Bones 6.21 The Signs in the Silence

[Kelly]

I'm taking a risk that I'm actually starting a new topic. I searched for a thread on this topic and came up with only spoiler talk. Anyway, I watched this episode tonight and thought it was great! I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I won't give my reactions to scenes until one of the administrators say it's okay. Thanks.

[skftex]

Hi Kelly, please write whatever you wish about the episode. People that haven't seen it know not to read the thread if they don't want to know things. Nice to see you here again by the way and thank you for creating the thread.

[Kelly]

Thank you. As some of you know, I've been busy with college this semester, so I missed 4 months of the show. I didn't recognize the intern who worked with Brennan at all, but he was intriguing. The first scene that caught my attention was with him and Brennan talking about his observation of her emotion toward the case vs. prior cases. I found Brennan's response of a "biting" nature. In fact, another scene that made me think, "Whoa lady! Chill! You're not that #&@!ing important!" was when she quickly corrected Booth's supervisor about how she's the best in the world. Anyway, back to the intern, I sensed some sexual tension between him and Brennan. I don't know why, but it definitely was evident on his part when she told him to lay down on top of her to demonstrate how the victim was killed and why. Again, Brennan seemed cold and indifferent. Booth even sounded snippy during the scene where he and Brennan were talking about how he lost control with the perpetrator and knocked him out. I understand his reasoning for doing it, but still, I'm curious who put a feather up these characters' butts to have such attitudes. Maybe I'm the one who has a bad attitude, though. Maybe I'm having a bad night and reading too much into these scenes.

Far as Hodgins' and Angela's scenes, the actors did a wonderful job portraying a married couple about to have their first child. Do any of you know if Michaela is truly pregnant? If she isn't, she wears that plastic belly well. Something tells me that she's not because wouldn't her upper body show it more than I saw? I wouldn't know; I'm not a mother, but from what I've seen with mothers-to-be, their chests reflect the fact they are expecting. Anyway, TJ is one phenomenal actor! His scene where he freaks out about the possible labor was awesome! He is definitely ready to be a dad now that he did this episode! The fact that Angela couldn't get out of the car was great, too! I've actually heard real stories where that has happened.

Samantha/Amy's story was sad and I'm glad that she didn't end up in juvenile hall for killing that man. I agree with Booth that the perpetrators deserve to go to prison and experience what inmates do to child abusers. I believe the man was more at fault than the woman, though. I feel like she was more his accomplice than anything. It's sad that this "fictional story" actually happens in the real world. I don't know if the girl's sudden memory is called "movie magic" or not, but I can't imagine a child remembering something that quickly to help the adults conclude the case. I'm used to hearing about psychologists asking them to draw or paint in order to bring things out of their memory banks. Anyway, I thought the reunion with her biological parents was sweet. I noticed Booth's reaction and I think David was reacting to the scene also. David's a parent himself, as you probably know, so he's sensitive to issues like this as well as his character is.

So, that's my take on the episode. I'm eager to hear everyone else's perspective on what they saw.

[hanneDK]

This is the first episode that had me in tears since Aliens.. It was nice to see an episode of that was a bit different.. but then again I missed a really groose body..

Felt really sorry for Samantha/Amy, what she's been through.. kidnapping and then abuse from her "parents", just because she didn't listen to them, or am I just completely wrong on that.. Was happy when they found her birth parents and reunited..

As for Booth loosing his temper in interigation with the kidnappers.. I liked it.. don't know why! Maybe because it was a rougher side of him that I don't think we've seen before on the show.. although it scared me a bit but knowing what trickered it, it made me feel safe that he did it in some why to fight for Samantha/Amy on her behalf.

TJ was hillarious - couldn't stop laughing, and start to think on how my brother will react (he and his wife are expecting their first child later this month)..
HIs reaction on Angela going into contractions, how he franticly trying to find his car keys LOL and Angela line "Men are so not build for this" (might have lost some of her line) She might be right about that, especially if they all react like Hodgins did..

To summen up, I like it.. Might be back with additional comments..

[ThyneAlone]

Well, well, a bit different here. Examining a live subject for info before a corpse is even located – now that was interesting (I didn’t miss the really gross body, Hanne!). I became really fascinated with the gruelling intellectual process of divining who Amy was and where she was from. And Brennan’s change from seeming ruthless objectivity to a strong degree of empathy was an intriguing one also – if a little sudden!

Obviously the episode was all about parenthood and children. This was firmly established right at the start when Brennan mused that, one way or another, she would soon be the only team member without a child. Does she still want one? This was unclear. The biological clock is ticking, apparently, but she has never appeared to be maternal material, and the comments she made at the start about toys and, specifically, stuffed animals, were hilarious if a little eyebrow-lifting – can anyone really be that out of touch? I’m never making a teddy bear for her.

