Bones Episode 8.17 The Fact in the Fiction

ACT ONE

A new farmer enjoys his new lifestyle in the country and doesn't miss the city life. While riding on his tractor it picks up a dead body in his crop! He's horrified!

Booth and Brennan arrive at the farm. Booth is trying to convince Brennan to invest in asteroid farming but Brennan doesn't understand Booth's desire. Based on the bugs and larvae Hodgins determines time of death five days ago. Hodgins is on board for asteroid farming, Booth appreciates his support. Brennan notices coyote marks on the bones and cannot find the skull but can determine the victim is male. Brennan needs the remains back to the lab.

Booth and Brennan have a quick bite at the diner. Brennan is still unsupportive to Booth's mining dreams. Suddenly, a bloodied, disheveled man walks in asking for Brennan. He reaches into his bag. Booth draws his gun and has the man go to the ground. The man tells him he has something for Brennan. He slides his bag over to her and the skull of the victim rolls out...it's Brennan's new intern!

ACT TWO

Brennan comes into Cam's office asking about the new intern, Oliver Wells. Cam is impressed that Oliver was enthusiastic enough to search for the skull on his own. Cam tells Brennan to give him a chance and that he is more than qualified for the job.

Brennan and Cam make their way to the platform and Oliver joins them. Hodgins is excited to de-spike the victim off the tractor. Oliver examines the skull and finds evidence that shows the skull was removed by the coyotes and not the murderer. He also notices a glow coming out of the victim's nose.

Booth and Sweets travel to an auto body shop. They are going to see the victim's brother who is the only living family left. The glow in the victim's nose was glow-in-the-dark paint from his brother's auto body shop.

At the shop, they meet the victim's brother, Alex Garcia. The victim, Benji, was a college student who had the week off from the shop to study for finals. It was just the two of them-their mother died a few years ago and their father took off when they were children. Fellow worker, Sidney Jouron, asks Booth and Sweets if they found Benji's truck. It was a tricked out '59 El Camino. Alex and Sidney tell them that Benji's girlfriend HATED the truck and they broke up about a week ago.

While dermestid beetles clean the bones, Oliver asks Hodgins if he would rather have his brain in a beetle's body or a beetle's brain in his body. Hodgins is taken back by the question but tells him he'd have his brain in a beetle's body. Then he would be King of the Beetles! Oliver notes that Hodgins answer means that he belongs working at the Jeffersonian and that he is a happy man. Also that Hodgins is mischievous and is willing to lie if it's for humorous effort. Oliver picks up the victim's skill and notices a contusion that happened around time of death but isn't enough to be what killed him.

Sweets and Booth talk to ex-girlfriend, Courtney, in the FBI Conference Room. She couldn't compete with Benji's truck and was tired of being second fiddle to it. Benji saw a old picture of his dad with an El Camino and became obsessed with the thought of restoring one. Courtney explains that he also was into scientific experiments that include time travel. Sweets and Booth are taken back by that. Benji believed that it would make the two of them rich.

Booth and Sweets leave the Conference Room. Sweets tells Booth that Courtney displays some symptoms of Intermittent Explosive Disorder which means if she was provoked enough should could have violent and destructive behavior.

ACT THREE

Brennan comes into the Bone Room to see Oliver eating string cheese and examining the bones. Oliver has discovered that the victim has scoliosis as well as several perimortem fractures to the tibia and fibula. Brennan is somewhat impressed but tells Oliver he needs to rearticulate the bones and she takes his string cheese. Oliver pulls out a back up string cheese and gets to work.

Hodgins brings Angela a coffee in her office. Hodgins tells her that he found a few strawberry seeds in his show tred but it doesn't trace back to the farm Benji's body was found at. Angela is going through Benji's computer. It has many time traveling theories that Hodgins takes a look at. Hodgins is impressed and interested to see Benji wanted to go back in time not into the future. Hodgins tells Angela he'd go back to the first time they met, Angela would do the same. Angela has also found that Benji had access to the Collindale University server but wasn't a student there. He was logging in as Professor Scott Hunter.

Back at the FBI, Sweets analyzes Benji's obsession with time travel. Most people who want to time travel they feel like they are missing something. Booth says he had a rough childhood. Sweets believes Benji wanted to go back in time to stop his father from leaving. Sweets admits that he would like to go back in time to see the Finley's, the family that adopted him, and wishes he could thank them. Booth understands. Booth shows Sweets the file on Professor Scott Hunter, who used to teach physics at the university. However, he was fired a few years ago after electrocuting a student. Booth tells Sweets that Benji and the professor were supposed to meet the night of his murder.

Oliver asks Brennan if she would rather get run over by one steamroller or a thousand mopeds. Brennan doesn't understand such a preposterous question and refuses to answer the question. Oliver already knows the Brennan would choose the steamroller because it fits with her hyper-rational outlook. He also says she shys away from randomness and doesn't cast a wide net. Brennan is upset that Oliver is calling her narrow-minded. Oliver gets back to the case-he has found microfracturing on the anterior and posterior aspects of the right sternal ribs. Whatever caused this damage most likely is cause of death. Brennan believes that if an electrical current passed through the victim with a high voltage than it could have caused the fracturing.

