The Boy with the Answer

The Boy with the Answer is the twenty-first episode of the fifth season of Bones.
== Synopsis ==
The trial of The Gravedigger hits close to home for members of the team, and everyone at the Jeffersonian must work overtime to uncover the forensic evidence to elicit a conviction.
== Summary ==
We open with a hazy dream sequence in which Bones runs for Hodgins and finds him screaming and bloody but can't get to him before he's dragged away. Next, she runs to save Booth, who's trapped behind a submarine-type door in a room quickly filling with water. Then someone knocks her over and she finds herself lying in a grave, with the Grave Digger standing over her with a shovel, cackling while slowly dumping dirt on the lid of her glass coffin.
Bones wakes up with a start. TV news tells us the Grave Digger case begins today with an evidentiary hearing and former federal prosecutor Heather Taffet will be defending herself against multiple murder and kidnapping charges. One of her victims, a 10 year old boy, has never been found. Bones, Booth and Hodgins will all be testifying.
At court, Bones bristles that Booth is coddling her. Her father Max also shows up to lend moral support she says she doesn't need. He reminds her the case is far from a slam dunk. In court, Cam is up first, followed by Booth, then Hodgins all testifying about evidence, including the Taser Taffet used on Booth, and answering Taffet's questions about the illegality of their search based on info given to them by Booth's brother.
Caroline, the prosecutor, argues to keep the evidence found in the storage locker in, but Judge Dufrey rules it out. Taffet argues all charges should be dropped but the judge defers to Caroline when she wants to go forward. As they are taking Heather away she approaches Bones, and taunts her about something she missed. Bones is rattled by the taunt, thinking she missed something.
Back at the lab, Sweets thinks Heather was serious about there being something else. He rubs Hodgins the wrong way.
Caroline joins Booth at the diner with a box of files.
Angela goes back over the ransom call, trying to find Heather's voice. Hodgins finds nothing new in the soil samples. He confesses to her that he's barely keeping things together and feels helpless. In her office, Bones is driving herself nuts pouring over files looking for numbers. She thinks her logic might have been compromised by "all the relationships" she's in right now.
Booth notices Heather's one call in custody was to Salt Lake City, area code 801. Booth dials the number: it's a pizza place. The records show she hung up after 10 seconds. Bones thinks it has to be the number she referenced. Angela runs a numerical sequencing program and finds it's a GPS location in remote Virginia. They head there and begin digging, where they find a freezer with a young boy's decomposed body inside, the one she kidnapped.
Back at the lab, Bones realizes Heather wanted them to find the boy because they couldn't testify as experts when they're the victims in the kidnapping case. She suggests Caroline drop their case and just prosecute for the boy's murder, but Hodgins doesn't like the plan. He can't believe she'd drop it that easily. She reminds him he's not the only one suffering and points out dismissing their case is the only logical thing to do. He agrees.
Booth comes to Bones' place and tells her he asked Caroline to drop his case, too. She tells Booth about her nightmares. He assures her that Taffet will never go the better of her.
At the lab, they examine the boy's body. They find evidence he was strangled, which doesn't fit her Taser MO. Bones worries Taffet planned to use the inconsistencies to create reasonable doubt.
Booth testifies hey have credit card evidence Taffet was at the mall where the boy was last seen. Taffet asks Booth if he knew the agent on duty the night she was arrested was from Salt Lake and suggests the number was put in her file by mistake.
In the hallway, Max asks Booth if he realizes they're being played and suggests they get off defense.
Cam stops by Sweets' office. She's worried Taffet might get off and he acknowledges it's possible.
A sheriff's department van returns to the prison and Max lurks outside. He aims a rifle at the van and waits for Taffet to get out. Booth runs up behind him and jumps him. They fight and Max argues he should shoot Taffet because Bones might die. Booth ends the argument with a punch.
Bones apologizes to Booth for her dad. Then he calls asking her to bail him out. She says she's leaving him there until the trial is over. Bones admits part of her wishes he'd done it.
Bones tells Booth she's finding evidence the boy put up a good fight. Booth mentions his son would have done the same thing and probably bit her ear. That leads Bones to go check for DNA on his teeth.
Angela makes headway with the ransom call and has unscrambled it to clearly reveal Taffet's voice. She testifies about it later. Taffet asks if she has a sound engineering degree, Angela says no. She plays a version of the tape unscrambled by an FBI guy with a PhD in sound stuff and it sounds like Angela. Taffet argues they can be made to sound like anyone.
