Bones Episode 6.16 The Blackout in the Blizzard

ACT 1

As the snow falls, Booth, Brennan and Sweets enjoy a warm breakfast at the Diner. However, Sweets wants to do more than just eat: he wants Booth and Brennan to discuss their relationship. Brennan gets a call from Cam: they have a murder to solve. She wants the Squints to work for a few hours and then head out early to avoid the blizzard. Booth notices two men outside the Diner leaving seats from Veteran Stadium on the curb. Can Sweets and Brennan help get them to his apartment? They reluctantly agree.

At the Lab, Hodgins and Wendell are already working on the case. The female victim died about twelve days ago. Hodgins finds a strange tick when Angela enters. She has come from a doctor's appointment and doesn't look happy. Hodgins pulls her aside to talk.

In the Ookey Room, Angela is troubled. She is an LCA carrier. If Hodgins is a carrier too, it means their baby could be blind. Hodgins reassures her. Everything will be fine because the chances of Hodgins being a carrier are slim. Hodgins will get his test results back soon. Comforted, Angela lets Hodgins get back to work. His computer has identified the tick and it is very bad news.

Booth, Brennan and Sweets drag the stadium seats through the lobby of Booth's building. Will these even fit in the elevator? After pushing and pulling and pushing some more, Brennan gets a call. The victim was infected with Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, a deadly virus. If the murderer was exposed, he could infect the entire city! Brennan tells Booth of the urgent situation as the stadium seats are loaded into the elevator and they begin to rise. Sweets heads off to meet the partners upstairs when the power goes out. Booth and Brennan are trapped in the elevator!

ACT 2

Booth tries to call for help but emergency services won't respond right away because no one is hurt. Cam tells Brennan that there are no other reported cases of CCHF. It's good news but how do they get out of here?

Cam assures the Squints that they can't catch the virus from the victim. They determine that since the victim was part Native American, she must have been a traveler from the United States. Perhaps they can identify her through passport control?

Brennan confers with Wendell on her cell phone. She tells him that he must take X-rays. How? There is no electricity. She directs him to an article that explains how to complete the task using electrostatics and triboluminescence. In the Ookey Room, Wendell and Hodgins set up the procedure. Wendell plans to create a vacuum inside a glove box and pull back rolls of tape. This will generate an electrical current strong enough to take X-rays. Hodgins isn't sure it will work but he soon becomes a believer as Wendell pulls out photo paper with the X-ray of a bone!

In the elevator, Booth reports there is no match for the victim in the missing persons' database or passport control. Booth has a plan. They can use the escape hatch to...escape. Brennan tries to sit on Booth's shoulders to climb up and Sweets catches them in a compromising position.

Hodgins tries to get his test results from the doctor but the power outages are causing a delay. He returns to the case in the meantime. Wendell finds remodeling trauma to the femur on one of the X-rays. There is debris embedded in the bone.

Booth helps Brennan reach the escape hatch. She pulls it but the chairs prevent it from fully opening. They are still trapped. Brennan drops her phone. Booth goes to retrieve it and the partners end up collapsing in a heap...with Booth injuring his back.

ACT 3

Booth is in LOTS of pain. He waits for Sweets to bring painkillers. Wendell sends an X-ray to Brennan's phone. She notices that there are indeed foreign objects in the bone. Remodeling suggests they've been there for four years. Booth recognizes it as shrapnel. She must have been around an explosion four years ago. Sweets arrives with aspirin, bottled water and frozen peas. Booth puts the frozen peas on his back...ahhhhh...

Wendell and Hodgins comb through the shrapnel. It is melted but Hodgins identifies ridging...these could be coins! Hodgins will go to the Coins of the World exhibit in the Global Cultures section of the Jeffersonian and see if he can find a match!

Booth ices his back while Sweets sits on the stairs. Sweets decides this is his moment to discuss their relationship. Will Booth and Brennan resume therapy? Booth tells Sweets to stop but Sweets wants to help. Things go too far when Sweets mentions Hannah. Booth throws the frozen peas at Sweets and the bag breaks apart.

Wendell cleans the bones. Hodgins arrives with coins from the exhibit and a machine to ID the shrapnel. He just needs a short burst of electricity to make everything work. For this, he borrowed a dynamite igniter from the American History Wing.

Wendell calls Brennan. He sees perimortem injuries to the right ulna and radius. Brennan instructs him to do a penetrant test. Soaking the bones in dye will increase the contrast and make the injuries more apparent.

In the Ookey Room, Hodgins accidently breaks the dynamite igniter, which probably won't sit well with the Jeffersonian. Angela arrives to borrow Hodgins' cell phone. She hopes that putting the SIM card from the victim's phone into a similar model will allow her to obtain the information she needs. Hodgins protests. He needs to keep his phone. Angela realizes he is worried about his test results but Hodgins won't admit to his fear.

On the Forensic Platform, Wendell pours dye into a bucket of water. Cam and Wendell hear noises. They look up to find Hodgins, attempting to tap into one of the emergency lights for electricity. As Cam and Wendell try to talk him down, a jolt of electricity shocks Hodgins. He falls, knocking the dye onto Wendell.

