Bones (2005–2017): Season 8, Episode 21 - The Maiden in the Mushrooms - full transcript
The Jeffersonian team investigates the murder of a TV producer. Meanwhile, Brennan has trouble accepting the fact that Christine might be an "average" child, when her daughter gets accused ...
See, this-This
can't be the place.
Why would they leave a clue
for a treasure hunt here?
Denise hired a professional to plan the
game. They know what they're doing.
Why couldn't Denise and Joel
just have a dinner party?
Watch out for that step. it's-
See?
- Told you.
- Hey. Help me get some light down here.
Okay, nothing down there.
Let's go.
Seriously?
Oh! This is awesome.
Get a picture.
Smells gross.
Man up!
Do you want
Ryan and Kristy to win?
Dig.
Wait.
L- I think
I found something.
Feels like a bottle.
It'll have the next clue inside.
Got to admit,
winning would be nice.
[ Grunts I
I hate Ryan and Kristy!
Hey, I'm home.
She's sleeping.
Shh. Look at this, huh?
We have an artist.
This is beautiful.
Yeah.
It's truly exceptional.
There are flashes of abstract
expressionism in this.
Huh? Abstract expressionism.
You know, like Wassily
Kandinsky or Friedel Dzubas.
There's a real sweep to these strokes.
Right, right.
Okay, well, the school director, she wants
to, uh, bring us in and talk to us.
So she recognizes
Christine's talent too?
Uh, no. Christine, she,
uh-She bit a kid.
What?
No, that-that's impossible.
It's no big deal. I mean, kids bite.
No. Not Christine.
She's not just any kid. She's my
daughter, and they made a mistake.
Bones, just relax. I mean, the
school director, she felt bad.
She was apologizing for bringing it up.
Well, then why did she?
Well, because, you know,
a kid got bit. That's why.
Which kid?
Thank God.
Brennan.
Booth.
- Where is it?
- Text me the address.
Okay, we'll be right there.
We got a body.
I know.
I'll call Max to watch her.
Which kid? Emma.
One of the Emmas.
Emma R. or Emma C.?
Emma C.
Figures. She cries when they sing
Its y Bits y Spider.
Wow! Look
at those 'shrooms!
Yeah. Spectacular, right?
Ganoderma, enok/take,
some beautiful bunapi-shimeji,
and just about the cutest little
Hypho/oma I've ever seen.
- Okay. Great. Let's move it along.
- The frontal eminence...
and the orbital margins indicate
the victim was female, Caucasian.
Cranial suturing suggests
she was in her mid-20s.
All right, any evidence
ofsexualassaufl?
Not that I can see.
Her pants are still on.
I didn't think mushrooms grew on bodies.
Yeah, they don't.
They are growing through it
and around it.
Spores must have been laying
dormant underground.
Fluid from the victim could have
seeped out and reactivated them.
- What proof do they have?
- Huh?
- Hard proof.
- Hard proof? I-I don't know.
The teacher heard a scream,
she turned around...
and saw Christine standing next to
C., and she had a bite mark on her.
Not about the case, I'm guessing?
- It could have been another child who ran away.
- Let's talk about this later.
- Has Michael Vincent ever bit anyone?
- Yeah, sure.
I mean, th-there's
nothing weird about that.
- It's average behavior.
- Average.
Exactly. Christine didn't do this.
The teacher was mistaken.
There was no reports of a
kidnapping or an abduction in the area,
so how long has mushroom woman
been down here, you think?
Well, based on
the size of the stems,
Yd say somewhere
between '20 and '30 days.
Hey, she could be homeless.
Her teeth are pristine. She
doesn't have a single filling.
Look at her fingernails.
Wow, that's a manicure.
It's a very good manicure.
She took very good
care of herself.
- Oh.
- Can I see that?
Yeah.
These shoes are from Ava Lang.
- Beautiful, incredible leather.
- Sounds very expensive.
So, why did a woman who could
afford shoes like this...
end up in one of the worst
neighborhoods in D.C...
with mushrooms
growing out of her?
These bunapi-shimejis
are full of antioxidants.
The mushrooms? Yeah. There
could be a market for these.
Yeah, mushrooms grown
locally on corpses.
Are you two looking for
some kind of side business?
Oh, no. Hey, I
accept not being rich rich,
but I wouldn't mind being a little richer
than we are right now.
We're living off our salaries.
It's what people do.
Well, happiness isn't tied
to how much money you make.
Thank you, Opie.
But I'd rather not have
Michael Vincent...
eating squirrel gizzards
and hillbilly broth.
We had to mortgage the house...
to pay off a few final debts...
after the collapse of the Cantilever Group.
No, he's freaking out.
Yep. Totally.
Okay. Finished with the photos?
Right.
Let's rattle them bones.
The victim's clothing suggests
she had expensive tastes.
I need a psychologist for that?
The wear on her shoes
indicates they didn't fit well.
Her clothes were altered at home.
You know what? You're watching
way too much Project Runway.
It was important for her to look good.
She was living beyond her means.
Maybe a social climber? How's that
gonna help me catch her murderer?
She showed a false front
to the world.
It was a lie, if you will.
Enough with the clothes, all right?
Okay.
Do you have anything else?
Um, yeah.
The victim being buried facedown.
That's significant. How so?
When the victim's turned away, the
killer avoids a personal connection,
which means the killer
probably knew the victim.
That's good. You know what? I
can work with that. Thank you.
Sweets, biting is normal, right?
Lab didn't mention anything
about biting.
Did-Did you bite someone?
No. Christine bit someone. Oh.
Oh, yeah. Her age?
Totally normal.
I mean, the average child-
Don't say “average.â€
Bones hears you say “average, â€
it's bad.
Just... don't say “average, â€
okay?
Okay.
Don't.
I found hairline fractures
on the occipital.
Did the victim die from
a blow to the head? No.
The injury was enough to
disorient the victim,
maybe even lose consciousness,
but wouldn't be cause of death.
I've got epithelial cells from under
her fingernails. I'll run the D.N.A.
if we're lucky, she fought
with her killer.
Oh, Well,
multiple fractures on the distal
and medial phalanges...
as well as the metatarsals could
be indicative of a fight, yes.
- Some of this is not skin.
- What is it?
Not sure.
It's fibrous. I'll get Hodgins
to identify it.
Hey. I ran a facial reconstruction
through Missing Persons,
and I found a possible match.
Rebecca Pearce, 25 years old,
reported missing
by Trudy Morris.
Judge Trudy?
