The Hot Dog in the Competition

The Hot Dog Competition is the second episode of the seventh season of Bones.
==Synopsis ==
The Jeffersonian team identifies the remains of a competitive-eating champion, just days before the start of the Gluttony Games, a premiere eating competition with a $10,000 prize at stake. The remarkable work of new squint - and former juvenile delinquent - Finn links obscure evidence found in the belly of a snake with laws of physics that helps solve the crime. Despite his brilliance in the lab, Finn is met with hostility and skepticism, leading Cam to question her decision to give him a chance to start anew. Meanwhile, Booth is caught off-guard by an announcement Brennan makes about their baby. To diffuse the tension between them, the couple agrees to experiment by putting themselves in each other's shoes.
==Summary==
A building superintendent lets herself into a man's apartment, demanding he pay the rent. It turns out the man is now a rotting corpse. Back at the Jeffersonian, Camille welcomes Finn to the lab. His record has been officially expunged, she explains.
At the ruined apartment, Bones and Booth examine the body. It's a female, like Bones's unborn baby, she explains. Booth's jaw drops. Booth can not believe he was not informed, and Bones can't believe he is reacting so strongly. Back at the lab, Camille, Finn and Bones further examine the body. The top half was eaten by rats after it was thrown through a glass terrarium in the apartment. The bottom half is unaffected. Just then, the upper half of the body moves. A python crawls out of the ribcage.
Later, Hodgins asks Finn what he did to spend three years in juvenile detention. The young intern explains he did some "joyriding" and might have stolen a few items from the local grocery store. Finn, in contrary to his troubled past, says he is doing better these days. Meanwhile, Camille discovers the victim was eating an unusual amount of food when she died. The woman was living in a rent-controlled apartment and has yet to be identified. Sweets suggests she might have been a prostitute with an overly aggressive client. Back at the Jeffersonian, Caroline visits Camille and questions her decision to hire Finn. Camille defends the young man, saying his criminal days are long behind him.
Later, Hodgins openly makes fun of Finn's dialect. The young man fires back, explaining he speaks "science", the only language that matters. Angela then tries to explain to Bones why Booth is upset he wasn't invited to the ultrasound, but Bones doesn't understand. Angela then IDs the victim based on facial reconstruction: Tina Thomas. Booth and Sweets then interview Greg Thomas, the victim's husband. He soon reveals his wife was a world-class competitive eater. She kept the apartment to "work." That would explain the chicken bone lodged in her throat.
Bones and Booth share a meal at the diner. Bones reveals she has a meeting with a financial advisor to set up a college fund for their daughter. Booth explains Bones is "doing it again", but she doesn't quite understand. Booth suggests Bones live in his shoes for awhile. Back at the lab, Camille discovers a foreign substance in the food in Tina's throat. She might have bitten and swallowed a piece of her attacker. Booth then interviews the head of the competitive eating league, Mitch, who explains Tina had a big contest scheduled that week, one that could have netted her $10,000.
Caroline, in the meantime, has opened Finn's sealed file and discovers the intern once attacked his stepfather with a knife. That stepfather then went missing a few years later and his body was never found. Camille is suddenly very concerned. At the competitive eating contest, Booth is very excited. Bones comes along because she is determined to see the world through Booth's eyes. She is soon cheering loudly and rather rudely as the "athletes" devour giant stacks of hot dogs. Later, Booth and Bones interview the winner, Ron, who denies killing Tina between massive belches.
Finn and Hodgins then have a bonding moment. Turns out the python in the victim's ribcage may have devoured some evidence. Finn sets up a spring-loaded dummy animal to "scare" the snake in vomiting. The snake throws up (against its glass enclosure). Hodgins is immediately smitten. Camille, meanwhile, runs a check on chuck of human meat in the victim's stomach and reveals a big man named Brian, one of Tina's sponsors. Photos of the pair indicate a fairly chummy relationship. Camille then quietly asks Angela to run a background check on Finn, just in case. The crime fighting pair returns to the eating competition to interview Brian, who appears to be forcing a hot dog down an eater's throat. Bones charges the big man and tackles him, because she is still walking in Booth's aggressive shoes. Turns out Brian was only training the eater.
Brian is soon in the hot seat. He questions why he would kill Tina. He then admits he was in Tina's apartment. The two got into a fight, because Tina was apparently eating and then hurling. She also wanted to quit the sport. The fight turned physical. Tina bit Brian's finger. Brian insists he didn't kill Tina. Back at the Jeffersonian, Finn discovers Angela reading old newspaper articles about his missing stepfather. He sighs and says he understands people always assume the worst. Angela is embarrassed and somewhat ashamed. Finn then suggests Angela calculate the mass of the killer using the thickness of the glass terrarium and the length of the room.
Bones then reexamines the victim's body and discovers she was eight weeks pregnant, hence the vomiting. Greg is immediately hauled back into the interrogation room, where he continues to deny any involvement in Tina's death. Greg then admits he didn't want his wife to quit competitive eating to start a family. he then chooses to stay silent. Yet based on the mass of the killer, calculated using Finn's formula, Greg could not have been responsible. The husband weighs less than 300 pounds. The calculations call for someone tipping the scales at more than 300 pounds.That leaves Brian and Mitch as possible suspects.
Back at the lab, Bones gives Finn some tough love. She asks him straight out if his interest in forensic science came out of a plan to kill his stepfather. Finn answers that it did. She then asks if he indeed murdered his stepfather. Finn answers no and that all he did was threaten his abusive stepfather with death shortly before he skipped town. Bones simply nods and gets back to work. Finn promptly discovers evidence of a parasite on the victim's body, a parasite native to Japan and, Mitch was recently in Japan.
Booth brings the competitive eating league owner in for questioning. Mitch signed a big deal with the Japanese, one worthless without Tina, who wanted to quit to have a baby. Mitch breaks down and admits that he shoved her, due to their size difference she flew into the glass cage. Mitch is arrested. Later, Bones declares her "experiment" of living in Booth's shoes to be a success. Bones then produces a DVD of the ultrasound and they watch it together.
==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
===Intern of the Week===
*Finn Abernathy - Luke Kleintank
===Recurring Cast===
*Caroline Julian - Patricia Belcher
===Guest Cast===
*Mitch Clancy - Brad Grunberg 
*Greg Thomas - Paul Hewitt
*Brian Tobin - Joel McCrary
*Ron 'The Woodchuck' Patterson - Skyler Stone
* Landlady - Pat Crawford Brown
* Trim Young Woman - Alice Reitveld
==Featured Music==
*"Anchor" - Mindy Gledhill
*"Hellfire" - Airbourne
*"Ready To Roll" - Philadelphia Grand Jury
*"No Control" - Slighter
*"What Happens Now?" - Lex Land
==Notes==
*This is the first appearance of Jeffersonian intern, Finn Abernathy.
*The plaque commemorating Vincent Nigel-Murray can be seen at the beginning of the episode when Finn is introduced, however it is out of focus.
Category:Season 7
Category:Episodes