Bones Episode 7.02 The Hot Dog in the Competition

ACT ONE

An elderly landlady lets herself in to one of her apartment units. She's looking for the tenant, Mr. Sedlack, who's late with his rent. The apartment has been torn to pieces. She finds a dead boy lying inside of a terrarium being eaten by hairless white rats. Guess that explains the late rent.

Cam shows new intern Finn Abernathy around the lab. Finn has been in a juvenile detention facility since the age of sixteen, but has managed to get two undergraduate degrees and is on his way to a doctorate. Finn's record has been expunged and sealed, and Cam is very excited to have him on the team.

At the apartment, Hodgins gathers up the rats since they may have ingested evidence. Brennan examines the body. The victim is female in her early 30s. There are multiple lacerations to her ribs. Brennan casually mentions that she is having a girl. Booth is upset that Brennan didn't include him in the doctor's appointment. Hodgins finds a recently shed snakeskin in the terrarium, but the snake is nowhere to be found.

Back at the lab, Finn notices the victim has injuries from sharp force on her ribs, posterior ulna, humorous and supraspinous fossa, which leads him to believe she was thrown through the glass terrarium. The victim has shards of glass, about six millimeters thick, protruding from her scapula. Brennan is satisfied with his findings. Cam notices a movement in the victim's abdomen. As everyone looks closer, the lost python appears from the victim's small intestine. Cam freaks out, Finn grabs the snake and Brennan calls Hodgins to tell him they found the missing reptile.

ACT TWO

Hodgins joins Cam and Finn on the platform. When Hodgins tries to find out what put Finn in juvie, Finn admits he did some joyriding as a kid. Hodgins gives Finn a little attitude. Cam notices that there is a lot of masticated food on the victim's teeth. Hodgins takes some samples. Finn notes that the victim's mandibular fassa is very shallow, which allowed her to unhinge her jaw like a python. He also finds an extra bone in the victim's scar tissue. It looks like the victim had Fibrodysplasia Ossificanus Progressiva, a disorder that causes the muscle and tissue to ossify.

Booth brings Sweets to the victim's apartment to help identify her. Booth has found out that the original tenant, Mr. Gerald Sedlack, has been living in Cleveland for four years. Since the apartment is rent controlled, the key has just been passed down to several other tenants, who all pretended to be Sedlack. No one knows the most recent tenant's name. Neighbors described the victim as extremely attractive, and she was often seen with very fat men. Sweets thinks she may have been a prostitute conducting some business.

Sweets congratulates Booth on having a baby girl. Booth is surprised that even Sweets knows about the gender of the baby.

Caroline Julian stops by the lab to confront Cam about hiring someone with a criminal record. Cam stands her ground and doesn't believe that Finn's past should affect his future.

Finn joins Hodgins in the Ookey Room to show him a X-ray of the python. The python has swallowed a distal phalanx that belonged to the victim. Cam has ordered Finn to kill the snake before the snake has fully digested the bone. Hodgins refuses to kill the python. Finn is fed up with how Hodgins has been treating him and confronts him. Cam interrupts the fight and tells Hodgins he has two hours to get that distal phalanx out of the snake before its metabolism damages the remains.

Brennan praises Finn for his notes, but shows him that his conclusion about the victim's Febrodysplasia Ossificanus Progressiva is incorrect. It is actually a chicken bone that was lodged in the victim's lungs. Brennan suggests Finn look through the victim's intestines for more answers as to why the chicken bone went down the trachea. Angela rushes onto the platform - she has completed the facial reconstruction - the victim was named Tina Thomas.

Booth and Sweets question Tina's husband, Greg Thomas. Greg explains Tina has a separate apartment to "get her business done." She was a champion in her field of work. She was so good that Greg got to quit his job. Booth and Sweets are confused that Greg supported his wife's prostitution; however, Greg quickly informs them that Tina was a competitive-eating champion.

ACT THREE

During lunch at the diner, Booth tells Brennan that Tina's stage name was Tina "The Python" Thomas. She held world records in eating buffalo wings and hot dogs - her record was 65 hot dogs in 12 minutes. Booth is going to talk to the head of the Competitive Eating Alliance, however Brennan isn't able to go. She has an appointment with her financial advisor about a trust fund for the baby. Booth is frustrated he was not included in Brennan's plans. He suggests that Brennan figuratively walk in his shoes for a while to see how he feels.

Angela checks on Cam, who is examining the scraps that were flossed out of Tina's teeth. Cam has found a sliver of human issue lodged between the teeth. Tina may have bitten her attacker, and Cam is running the DNA to find a match.

Booth and Mitch Clancy watch a video of one of Tina's competitions. Mitch has just returned from Japan where he was negotiating a deal for a weekly eating competition featuring the league. Mitch last saw Tina at a chicken wing competition in Tulsa, but assumed he would see her today at the Gluttony Games. Tina was a shoe-in to win the prize of ten grand.

Caroline interrupts Cam's work to tell her that she unsealed Finn's records. Finn assaulted his stepfather with a hunting knife and made threats that the whole neighborhood heard. A year after the assault, Finn's stepfather disappeared and his body was never found. Caroline urges Cam to be smart about this situation, and reconsider her decision to hire Finn.

Booth and Brennan arrive at the Gluttony Games in time for the hot dog eating contest. Ron "The Woodchuck" Patterson wins the contest by eating 56 hot dogs. Booth and Brennan realize that Tina could eat 65 hot dogs, and with her out of the picture, Ron would be able to get all the winnings.

ACT FOUR

Booth and Brennan question Ron, who releases loud belches from all the hot dogs he ate. Brennan explains that Ron took in extra air because of the speed with which he ate--she is fascinated. Ron says that just because Tina stood in the way of him winning doesn't mean he killed her. Booth asks him where he was the night Tina was murdered. Ron claims he was in Atlantic City training alone.

At the Lab, Hodgins finally apologizes to Finn for the way he has been treating him. Finn explains that they can save the snake by cooling the snake's body temperature, which will slow the snake's metabolism. Snakes are known to upchuck their stomach contents when confronted with a predator. Finn presses a button on a remote; which causes a stuffed mongoose to pop up in the snake's cage. The snake immediate throws up, releasing the evidence Finn needs and saving Hodgins' new pet.

Cam updates Angela - the piece of skin found in Tina's teeth came from Brian Tobin. Brian is an executive in publicity at Hankfurter Hot Dogs. Cam also tells Angela that Ron's alibi checked out. Cam also requests Angela run an under the radar search on Finn's past.

Booth and Brennan are driving when they receive a call that Tobin is still at the Gluttony Games. Brennan makes a quick turn to go back to the games. Brennan is imitating how Booth drives since she is still trying to see the world from his eyes.

Booth and Brennan return to the Gluttony Games and find Tobin screaming at a young woman, pushing hog dogs down her throat. Brennan immediately charges Tobin, sending him to the ground. Booth is shocked at Brennan's actions, but Brennan was trying to act as Booth would. Tobin yells that he was not hurting the woman, instead they were training. And Brennan just ruined the woman's personal best. Oops.

ACT FIVE

Sweets and Booth question Tobin. Tobin admits that Tina did bite him, but that was because they were training. The two fought over money, because Tina was losing her touch and Tobin's company had a lot invested in her. Tobin last saw Tina a few Sundays ago during training. Tina began sobbing and vomited. She claimed she was done with competitive eating.

Finn walks in on Angela reading an article about his altercation with his stepfather. Angela quickly hides what she is reading. Finn tells her he understands that she would want to know who she is working with. He changes the subject, and tells Angela that the terrarium glass Tina was thrown through was 6.38 inches. Finn says Angela should be able to calculate the mass of the killer using the length of the room, acceleration, and the pound-per-square inch of the glass using her computer. Angela is impressed with Finn's work and tries to talk to Finn about the articles but Finn leaves her to do her work.

Finn goes into the Bone Room and places the phalanx from the snake on the lab table to complete the skeleton. Finn is visibly upset removes his lab coat, and leaves it on the table.

Brennan shows Cam the victim's tooth erosion, which is caused by vomiting. Brennan notices, which is a very subtle widening of the victim's symphysis pubis. Brennan concludes that Tina was vomiting, because she was eight weeks pregnant.

Booth questions Tina's husband, Greg, again. Booth tells Greg their neighbors claimed there was loud fighting coming from Greg and Tina's home in the days leading up to her death. Greg says they were arguing about having kids. Greg didn't want kids right now due to Tina's success. Booth questions if Greg would have been angry if Tina quit competitive eating for kids, but Greg insists that he wasn't ready to start a family.

ACT SIX

Brennan tells Booth that he needs to let Greg go, because Angela's calculations say the assailant was at least 312 pounds. Booth says he can't arrest Mitch Clancy or Brian Tobin just because they are fat. Brennan says she will reexamine the injuries Tina suffered when she was thrown into the glass.

Brennan returns to the lab and reexamines all of the bones. Finn comes back, and confesses that quitting was a cowardly thing to have done. Brennan asks him if he killed his stepfather. Finn said he did not, because he knew if he did he couldn't get away with it. He had read one of Dr. Brennan's papers and knew he would somehow get caught. Finn tells Brennan that the last time he saw his stepfather he told him if he ever touched his mother again that he was a dead man. Brennan appreciates Finn's honesty. Finn examines the distal phalanx and notices something strange. It has small, round objects embedded in the bone.

Hodgins discovers that the objects on the distal phalanx are eggs from a parasite on the skeleton. It's a parasite known as the lung fluke. Finn knows that the lung fluke isn't usually found in the U.S. Hodgins says they are usually found in Japan. Cam knows the victim hadn't gone to Japan, but one of the suspects had...

Booth confronts Mitch Clancy. Booth asks about a cough Mitch developed. Mitch dismissed it as a cold. Booth shows Mitch his prescription for the parasite, which was the same parasite found on Tina's body. Booth knows that Tina was going to quit to have a baby, and the contract that Mitch signed with the Japanese would be worthless. Mitch admits that they had a deal, and he didn't mean to kill her. Mitch gave her a little shove, not realizing his strength and Tina flew into the terrarium.

As Cam heads out for the day she hands Finn a new Jeffersonian baseball cap. He's officially part of the team.

Booth tells Brennan that he got a full confession from Mitch Clancy. Brennan says that her experiment about putting herself in Booth's shoes was successful. Brennan apologizes for not including Booth at the ultrasound. She hopes to make up for her mistake by showing him a DVD of the ultrasound. Booth is thrilled as they both look at the first images of their daughter.