I'm not familiar
with Judge Trudy.
- What circuit is she on?
- Citizen is C0 un'.
Does that have something to do with
the French Revolution? No.
Judge Trudy has a TV show where
she judges “small claims†cases.
Why? Because
it's great drama.
People just fight over
the silliest little things.
You should see the way that they
yell and scream at each other.
- Total guilty pleasure.
- Like watching a train wreck.
Train wrecks are not pleasurable.
No wonder you feel guilty.
I have a huge bone
to pick with you.
Check out this
Synthes/omy/'a nud/seta.
I'm serious.
I'm steaming.
The size of the larvae,
I can narrow time of death...
to somewhere
between 20 and 23 days.
Thurston, please stop ignoring me.
Did you finish this?
There's still a bit left.
Yes. it was delicious.
This was my last bottle ofhotsauce!
I didn't know it was yours.
Well, if you wanted me to believe you,
you should have removed the Post-it note.
Okay, all right.
In my defense,
it's a communal fridge.
I'll buy you a new one.
No, you don't understand.
This was my granny's last bottle
of special sauce.
Well, call her up and
tell her to, you know-
I can't, because she's dead!
What have you learned
about Emma?
Does she have a history of
false reporting? Oh, yeah.
Numerous occasions, police responded
to reports of a monster under the bed,
but no monster was ever found.
I know that that's amusing,
but I don't feel like laughing.
Bones, come on. Kids bite.
They grow out of it.
Really, just let it go.
I would love to let it go.
Good. Let it go. Which is why
I intend to challenge...
the spurious circumstantial evidence
with empirical data.
You're kidding.
Not kidding.
Not kidding.
Okay, the teacher turned around and
saw Christine standing next to Emma.
Hearsay, circumstantial
and a possibly biased witness.
Look, I'm just saying, if Christine did
it, I'm sure she won't do it again.
If she did it the first time.
Which, probably,
you know, she didn't.
Right.
Your Honor, if you'll
just let me finish.
Let you fin-I don't let you finish!
You let me finish!
Nowhere on this lease does it say your
tenant cannot have a pet goldfish.
Well, that is just
one woman's opinion.
That is not one woman's opinion.
That is my ruling.
And let's get something
straight, pal.
No one comes into my courtroom
and tells me how to interpret the law.
I love this freak show. No.
On the contrary. it's about the stern but
effective administration of justice.
There has been a long
tradition of trial watching.
Salem Witch Trials,
the Nuremberg Trials.
This show's just
a logical progression.
Logical? Are you watching the same trial I'm
watching? They're talking about goldfish.
Who is talking when I'm talking?
I'm sorry, Your Honor. No, I was
just explaining to my partner...
that while these proceedings
may be unconventional,
they are by no means
a freak show.
Who is this woman, and why
is she interrupting my courtroom?
L-I have no idea,
Your Honor.
- I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan.
- Bailiff Griff, eject her now.
Uh, you can't do that.
No, this isn't even a real courtroom.
There's no ceiling.
- Don't even try it, pal.
- Look, we can either do this easy, or we can do it hard.
You're not gonna do it at all.
Okay? F.B.l. Special Agent Booth.
- This here is my partner.
- Dr. Temperance Brennan.
We already heard that, Bones. We're here
to ask you a few questions about a murder.
Rebecca was murdered?
Why? By whom?
That's what we're here to find out.
You reported her missing.
L-I was worried. She didn't show
up for work. She didn't call.
Rebecca never missed a day. When
was the last time you saw her?
Is this gonna take much longer?
The judge needs to be in makeup.
Rebecca... was murdered. Oh.
Uh-
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah, so you better tell makeup it's gonna take a while.
Well, what happened?
They don't know.
When did I last see Rebecca? Um-
Looks like the post-show debrief
on the 17th.
- The meeting went until 7:00.
- I'm sorry. Are you her assistant?
No. Jill's our interim producer
since Rebecca disappeared.
So you replaced Rebecca?
No one could really
replace Rebecca.
Her body was found in an
abandoned building on L Street.
Do you know
what she was doing there?
Probably recruiting litigants
for the show.
Becca would go anywhere to get people on
the show-police stations, the D.M.V.
She's been camped out in parking lots
waiting for fender benders to happen.
She was committed.
- The night she went missing, where were you?
- Home.
Alone.
Just being truthful.
I was here. I had 20 hours
of video to get through.
Alone, I assume?
I liked Rebecca.
In case both of you
are innocent,
was Rebecca seeing
anyone romantically?
Not since Griff. The bailiff.
Griff the bailiff and your producer
were having a relationship?
They broke up last year.
But they got along fine.
They're both professionals.
One more question.
If someone was accused
of biting,
wouldn't you demand solid proof
for a conviction?
Really?
I would like her answer.
Finn!
I have got the results! The fiber
from the victim's fingernail?
What? No. No, no, no.
I'm still working on that.
No. I have a molecular breakdown
of your grandma's secret sauce.
Oh, forget it. I've moved on.
No, you haven't.
You're still pissed, and I don't blame
you, all right? That stuff is awesome.
Yeah. My grandmother used
to put it on my catfish.
Oh, you're-
You're killing me here.
I'm not gonna let that hot sauce die.
Now look at this.
I took a swab of the bottle, and I
ran it through the mass spec, right?
Now, I almost
got everything, okay?
We've got red
and yellow peppers, okay?
Cayenne, tomatoes,
of course, garlic-
- Hodgins... Onions, cumin,
salt, brown sugar, vinegar-
There's just one compound
I cannot identify.
I was hoping you'd know what it was.
Sure.
It's the one thing
you'll never find.
I've already got a portion
of the molecular chain.
Love. it's love, Hodgins.
That's not gonna show up
on your mass spec.
Come on. Let it go.
No. Finn-
Come on, hey.
L-I'm one compound away.
L-I'm gonna burn the
crap out of your mouth,
and you are gonna love it!
Huh?
What's that about?
We met when the show started.
Trudy didn't want us
to date each other,
but I guess Rebecca
and I were so in love...
that she didn't
want to be the Grinch.
How long were you together?
Four years.
Lived together
for the last two, with Iris.
Iris. That's interesting.
Not really, Booth.
For hundreds of years, having multiple
partners was quite acceptable.
Oh, no, no, no.
Iris is a dog.
Uh, she's a leopard hound
that we rescued.
Never mind.
So, what happened?
Uh, not much.
We saw Iris in a shelter, and both
of us thought she was really-
No, no, not-Not with the dog, Iris.
