Bones Episode 4.03 Man in the Outhouse

ACT 1

Truck driver DWIGHT drives through the night, and pulls over to relieve himself at an outhouse on the side of the road. He can't decide what he wants more: to light his cigarette or to relieve himself. He decides to do both at the same time. KABOOM! The outhouse explodes, and Dwight goes flying.

Booth arrives to pick up Brennan at 6:30AM. She isn't expecting him and opens the door grumpily. He hands her a coffee. Turns out he's one coffee short when a towel-clad MARK GAFFNEY emerges from the bedroom. After an awkward exchange of pleasantries, Booth whisks Brennan off to look at some "pre-breakfast remains."

In the car, Booth comments he didn't realize Brennan was dating. Brennan doesn't see it as dating. Her relationship with Mark is purely physical. Mark is a deep-sea welder who can hold his breath for three minutes "down there," which is a little more information than Booth was hoping for.

At the crime scene, the stench of the exploded outhouse makes Booth cringe. Brennan believes the explosion was accidental and could have been caused by methane gas from the fecal matter. But if Dwight survived the explosion, what is she doing here? Booth points her toward the outhouse tank: a pair of legs protrude from the sludge. Dwight may have survived, but someone else wasn't so lucky.

ACT 2

At the lab, Hazmat clad Cam, Brennan, Sweets and Hodgins examine the body. The top half of the corpse is decomposed to bone while the bottom half is gooey flesh. Brennan finds that the victim was shot at close range in the frontal lobe. She also discovers a photograph crammed down the victim's throat. Sweets concludes it was a crime of passion: the photo was shoved down the victim's throat with such rage, the victim's teeth shattered. Angela takes on the daunting task of reconstructing the photo.

Later, Hodgins works with DASIY WICK, Brennan's new assistant, who's a bit disgusted by the sewage and a bit disappointed that she hasn't yet met Dr. Brennan. Daisy shows her findings to Hodgins: there are hairs in the sludge that suggest the victim wore a wig or toupee. Hodgins instructs Daisy to sort through the other six barrels of fecal matter to locate the remaining hairs. She's thrilled.

Cam, Hodgins and Daisy meet with Angela to view the facial reconstruction. Daisy can't stop talking about her discovery of the toupee. Angela and Hodgins recognize their victim. It's BILL O'ROARKE, the host of Busted by Bill, a television show that exposes cheating spouses.

Booth and Brennan meet with Bill's wife, AMANDA O'ROARKE. She tells them Bill was a "serious journalist" before he began to host Busted by Bill. His new gig paid well, but Bill made a lot of enemies. Every cheating husband he exposed probably wanted him dead.

ARTHUR LANG, the producer of Busted by Bill, shows Booth and Brennan around the studio. They also meet VERONICA LANDAU, another producer, and PETE, the cameraman. Arthur was the last to see Bill alive on Friday night. Pete went to pick up Bill on Saturday morning but he wasn't home so they cancelled their scheduled shoot. They assumed that Bill had accompanied his wife to visit their daughter at college. Arthur didn't want Bill to go on the trip, a decision that enraged Bill. He even threatened to quit, a move that would have cost Arthur millions, and could have motivated Arthur to kill Bill and collect the insurance money instead. Arthur decides to call a lawyer.

ACT 3

When Arthur produces a credible alibi, our guys turn their attention to the possibility of a "revenge killer." To this end, Sweets is collecting footage from Busted by Bill. Brennan heads to the elevator. She is seeing a film with a botanist. "You dumped Mark? That's too bad." Turns out Brennan is actually seeing two men. She has a sexual relationship with Mark and an intellectual relationship with the botanist. Booth doesn't approve. "Bones, two guys at the same time, it's not right. I mean, that's why they invented dueling." Sweets interrupts, ready to start on the tapes. Brennan leaves for her date, despite Booth's protests.

Cam and Daisy examine the body. Daisy notices hairline fractures at the base of the skull and an ante-mortem fracture to the lumbar vertebrae. However, those are not her only observations. "It's just Dr. Brennan and I are like the same, you know? We just we understand that the dead don't talk back or want the window open when it's freezing out, or pick at your plate, or pee on the toilet seat or..." Cam would love for Daisy to be quiet. Daisy would love to stay at the lab forever. Angela has reconstructed part of the photograph found in the victim's throat. It shows a naked man and woman making love, their faces obscured.

Sweets reports his findings from the footage to Booth. "Six men crying, two insisting they'd gotten lost and four saying they were trying to show the poor, young woman how dangerous the internet could be." He only found one man that exhibited the correct amount of rage to commit this murder: JIM DODD. Sweets shows Booth the footage. When Bill busts Jim for cheating, he lashes out, punching Bill in the face and drawing blood. Booth insists they tell Bones about their new suspect in person.

Booth and Sweets find Brennan on her date with JASON DEFRY at the Royal Diner. Booth questions Jason. Has he ever been married? No. Does he have any children? "Never married, remember?" Brennan decides to end this. She has to go back to work. Jason understands and invites Brennan to a Coldplay concert the following evening. She accepts. When Jason is gone, Booth tells her the truth. "That guy is gay." Brennan is annoyed. They finally tell her about Jim Dodd. Not only did his marriage end because of Bill, he is also a mall photographer. Maybe Jim Dodd took the photograph found in the victim's throat. Only problem is, no one can find him. Jim has been missing for five days.

