(S02E22) There's plenty of story to get to in this second season finale of Bones. So, let's get on with the show. Oh, by the way, SPOILERS AHEAD!!! You have been aptly warned.
Let's begin with the wedding of Jack and Angela. I exhaled in relief when I realized that this was not going to be the crux of the entire episode. It was just subtle enough to be an enjoyable story line. I think my favorite parts were watching the reactions of both Bones and Zack as they were asked to be maid of honor and best man respectively. One would have thought Zack would have been the happy one while Temperance was unsure. It was just the opposite. In fact, Bones showed unbridled joy at being asked.
I also enjoyed the scene where Jack asked Angela's father for her daughter's hand in marriage. Who knew that it was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top? I liked how Billy dissuaded Jack from asking for Angela's hand in marriage by saying they would both be in trouble if she found out about it. Hmm, I wonder if 20th Century Fox has an exclusive contract with the band to appear in their shows. Just a few weeks ago band member Dusty Hill provided his voice to an episode of King of the Hill.
The best part of the wedding story line was the wedding itself. Not because of the twist that Angela was actually married after a ceremony in Fiji. Not because Jack and Angela raced out of the church to avoid telling everyone what happened. But because the ceremony took place at the church where Eric Camden used to preach on the recently lamented 7th Heaven. The exterior shot even looked like the church. I was waiting for Stephen Collins to come up to the pulpit and talk about how horrible the series finale of his show was.
Let's move on to Dr. Temperance Brennan. After two seasons dealing with learning the mysteries of her family we now have some closure. Her father finally stopped running and was placed into custody by Booth; however, not before they have a final fight that reminded me of two senior citizens in a brawl at the home. Before his arrest, though, Max Keenan presented his daughter with two gifts: a ring, which was an heirloom of her mother, and a videotaped message from Bones' mother.
The ring actually opens a new story line for Temperance to follow in the next season. It turns out that her mother was one of three sisters (or has three other sisters, I can't remember) and the ring is the key to meeting up with them. I would actually like to see that in the coming season. Brennan's family history intrigues me. I'm not usually one for backstory when it comes to procedural crime-dramas (it never really works in any of the Law & Order shows), but on Bones the whole mystery about her background fits in quite nicely. So, the more family the merrier, I say!
Over to Dr. Zach Addy, who hasn't really been talked about in these reviews this past season. Is it me, or has the young doctor gotten more and more Data/Spock-like over the year? His reaction to Jack's question of whether he wanted to be best man was extremely analytical. Anyhoo, Zach is going to Iraq at the request of the White House. Well, maybe. He wants to do his duty for honor and the country, but not at the risk of getting shot. It's probably one of the most honest depictions of what someone goes through when given the option of performing their duty in a war zone. Not like in ER, where Dr. Gallant ran away to Iraq because he was in trouble at County General. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything.
Finally, I want to touch on this week's crime, which was solved very early this episode to make way for the extra story. It's probably because I'm a father, but the death of that handicapped girl at the hands of her mother (and we pretty much knew it was her since there was only her and the caretaker) really hit me. I could picture the little girl smiling as she got the candy bar from the store, and gazing for hours out of the skylight in her house. I had mixed emotions when Bones confronted the mother and told her that she did a bad thing, but she did it out of love. Frankly, I thought the mother did it out of selfishness, but that just may be me.
All in all, a very satisfying season finale to Bones that didn't leave too much in the air for next season. On a scale between 1 and 7, with 7 being best, I give this episode a
I want to thank you all for coming along on this ride with me. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Until then, see you next season.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-16-2007 @ 10:42PM
patrick said...
i thought bring back caroline the prosecuter was great...i sortof wish they woud dump cam and have caroline be an on staff attorney or something
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5-16-2007 @ 10:46PM
David said...
I liked the episode, the show reminds me of "The Profiler" from NBC Saturdays years ago. They would have mini stories, weekly stories and then the overall story of the main charater and the murder who is after her.
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5-16-2007 @ 11:05PM
Amy said...
Actually, Billy was introduced (albeit briefly) in the first season episode "The Man In The Fallout Shelter", when the cast was quarantined in the lab over Christmas and their families came to visit. I love Caroline, but now I can't watch her without seeing that colon cancer commercial she was in. Loved the episode and, like you, I hope to get a little more of Brennan's backstory next season, which can't come too soon for me.
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5-16-2007 @ 11:36PM
Drew said...
Where did they come up with the name of the town in Oregon? I live in Coos Bay (well, at least part time for school), and I'm just wondering why here. Did they just spin a globe and put their finger down on a spot? Also did anyone get a look at his library card? I don't have a TiVo in my dorm and I think that was a bad fake. The 11 year old ones are green, and the new ones are white, both with "Coastline" on them. Yeah, I think I talk too much...
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5-17-2007 @ 8:26AM
PurpleSlog said...
"Who knew that it was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top?"
People who watched the two prev episodes in which he appeared.
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5-17-2007 @ 3:31AM
Cindy said...
In your review you did not mention anything about the very end when Booth and Bones are before the alter and say,"what do we do now?". I think that was great as an ending. Will we see an answer in the next season? I Love this show and can't wait already for the new season.
see you then.
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5-17-2007 @ 9:12AM
vacelts said...
The best part was when Gibbons tells Hodgins about his guitars, his cars and his guns and then warns Hodgins to treat his little girl right.
http://redlightnaps.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/bones-season-2-finale/
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5-17-2007 @ 12:05PM
bobinnv said...