With you and Rebecca.
Why'd you guys split?
Oh, well, her job.
I remember asking her
if it was worth it.
I mean, she was always dealing
with lunatics.
I told her
one of them could snap.
Did anyone ever threaten her?
Oh, yeah, every day.
Half the people who lost
blamed her,
because she got 'em all fired up
before they went on.
But she wasn't bothered?
Oh, she loved it.
Then after Trudy promoted her to be
producer, nothing else mattered.
The only time I had a
conversation with her was on set.
She stopped
seeing friends and family.
Is that why
you sued her for palimony?
Hey, I supported Rebecca
when she was carrying coffee.
By the time we split,
her salary was triple mine.
You sound bitter. As long as I got
my check every month, I was happy.
Problem is, now she's gone,
they're gonna stop.
So from where I stand, Rebecca
wasn't the only victim here.
I'm mad! I had every
right to burn his car!
It seems like it to me.
I would've liked to have
burned it with him in it!
That's it! That is the anger
that I want to see in there!
You're not gonna win
if you don't get mad.
How long have you been watching this?
Three hours.
Three hours of raw footage of
people screaming at each other.
The bailiff even told Booth that these
contestants could be pretty nuts.
I can see that.
One guy went ballistic on his friend
for not returning a magazine.
And then he threatened to kill him.
Well, that's good.
Um, not for the friend, but for our case.
He has an alibi.
Rebecca was the one
who was really pushing it.
She went out of her way to
push buttons on these crazies.
Maybe that was part of her job to
make the show more interesting.
Well, the word I was
going for was pathetic.
The only one so far without
an alibi is this one.
He said he was using the money
for an engagement ring!
80 he lied!
Now you go in there...
and you fight for what you
know is right, and you'll w/n.
You think so?
Hell, yeah!
Are you a doormat
or are you a fighter?
A fighter!
Now, you go in there,
and you get some justice.
Wow. Yeah.
Then she lost the case and had to be
removed from the studio by Security.
She blamed Rebecca
for losing the case.
You set me up!
You're a dead perra!
Now, this was the day
before Rebecca disappeared,
and this woman lives two blocks from
where Rebecca's body was found.
Okay.
Sure, I got mad.
She said I would win.
The show paid you more for appearing
than it would've if you won the case.
It was the principle of the thing.
Ain't you got no morals?
Hey, you were betrayed by your fiance.
Money couldn't heal that.
You wanted revenge.
Yeah.
He gets it. Revenge-
That makes things right.
Seems like you got a lot of
revenge in the past. Huh?
Let's take a look, huh?
Assault, breaking and entering.
Oh, another assault. Look
at this one, my favorite.
- First degree murder.
- That was dismissed.
You seem to feel that anger's a
good solution to your problems,
which I totally understand.
Yeah?
Yeah. Sure. The release of adrenaline
and noradrenaline in your system...
causes you to feel optimistic...
that your impulses are causing you to
make, uh, reasonable risk assessments.
It's a common correspondence bias.
Are you screwing with me?
No, I'm simply pointing out
that your lack of self-control...
can cause you to make
extremely poor decisions.
- You said you were on my side.
- No, he said he understood why you go psycho.
- I wouldn't use that word-
- I know. That's why I'm here.
Okay, look, I caused a scene.
They threw me out.
Why they got to
bring it up again now?
Becca Pearce was found murdered
two blocks from your home.
She was killed right after
you appeared on her show.
You just hauled me in here 'cause
I live in a crap neighborhood...
and maybe ain't that smart,
but I got brains.
I ain't gonna make this easy.
I got nothing more to say.
See how calm I could be?
Fractures to the metatarsals
and phalanges.
Which suggests that the
victim was defending herself.
Fracturing to the occipital.
Right.
Blunt-force trauma,
but wasn't enough to kill.
But would certainly be enough to daze the victim
so the assailant could gain control over her.
Right. And we also know that the underside of
her fingernails contained her own skin cells,
which would indicate
that she was bound...
and that she tried to
claw at her restraints.
None of which gives us
cause of death.
Ma'am, if I could speak?
You are.
Of course.
Uh, I heard about
your little girl,
and I just wanted to say that there's
nothing special about biting.
My mama said I used to chew on folks
like a cannibal at Thanksgiving dinner.
And I turned out okay.
You served time in a juvenile correction
facility for stabbing your stepfather.
Well, I stabbed him
in self-defense.
L- I went to juvie for theft
and malicious mischief.
Yeah, that doesn't sound good.
All I'm saying is that biting is,
you know, pretty average behavior.
And since my daughter
is not average,
I'll prove that
she's being unfairly maligned.
Did you see this,
Mr. Abernathy?
Uh, yes. That's an antemortem injury
to the right zygomatic.
Blunt force consistent
with a violent blow.
Degree of remodeling indicates that the injuries
occurred approximately three months ago.
Whoever murdered
Rebecca Pearce...
might have just been finishing what
they started three months ago.
So, Pabla Sepulveda's
whole family is saying...
that she was with them the night of
the murder. And you believe them?
I believe it was enough for her
lawyer to get her released.
Right, but the techs are still seeing if
there's anything at the crime scene...
that ties her to the murder?
Yeah.
But till then, I got another
loon for you to look at.
Gordie Rand. Rebecca and he met
through an online dating service.
He looks 12.
Yeah, he's 22.
Lied on his profile
and put up a fake picture.
They only met once...
for coffee.
But, look, seems Gordie
didn't understand the word no.
Oh, she filed a restraining order
against him.
Right, look at the date of the restraining
order. It was three months ago.
That's around the time Dr. Brennan
said Rebecca was hit in the face.
Right. Now, look at the admitting
doctor's note for cause of injury.
€œAccidental fall in home.â€
So here's where
Mr. Shrinky comes into play.
If Gordon Rand attacked her, why
didn't Rebecca report him? Uh, fear?
She probably thought that
by reporting him,
she would incite him
and make matters worse.
She had a restraining order. One call,
and the cops would have picked him up.
Yeah, but she knew
the justice system.
She knew that it didn't always work.
So her survival skills kicked in.
Was there any additional contact
after this, uh, incident?
Yeah. He sent her these
a week before she disappeared.
That's... creepy.
So, what can you tell me
about Rebecca Pearce?
Uh, nothing to tell. Things got
complicated, so I broke it off.
Did they get complicated around the time
that you started making naked videos of her?
She was totally into it, man. She was
playing to the camera. You're delusional.
You know what?
