Bones Episode 8.08 The But in the Joke

ACT ONE

Street artist, Seth Zalinsky, stands on a billboard catwalk and hangs a poster over a billboard. He slips and falls off the catwalk. When Seth comes to, Booth and Brennan are there. Seth won't tell them his identity. Seth is stable but glued to decomposed human remains.

Hodgins comes into Angela office and needs her special peanut butter to help get the remains off Seth. Angela doesn't want to share, she needs her PB especially because she got a ticket at Broadway and Nash this morning. Finally, she gives in and gives him her stash.

Seth lays on the lab table with human remains still attached to him. Fisher determines the victim is a Caucasian male with a fused C5 and C6 vertebrae. Cam goes to find out what doctor fused the neck bones to help determine the identity. Brennan leaves Fisher to figure out how to detach the remains. Hodgins and Angela come onto the platform with the peanut butter. Angela notices the poster that Seth was trying to hang. Angela realizes that he is the famous street artist Zed.

ACT TWO

Booth and Brennan meet with Denny Bennet. He is the victim, Morgan Donnelly's, boss who reported him missing days ago. Denny tells them that Morgan's girlfriend came into the office last Friday yelling at him in front of everyone claiming he was cheating on her. Denny explains that she cheated on Morgan with him. Booth realizes that Denny has motive to kill Morgan since he stole his ex-girlfriend. Booth needs the name of the girlfriend.

Hodgins and Fisher apply the peanut butter with a caulk gun to the remains. The boys leave to let the peanut butter set. Angela comes to the platform-she wants him to admit that he is Zed. Angela is honored to meet him from one artist to another. Angela kisses him because of who he is. Zed starts to feel the remains loosen.

Booth and Brennan drive to the girlfriend's house. Brennan shows off the features of her new Prius she is excited about.

At the house, B & B meet Alexa and Elliot Eaton. Booth and Brennan give them the news of Morgan's death. The pair hysterically cracks up upon hearing the news. Booth and Brennan are confused.

Fisher extracts the skull and bones from Zed. The skull is completely smashed in. Hodgins finds blowflies and insects on the bones. Zed falls off the lab table after being freed of remains, he doesn't care though, he got kissed by the hot Asian chick. Hodgins wants to know what that means.

ACT THREE

Sweets brings in Alexa into the interrogation room. She is distraught and claims she isn't a psycho because of her reaction. Morgan was a jokester and comedian. She thought it was him playing a joke to make up for their fight. Alexa tells Sweets that after their fight on Friday he came over for dinner. When she got home from her bartending shift and he was gone. Sweets tells her that there was a fake arrow through his head when the body was found-but whoever put that arrow on his head is the murderer because Morgan would never do such a cheap joke.

Back at the lab, Fisher continues to apply the peanut butter to the remains removed. Fisher tells Brennan he does some stand up himself-with dark humor and honesty. Brennan notices chips and fractures on the skull and theorizes that the victim was struck several times with a blunt object.

Sweets explains to Booth what information he got from Alexa. Booth thinks the arrow through the head gag is funny, Sweets can't agree.

Angela finds Zed in her office admiring her paintings. Zed analyzes Angela's work saying that it looks like she used to paint like him with ideals but now that she had a baby and got married...everything's changed. He tells her that she is the only one that knows his secret identity and would appreciate it if she didn't tell his secret. He tells her if she keeps the secret he'll take care of Broadway and Nash tonight for her. On his way out, Zed tells her she has excellent technique. Angela is crushed.

ACT FOUR

Booth, Sweets, and Elliot watch some of Morgan's stand up tapes. Elliot used to tape all of Morgan's shows and help him with his jokes. There is always the same heckler at his shows. Sweets talked to Fisher who said that being heckled from the same person means something. Elliot tells them to talk to the comic, Larry Barron, who hated Morgan.

Fisher and Hodgins try to get the bones clean with bugs and cockroaches.

Booth and Brennan go to Laughtastics to question Larry Barron. Larry tells them that it was a set up that Morgan wanted him to heckle him. He got to write what he heckled him on and Morgan got laughs. B & B go to leave when they see a flyer with the comic, Rex, he has a fake arrow through his head. Larry tells him that Rex is backstage warming up and now with Morgan is gone Rex is getting his spot.

Rex did not like Morgan. Morgan stole props, jokes, women, everything. Rex tells Booth and Brennan someone stole his arrow. Rex also uses a mallet in his act, Brennan tests it for blood. It's positive.

ACT FIVE

Angela admits to Hodgins that she kissed Zed at the diner over lunch. Hodgins is jealous, but Angela explains that he is Zed and he is a great artists. She tells him that Zed said she had good technique which isn't actually a compliment. Hodgins gets a text: Brennan found the murder weapon.

Fisher reassembles some of the victim's teeth. Cam comes in wanting to hear some of Fisher's jokes. Fisher does some "raw, unfiltered honesty" which is Fisher's act. Cam doesn't really understand Fisher's humor. Fisher realizes that some of the fragments don't belong to the skull or teeth.

Sweets and Booth analyze jokes in Booth's office. Sweets realizes which jokes are stolen. Sweets suggest that Booth does open mic night with the stolen jokes to see if anyone claims them. Sweets and Fisher will scan the crowd for people's reaction.

Hodgin tells Brennan and Fisher that the mallet was a false positive because it was used with turnip juice. The extra fragments are made of ceramic. Brennan wants to have Angela recreate possible fracture patterns on the Angelatron.

Booth takes the stage at Laughtastics. Booth starts reading the jokes and gets no laughs. Booth starts to get into it and tells his own jokes and gets his own laughs. He reads some of the stolen jokes and Annie Pinkus stands up in the crowd to say that was her joke.

Annie tells Booth that Morgan bought her jokes and she got some of his profit if he got famous. She tells him that Morgan was about to move to New York City. Morgan had bookings in clubs and on tv.

ACT SIX

At the Angelatron, used the fracture lines to figure out that there were three blows to the victim's head. Brennan realizes that the victim was curved and ceramic. Hodgins comes in with the results from the ceramic-it's a toilet. The victim's head was smashed into the toilet when he was draped over the toilet puking.

Hodgins goes out into the D.C. area checking all the toilets that the victim would have used on a regular basis. He goes to Alexa's apartment...this is the toilet.

Alexa tells Booth and Brennan that she made dinner the last time she saw Morgan. They tell him that Morgan died from someone smashing his head into her toilet. Alexa wants a lawyer and one for her brother too.

Booth and Brennan question Elliot in the interrogation room. Elliot tells them that Morgan was drinking a lot that night to work up the courage to tell Alexa he was moving to New York. Elliot did all this work for him and then just ditch him and his sister. Elliot smashed his head and wrapped him up in a shower curtain and dumped his body.

At Broadway and Nash, Angela and Hodgins wait to see Zed. Zed comes and sees that Angela has already put her own art up. Zed starts to walk away but Hodgins and Angela jumps out of their car to confront him. He tells her that he loves her work...and she has horrible technique. Angela is thrilled by Zed's compliment.

Back in bed at Booth and Brennan's, Booth tries to get Brennan to laugh by the arrow in the head gag. Booth starts to tell Brennan some jokes...she laughs uncontrollably