It was my well-beloved who, while I was watching this, stopped to view a few minutes and remarked that a lot of our team seem to have had odd or traumatic family experiences. Booth has suffered the effects of having an alcoholic parent, which is one reason why he worries continually about being an adequate father to Parker, though his subsequent relationship with his grandfather seems to have compensated to some degree: Brennan has had a bad time in the foster system (didn’t someone lock her in the boot of a car at one point as a punishment?) and parents whom she necessarily viewed as having abandoned her: Sweets still bears physical and mental scars. We have still heard nothing about how Hodgins’ parents might have impacted on his life, which is weird in itself – why does he never talk about his family? – and Angela has had an unconventional and rather insecure upbringing to say the least, although her rapport with her dad is a delight to behold (where’s the mother in all this, though?). All this, plus the fact that Angela and Jack are about to become parents (and of a possibly genetically disadvantaged child) made the entire team firmly invested in this case.
Actually it probably made every parent that watched it invested in the case. I have always felt vulnerable and tearful at the end of episodes which feature kids. Especially those that have been scarred by their experiences in a violent world with skewed moral attitudes. We’ve had sexually abused children, children who have committed murder accidentally or, chillingly, deliberately for their own far from innocent reasons, children killing to protect one another, orphaned and kidnapped children. They all moved me to tears and this was no exception.

It was partly, however, down to McKenzie Applegate’s all-round excellent performance that I was affected as much as I was. This girl is really talented. I know she has played Helen Keller, so that would be a fine preparation – but to be able to convey all that terror, suspicion, hope and finally joy without words is really quite stunning. Of course she has also played 3 of my most favourite characters ever – Dorothy, Anne Shirley and the Little Prince (studying that one with my 6th form at the moment) – so colour me biased. Still asking myself however – why kidnap a child only to abuse her in such a brutal way?

It’s a scary dive into the unknown, having a baby, and it alters your entire life. Not surprising, in some ways, that Hodgins reacted the way he did when Angela had her Braxton Hicks contractions. I’m a bit ambivalent about it being played so broadly comic though, with a feel of the laughably incompetent and panicked husband (frankly I think I am simply fed up with a whole recent string of adverts on UK television that seem to depict male stereotypes of inadequacy and stupidity). TJ pulled it off because he managed to show that he was acting in this way because he cared so much, but it could have come across as simply farcical and a very sharp contrast with his strong, supportive ‘I’m your guy’ image!

In short, I very much enjoyed this one despite the fact that the actual murder victim was passed over – at least this time it was because he was peripheral to the story and we already knew as much about him as we needed to. And it made a change to see a body and pools of blood as opposed to stinking bones crawling with flies, maggots and/or unmentionable goo. I found the overall story pretty convincing (especially Amy’s initial reaction to being treated like a lab rat), was duly horrified at Shenfield’s violence, even though I was half-expecting it, and thought the continuity aspects were great – how long is it since we’ve seen Hodgins’ classic car? Well done, team.

[delphiekat]

:: getting out of my comfortable lurking position to comment here ::

It was a good episode, but probably the one that made me cringe the most this year.

Let's start with the good stuff, Hodgins was hilarious, and I loved the save when he helped Angela out of the car by telling her she was... beautiful

Great idea to have a Deaf victim and to include an interpreter to make the communication possible. But make sure they know how to sign!!!!! It felt like watching a live Google Translation - technically, the words are translated correctly, but it doesn't mean the final result makes any sense! Come on! Plus, while I agree with Steph that McKenzie is talented, who casts a hearing girl for a Deaf role in 2011?!? It's like hiring a white actor only to paint him black! There are tons of very talented young Deaf actors, especially in Los Angeles, don't tell me they couldn't find one!

Okay, end of the rant...

[jade.stormcloud]

I really liked this ep. The deaf, uncooperative child was an interesting character: antagonist & protagonist, all rolled into one. I noticed right away that the kid freaked whenever they menioned her family or finding out where she was from. I was surprised nobody thought to ask if there were problems at home. Anyway, the story was nicely engrossing & I'm glad it had a happy ending.

I thought Hodgins was just adorable when he started freaking out.

Booth didn't seem to be wearing his "Cocky" belt buckle. Did I miss it, or does he no longer wear that?

A few nitpicks:

Did they really need to pull her tooth to find out where she was from? Wouldn't there be a very limited number of children in the missing persons database who were her age with her specific genetic disorder?

Angela was complaining about needing a bigger car, but didn't she have a big jeep or something (supposedly for toting around her larger paintings)? What happened to it? Also, didn't Hodgins supposedly have a whole garage full of vehicles? I'm sure one of them is big enough.