You are a stalker.
You delude yourself into thinking
that there's a real relationship.
No.
Then it finally sinks in after hundreds
of phone calls and letters.
Romance is a dance-You move forward,
they move back and vice versa.
A dance? Really? Okay.
Give me one example when she
moved forward to you, just once.
It's a-it's a subtle thing, man.
What are these? Love tokens?
Yeah.
She liked the Halloween movies.
It was on her profile. So if you
guys were so right for each other,
why'd she take out a
restraining order against you?
Well, all respect to Rebecca,
that's when she took it too far.
And then you smacked her
in the face.
I would never do that.
I loved her.
And I followed every rule
of that order.
Where were you on the 17th?
I was at-at home, I think.
You think? Do you have someone
who can back up your story?
My morn.
Your morn?
You live with your morn? I
bet Rebecca found that hot.
I need your help with something,
but it must remain between us.
Yeah. For you, anything.
Christine has been accused of something
based on the word of a two-year-old...
whose neural connections
haven't fully formed yet.
I heard.
She bit a kid.
No-Allegedly. A child was
bitten, but-
There's no definitive evidence
that it was Christine.
You don't accuse anyone,
even a child, without proof-
photographs or measurement
of the alleged bite mark.
What do you need?
I need you to access some records
from Christine's day care.
You want me
to hack their server?
I need you to pull
Emma Carter's records...
and see if there's any visual
evidence of the alleged bite.
You know this is
pretty extreme, right?
Motherhood makes demands
that you can't ignore.
Did you identify the fiber particulate
I found under the victim's nail?
Copolymer of a 6C diamine
and a 12C diacid.
Copolymer?
It's a synthetic fabric?
Nylon-based velvet
treated with purple dye.
I've e-mailed you the results.
Okay.
Did you find something?
When I was examining the feet,
I noticed, uh,
perimortem hairline fractures to the
talus, calcaneus and distal fibula.
Could that result from the
victim kicking her assailant?
Well, that's more consistent with damage
by a jump down onto a hard surface.
But in that case, we would expect
to see the tibiae and fibulae...
pierce directly through
the inferior portion of the feet.
And there are no compression
fractures to the lumbar vertebrae.
So a jump, but not
from a great height.
Well, maybe she was dropped from the
top of the stairs to the cellar floor.
Now, that's a distance of approximately
1 O feet or just over three meters.
So not high enough to kill her, but
it sure would've slowed her down.
Yeah.
I find for the plaintiff
in the full amount of $243.
- You said /'d win, bitch!
- Why didn't you arrest this man?
Well, because he was in county on a
solicitation charge the night of the murder.
All rise.
Oh, wow.
Weebles, wobbles and-Ow!
Wow. Okay, so what
do you think, Bones?
The judge might suffer from
a neuromuscular disorder.
She's sloshed!
Drunk.
Oh, that.
Yes.
Who's talking in my courtroom?
Oh!
From the looks of it,
she is a mean drunk.
Who's talking in my courtroom?
Okay, that definitely looks like
felony assault to me.
You don't have a good grasp
of the law, do you, Agent Booth?
Since no charges were filed,
legally, that looks like nothing at all.
Wow.
Ah, pretty cold.
Yeah, I get that way when I'm
falsely accused of assault.
Rebecca knew it was an accident and
signed documents to confirm that.
The way you stumbled
and missed the steps-
You had been drinking there,
hadn't you?
I had come back
from a business lunch,
probably had some wine.
This line of questioning
is absurd.
- Move on with it.
- This is not your fake courtroom, Trudy.
I call the shots here. You're more
than a social drinker, aren't you?
I can tell by the way
your hand is shaking.
I have an occasional drink.
Occasional. Right.
Like you had
the occasional D.U.l.
For me, it was gambling. For
my father, it was drinking.
I know a problem when I see one.
The Trudy you see on TV-
that's a performance.
Some days I need help
getting there.
Okay. So it must have been
difficult, then,
when Rebecca banned alcohol
from the set.
Nothing was banned from the set.
According to
this production letter,
you would've lost the insurance on
your show if you didn't stop drinking.
- But you're still drinking.
- Addiction is tough, even when your career is at stake.
Yourjudgment's impaired, you make
impulsive and rash decisions.
Like getting rid of the people standing
between you and that drink that you need.
I didn't kill Rebecca.
But you did find someone to
bring your booze to the set, right?
Maybe someone to get on your
good side, edge out Rebecca.
I'm not answering
any more questions.
And that's your right. But can
you see the headlines now?
€œTV's Judge Trudy Obstructs
Murder investigation.â€
Now, that is bad publicity.
So, these are from
the little girl's file.
You can see the bite marks.
Excellent.
Now we can discount the
validity of their allegations,
and I will be able to submit evidence
to Christine's day care director.
Here.
What is this?
We'll need to compare the
injuries with Christine.
You actually took an impression
of Christine's teeth?
Yes. I-l had her bite into an apple,
and then I constructed the model.
It was actually quite simple.
- And she loves apples.
- Okay.
Oh. Aha. There
is a laceration here,
in the area where Christine's tooth
hasn't yet fully erupted.
Do you concur?
Uh, well, since
the flesh is malleable,
the computer can't confirm or deny
if Christine did this.
Well, that is absurd. We can
re-create entire crime scenes,
complete assault scenaflos.
Sorry, sweetie.
The best that I can do
is give you odds.
Okay.
And you're not gonna like them.
Why?
What do you mean?
Odds are 78 to 21 that
Christine bit the kid.
Twenty-one percent
plus my knowledge of her.
I am satisfied that
Christine is innocent.
- Really?
- Of course. Thank you.
Oh, are we still on for Christine and
Michael Vincent's playdate on Saturday?
Uh, sure, yeah.
Great.
I hope this is important. I'm
trying to find cause of death.
What's that smell?
It is catfish, Opie.
Oh. That wasn't necessary,
Thurston.
But it was.
Come here, sit down.
And this?
This is the hot sauce.
Taste it.
You are gonna love it.
Uh, this is-
Oh, my God.
- How did you do that?
- A fram 0m um me/egue la.
It's more commonly known
as Guinea grain.
It's native to swampy habitats
along the West African coast.
I have no idea how your
granny got ahold of it, but-
She used to trade with
an herbalist in the woods.
Damn, if you haven't brought my
granny back from the dead!
Hey, I told you
I'd find it, right?
And you were right.
The secret ingredient was love.
That's the only explanation for
Hodgins spending so much time and-
and effort to do this.
