Bones - The Death of the Queen Bee, S05E17

After last week's landmark episode, it seems like the writers have remembered that the forensics are part of the plot and can be just as interesting as the social dynamics. Not that social dynamics were in short supply! I loved this freaky return to Brennan (Emily Deschanel)'s past and her high school.

When a murder took place near Brennan's high school, she and Booth (David Boreanaz) approach her former classmates simply as an alum returning for her high school reunion with her handsome husband. It was the perfect cover, albeit a little awkward considering last week's revelations. I was quite pleased that those feelings were not ignored, that this week was not simply a return to the status quo.

Brennan has not changed much since her high school days. Back then, she dissected rabbits with her creepy high school janitor, Ray Buxley (played by the super terrifying Robert Englund of Freddy fame), and was called Morticia by her classmates. I'm going to argue that they ought to have called her Wednesday back then, but Morticia is more suited to the grown up Bones.

Bones was back to her socially awkward self, taking Booth's advice about how to interact with her former classmates to show how great she was now, and to learn about possible motives for murder. She did not do well at it. She did, however, manage to determine the murder weapon and crime scene from the evidence her team found in the bones of the murder victim. I really appreciated that the science was back.

Most of all, I appreciated how creepy and stereotypical the janitor was, appearing and disappearing, using very large knives for simple cutting, and most of all, for being creeped out by the smiley happy girls who went to that high school. The discovery that the murderer was one of those seemingly normal girls who had everything, and that she and the victim of the most recent murder had teamed up 15 years before to murder another high school classmate, all over a boy...well, that was just the cherry on the cake for a girl who wasn't prom queen back in her day.

In other new, Wendall (Michael Terry) and Angela (Michaela Conlin) broke up. It was well done and believable and took nothing away from the strong story developing around the murder. If the writers, director, and actors can keep delivery episodes like this one, all they need to do is add an over arching murder investigation to Season 6 and I might say that they have their magic back....but let's wait till we see this week's episode. It may revert back to the disappointment present throughout the first half of this season.