Bones: Death in the Saddle

Maggots in the eye sockets! Yay! Three episodes in and I finally get a body that makes one put their fork down and push away that plate of pasta with red sauce. Not only was there maggots just pouring out of the body's eye sockets, but there were a pair of feet that were cut nicely and buried several feet away. And, I got to see those feet up close and personal. Fantastic!

Yet, it doesn't compare to the liquefied body of last season for some reason. Go figure.

This episode of Bones was one of the weirdest that I've seen. It was also one of the most humorous. The whole 'pony play' thing just kept me going 'What the hell?' every time I saw it. Plus, the interaction between Bones and Booth was at its lightest of the season so far.

I would actually say that there was a bit of status change between Seeley and Temperance this week. Maybe it was just the way I saw it, but Bones seemed to be the person in charge of the investigation this time around. She was asking many of the questions and pointing out where to next look for clues. She was also making Booth feel extremely uncomfortable with her talk about sex and role-playing.

Booth is a very easy target when it comes to that type of stuff. While he shows the swagger and the attitude of a hard-nosed FBI agent, he's pretty much all white bread inside. I can tell that he's pretty conservative with the things he says. So, when a subject like role-playing pops up it's easy to rile the poor boy.

While the 'pony play' theme was weird, it was highly amusing to watch. Plus, the murder investigation connected to this little Virginia retreat was interesting to follow as well. I had a feeling it was Annie Oakley who performed the murder, but wasn't quite sure about it until Bones discovered that the victim's eyes were gouged out by a professional. A professional like a doctor, which Annie was in her real life.

The other story in this week's episode was the further investigation as to who Angela previously married. It was decided that she would go under hypnosis to determine the name of her current husband. Here is another example of a character in Bones seemingly being one type of person, yet being thrown off by something unnatural to them.

Angela is, in no uncertain terms, a free spirit. She embodies some of that new age vibe from the 60's, most likely courtesy of her father. Yet, when it comes to being put under to find the name of her husband, she totally freaks out. Luckily, with the help of the hypnosis Angela was able to pull the name of the person from an image that she saw. See, I need to try new things once in awhile.

Now, the other items of interest from this week's episode:

• Bones' comments to that perp as he was running out of the butcher shop. My Lord, funniest line of the night! Then, Booth telling her that they really need to work on their cop talk
• Speaking about cop talk, Bones uses the phrase 'Lard ass and good cop' to distinguish between the nice police officer and the angry and fat police officer.
• In a span of five minutes time cantaloupe were mistaken for honeydew melons. How can you confuse these? Honeydew has a smooth, slightly pale skin. The employees at the Jeffersonian need to eat more fruit.
• There's a change in relationship between Zack and Jack. It seems that his time in Iraq transformed Zack into a 'man of action'. That's why he isn't going in with some of Jack's ideas. Jack is pretty disappointed about this and unsure of what to do.
• Since the main story was about some fetish involving horses, there were plenty of horse jokes. The victim's name was Ed, so he was called Mr. Ed throughout the episode. When speaking to another suspect Booth muttered the phrase 'My Friend Flicka'. Then there were the corny horse jokes that Bones told to Booth.
• When Bones is surprised by the intelligence of something Booth says, he replies 'Obviously I'm smarter than a fifth grader'.
• Another Booth quote, when interviewing a butcher who is interested in slaughtering horses for meat, 'There's crazy pony players and whacked-out, crazy pony players.