Booth and Brennan discuss the possibility of an experiment gone wrong on their way to the professor's house. Brennan brings up what Oliver said about her being closed-minded. Booth is shocked to see that Brennan agrees she can be closed-minded.

Brennan and Booth talk to Professor Hunter outside his home. He tells them that Benji read an article of his and was interested in joining forces to conduct experiments. The professor denies he had any involvement with Benji's death. Booth and Brennan go into the professor's lab. Brennan notices a two hundred and forty volt battery, which could have caused the fracturing on the victim's ribs.

ACT FOUR

Oliver and Hodgins prepare an experiment. They use ordnance gel to replicate human tissue. They electrocute it. Gel goes everywhere!! But there isn't any fracturing on the ribs, so Benji wasn't electrocuted.

Cam and Angela go over the case on the Angelatron. The professor told B&B that Benji got a call on the night he was murdered but the caller used a disposable cell. Records also showed that he withdrew large amounts of money from two ATM's as well as borrowed money from the professor. The two trace Benji's travel path which nothing makes sense. Hodgins comes in and tells him he got something off of the strawberry seeds and soil. After analyzing the soil, Hodgins notices the soil was rich in calcium, which means that the body was moved from it's original spot. There is a strawberry field in Rockville. Hodgins also needs to borrow a gun from Cam.

Hodgins and Oliver want to conduct another experiment. They want to shoot a gun into the gel to see if it was the cause for the fracturing. The boys believe that if Benji were shot just below the ribs it would have added the fracturing. Cam shoots the gun. And it's a match! The victim was shot.

Booth and Brennan arrive at the strawberry field that the victim was shot at. There is a house that is boarded up. They notice a barn with the light on. Inside the barn they see Benji's beloved truck as well as another body! Brennan determines that the victim is male in his 40's with similar injuries to Benji. Booth tells her she is describing Benji but twenty years later!

ACT FIVE

Brennan, Cam, and Oliver do an examination on the second victim. Oliver believes that the second victim is Benji from the future. Brennan does not agree with Oliver's theory. There is also a contusion on the skull, which matches Benji's.

Brennan and Booth have lunch at the diner. Booth doesn't like Oliver but wonders what he thinks of the asteroid mining. Booth gets back to the case. There were burner cells and cash used so nothing can be traced. Brennan wonders why the bodies weren't buried together if they were both killed at the same time. Brennan gets a call from Oliver, she's needed back at the lab.

Oliver has found a fracture of the patella, which would cause the second victim to be limping and be in immense pain, however, he didn't check into a hospital. Oliver thinks he didn't because he couldn't tell people he was from the future. The second victim also suffers from scoliosis which Brennan notes is a hereditary condition. Cam comes in to the Bone Room to confirm that Brennan was right: the second victim was Benji's father.

Alex Garcia talks to Sweets in the FBI Conference Room. He is shocked to hear about his father's death. Alex tells Sweets that his mom and him told Benji that their father was dead instead of telling him that he was a deadbeat and a junkie. Alex gets up from the table and tells Sweets he hasn't seen his father since he left. Sweets thinks that maybe their father was still a junkie and needed Benji to bail him out.

Angela and Oliver examine the animations of the two victims. Angela tells Oliver he is kind of a douche with his know-it-all attitude and not being a team player. Oliver realizes that the skull wounds are from each other's skulls. They were shot with the same bullet and knocked heads. Angela is impressed; Oliver tries to be less of a douche.

Back at home, Booth tells Brennan that if he could travel time he would stop President Lincoln from being shot. Brennan tells him that everything she wants or needs is right in the present and she wouldn't need to travel through time. Booth gets a call. They have the father's drug dealer. The dealer works at Alex's body shop.

ACT SIX

Booth brings in Sidney Jouron to the Interrogation Room. He tells Booth that he got busted for dealing heroin in 2009 and got off with probation and retired after that. Booth has the tactical baton that was found in Sidney's car. Booth accuses him of hitting Felix Garcia with the tactical baton because he owed him money. Felix calls his son, Benji, to help bail him out but Sidney kills both of them. Sidney tells Booth he has it all wrong.

Brennan and Oliver determine that the damage on Felix's kneecap is not from the baton. The weapon they are looking for comes down at a forty-five degree angle with strong force. Brennan asks Oliver opinion about asteroid mining, he supports it.

Booth and Sweets return to Alex's body shop. Sweets tells Booth that Alex standing up during questioning means that he could be hiding something. Booth and Sweets show Alex the warrant to search Sidney's locker. Alex is working on a car with Lamborghini-style doors. Sweets asks about Felix and Alex gets angry and shuts the car door. Booth asks what degree the doors come down-it's 45. Booth and Sweets know how that night went. Felix owed Sidney money from drugs so he busted his leg a few days before he died. Felix called Benji for help so Alex followed him to the barn to meet their father. Alex admits that Benji was going to give Felix all his college money. He didn't mean to kill his brother.

Brennan heads out of the lab and says goodnight to Oliver. Oliver is worried that they caught the murderer over luck but Brennan tells him it's due to cause and effect.

Back at the house, Brennan confesses that she may not be smarter than Oliver, because he saw the merit of asteroid mining and she did not. She tells Booth she invested $10,000 into it. She trusts Booth judgments. Booth tells her that if he had trusted her in the beginning she would have been ahead of Oliver making HIM the smarter one. No argument there.