'Bones' in the Ditch

I love U.S. history, especially the Civil War time period, so this episode of Bones started off on the right foot for me.  Of course, the Civil War theme didn't continue throughout the hour (even though I was sure the body was going to be a dead re-enactor), but that was O.K. because the rest of the episode was interesting and fun.  This show always seems to give us plenty of viable suspects, so I tend to be surprised by the killer reveal each week, but this week's was extra surprising.  Plus, there was an intriguing underlying theme going on with Booth that brought out an ugly side of him and revealed something very interesting about the effect that he and Brennan have on each other.


Who would kill a friendly dentist and dump his body in a Civil War battlefield ditch?  The ex-boyfriend?  The hygienist who fabricated a story about how she got Hep C in order to cover up her affair?  The football player on the opposing team who wasn't ready to come out of the closet?  A patient who just really, really hates going to the dentist?  The answer turned out to be none of the above (even though I was so convinced it was the hygienist that even after Booth and Bones discovered the pavers, I still thought she did it).  Turns out, the contractor who was living above the dentist's garage and re-doing his driveway for him was the guilty party.  The dentist discovered that he was ripping him off, confronted him about it, and wound up covered in clay and spider eggs in the ditch.

Meanwhile, Booth was dealing with Jared's announcement that he had met someone in India and wanted to ask her to marry him.  He was uncomfortable with Jared's impulsive-ness from the beginning, but he went too far.  Way too far.  Booth, who used to believe in things like love and how it can overcome anything, did a background check and was then even further convinced that Jared was making a mistake.  It was weird to watch a jaded Booth.  In the end, Brennan called him on it and told him how his view of love has changed her own view.  Booth seemed to be pretty taken aback by the fact that he had rubbed off on her so profoundly.  Of course, the reason Booth was seeing love in more practical terms was due to Brennan.  I guess they're both rubbing off on each other.

And now, here is this week's edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

THE GOOD: Watching the impact Booth and Brennan have had on each other through the years.  They've both altered their views to see how each other sees things.  Very interesting...

THE BAD: Mr. Nigel Murray constantly trying to garner praise from Dr. Brennan.  He should know better.  And, he had me feeling awkward for him.

THE UGLY: All of the spiders crawling out of the clay at once.  I'm not even super afraid of spiders, but there was something about so many crawling out at once that gave me the creeps. 

If you missed this week's episode ("The Dentist in the Ditch"), check it out for free at Hulu.com.