I'm sorry, but how can someone do a review of this show if they are so unfamiliar with it that they do not know that Billy Gibbons is Angela's father? And how can you not mention the best moment of the show, with Bones and Booth standing at the alter looking at each other, saying "what do we do now?" with the preacher beaming in the background?
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5-17-2007 @ 12:52PM
starlights86 said...
So that church was from 7th heaven. I was wondering....
I love the ending. So many unanswered questions like, are bones and booth getting married? Where did jack and angela go after running out of the church and is zack really going to leave?
I'm really exited about next season.
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5-17-2007 @ 4:52PM
Happy Steve said...
Is it really THAT much of a question whether Bones and Booth gets married right then and there?
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5-17-2007 @ 6:15PM
PB said...
Did anyone else find it ... interesting ... that Angela's dad told Jack *not* to ask for Angela's hand in marriage (great scene, btw), BUT then in the ceremony, they did do the "who gives this woman away?" thing ... seems contradictory to me.
Great episode, but now I have to wait all summer till I can find out what happened to Jack and Angela?? AARRGGHH!! :-)
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5-17-2007 @ 6:16PM
Mel said...
I loved the finale. The mystery of the week was interesting enough and was good preview fodder, but it was solved early enough to pay attention to the character stuff at the heart of the show.
It was good to see Max again (although I'm wondering how the rumor of Bones getting married got out, or if that was an in-joke to some people possibly believing it really was her getting married in the finale), and we got more clues as the the Brennan/Kennan family past. I'd love to see Bones meet the rest of her family, see if any of them are like her. I also really liked how Booth was dedicated to doing his job of catching a criminal, but still regretted it because it was his partner's father. I also loved their hug at the wedding, and the joke about them tounge-kissing. Booth and Bones are one of my favorite pairings on TV right now.
I loved the wedding too, I thought it was very sweet and Angela looked beautiful. The inclusion of the "Gimme All Your Lovin'" song was just fantastic, and it's been stuck in my head all day. I just started watching this season, so I didn't know her dad was the guy from ZZ Top, but it was a cool angle. (Hodgin's "hawr hawr hawr hawr" still makes me giggle, and I just loved that Angela's middle name is Pearly Gates.)
Although I must say one thing: It's a wedding, people. You don't talk about your personal stuff walking down the aisle or standing at the altar. I know that writer's do it to save time, but it really bugged me. It's Hodgin's and Angela's day here, talk about your case over cake at the reception.
Although I had read something vague about it a while ago, the reveal that Angela is actually already married was interesting. I like that it's not a conflicting relationship, but more like a cultural thing that she wasn't aware was a legall binding marriage. (Like the Our Mrs. Reynolds episode of Firefly, but without the scamming or the Special Hell or the stick what sounds like it's raining.) I'm interested to see how that storyline goes, and how the inevitable second wedding will be.
I think Zach is just so adorable, and I really don't want him to go away to Iraq. I think I understand his dedication, but he's needed at his job and there's got to be something he can do. It's optional, right? Isn't it? I don't want my TV boyfriend to go to war, even if it is just to identify bodies.
I had read something a while back about Zach giving an important letter to Booth, which we saw was his letter from the government. I had hoped that it was Bone's goodbye note from way back in Aliens in a Spaceship. She and Hodgins were buried alive in that car, and they tore pages out of one of her books and wrote goodbye notes, and you just know that she wrote hers to Booth. I had thought that Zach had found it somewhere, and given it to Booth because it was for him. I would've loved that, to see what Bones wrote and how Booth would react. Ah well. Maybe someday.
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5-21-2007 @ 5:06PM
A Viewer said...
"Who knew that it [Angela's father] was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top?"
Well, if you watched the first season of the show then you would've already known by watching the Christmas episdoe where all of the characters are quarantined in the lab and their families all visit and talk through the glass.
"...the twist that Angela was actually married after a ceremony in Fiji. "
It wasn't a twist that was just revealed. In a previous episode, the one where the Institute is under review by the government, it is mentioned that Angela is legally married from a ceremony in Fiji, but she wasn't aware that it was legally binding.
Sorry to complain so much about your review, but those two points irritated me.
Anyway, I loved the episode and also give it a 7/7...
I think the way it wove together the stories about the wedding, the arrest of Bones's father, the murder case, and Zach wondering about whether to go to Iraq was masterful. I enjoyed it so much and thought that the case was among the saddest we've seen.
The prosecutor is uproariously funny and was underused this season. I'm glad they brought her back. Another character they should bring back onto the show now and then is Gordon, the psychiatrist.
One thing I'd like to note is that this episode wrapped up most of the loose ends on this show. What else is there to do with her parents? I mean, now she can find her aunts, but -- she knows her mom is dead, she knows why they abandoned her and her brother, what they did, where her father was all these years, who he's killed, and now we've even seen her mother on videotape. AND her father got arrested. What more is there to say?
Plus, Zach is considering going to war and the Hodgins/Angela romance has come to a wedding-day climax, even if they aren't married. They could, if they wanted to, end the series right here.
But obviously they won't... I wonder where they will go next. Here are my ideas: (a) not getting them married is away for Hodgins and Angela to have the same relationship around the lab, (b) Angela could presumably find her Fijian "husband" and annul the marriage somehow, (c) Bones could find her aunts, (d) Booth's past as a sniper could be explored somehow, and (e) Cam can get the hell out. All this in addition to the procedural aspect. Anyway, that's just my ideas.
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