A murder is made to look like a suicide when a body falls from an overpass, hitting the hood of a man’s car. When the car hits a tree, it and the body bursts into flames. The victim is Ronald “Ronnie” Bergman, the mattress king of southeast Baltimore. Booth makes Aubrey the lead investigator on the case. 

Ronnie took a leave of absence from work to make a movie, “Radioactive Panthers in Fort Lauderdale” a campy horror film, leaving his assistant, Ms. Martin in charge. Ronnie hired David Faustino, who played Bud on the TV show Married with Children to star in his movie.

Faustino changed the entire script, leaving Ronnie feeling like a failure. Ronnie decided to go back to run the mattress store. He was sitting on the roof of the building, smoking a cigarette, when he told Ms. Martin he was coming back. She was so angry that she shoved him off the roof, then tossed his body off the overpass to try and cover it up.

Wendell is stumped over the topic to choose for his dissertation. Brennan points out that she was so passionate about her dissertation that she wrote five of them while trying to find just the right topic. She makes Wendell realize that perhaps his passion isn’t in anthropology and that he should figure out where it lies. He agrees. 

Booth tells Aubrey that the FBI office in Los Angeles is considering him for Supervisory Special Agent position. Booth thinks he should take it. 

Dr. Beth Mayer (Betty White) returns but she says she's lost the passion for forensic lab work. She’s now doing prairie dog research.