ACT 4

Cam reprimands Hodgins for his accident. Wendell comments that they have no more dye. He remarks that they can grind beetle shells to make dye. Hodgins DOES NOT want to use his precious creatures for dye but Cam won't take no for an answer.

Brennan and Booth continue to work on an escape plan. Booth admits the chairs were a stupid idea but they reminded him of the only perfect day he had with his dad. He had stopped drinking for two weeks and took Booth to the baseball game. Booth finally got the fatherly attention he always craved. He feels bad about being so hard on Sweets. Maybe Sweets was right. They should discuss their relationship.

Wendell finds Hodgins in the Ookey Room. Hodgins looks distraught but he is testing the coins by dissolving them in hydrochloric acid. He explains the coins are made of nickel and copper, which means they are Russian rubles. Wendell realizes that Hodgins got the call from his doctor. He is an LCA carrier. Hodgins is terrified of telling Angela. Angela enters and sees the look on Hodgins' face. Wendell leaves them alone but watches the exchange through the window. As Hodgins tearily breaks the news, Angela embraces him.

Brennan tells Booth that the shrapnel was composed of Russian rubles. Booth puts it together: Chechnya. There has to be press coverage, especially if an American was injured in an explosion.

Wendell interrupts Angela to volunteer his cell phone. Angela says that none of their cell phones match the victim's SIM card. She was able to repair some of the wiring but she needs a way to provide power gradually so it doesn't short. Wendell has an idea. Cam enters, bringing microfiche. They need to scan it to find coverage of an explosion in Chechnya four years ago.

Sweets revisits the elevator and Booth apologizes. Angela calls Brennan. She reads from an article. "Four innocent bystanders, including an American aid worker, were injured when an IED struck a vehicle in Beslan on Tuesday. The American has been identified as Anne-Marie Weston, age 28, a field worker with the Alliance for Human Dignity. Ms. Weston almost lost a leg, but doctors now expect her to make a full recovery." They found the victim.

ACT 5

Booth has just spoken with the Director of the Alliance for Human Dignity. He confirmed the identity of Anne-Marie Weston. She had been working out of Albania during the past year, which is where she got the virus. Booth's phone is dying so Sweets runs outside to make another call for him.

Wendell calls Brennan with the results of the penetrant test. There are distinct injuries, scratches and gouges. Brennan believes the scratches were made by glass but what about the gouges? Booth lends his expertise. She could have put her arm through a glass window with thick wire mesh embedded in the pane. Brennan agrees with the finding. Angela interrupts to find hundreds of pounds of potatoes on the Forensic Platform. What is going on? Wendell plans to power the cell phone with potatoes.

Brennan adjusts Booth's back by performing Thai massage. Booth is really enjoying the treatment but he asks Brennan to stop so Sweets doesn't see. He might get confused about their relationship again. Brennan admits that she has thought about sleeping with Booth. They would be very compatible, since they are both physical and have excellent stamina. Yet, as a couple, it wouldn't work. Sweets returns with an update: the Director of the Alliance for Human Dignity said the victim went to Albania to investigate human trafficking. She also went to neighborhoods in D.C. with a heavy Albanian population to find women who needed help.

Hodgins and Wendell group the potatoes together and connect them to the cell phone. It's working! They hurriedly add more potatoes to the chain as Angela writes down the numbers from the call history. Angela yells when she begins to lose power. Go. Go! GO! Unfortunately, the boys run out of potatoes and the phone dies.

ACT 6

Booth tells Brennan that the victim's phone history only showed incoming calls. There was one right around the time of death from a location less than a mile away. Brennan suggests a way to escape: they can break the seats apart at a rusted area. Booth agrees. They push with their feet and the seats break! Freedom!

Booth and Brennan approach the building from where the call came. They find a broken window covered by a board. When they remove the board, they see the faces of young women, all imprisoned. A sick Albanian man interrupts their investigation. He has the virus. He doesn't speak English and attacks Booth. Brennan knocks him out with a 2x4.

Cam tells the Squints that the murderer is Tariq Grazdani. He is sick with CCHF. He hasn't admitted to murdering Anne-Marie but the girls were witnesses and are going to testify.

Hodgins decides to take up piano. If he can't look through microscopes with his kid, then they will play piano. He advises Angela to take up sculpture. If she can't teach her child to paint, then sculpture is a great alternative. Angela thinks Hodgins is getting ahead of himself. There is only a 25% chance of blindness. She smiles, realizing what Hodgins has done. They can handle anything...together.

Booth and Brennan sit in the reconstructed stadium seats in Booth's apartment. Booth confesses that he is angry. He needs time. Brennan confesses that she is becoming strong. She used to be impervious and didn't need to be strong but she is slowly losing her resistance. Perhaps a day will come when Booth is no longer angry and she is no longer impervious. Perhaps then they can be together. Booth suggests they write down a date and burn it. It's like making a wish. Brennan agrees. As they watch their wishes burn, they wonder what the future will hold.