'Bone' Chilling

I think "Winter Finale" might be my new least favorite phrase!  I'm going to miss Bones for the next couple of months especially with the 100th episode waiting in the wings when the show returns in April.  Until that day arrives, we have this week's episode to chew on.  I had read ahead of time that the weather was going to be one of the important elements of the episode.  The masterminds behind the show wanted it to help set the tone and mood, so they used a lot of night scenes and rainy days to help create the darker story involving a mental hospital and possible devil and/or devil's minion victim.  This is usually a light-hearted show that finds a way to make murder funny and doesn't take itself too seriously, so the darker theme was definitely a departure from the usual fare.  It was an interesting change-up and it certainly worked, but there was one scene that sent chills up and down my spine.  It was well beyond freaky!


There was just something so bone-chilling about the burned remains with the horns on the alter of a church!  I understood Booth's pause and I felt his uneasiness with the way in which those remains were found.  Since this is Bones and I know the show's penchant for staging remains in the most interesting and creative (and sometimes ridiculous) ways, I knew we weren't looking at the devil or one of his minions, but still, the image was powerful.  As it turned out, the actual story was sad rather than terrifying.  A disturbed young man confined to a mental hospital was murdered and his remains set ablaze and left on that alter by his brother.  It seemed the brother had been pushed to his own breaking point.  So when he saw his brother self-medicating with heroin (thanks to a nurse who believed it helped him), he freaked and hit his brother with a pipe which knocked him into the electrical system and electrocuted him.  Sad all around this week.

Well, dry those eyes because here is this week's edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

THE GOOD: The discussion between Booth and Bones over the issue of faith.  We all question our faith in the things we believe in, but we also find things that reinforce or prove our faith to us.  So even though Booth and Bones were discussing faith in different things, their experiences with their respective faith were the exact same.  It was the first time these two have realized that their differences aren't all that different when it comes to the topic of faith.  It was an interesting moment because the dichotomy of Booth and Brennan's "Man of science, man of faith" (to borrow from Lost) has often been a bone of contention between them and a divisive issue.  Common ground was reached and it was nice to see.  Honorable mention goes to the use of weather and darkness to help frame the story this week.

THE BAD: Even though Bones came around at the end and found the aforementioned common ground, she was super anti-religion/anti-faith leading up to it and she knows how important it is to Booth and millions of people around the world.  It was sort of a HUGE step backward for the character, but as noted, she redeemed herself in the end.  So this BAD turned into a GOOD by episode's end.

THE UGLY: Nothing too gross this week, so the disturbing charred body with the horns on the church alter takes the prize.

Bones will return with all-new episodes (including the 100th episode!) in April.  If you missed this week's episode ("The Devil in the Details"), check it out for free at Hulu.com.