Bones Review: Until Death Do Us Part

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How many of you hoped that a "swift end" to the Pelant storyline would mean we'd all get lucky and the writers would put him to bed in the second episode of Bones season 9? Just me?

None of our wishes were granted. Unless your wish was to see Booth and Brennan go undercover as Tony and Roxie Scallion. (What happened to Buck and Wanda?!)

"The Cheat in the Retreat" was just another ho-hum episode in what is starting out to be another mediocre season.

John Ratzenberger and Millicent Martin on Bones

Booth and Brennan going undercover has the potential to be really fun and awesome or really awful. In tonight's case, it was the latter. 

Maybe Brennan's waffling in and out of character was just Brennan's inability to be anyone other than herself. Or maybe Emily Deschanel felt as ridiculous as she looked while she chanted and flailed about in a sweat lodge.

(Note to the writers, this isn't Arrested Development, but at times it sure does feel like the development of this series has been arrested.)

While the retreat was ultimately good for Brennan and Booth as a couple because she was able to compare their partnership to that of others at the retreat, they didn't need to be undercover to attend. Brennan still would have had her revelation without their cheesy charade.

They do love each other and they are good for each other. They're a great team. I actually liked that aspect of tonight because it let Brennan discover something about how she's feeling for herself.

And that brings me to Angela, who still has an ax to grind with Booth. I get that she's Brennan's best friend; that she feels some need to be righteously indignant about her friend's pain. But enough already. Brennan has said "I trust him. I'm asking you to trust him." And what she gets is "here's how you should feel about this.

Can we stop doing that to Brennan, writers? Can we stop having other characters telling her how and what to feel? 

Early on that worked because Brennan was all science, no emotion. She needed those around her to ground herself. She needed to make human connections. 

For all the ways the writers have tried to evolve the character over the seasons, both successfully and with epic failure, this is one that is still so unevenly done week to week.

First she's incapable of emotion. Next she's so overcome with emotion she seems completely not herself. Now those closest to her treat her like she's incapable of feeling and must be told what's going on inside her head.

She's not a robot! Skynet has become aware! Leave her alone and trust her when she says "hey, so I love this guy. I'm in this with him." 

Yeesh!

While I wasn't wishing I could yell at Angela, I was trying to decide if Pelant is behind Cam's identity being stolen. It seems something up his alley and definitely within the scope of his abilities. I mean, he hacks drones. Financial records are just a tiny little byte for him. (Badum chhhh...)

It makes sense that Pelant would do this sort of thing because he seems to know all of their Achilles heels. He bankrupted Hodgins. He blackmailed Seeley. He knows what he knows because of he has Sweets' research and he's using it against them all. 

And that has left Sweets off his game.

As he asked for a leave of absence to sort himself out, I found myself kind of feeling sorry for the guy. I go back and forth on how I feel about Sweets as a character, but tonight, I kind of wanted to dropkick Pelant in the teeth.

He (maybe) took Cam's money, but Arastoo was right when he said that she's more than her bank accounts. Pelant has taken Sweets' joy, and that feels somehow like the worse loss between the two.

What did you think of "The Cheat in the Retreat?" Did you like Tony and Roxie or find their undercover shenanigans unnecessary? Is Pelant behind Cam's identity theft?

The Cheat in the Retreat Review

Editor Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 3.8 / 5.0 (183 Votes)

Miranda Wicker was a Staff Writer for TV Fanatic. She retired in 2017. Follow her on Twitter.

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Bones Season 9 Episode 2 Quotes

[to Bones] I'll be angry at both Booth and Mars for you.

Angela

Brennan: I've found that as a Caucasian if I enter into any kind of debate like this the non-Caucausians like you and Arastoo yell at me as if I represent all white people.
Arastoo: I tend to represent all Muslims.
Angela: I tend to represent all hot women.