'Bones' Season 6, Episode 11 Recap

['Bones': 'The Bullet in the Brain']

As Professor Moriarty is to Sherlock Holmes and Lex Luthor is to Superman, Heather Taffet, known as the Gravedigger, is the arch-nemesis of Booth, Bones and the Squints.

Over the last few years, this former prosecutor has tortured various members of the team by burying them alive in a car and leaving them to fend for themselves on an old naval ship ready to be sunk. During her trial, Taffet tried to manipulate the close-knit group of law enforcement officers and scientists in order to wear them down and possibly exonerate her from all of the murders she committed.

Even in this week's episode of 'Bones,' she tried to dig deep down into the psyche of one of the team members to get him to distrust himself at her appeal hearing. However, when all seemed lost, something happened that changed the Gravedigger's disposition ...

Her head was blown off -- and not in a figurative sense. In one of the most graphic displays of assassination seen on commercial television, the Gravedigger's head exploded in a shower of blood and brain matter. From the initial wide shot, the scene was horrific. Close up, as we watched blood pool out from the hole where her head once was, the image was just ghastly.

And yet, there was a sigh of relief not only from the viewers but from those who were tortured by the Gravedigger in the past. In the past, there was definitely a vibe change whenever a Gravedigger episode was on, even when we didn't know why -- a sense of foreboding and dread not normally connected with 'Bones,' despite its subject matter and dark humor. Even through the maggots and decaying bodies, there is always some sense of hope underneath.

Not so when the Gravedigger came knocking. Even in this episode, when most viewers knew that she was going to be shot, there was that sense of anger and frustration at what she was doing to Sweets during the ride to her appeal. It was just so cold and manipulative to tear down Lance when we all knew that he could probably psychoanalyze her under the table. And so, when her head was blown cleeeean off, a wave of relief washed over everyone.

The best example of this was Hodgins who, along with Bones, was a victim of the Gravedigger back in season 2. His hesitation at seeing a clump of her red hair amongst a pile of her skull fragments was misinterpreted. It wasn't a remembrance of his time buried alive; it was inner joy that he was looking at a clump of her red hair amongst a pile of her skull fragments. Emotionally unattached? To Angela and others, probably. But to Hodgins and those who were her direct victims, most definitely not.

On the other side of the emotional spectrum was Sweets, who was totally frazzled by Taffet's smackdown of him on the trip over to the courthouse. Personally, I'm not sure why this affected him so much. On more than one occasion both Booth and Bones have tried to discredit him and his theories. Why would the insane ramblings of a known serial killer hit him so hard?

Perhaps it was a combination of being in such close proximity to her both in the transport van and when her blood and brain fragments splattered onto him. If the assassination didn't happen he could have shaken off her statements and given one doozy of a testimony. But seeing the killing up close could have triggered something in him -- perhaps feelings of inadequacies he had as a child -- that caused him to lose faith in himself and his theories.

Luckily, the tough-as-nails Caroline came in to verbally slap Sweets around. But before doing so she revealed something to the good doctor. In the first emotional break viewers have probably seen from her, Caroline admitted that she was scared witless after the Gravedigger's head exploded in front of her. Scared to the point that she messed herself. While not one of her shining moments it did provide us with a more three-dimensional picture of the character, which makes her that much more endearing.

While we've dealt with the secondary characters in 'Bones' we've haven't talked much about Booth and Bones' role in the investigation as to who killed Taffet. Tempy's part in this episode was very minor. Though when she was on screen, she was in her more scientific mode than her usual Sheldon-like stupor about life.

In reality, the only reason she was there was to have Ryan O'Neal return as her father. And the subplot of him being on the suspect list for Taffet's assassination was unrealistic. Max is a killer, that's certain, but an expert marksman that could kill from nearly a mile away? No, he's not cold enough. It wasn't worth the time and energy for O'Neal to return for this episode.

If this was anyone's show it was Seeley's. No lovey-dovey or inner reflection moments this time around. This was Booth at his best: doing the leg work, asking the right questions, bringing in the right suspects. Even his time as an expert sniper came in handy as he was able to narrow down the suspect list to only a handful of folks that he all knew.

In the end he found the man who killed Taffet. The question comes down to if he could've taken the shot and killed the sniper who actually did the job. Yes he was injured and his balance and sight were probably off due to the explosion of the trailer, but he was so close to the suspect that he could've gotten off one shot. Perhaps it was the strange bond all snipers have that caused Seeley to let the man go. Or it could be that it set up a future episode where the two will meet yet again.

Other interesting moments from this week's 'Bones' ...

• While the half-flesh, half-skeletal body found in the call girl's bathtub was initially hard to look at, it wasn't very life-like when they put it on the slab at the Jeffersonian. There was a definite fakeness to the fleshy part of the body that made it look like a deformed store mannequin.

• Wendell was back after a long absence. He's been gone so long that he's making a return appearance in next week's episode.

• Perhaps the writers over at 'Bones' read some of my previous recaps mentioning the use of 'I' before naming an interstate rather than just calling it 'The 66' or 'The 95.' In this week's episode, Booth called U.S. Interstate 64 'I-64.'

Next week: one dead body in a cornfield, one farmer, three sister wives


'Bones' airs Thursdays at 9PM ET on Fox.

Check out the full episode here: