Bones 11.20 The Stiff in the Cliff

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Sinkwriter72
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Bones 11.20 The Stiff in the Cliff

Post by Sinkwriter72 »

I liked this episode much better than episode 11x19. This one had an emotional connection that the previous episode did not have - with the accusations and suspicions piling up against their colleague Clark, the team has to band together to solve the case and exonerate their friend. I cared about what happened to Clark, and I was glad to see each team member struggling with the idea that Clark might be the killer, or that he was even being accused (but they couldn't reach out to him because it would compromise the case). It was lovely to see everyone believe that Clark couldn't be the true suspect, and I especially liked how Brennan published an article declaring his mistakes to be simply that, the mistakes of a young undergrad who trusted his teachers, and that everyone makes mistakes in order to learn from them.

It was sad but also kind of funny to see Booth and Aubrey show up on Clark's doorstep with donuts and coffee, hoping to have a "friendly chat" about the case. Clark is so much smarter than that, and knew to protect himself from their trolling for info. But it made me a little sad that he seemed so alone for most of the episode. Even a brief lunch with Wendall ended up feeling like an interrogation. At one point I even wondered if Booth and Aubrey had sent Wendall into the diner wearing a wire. Thankfully that didn't seem to be the case, they didn't go THAT far, but he did grill his friend and that was sad to see as well.

Ultimately, I was really glad to see that Clark wasn't made to be the killer, because that would have been wildly out of character for him. He's probably the most moral and stand-up character on the entire show. Even when everyone else is goofing around or behaving "badly" in the office, he's the one who keeps his head and behaves like a professional. He doesn't like impropriety of any kind. So for him to be a killer just seemed so impossible to me, and I was glad to see him proved innocent.

It would have been nice to end the episode with a team-related scene after all the work they'd put in to prove Clark's innocence, rather than doing yet again what has become the expected Booth/Brennan end scene, but at least they had the lovely moment between Brennan and Clark. She's so hard on the interns sometimes that it's nice to see her admit that it's okay to make a mistake, especially when one is still new to the field and learning.

Regarding the side story with Cam and her sister: I appreciated the sisterly stuff going on, but I couldn't quite enjoy their connection in that final scene because I felt like Cam's sister had been pretty rude throughout the episode. Yes, she'd done a lot of work on Cam's wedding for Cam, but 1) Cam never asked her to do that, 2) she made a lot of assumptions rather than first asking Cam what kind of wedding she envisioned (I have a sister I feel I know pretty darn well, but I would never presume to make those kinds of decisions for her), 3) she seemed to be insulting Cam in an underhanded way, and 4) every time Cam paused to question her sister's decisions, her sister would guilt-trip Cam by reminding her over and over again how much time she'd put in and that she was taking time off of work to do this for her, etc. I just thought she was pretty mean and pushy. Nonetheless, I'm really glad Cam spoke up for herself at long last and stated what kind of wedding she wanted. Just the scene of Cam twirling around in that goofy wedding gown made me smile, it was so sweet. (Though I will say, I think Cam could do a little better - that dress may have been princessy like she wanted, but I think there's got to be another dress out there that could fit the bill and look amazing on Tamara Taylor. Those sleeves were just a little too poofy for me. I don't know, maybe I'd need to see her all glammed up with accessories and everything, but to me that dress wasn't quite special enough. I hope they surprise us with something really gorgeous. She deserves it.)
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