Eat. Go. Eat.
Eat.
Hey, we shouldn't keep
this stuff a secret.
- I mean, the world would love this.
- Oh, very true, very true.
You should slow down a little bit, Finn. You
don't want to get a bone stuck in your throat.
Not from a baby catfish.
- That's it.
- What?
Cause of death.
Th-Thank you.
You see these micro-fractures on the
transverse processes of the C4 and 5?
Yes. Well, they appear to be
consistent with strangulation.
Which is unlikely since the
hyoid bone remains intact.
Unlikely, yes,
but not impossible.
The victim was
in her mid-20s, yes?
At that age, the hyoid bone
is still very flexible.
If the conditions were right, she could've
been strangled without breaking her hyoid.
The flexibility of the young,
semi-cartilaginous hyoid,
combined with a wide ligature, could very
well have caused these micro-fractures.
Well done,
Mr. Abernathy.
Well, you should be thanking my granny.
Rebecca made it clear if there was
any booze on set, I'd be fired.
Then Trudy said if I didn't figure
out a way to get her some vodka,
she'd fire me too.
So you picked the judge.
It was just a matter of time before Trudy
fired Rebecca. This job meant a lot to me.
I'd say it worked out pretty well for you.
The show is still going on.
You got Rebecca's job.
Sounds like a motive to me.
Rebecca was my mentor.
Oh, right, yeah.
She treated you like crap. You got paid next
to nothing, and she took all the credit.
That's how everyone starts out.
Trudy said that you and Rebecca
used to fight all the time...
because she wouldn't
give you a promotion.
Sometimes I have a temper.
I can... get impatient. That's all.
I think you ran out of patience.
I think you told her to go to this abandoned
building to interview this fake guest,
and... you strangled her
with this.
Where-
Where did you get this?
Got a search warrant
for your apartment.
The team at the Jeffersonian
said that Rebecca was strangled.
We found a fiber underneath
her fingernail. No.
No, you-you've got this
all wrong.
Rebecca lent me this scarf.
That's-Oh.
That's Rebecca's scarf.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Thanks for that.
Wow, this is looking worse and
worse for you, isn't it, Jill?
Look, Jill Roberts
has motive and opportunity.
Hell, she even got her promotion
courtesy of Rebecca's death.
I believe our killer acted
on impulse and obsession.
Jill Roberts is methodical
and calculating. Okay.
You're saying that she's innocent
because her desk is neat?
No, I'm saying that Jill is only
aggressive professionally.
She didn't try to hide
her feelings.
She seemed genuinely upset
about Rebecca's death.
Hodgins identified the fiber that
was under the victim's fingernails.
Some kind of a nylon, okay?
This scarf probably matches it.
No, see, this is wool.
This is South American vicufia.
It's very expensive.
What? It's not a crime to
appreciate nice things.
Okay. Doesn't mean that
she's not the murderer, okay?
It just means that
she didn't use this.
I think you're reaching, Booth.
Our assumption was that the victim
was strangled at the top of the stairs...
and then tossed over the railing.
But Finn and I tried that
every possible way.
The yellow fractures show the
injuries from the simulated falls,
and the red show the actual
fractures to your victim.
We couldn't match the same
fracture pattern that we found.
What if the body dropped
at a 90-degree angle?
Well, how could that be possible if she
was thrown over the side? It wouldn't.
The calcaneal fractures indicate that
her feet hit the ground first...
and absorbed most of the impact.
So if I adjust
the direction of her body...
and adjust for the dead weight.
Add a ligature around her neck.
Well, I'll be damned. She
was hanged over that rail.
And then cut down
after she died.
Hairline fracturing matches.
But the victim's neck
wasn't broken.
Wouldn't your neck break
if you were hanged?
It depends on the length
of the ligature.
And if the noose was
wide enough, like so,
it wouldn't break
Rebecca's neck.
But...
it would cause tremendous
impact to the jawline.
Look.
What are those?
Three small nicks on the
anteroinferior aspect of the mandible.
Uniform and equidistant.
Small spikes.
- This could tell us how she was strangled.
- And by what.
I'll have
Dr. Hodgins swab.
They do seem to be spikes.
Like maybe from a bracelet.
Like a punk would wear.
Exactly.
So you think the victim was struck in the
throat by someone wearing a bracelet?
Impossible. There would be scraping,
as well as the indentations.
These marks were made by
applying consistent pressure.
Got it!
So, I swabbed Rebecca's mandible.
I found dander.
- Dander, like from a dog?
- Yeah, exactly.
- It's a dog collar.
- Mm-hmm.
Angie, can you call up
the file that I sent?
- So, I even found the breed.
- It was a leopard hound.
Yeah. it's a Catahoula leopard hound,
to be exact. How did you-
That look familiar?
What are you doing
with iris's collar?
We got a search warrant
for your home.
I'm telling you. You've got
quite a shrine for your dog.
The purple velvet
matches perfectly...
with the fibers we found
under Rebecca's fingernails.
- Well, so? She was her dog too.
- That's true.
So where's Iris?
She... died.
- Before Rebecca was killed?
- Look, we know you had a palimony agreement...
which gave you
joint custody of the dog.
How did the dog die?
Rebecca was always working,
so the dog that you loved so much
probably died of neglect, am I right?
There's a tribe in Southern India that felt
that a man's animal was a part of him.
Like his arm or his heart.
If another man
killed his animal,
he was put to death in the
same manner as that animal.
Our F.B.l. shrink agrees.
Iris was hanged, wasn't she?
That's why you hanged Rebecca.
We found the grave
in your backyard.
We can dig up the dog, and it'll be
easy to determine cause of death.
I'll do that.
Don't.
Don't what?
Don't... dig up Iris.
Please.
I went to pick her up...
one Saturday, and...
nobody answered the door,
so I went around back.
Rebecca was working, like usual.
She left Iris
chained to the porch.
Who would leave a dog
tied up like that?
I told her
that I would take her.
But she said the custody
agreement was a legal contract,
that the law was the law.
Everything always went
back to that stupid show.
Iris was-
She was more than an agreement.
She was all I had left.
And there she was, hanging
off the patio railing...
dangling by her collar.
Probably went after a squirrel-
or something.
I couldn't... let Rebecca
get away with that.
That's what the law
is all about, right?
♪♪
♪ In the hearts of men ♪
♪ In the arms of mothers ♪
♪ In the pans we play ♪
♪ To convince others ♪
♪ We know what we're doing ♪
♪ We're doing it right, r
♪ May have written books
on the subject ♪
♪ But then you may still
be surprised ♪♪
Listen, you guys, I thought
you were here to do an article.