Wasn't Brennan 15 or 16 when she went into the system? Was she really saying that she blocked out 15 years of memories while she was in foster care? And can she really try to compare the recall of childhood/adolescence experiences to someone who's trying to remember a place they moved away from when they were a toddler?


Anyway, overall I rather enjoyed this ep.

[Sinkwriter72]

First of all, I liked this episode. The case was a curious one from the start, the way they found information (the wisdom tooth, the x-rays of her bones, the materials of the door and the effect of humidity on it, the angle of how the knife hit the 'victim') was fascinating, and the young girl's plight was powerful to witness. (Plus, I've always been interested in sign language.)

I liked the way the case brought forth reactions from everyone -- Sweets and Arastoo wanting people to be more gentle with the girl, Brennan relating to her on a foster kid level, and Booth reacting to the parental abuse part. It's always effective when the whole team is invested in the case and find themselves getting emotionally involved. Makes for a stronger story, in my opinion.

One thing that seemed off to me, however, was Brennan's initial behavior around Amy. I understand she was frustrated and impatient because she wanted to collect evidence and get to work. HOWEVER... I don't think that kind of behavior is consistent for Brennan.

She has always advocated for kids when such cases came up. All the back in season one she connected with those 2 foster boys in "Boy in the Bush" because she knew what it was like to be carted around like garbage. She also sided with the runaway girl whose boyfriend fell when her younger brother pushed him; she knew the girl hadn't done it and that she was protecting her kid brother. In both cases, she approached those kids with sensitivity, kindness and carefulness.

So it made no sense to me that she acted so coldly to that girl, not even thinking about how scared a deaf girl might be in that kind of situation, surrounded by adults who don't seem to care about her best interests, wanting to poke and prod her. She seemed to have no compassion. She seemed totally out of patience. And she had to have Sweets tell her to think about how the girl must feel? That doesn't seem right. If anything, Brennan's usually the one who fights for those who seem like they have no voice, and this girl literally had no voice, so I don't see why she needed Sweets to tell her how to treat a child who was clearly horrified and struggling.

It reminds me of how they use Sweets to tell Booth how to interrogate people, when we already know that Booth knows how to read people. It's just not a good use for Sweets, to have him tell people how to do their jobs or how to behave when they already know how to do so on their own (and we've seen the evidence that they do, in episode after episode, well before Sweets came along). It's unnecessary melodrama. In my opinion, they could have shown her trying to get through to the girl and the girl just too scared to believe anyone will be on her side -- that could have incited Brennan's impatience. But to have her so coldly insist upon retrieving evidence from the girl's body, and not care if it's invasive IF they find out the girl is over the age of 18, that just doesn't seem like Brennan to me at all. If anything, she's usually the one to fight for people's rights. After all, isn't this the same woman who once begged Booth not to make her translate his angry interrogative questions to an illegal immigrant who'd been hiding in the walls of an apartment? She had remarkable compassion, and she didn't need to be told how to access those feelings.

When she fought for the girl the rest of the episode, that was the compassionate Brennan I know. I can see that maybe the interns don't work with her on a regular basis enough to get to see the Brennan that the original team knows, especially if she's been more careful to keep her emotional distance after what happened with Zack, but the emotions are there. So I just feel like when the writers do this kind of thing, it's like they don't know how to write her character. They push and pull her back and forth -- one week she's robotic, the next week she's caring and understanding. It's inconsistent, and drives me a little bit nuts.

Re: Jack and Angela. Okay, I know the way Jack reacted was over-the-top, but I have to say that the way Tj played it... had me laughing until I almost cried, he was so funny. "I'll find the keys! I'll find the keys! Where are my keys! DO YOU KNOW WHERE THEY ARE?!!?!" Hilarious. Just hilarious.

And you know, it's nice to see Hodgins lose control a little bit. He's been so calm and pleasant and sweet to her that it's fun to see him go a little insane and freak out. I also like that he called the false labor a helpful 'dry run' for expectant parents and that when the real thing happens, now he knows what to do and he'll be able to be Angela's 'rock.' That was very sweet. They had some fun scenes in this episode, and I liked that a lot. *applauds Tj and Michaela* They're a well-oiled machine, these two actors. You can really feel the affection and love in their scenes. It's lovely.

And Cam accidentally telling Hodgins about Angela's Braxton Hicks contractions was really funny. He runs out of the room and she's all, 'I'm sorry, I thought you... knew.' LOL.

Anyway, despite the weirdness in consistency for Brennan's character, overall this was a good episode. I've still got a couple episodes to go and there are always moments that are exceptions to the rule, but I'm finding that season 6 seems to be much more consistent and interesting than seasons 4 or 5. I appreciate that a lot. The writing's been decent, and the acting's been terrific across the board. :eusa-clap: