Bones: The Baby in the Bough

"Dancing Phalanges!" -- Bones playing with Baby Andy

Anyhoo, I finally had a chance to see the episode, and it was all good. How could it not be -- this installment prominently featured a baby. Whenever you have a newborn as the focus of an episode the whole mood changes. Sometimes, the mood is quite somber when it comes to the baby's mother being murdered. But, this is Bones, so the mood wasn't nearly as grim. Fact is, having a baby around really softened up most of the major characters.

Well, all except Bones. Being her usual self, Temperance initially took on the task of taking care of baby Andy in the clinical fashion that she takes on when examining a rotting corpse. As the episode continued she warmed up to Andy enough to start having fun with him rather than fearing every cry that emanated from his mouth. By the time that she gave Andy to the dead mother's friends (a hanky moment if there ever was one) she was truly sad that she would no longer be watching the little boy.

Brennan also softened up when it came to the economic plight of Huntsville, West Virginia, which must have been right over the Maryland border because Booth and Bones were traipsing back-and-forth to the town several times (no high gas prices in the Bones universe, it seems). At first, she was of the belief that when it's time for a town to die, it's time for a town to die. This didn't make some of the citizens of Huntsville too happy with her. Like her attitude with Andy, Temperance eventually softened up and realized that there are some causes to be saved. Thus, the reason that she used a good portion of the seven-figure advancement on her next book to help pay for a new bridge that would return the city back into a stretch of road open to tourists.

One more thing about Bones: there was one scene where I really saw the fury and anger that Dr. Brennan could express when provoked. It was when she encountered the murderer of baby Andy's mom. After giving his little explanation of why he did what he did, Bones grabbed him by his shirt, slammed him against a chain link fence, and growled that he was a son of a bitch. It's very rare that I see this side of the mild-mannered, analytical Dr. Brennan. When it does rise up, it can be a bit surprising to viewers.

Over to Special Agent Seely Booth. Booth is so cute, isn't he? He's all macho on one hand, but he'll turn away in embarrassment when someone (Bones) mentions breast feeding or teets. To him, and apparently other men that surround Booth, this talk is a bit awkward coming from a woman. Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from helping out with the care of baby Andy. Fact is, Bones went to him quite frequently at first to have him change a diaper and other routine baby tasks. He also became quite attached to the orphaned child, even going so far as to say that the baby was 'our Andy' to Bones instead of just saying 'Andy'.

Moving on to the Squints. The only interaction this week was between Angela and Jack amidst a discussion about having babies. Angela mentioned that she wanted to have a million of them (uh, better start now and take a lot of fertility drugs). Jack wasn't so sure he wanted a million children at first -- maybe one or two -- but then decided that he would be more than willing to have as many children as Angela wanted. It didn't matter if she became one huge pile of goo after having all of those children because he would still find her sexy. And, if she got wide that would just be more of her to love. Of course, that little smirk of his told the audience that he was just joking.

Now to this week's mystery. Poor Biff Tannen! First Marty McFly knocks him down to size, and then he embezzles money from the tire recycling plant and kills Andy's mom to cover it up. Didn't he learn anything after running into that manure truck? It was pretty much a given that he would be the murderer since he was a pretty familiar face. But, it was still an interesting mystery since Bones, Booth and the Squints had very little to go on at the start other than the safety desposit key.

Ank, that's the one nitpick I had with this episode: Andy swallowing the safety-deposit key. That was the fastest swallow done by a newborn that I have ever seen, which made the mystery a little less plausible. Would a newborn be able to swallow something like that when they could barely grasp it in their hands? And, wouldn't the sharp edges of the key have torn up his little baby parts as they scraped along the sides of Andy's throat and intestines? I could see it being much more of a problem than they made it to be.