Booth comes to get Bones to testify and cautions her not to get too technical.
In court, she testifies the killer used their left hand and weighed about what Taffet does. Taffet questions her credentials and Bones gets snippy with her. She says the killer was also Taffet's height and when Taffet questions her again Bones describes the boy dying a torturous death as he was buried alive. She says she's uniquely qualified to comment on it because she was buried alive, too.
It's Taffet's turn to question and she immediately asks if her kidnapping experience may affect her findings. Taffet asks if she's seeing a shrink and the jury scribbles furiously when she says she is.
In the lab, Hodgins has found a dust mite in the boy's teeth which might have human DNA in it.
He testifies about it followed by Cam, who says the cells in the mite belong to Taffet.
Taffet homes in on the fact the evidence was destroyed during testing because the sample was so small. She asks to have it thrown out because of the Jeffersonian's staff bias, but the judge says it's up to the jury to decide if it's credible.
Later, Booth toasts Bones, thinking Caroline nailed the case. Bones is worn down by dealing with "murders and victims and sadness and pain." She says she got into murder because of him, but he promises tomorrow when they've won the case, everything will be perfect.
Caroline gives her graphic closing argument, recapping the evidence. Taffet argues the team is biased. But Caroline says Taffet is resorting to slander because she has no defense. Taffet claims she's a scapegoat. Waiting in the hall, the team looks worried. But Hodgins says it doesn't matter because no matter what, he's got Angela. He tells the team they're married. The jury's returns with the verdict. They find Heather Taffet guilty of kidnapping and murder. The team cheers and Taffet looks shaken, then angry and says that this isn't over.
Later, the team celebrates in the bar. Sweets says he never doubted anyone. Bones offers the newlyweds a toast: "Best wishes for a successful blending of familial obligations as well as a monetary and property consolidation."
Max says good night to his daughter. Bones tells Booth she has the sense everything's changing. She worries something might happen to Booth. He suggests she might need some time off and she thinks she might need more than a little time. She flags a cab. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?" Booth says, then he watches her drive away.
== Cast ==
=== Main Cast ===
*Temperance Brennan - Emily Deschanel
*Seeley Booth - David Boreanaz
*Jack Hodgins - T.J Thyne
*Angela Montenegro - Michaela Conlin
*Camille Saroyan - Tamara Taylor
*Lance Sweets - John Francis Daley
=== Recurring Cast ===
*Heather Taffet/The Gravedigger - Deirdre Lovejoy
*Caroline Julian - Patricia Belcher
*Max Keenan/Matthew Brennan - Ryan O'Neil
=== Guest Cast ===
*Judge Dufrey - H. Richard Greene
*Augie Willams - Dave Allen Clark
*Juror #1 - Christopher Baskerville
*Juror #2 - Dean Norris
*Security Guard - Joe Davis
==Featured Music==
*"Seen Enough" - Dryer
== Notes ==
*Brennan's nightmare takes place in the 19th century about the Gravedigger.
*Episode ends with Brennan leaving the bar in a cab and is seen looking back at Booth. This is same cab and homage to their first (nearly) romantic encounter as seen in The Parts in the Sum of the Whole.
*Angela says she has a B.F.A. from the Univ. of Texas with a minor in Computer Science. This seems inconsistent with her abilities, as she exhibits considerable knowledge and skill with computers, but she could have picked these skills up on her own, never bothering to get the higher degree.
*The actors are wearing the same clothes in the court room during the evidentiary hearing at the beginning of the episode as they are wearing in the court room when Heathers Taffit is found guilty at the end of the episode.
*Taffet moves for evidence to be "dismissed". Evidence is not dismissed; it is "excluded".
*Brennan and Hodgins are told they cannot examine the boy because they would be both expert witnesses and the victim in the case and this would be a conflict of interest. However, Hodgins and Brennan were primary forensic scientists for other charges laid against the Gravedigger, forcing them to be unable to testify. Thus, their kidnapping cases would have been brought as separate charges (if at all).
*Taffet appears completely surprised when the prosecution presents the DNA evidence obtained from the dust mite, with Booth even later saying that she was blindsided. However it shouldn't have come as such a shock to her because the prosecution is required by law to share any evidence they find with the defense, and since she was representing herself, she should have been told about the evidence before it was brought up in court and thus should not have appeared to be so shocked at its revelation.
== Quotes ==
----
----
----
----
Category:Season 5
Category:Episodes