re sure. They nod. She leaves, sighing, “I did not see that coming.”

Zack knows that the Bs know. He says he didn’t predict how hurt he’d get, and he meant to sneak out. Brennan and Booth finish: the others stayed with him, keeping him from stealing the jawbone for the silver skeleton. Brennan says that he created the explosion, he must have known what would happen. Zack says that Hodgins argued with him and stood too close, and the delay made the explosion three times bigger than he thought it would be. Brennan says he knew how badly he’d be hurt. He says he did. Booth asks who is Gormogon. Zack protests that’s not what he’s called; he’s the Master. Brennan asks if Zack is the apprentice, but Booth just wants Gormogon’s name. Zack says he can’t tell, because the apprentice is expendable. Booth starts to get all aggro, but Brennan tells him that Zack will respond to logic. Booth doesn’t get the logic of killing and eating people to change the world. Zack: “The Master’s logic is irrefutable.” If the Bs knew what he did, they’d understand. Zack looks at Brennan and tells her she would be proud of him. She tells him she has always been proud of him. This is when the episode officially broke my heart. He’s saying to her, I’m more than you thought I could be; she’s telling him, you were enough always the way you were. She says never known anyone more rational or intelligent. But, she says, there’s a fault in his logic.

Zack tells her, all due respect, she doesn’t know that logic. Brennan lays it out: secret societies exist; the human experience is adversely affected by secret societies; killing members of secret societies will have an ameliorating affect on the human experience. Zack accepts all this. She bends low and gets very earnest: “All of your assumptions are built upon a first principal, Zack. To wit: the historical human experience as a whole is more important than a single person’s life.” Zack agrees. Brennan breaks the whole theory down, telling Zack that he risked it all not to hurt Hodgins. She rests her forehead to his, and Zack closes his eyes, saying she’s right, his reasoning is inconsistent.

Booth needs a name. Brennan, her face close to Zack’s, says they know. She never closes her eyes until Zack admits that he doesn’t know the Master’s name. They met at an acadmic symposium. He’s been to the house, blindfolded, but he memorized the route and estimated the speed, so he could find it on a map.

A swat team follows Zack’s instructions to a blue basement door and a key hidden, like Booth’s. Zack narrates about going through doors, and how they’ll smell meat cooking. Booth leads the charge as Zack says the Master is fast and strong. We finally see Gorgomon, smiling grotesquely with his mouth full of the teeth of dead people, as he throws his knife and pins an agent. Booth unleashes fire, and Gorgomon flies back, his black robes making him look like some sort of supernatural monster as he falls, dead.

The non-homicidal squints hold court outside Zack’s room while Caroline takes his confession. Booth and Sweets arrive, and Booth confirms they “got him.” Sweets says he was a nobody, “an invisible man angry at history for not seeing him.” The doors open, and Caroline steps out. She says Zack confessed to stabbing the lobbyist, but he never ate anyone. But he boiled someone? The red herring of tap water in Hodgins’s neighborhood does help seal Zack as the doer of the deed, since he lives there, too, but it’s a weird inconsistency. Caroline says that this is a classic story: “a strong personality finds a weak personality and takes advantage.” Hodgins asks what will happen to Zack. Caroline explains that he’ll plead guilty by reason of insanity and be institutionalized. Sweets starts to protest that Zack isn’t insane, so Booth pulls him aside and tells him to “give this one to Bones.” The team gathers at the window, staring mournfully at their lost little brother. Brennan presses her face to the glass, almost smiling at him, sadly.

They gather at the lab to beat themselves up for not doing enough for Zack, Hodgins especially for filling his head with talk about secret societies. Cam lashes out that Zack is an adult and should be locked up for killing someone. Sweets translates through the psychofilter that this is Cam’s way of grieving. Cam, tearfully: “I knew the day I met Zack he’d cause me pain.” Again, with breaking my heart a little. They sit in silence a moment before going through a box of Zack’s favorite stuff, all of which is gifts the team made to Zack. Brennan realizes she never gave him anything. Angela says Zack totally loved her, in his way. Brennan leaves, repeating that she never gave him anything.

Booth finds her on the stairs, where she sits, her head in her hands. He opens the offer letter Brennan wrote to Zack giving him his internship at the Jeffersonian. She wrote, “I feel you will find a home here.” He hands her the letter, saying she gave Zack something great. Brennan lets her head fall on Booth’s shoulder and closes her eyes.