What's it about?
Seven months have passed and Caroline Julian calls the team back to the Jeffersonian in Washington, D.C. to help save Cam's career as they work to help solve a controversial case regarding the remains of a young boy.
What we saw
The crew have been apart for seven months: Booth is in Afghanistan, Brennan in the Maluku Islands hunting the birth place of humanity, Hodgins and Angela have moved to Paris, Sweets is a store pianist and the interns have gone their separate ways after the program has been closed down. This is the episode that brings everybody back together and shows that they function far better together than they do apart.
Review
How do I start this review? I know... I love Bones! There's no two ways about it, I watched this show by chance during its summer hiatus between seasons 1 and 2 and fell for it hard and have never looked back since. Watching this episode felt like being back with old friends, I smiled when they smiled and felt bad when things weren't looking so good and that is the heart of why this show is so successful.
'Bones' is not your normal procedural, I've never been a fan of the many 'NCIS' and 'CSI' shows of this world and that' because they don't have the depth of character that is on show here. 'Bones' is as much about character as it is about the crimes they solve and this episode leans towards the character side of the scale.
At the end of last season we saw our characters all going their separate ways after Brennan decided that it was time for her to get away from the crime solving game, mainly out of love for Booth. All this left Cam behind at the Jeffersonian and that is the reason why everybody comes back.
It's no more than a mere plot point that Cam is working on a difficult case that could see her lose her job if she doesn't get to the bottom of a young skeleton on her table fast and that her replacement team isn't a patch on our crew (jokingly referred to as The Scooby Gang in this episode - 'Buffy' reference?). But six years in to this show who cares? All we care about is that they're back together and back to doing what they do best, but not until after we get to see Brennan kick some serious ass with a shovel.
The same could be said of the various excuses as to why Brennan no longer has any interns, after several years of a rotating cast is this finally the time to appoint a new Zack?
We couldn't talk about 'Bones' without discussing the relationship between Brennan and Booth, any fan will be aware of the twists their relationship has taken since the 100th episode and here it could not be more clearer that Brennan is coming to realise that she shares the feelings Booth has expressed.
But there's a mammoth in the room in the form of his new girlfriend and it is going to be really interesting to see how Brennan reacts to this over time, particularly after their first meeting in an upcoming episode. Fans of the emotional side of this show will find this tragic turn of events a very compelling distraction from the crime of the week.
The story in this episode is a nice way to bring the crew back together and have them realise the importance of what they do but it's also a really nice comment on family. They work best as a unit rather than apart and it takes a crime to bring that out in them.
In the end there's no murderer to catch, just a lesson to learn and it's a lesson that will bring us back to the place we need to be to really start the season. In fact you could almost call this episode zero not one as it's like a precursor to what we would expect as a normal season opener for this show and I like it.
This is the kind of episode which ends with the audience simultaneously saying "awwww" and awaiting the next episode with a nice feeling of warmth in your tummy.
Oh and the Mammoth in the room referred to in the title... it really is a Mammoth in the room!
Next Week...
The team work on trying to discover the identities of a couple whose bodies were found in a cave. Booth's war correspondent, Hannah Burley, returns to Washington, D.C. and Brennan re-evaluates her relationship with Booth after realizing he's genuinely happy with Hannah.
Overall
Story 4.5
Character 4.5
Investigativeness 4.0
Overall 4.0
They've stopped with the interns!?!? Nigel Murray :(
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