You know, my assistant never would have
set up this meeting for a tasting...
if my team hadn't
tasted it first.
Especially if you want me
involved in the marketing.
Come on, you guys.
Get that food up.
You're right, ma'am.
Please accept our apologies.
Okay, uh, but they
do not have your palate,
and we could not let you miss
an opportunity like this.
That's sweet, but you
need to talk to my staff.
Come on. Let's go! Let's go! You're
right, ma'am. Okay? We're sorry for-
Okay, what you can't see is that he is actually
the best of what this country has to offer.
Did he kill bin Laden? Wow, you
are a tough sell. Taste it.
Relax, it's just a hot sauce
we're talking about.
No, it's not just a hot sauce.
My granny made this sauce, and she
took the recipe with her to her grave.
Look me in the eye, kid. Look
me in the eye and tell me...
that you think this is the most
amazing hot sauce I'll ever taste...
and I should make an exception.
Ma'am, I promise you,
to my everlasting surprise, that this
sauce tastes every bit as good...
as when my grandmother
made it for me.
Now, men fought for this sauce.
And I-l ain't proud to say it, but my
cousin lost his hand because of it.
All right, give me a taste.
Not bad.
All right, 60 me, 40 you,
and we'll market it
with my name, my logo.
Maybe we'll make
a little bit of money.
Please, we're gonna be rich.
80120, our flavor, and...
it's called
“Opie and Thurston's Hot Sauce.â€
Okay.
I got to hand it to you, Bones, you
always find a way to amaze me.
I'm proud of you. Solving
this case was a group effort.
But I am the most valuable,
so thank you.
No, I meant I'm proud of you for not losing
your cool with the preschool director...
and Emma's mom.
Well,
when it comes to settling conflicts,
it's always better to be rational.
And the abundance of forensic
evidence against Christine...
was clearly tainted
by multiple sources.
Yeah, but the part where it became the O.J.
trial was a bit much.
But it worked.
Yeah.
You know, Christine,
she's gonna misbehave again.
She's gonna break curfew. She's
gonna have a cigarette or two.
She's probably gonna
skip school.
I know.
It's a natural part of maturing.
Natural?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
Acceptable behavior
can only be learned...
through the experience
of unacceptable behavior.
- Why the big change of heart?
- I haven't changed.
What's that?
What?
On your neck. Is that a bite mark?
Nothing.
Christine bit you.
No-
Okay.
Christine got excited.
It doesn't mean
that she bit Emma.
Better not take her to
day care for a while.
I'll just tell them you did it while
we were making love. No, you won't.
Well, it's a believable
explanation, Booth.
What? That I gave you a hickey?
No, I'm not in eighth grade.
Ooh.
Seriously?
You got to slow down.
Boy, she really did lay
into you there, huh?
It is a bit sore.
Yeah.
What's that mean?
can't be the place.
Why would they leave a clue
for a treasure hunt here?
Denise hired a professional to plan the
game. They know what they're doing.
Why couldn't Denise and Joel
just have a dinner party?
Watch out for that step. it's-
See?
- Told you.
- Hey. Help me get some light down here.
Okay, nothing down there.
Let's go.
Seriously?
Oh! This is awesome.
Get a picture.
Smells gross.
Man up!
Do you want
Ryan and Kristy to win?
Dig.
Wait.
L- I think
I found something.
Feels like a bottle.
It'll have the next clue inside.
Got to admit,
winning would be nice.
[ Grunts I
I hate Ryan and Kristy!
Hey, I'm home.
She's sleeping.
Shh. Look at this, huh?
We have an artist.
This is beautiful.
Yeah.
It's truly exceptional.
There are flashes of abstract
expressionism in this.
Huh? Abstract expressionism.
You know, like Wassily
Kandinsky or Friedel Dzubas.
There's a real sweep to these strokes.
Right, right.
Okay, well, the school director, she wants
to, uh, bring us in and talk to us.
So she recognizes
Christine's talent too?
Uh, no. Christine, she,
uh-She bit a kid.
What?
No, that-that's impossible.
It's no big deal. I mean, kids bite.
No. Not Christine.
She's not just any kid. She's my
daughter, and they made a mistake.
Bones, just relax. I mean, the
school director, she felt bad.
She was apologizing for bringing it up.
Well, then why did she?
Well, because, you know,
a kid got bit. That's why.
Which kid?
Thank God.
Brennan.
Booth.
- Where is it?
- Text me the address.
Okay, we'll be right there.
We got a body.
I know.
I'll call Max to watch her.
Which kid? Emma.
One of the Emmas.
Emma R. or Emma C.?
Emma C.
Figures. She cries when they sing
Its y Bits y Spider.
Wow! Look
at those 'shrooms!
Yeah. Spectacular, right?
Ganoderma, enok/take,
some beautiful bunapi-shimeji,
and just about the cutest little
Hypho/oma I've ever seen.
- Okay. Great. Let's move it along.
- The frontal eminence...
and the orbital margins indicate
the victim was female, Caucasian.
Cranial suturing suggests
she was in her mid-20s.
All right, any evidence
ofsexualassaufl?
Not that I can see.
Her pants are still on.
I didn't think mushrooms grew on bodies.
Yeah, they don't.
They are growing through it
and around it.
Spores must have been laying
dormant underground.
Fluid from the victim could have
seeped out and reactivated them.
- What proof do they have?
- Huh?
- Hard proof.
- Hard proof? I-I don't know.
The teacher heard a scream,
she turned around...
and saw Christine standing next to
C., and she had a bite mark on her.
Not about the case, I'm guessing?
- It could have been another child who ran away.
- Let's talk about this later.
- Has Michael Vincent ever bit anyone?
- Yeah, sure.
I mean, th-there's
nothing weird about that.
- It's average behavior.
- Average.
Exactly. Christine didn't do this.
The teacher was mistaken.
There was no reports of a
kidnapping or an abduction in the area,
so how long has mushroom woman
been down here, you think?
Well, based on
the size of the stems,
Yd say somewhere
between '20 and '30 days.
Hey, she could be homeless.
Her teeth are pristine. She
doesn't have a single filling.
Look at her fingernails.
Wow, that's a manicure.
It's a very good manicure.
She took very good
care of herself.
- Oh.
- Can I see that?
Yeah.
These shoes are from Ava Lang.
- Beautiful, incredible leather.
