Saturday, January 25, 2014

Bones - The Master in the Slop


While Bones (Emily Deschanel) pouts that Cam (Tamara Taylor) earns a prestigious Women in Science award that usually goes to her and is forced to work with Canadian Forensic Podiatrist Douglas Filmore (Scott Lowell) rather than one of her usual lab assistants, the Jeffersonian helps the FBI investigate the murder of a champion chess master whose remains were found in pig slop.

The method of disposal used to get rid of the remains leads Booth (David Boreanaz) to an old suspect (Dayo Okeniyi) who admits to using pigs to destroy the remains but not the murder. As Booth and Brenan investigate the victim's current girlfriend (Michelle Clunie) who profits from his untimely death and his ex-wife (Marina Benedict) who burned down his apartment, Sweets (John Francis Daley) uses his own history as a former chess prodigy to sniff out suspects (Dimitri Diatchenko, Marcus Giamatti, Joseph Fuhr, Jo Mei, Craig Ricci Shaynak) at the victim's chess club.

Showcasing Sweets' ability outside his professional expertise is a nice touch, especially in how his knowledge of chess helps him as a psychiatrist in ferreting out the killer. "The Master in the Slop" requires Bones to be even more prickly than usual. While her character has always been socially-handicapped and off-putting, Bones comes off shrill and petty for nearly the entire episode (except for her respect of Sweets' interrogation of the team's leading suspect). And Cam's magnanimous gesture of accepting the award only if both Bones and Angela (Michaela Conlin) are also honored is a nice gesture that's undrcut a bit by the truth about the magazine's nominees this year.

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