Powered by i.TV
February 10, 2012
 
CONNECT    

Bones: Death in the Saddle

by Richard Keller, posted Oct 10th 2007 1:01AM

David Boreanaz as Seeley Booth in FOX's Bones(S03E03) Stop! Or I'll kick you in the testicles! -- Bones, when trying to halt someone running away from Booth.

Maggots in the eye sockets! Yay! Three episodes in and we finally get a body that makes one put their fork down and push away that plate of pasta with red sauce. Not only did we have said maggots just pouring out of the body's eye sockets, but we had a pair of feet that were cut nicely and buried several feet away. And, we got to see those feet up close and personal. Fantastic!

Yet, it doesn't compare to the liquefied body of last season for some reason. Go figure.

This episode of Bones was one of the weirdest that I've seen since I began reviewing the show. It was also one of the most humorous. The whole 'pony play' thing just kept me going 'What the hell?' every time I saw it. Plus, the interaction between Bones and Booth was at its lightest of the season so far.

I would actually say that there was a bit of status change between Seeley and Temperance this week. Maybe it was just the way I saw it, but Bones seemed to be the person in change of the investigation this time around. She was asking many of the questions and pointing out where to next look for clues. She was also making Booth feel extremely uncomfortable with her talk about sex and role-playing.

Booth is a very easy target when it comes to that type of stuff. While he shows the swagger and the attitude of a hard-nosed FBI agent, he's pretty much all white bread inside. You can tell that he's pretty conservative with the things he says. So, when a subject like role-playing pops up it's easy to rile the poor boy.

While the 'pony play' theme was weird, it was highly amusing to watch. Plus, the murder investigation connected to this little Virginia retreat was interesting to follow as well. I had a feeling it was Annie Oakley who performed the murder, but wasn't quite sure about it until Bones discovered that the victim's eyes were gouged out by a professional. A professional like a doctor, which Annie was in her real life.

The other story in this week's episode was the further investigation as to who Angela previously married. It was decided that she would go under hypnosis to determine the name of her current husband. Here is another example of a character in Bones seemingly being one type of person, yet being thrown off by something unnatural to them.

Angela is, in no uncertain terms, a free spirit. She embodies some of that new age vibe from the 60's, most likely courtesy of her father. Yet, when it comes to being put under to find the name of her husband, she totally freaks out. Luckily, with the help of the hypnosis Angela was able to pull the name of the person from an image that she saw. See, you need to try new things once in awhile.

Now, the other items of interest from this week's episode:

  • Bones' comments to that perp as he was running out of the butcher shop. My Lord, funniest line of the night! Then, Booth telling her that they really need to work on their cop talk
  • Speaking about cop talk, Bones uses the phrase 'Lard ass and good cop' to distinguish between the nice police officer and the angry and fat police officer.
  • In a span of five minutes time cantaloupe were mistaken for honeydew melons. How can you confuse these? Honeydew has a smooth, slightly pale skin. The employees at the Jeffersonian need to eat more fruit.
  • There's a change in relationship between Zack and Jack. It seems that his time in Iraq transformed Zack into a 'man of action'. That's why he isn't going in with some of Jack's ideas. Jack is pretty disappointed about this and unsure of what to do.
  • Since the main story was about some fetish involving horses, there were plenty of horse jokes. The victim's name was Ed, so he was called Mr. Ed throughout the episode. When speaking to another suspect Booth muttered the phrase 'My Friend Flicka'. Then there were the corny horse jokes that Bones told to Booth. Honestly, I'm almost 39-years-old and never heard the bridal suite joke.
  • When Bones is surprised by the intelligence of something Booth says, he replies 'Obviously I'm smarter than a fifth grader'.
  • Another Booth quote, when interviewing a butcher who is interested in slaughtering horses for meat, 'There's crazy pony players and whacked-out, crazy pony players.

A fun episode all around this week. We take a week off, so I'll talk to you in 13 days or so.

Add a Comment

*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

8 Comments

Filter by:
A Viewer

First things first -- I was pleased to see the return to the old format of the crime not being shown and your ideas one who did it having to be pieced together based on the same evidence that the investigators see. That is one of the good traits that has always distinguished Bones from other cop shows. Thank goodness they went back to it.

As for the episode, I did not really like most of this episode too much. I thought it was kind of obvious that the murderer was "Annie Oakley," since she was his rider, after all, and he was slaughtered like a rider might kill their horse. And the fact that the victim's wife walked in one them engaging in...um..."pony play" gave her a simple motive. It was not very mysterious for me; actually, I figured that she was a prime suspect and I was surprised that they did not guess that sooner.

The hotel manager was the SWAT team guy from Standoff, right?

Does this pony play fetish really exist? I was equally freaked out by it as Booth; with this episode, Bones escalated to an equal weirdness factor with the original CSI, which has in recent seasons gotten more and more outlandish with the murders (also usually sex-related) that it features.

The shots of the rotting, maggot-eaten corpse, and the disembodied feet were unflinchingly graphic, however. With my new HD TV, they looked 10 times gorier, enhancing the effect.

I'm hoping that next week's episode will be good but without the off-putting weirdness factor (you know, the kinky sex plotline). I do like the Booth/Brennan banter, and the quest to find Angela's husband is getting interesting. Angela seems to have a pretty easy job. Half the time, they don't even need her; take this episode for example. All she had to do was show up for work, and then she did whatever she wanted.

Cantelopes look very distinctive. I couldn't believe anyone would mistake one for a honeydew -- those have smoother exteriors.

Unfortunately, it seems that the next new episode isn't this Tuesday, but the next. It looks to have another gory corpse, though -- "A farmer is found cooked or incinerated," according to the Fox website!

'Til then, ciao.

October 14 2007 at 11:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
EH

This show is just so much fun and it's so full of delightful wit and heart. The leads are incredible together and the supporting cast is top notch. I started watching toward the end of last year and had to buy the dvds to catch up. Worth every penny. Best show on tv today. Loved the horse ep.

October 12 2007 at 5:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
ac

This episode was alot like a CSI Vegas episode. CSI deals with so many kinky sex related murders I'm surprised they didn't do horses (although I remember an episode with animal suits like what you see in a Disney park).

Also I noticed about 100 different images that can be used for friday's subtle subtitles.

October 10 2007 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Oreo

This was so wonder. A gross body, sex and sex and more sex and then weird pony sex!

The whole time I was thinking... you know you want Bones to play horse and rider with you Booth. :)

October 10 2007 at 10:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tim

This seemed like such a light mood throughout the episode which I was surprised by given the high gross factor from the body at the beginning.

I loved Bones line to the butcher as Booth chased him. My only question is how did she go out the front door and around the building so fast? Booth and the butcher only just made it out the back door. She's like greased lightning!

October 10 2007 at 9:23 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jordancda

Great episode...but I was seriously grossed out by the body. The flesh...ugh.

And the Bones/Booth romantic tension...phew! Its almost worse than Jim/Pam. It stresses me out. I'm almost afraid to keep watching Pushing Daisies...I don't know if I can handle another of these prolonged, drawn out relationships and Ned and Chuck can't even touch.

October 10 2007 at 2:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Gordon Werner

Bones confusing "Hard Ass and Bad Cop" with "Lard Ass and Good Cop" was priceless

October 10 2007 at 2:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
BillS

I saw something on pony play a few years back, I think maybe on one of those HBO "Real Sex" things (which I was watching for purely educational purposes). It was horrifying, mostly overweight people, and the pony ones had serious trouble carrying the rider ones.

October 10 2007 at 1:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply

Follow Us

From Our Partners