- Sounds very expensive.
So, why did a woman who could
afford shoes like this...
end up in one of the worst
neighborhoods in D.C...
with mushrooms
growing out of her?
These bunapi-shimejis
are full of antioxidants.
The mushrooms? Yeah. There
could be a market for these.
Yeah, mushrooms grown
locally on corpses.
Are you two looking for
some kind of side business?
Oh, no. Hey, I
accept not being rich rich,
but I wouldn't mind being a little richer
than we are right now.
We're living off our salaries.
It's what people do.
Well, happiness isn't tied
to how much money you make.
Thank you, Opie.
But I'd rather not have
Michael Vincent...
eating squirrel gizzards
and hillbilly broth.
We had to mortgage the house...
to pay off a few final debts...
after the collapse of the Cantilever Group.
No, he's freaking out.
Yep. Totally.
Okay. Finished with the photos?
Right.
Let's rattle them bones.
The victim's clothing suggests
she had expensive tastes.
I need a psychologist for that?
The wear on her shoes
indicates they didn't fit well.
Her clothes were altered at home.
You know what? You're watching
way too much Project Runway.
It was important for her to look good.
She was living beyond her means.
Maybe a social climber? How's that
gonna help me catch her murderer?
She showed a false front
to the world.
It was a lie, if you will.
Enough with the clothes, all right?
Okay.
Do you have anything else?
Um, yeah.
The victim being buried facedown.
That's significant. How so?
When the victim's turned away, the
killer avoids a personal connection,
which means the killer
probably knew the victim.
That's good. You know what? I
can work with that. Thank you.
Sweets, biting is normal, right?
Lab didn't mention anything
about biting.
Did-Did you bite someone?
No. Christine bit someone. Oh.
Oh, yeah. Her age?
Totally normal.
I mean, the average child-
Don't say “average.â€
Bones hears you say “average, â€
it's bad.
Just... don't say “average, â€
okay?
Okay.
Don't.
I found hairline fractures
on the occipital.
Did the victim die from
a blow to the head? No.
The injury was enough to
disorient the victim,
maybe even lose consciousness,
but wouldn't be cause of death.
I've got epithelial cells from under
her fingernails. I'll run the D.N.A.
if we're lucky, she fought
with her killer.
Oh, Well,
multiple fractures on the distal
and medial phalanges...
as well as the metatarsals could
be indicative of a fight, yes.
- Some of this is not skin.
- What is it?
Not sure.
It's fibrous. I'll get Hodgins
to identify it.
Hey. I ran a facial reconstruction
through Missing Persons,
and I found a possible match.
Rebecca Pearce, 25 years old,
reported missing
by Trudy Morris.
Judge Trudy?
I'm not familiar
with Judge Trudy.
- What circuit is she on?
- Citizen is C0 un'.
Does that have something to do with
the French Revolution? No.
Judge Trudy has a TV show where
she judges “small claims†cases.
Why? Because
it's great drama.
People just fight over
the silliest little things.
You should see the way that they
yell and scream at each other.
- Total guilty pleasure.
- Like watching a train wreck.
Train wrecks are not pleasurable.
No wonder you feel guilty.
I have a huge bone
to pick with you.
Check out this
Synthes/omy/'a nud/seta.
I'm serious.
I'm steaming.
The size of the larvae,
I can narrow time of death...
to somewhere
between 20 and 23 days.
Thurston, please stop ignoring me.
Did you finish this?
There's still a bit left.
Yes. it was delicious.
This was my last bottle ofhotsauce!
I didn't know it was yours.
Well, if you wanted me to believe you,
you should have removed the Post-it note.
Okay, all right.
In my defense,
it's a communal fridge.
I'll buy you a new one.
No, you don't understand.
This was my granny's last bottle
of special sauce.
Well, call her up and
tell her to, you know-
I can't, because she's dead!
What have you learned
about Emma?
Does she have a history of
false reporting? Oh, yeah.
Numerous occasions, police responded
to reports of a monster under the bed,
but no monster was ever found.
I know that that's amusing,
but I don't feel like laughing.
Bones, come on. Kids bite.
They grow out of it.
Really, just let it go.
I would love to let it go.
Good. Let it go. Which is why
I intend to challenge...
the spurious circumstantial evidence
with empirical data.
You're kidding.
Not kidding.
Not kidding.
Okay, the teacher turned around and
saw Christine standing next to Emma.
Hearsay, circumstantial
and a possibly biased witness.
Look, I'm just saying, if Christine did
it, I'm sure she won't do it again.
If she did it the first time.
Which, probably,
you know, she didn't.
Right.
Your Honor, if you'll
just let me finish.
Let you fin-I don't let you finish!
You let me finish!
Nowhere on this lease does it say your
tenant cannot have a pet goldfish.
Well, that is just
one woman's opinion.
That is not one woman's opinion.
That is my ruling.
And let's get something
straight, pal.
No one comes into my courtroom
and tells me how to interpret the law.
I love this freak show. No.
On the contrary. it's about the stern but
effective administration of justice.
There has been a long
tradition of trial watching.
Salem Witch Trials,
the Nuremberg Trials.
This show's just
a logical progression.
Logical? Are you watching the same trial I'm
watching? They're talking about goldfish.
Who is talking when I'm talking?
I'm sorry, Your Honor. No, I was
just explaining to my partner...
that while these proceedings
may be unconventional,
they are by no means
a freak show.
Who is this woman, and why
is she interrupting my courtroom?
L-I have no idea,
Your Honor.
- I'm Dr. Temperance Brennan.
- Bailiff Griff, eject her now.
Uh, you can't do that.
No, this isn't even a real courtroom.
There's no ceiling.
- Don't even try it, pal.
- Look, we can either do this easy, or we can do it hard.
You're not gonna do it at all.
Okay? F.B.l. Special Agent Booth.
- This here is my partner.
- Dr. Temperance Brennan.
We already heard that, Bones. We're here
to ask you a few questions about a murder.
Rebecca was murdered?
Why? By whom?
That's what we're here to find out.
You reported her missing.
L-I was worried. She didn't show
up for work. She didn't call.
Rebecca never missed a day. When
was the last time you saw her?
Is this gonna take much longer?
The judge needs to be in makeup.
Rebecca... was murdered. Oh.
Uh-
- Oh, my God.
- Yeah, so you better tell makeup it's gonna take a while.
Well, what happened?
They don't know.
When did I last see Rebecca? Um-
Looks like the post-show debrief
on the 17th.
