Bones: The Crank in the Shaft

This episode dealt with one of my many transportation fears - Elevators. The episode opens with a group of co-workers in an elevator. Their ride comes to a grinding halt when a dead body gums up the works. Patty Hoyle - office manager, frog fanatic, and all around bitch, is the unlucky victim and Booth and Brennan must shift through the hive of office drones to uncover the killer. The suspects include Ted the pothead, Christine the receptionist, and Chip the nice guy.

While they uncovered the affair between Christine and Chip, and the circumstances under which they killed Patty Hoyle, Booth obsessed with getting the office chair of a recently deceased Agent. He begged for a false doctors notice from Brennan, Cam, and even Sweets. In the end he got his chair, but it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

The latest Zack replacement is the depressing Colin Fisher, played to perfection by Joel David Moore. He’s a dopey guy who sees the bad in everything and despite Cam’s best efforts to produce a smile, in the end she recommended he up his dosage of Prozac because he was bringing her down.

After four episodes with no significant Angela/Hodgins developments the writers finally decided to devote a few scenes to them. Angela sought advise from both Sweets and Brennan, and Hodgins tried to connect with Cam. My favorite bit came when Angela was complaining about how hard it was working with Hodgins and Brennan said she liked Hodgins but because Angela was her best friend, she would fire him.

Finally they are addressing the tension between Hodgins and Angela, after abruptly ending their relationship. They should have dealt with the fallout sooner, but overall it was handled well. I especially like how Angela dealt with it. Their relationship was special, terribly sweet, and for better or worse she wanted to accept it, remember it, and embrace their new relationship. I still hope they get back together but for now, I am a happy fan.

Joel David Moore as the Zack Replacement - he is such a great actor. I wouldn’t want Colin Fisher to stick around but as a one shot, it was good.

Booth/Bones subplot: I loved the whole ‘drones in a hive’, ‘best chair in the office’ banter. Unlike the last episode, this storyline blended perfectly with the main plot. My favorite scene had to be Booth trying to open the elevator doors, I nearly died laughing.

I can't think of anything bad, except the Angela/Hodgins scene didn’t last as long as I would have liked. I shouldn’t be surprised after such an lackluster breakup.

The Crank in the Shaft didn’t blow my mind but it was a solid episode.