I don't think she was Mary Sue at all. She had a special and tormented past, but she didn't twig onto what was happening all that super fast, she wasn't a closet ninja.

Yeah, after all that, she didn't even give them anything to work with. The pet thing didn't get them anywhere, it was Garcia who twigged to the tech background.

-t, what bothered you about Bones?

I watched it in the background, not paying much mind, and kept thinking that this episode was way more cerebral than they've ever attempted and it didn't quite work out.

The last scene with B&B was fairly sugary but it did strike me as plausible.

The last scene with B&B was fairly sugary but it did strike me as plausible.

It was plausible because of Booth's reactions. He clearly didn't want to hurt Tempe, but he wasn't going to sugarcoat the truth either. He loves Hannah and more importantly, she's not a consolation prize and that is as real a relationship exchange as I've seen on any show in a long, long time.

I almost thought that Micah was a figment of Bones' imagination.

I did, too, sumi-- I was waiting for the whole thing to wind up being some Wizard of Oz scenario and was already prepared to throw things at the screen.

I don't regularly watch Bones, and I'm not a big Brennan fan, but she seemed really unhinged this week. I'm glad they showed the picture of the victim at the end, but the degree to which she was overwhelmed by her associations--that would have really really worried me as a friend, more than the following and the sombre looks she was getting.

I did, too, sumi-- I was waiting for the whole thing to wind up being some Wizard of Oz scenario and was already prepared to throw things at the screen.

Me TOO. I totally expected the dream/knock on the head/traumatic amnesiablahblahblah outcome.

It was weird that they used so much 'supernatural' stuff...in terms of talking to the dead woman, seeing Tempe's picture where it didn't exist, etc. etc. but then to end on a totally rational, real-world conclusion.

It was weird that they used so much 'supernatural' stuff...in terms of talking to the dead woman, seeing Tempe's picture where it didn't exist, etc. etc. but then to end on a totally rational, real-world conclusion.

I didn't see it as supernatural so much as her subconscious forcing her to stop and take a look at the choices she's made and is making. Lewis and I were breaking it down last night, when we still thought it was a dream manifestation: Brennan by default and general nature is Superego (or in this case, the victim was behaving as another aspect of Superego); Angela & Sweets combined to portray Id; Micah was Ego.

Tempe doesn't tend to be terribly reflective since she's always so certain about the choices she's made. Or rather, she doesn't allow herself to be reflective because then she might have to acknowledge having made an error. For her to do so within the usual constrictions of storytelling would have been out of character; she literally had to be forced to look into a mirror. It was a fascinating device to have the story start with her giving a dinner party with her two closest friends and their respective partners, with whom she's also close. And to have Booth know her well enough to tease her into performing a parlor trick, as it were, but for the benefit of showing her off to impress his girlfriend was a neat intersect. He's hugely proud of Bones and still clearly adores her, but he was looking to impress Hannah.

-t, what bothered you about Bones?

I don't know if I can articulate specifically why, but I found the whole over-identifying with the victim story profoundly irritating, especially the way the rest of the team accommodated it. Possibly in character, I don't know, but irritating.

SSA Aaron Hotchner is such a stickler for the rules and regulations, except when he's not.

"Make sure no one forgets to log out of the system. Garcia should not have access."