Booth decides to hire stalker NOEL LIFTIN to find Jim. Noel, who they met in a previous investigation, meets Booth and Brennan at the diner. Booth wants Noel to tail CHRIS GUTMAN, Jim's drinking buddy, to see if they meet up. Brennan is a bit skeptical but Booth offers to pay Noel $50. He accepts the job.

Hodgins recovers the bullet from the outhouse sludge along with two toy cars, three cell phones, a doorknob, a rubber casing and a plastic Easter bunny head. Daisy enters with news. The lumbar fractures on the body were caused by FRANCIS DIAMOND. She purposely ran her shopping cart into Bill after he exposed her husband for cheating. Cam is not pleased that Daisy conducted research without approval but Daisy tells them that Francis is a police officer and she carries a gun that may be a match the salvaged bullet.

ACT 4

Francis explains that she hated Bill O'Roarke because he tried to ruin her marriage. Her husband wasn't cheating on her. He was warning the woman about the risks of meeting someone online. Francis insists she didn't kill Bill, but Booth insists she turn over her gun.

At the lab, Cam finds a wire lodged in the victim's intestines. According to the tox screen, there were eye drops and Viagra in his system. Daisy runs in to introduce herself to Brennan, her hero. Though Brennan dismisses her, Daisy glows and comments, "She's so smart."

When Booth and Brennan learn that the fatal bullet didn't come from Francis's gun, they meet with Noel. In a roundabout way, Noel reports that he followed Chris to a church where he and Jim attended a divorce support group. Jim didn't seem angry though. He was weepy and emotional, which the women in the support group ate up. Noel says Jim is dating at least two of them. He hands a photocopy of the meeting's sign in sheet to Booth. Jim goes there every day. Booth pays a proud Noel.

Booth meets with Jim Dodd who claims he's been in hiding because loan sharks are looking for him. He owes child support, alimony and back rent so he just tried to disappear. His alibi for the time of the murder? He went to Jersey to borrow money from his mom.

Angela continues to work on the photograph and she was able to bring out a little more detail. It's clear that the mystery woman has a "tramp stamp." Angela also enhanced audio from a video Sweets gave her. The squints hear Bill tell Arthur to fire Veronica. Were Bill and Veronica sleeping together?

ACT 5

Veronica explains that Bill was angry with her because she sold a new show based on an idea that Bill claimed was his. Veronica insists that it was her idea. She knew Bill would be angry but she didn't do anything wrong. She was not sleeping with Bill, she did not murder him and she does not have a tattoo on her back. She leaves angrily.

At the lab, Cam discovers an important piece of the puzzle. The victim has a jagged, infected scratch on his body that contains traces of silver-plated iron. It appears to have been made by an infected tongue piercing. HOLLY MARKWELL, the "the bait used to lure the cheaters" on Busted By Bill, wears a tongue ring.

Brennan and Booth question Holly. They have a court order for her tongue piercing. She surrenders it reluctantly. Holly claims she and Bill were in love. She got her job on the show through Pete. She and Pete used to date and he helped her get hired as a Production Assistant. When she met Bill, he "took her under his wing." The last time she and Bill were together was the night before he died. Booth shows Holly the photograph. Brennan asks if she has any tattoos. Holly shows them the one on her back. It's a match to the tattoo in the picture. Holly breaks down in tears. She loved Bill and did not kill him.

ACT 6

The squints meet about Holly. Angela has finished reconstructing the photo and it is indeed a picture of Holly and Bill. Hodgins reports that the wire found in the victim's intestines was from a microphone that was used to cram the picture down Bill's throat. Holly could have gotten a microphone but she wouldn't have been strong enough to lift the body into the outhouse tank. Angela adds that the photo was emailed. "Someone who was surprised and enraged by the image," deduces Daisy, "I minored in psychology." Sweets is impressed. He continues: it had to be someone involved with either Bill or Holly. The killer wanted to make sure the photograph died with Bill. Daisy glows at Sweets. Brennan knows who the killer is.

Brennan and Booth are on their way out when Mark and Jason arrive to pick Brennan up for their respective dates. Each man is jealous of the other: Mark wants to go out on dates with Brennan and Jason wants to go into the bedroom with her. Brennan tries to explain but they are not happy.

Brennan and Booth confront Pete. He used to be in a relationship with Holly. Booth believes he's still in love with her. Pete insists that Holly is just his roommate. Brennan knows Pete lied. Bill was there when Pete went to pick him up. He gave him a coffee laced with eye drops, which caused Bill to have diarrhea. They show Pete the photo of Bill and Holly in bed. Pete breaks down. "I just lost it. Look, I'm a nice guy. You can ask anybody. I just lost it."

Booth and Brennan have a session with Sweets. Brennan is dressed for a gallery opening she was supposed to attend with Mark. She was going to give him a try outside the bedroom but he broke up with her, as did Jason. The sting of rejection makes Brennan consider the argument for monogamy. Booth assures her there is a perfect person out there for her. She just has to be open to it. He's going to take her out to dinner. They get up to leave. Sweets protests: their session isn't over. He wants to come but they ignore him. Sweets calls Daisy. She's been fired but they start a conversation.