- The meeting went until 7:00.
- I'm sorry. Are you her assistant?
No. Jill's our interim producer
since Rebecca disappeared.
So you replaced Rebecca?
No one could really
replace Rebecca.
Her body was found in an
abandoned building on L Street.
Do you know
what she was doing there?
Probably recruiting litigants
for the show.
Becca would go anywhere to get people on
the show-police stations, the D.M.V.
She's been camped out in parking lots
waiting for fender benders to happen.
She was committed.
- The night she went missing, where were you?
- Home.
Alone.
Just being truthful.
I was here. I had 20 hours
of video to get through.
Alone, I assume?
I liked Rebecca.
In case both of you
are innocent,
was Rebecca seeing
anyone romantically?
Not since Griff. The bailiff.
Griff the bailiff and your producer
were having a relationship?
They broke up last year.
But they got along fine.
They're both professionals.
One more question.
If someone was accused
of biting,
wouldn't you demand solid proof
for a conviction?
Really?
I would like her answer.
Finn!
I have got the results! The fiber
from the victim's fingernail?
What? No. No, no, no.
I'm still working on that.
No. I have a molecular breakdown
of your grandma's secret sauce.
Oh, forget it. I've moved on.
No, you haven't.
You're still pissed, and I don't blame
you, all right? That stuff is awesome.
Yeah. My grandmother used
to put it on my catfish.
Oh, you're-
You're killing me here.
I'm not gonna let that hot sauce die.
Now look at this.
I took a swab of the bottle, and I
ran it through the mass spec, right?
Now, I almost
got everything, okay?
We've got red
and yellow peppers, okay?
Cayenne, tomatoes,
of course, garlic-
- Hodgins... Onions, cumin,
salt, brown sugar, vinegar-
There's just one compound
I cannot identify.
I was hoping you'd know what it was.
Sure.
It's the one thing
you'll never find.
I've already got a portion
of the molecular chain.
Love. it's love, Hodgins.
That's not gonna show up
on your mass spec.
Come on. Let it go.
No. Finn-
Come on, hey.
L-I'm one compound away.
L-I'm gonna burn the
crap out of your mouth,
and you are gonna love it!
Huh?
What's that about?
We met when the show started.
Trudy didn't want us
to date each other,
but I guess Rebecca
and I were so in love...
that she didn't
want to be the Grinch.
How long were you together?
Four years.
Lived together
for the last two, with Iris.
Iris. That's interesting.
Not really, Booth.
For hundreds of years, having multiple
partners was quite acceptable.
Oh, no, no, no.
Iris is a dog.
Uh, she's a leopard hound
that we rescued.
Never mind.
So, what happened?
Uh, not much.
We saw Iris in a shelter, and both
of us thought she was really-
No, no, not-Not with the dog, Iris.
With you and Rebecca.
Why'd you guys split?
Oh, well, her job.
I remember asking her
if it was worth it.
I mean, she was always dealing
with lunatics.
I told her
one of them could snap.
Did anyone ever threaten her?
Oh, yeah, every day.
Half the people who lost
blamed her,
because she got 'em all fired up
before they went on.
But she wasn't bothered?
Oh, she loved it.
Then after Trudy promoted her to be
producer, nothing else mattered.
The only time I had a
conversation with her was on set.
She stopped
seeing friends and family.
Is that why
you sued her for palimony?
Hey, I supported Rebecca
when she was carrying coffee.
By the time we split,
her salary was triple mine.
You sound bitter. As long as I got
my check every month, I was happy.
Problem is, now she's gone,
they're gonna stop.
So from where I stand, Rebecca
wasn't the only victim here.
I'm mad! I had every
right to burn his car!
It seems like it to me.
I would've liked to have
burned it with him in it!
That's it! That is the anger
that I want to see in there!
You're not gonna win
if you don't get mad.
How long have you been watching this?
Three hours.
Three hours of raw footage of
people screaming at each other.
The bailiff even told Booth that these
contestants could be pretty nuts.
I can see that.
One guy went ballistic on his friend
for not returning a magazine.
And then he threatened to kill him.
Well, that's good.
Um, not for the friend, but for our case.
He has an alibi.
Rebecca was the one
who was really pushing it.
She went out of her way to
push buttons on these crazies.
Maybe that was part of her job to
make the show more interesting.
Well, the word I was
going for was pathetic.
The only one so far without
an alibi is this one.
He said he was using the money
for an engagement ring!
80 he lied!
Now you go in there...
and you fight for what you
know is right, and you'll w/n.
You think so?
Hell, yeah!
Are you a doormat
or are you a fighter?
A fighter!
Now, you go in there,
and you get some justice.
Wow. Yeah.
Then she lost the case and had to be
removed from the studio by Security.
She blamed Rebecca
for losing the case.
You set me up!
You're a dead perra!
Now, this was the day
before Rebecca disappeared,
and this woman lives two blocks from
where Rebecca's body was found.
Okay.
Sure, I got mad.
She said I would win.
The show paid you more for appearing
than it would've if you won the case.
It was the principle of the thing.
Ain't you got no morals?
Hey, you were betrayed by your fiance.
Money couldn't heal that.
You wanted revenge.
Yeah.
He gets it. Revenge-
That makes things right.
Seems like you got a lot of
revenge in the past. Huh?
Let's take a look, huh?
Assault, breaking and entering.
Oh, another assault. Look
at this one, my favorite.
- First degree murder.
- That was dismissed.
You seem to feel that anger's a
good solution to your problems,
which I totally understand.
Yeah?
Yeah. Sure. The release of adrenaline
and noradrenaline in your system...
causes you to feel optimistic...
that your impulses are causing you to
make, uh, reasonable risk assessments.
It's a common correspondence bias.
Are you screwing with me?
No, I'm simply pointing out
that your lack of self-control...
can cause you to make
extremely poor decisions.
- You said you were on my side.
- No, he said he understood why you go psycho.
- I wouldn't use that word-
- I know. That's why I'm here.
Okay, look, I caused a scene.
They threw me out.
Why they got to
bring it up again now?
Becca Pearce was found murdered
two blocks from your home.
She was killed right after
you appeared on her show.
You just hauled me in here 'cause
I live in a crap neighborhood...
and maybe ain't that smart,
but I got brains.
I ain't gonna make this easy.
I got nothing more to say.
See how calm I could be?
Fractures to the metatarsals
and phalanges.
Which suggests that the
victim was defending herself.
Fracturing to the occipital.
Right.
Blunt-force trauma,
but wasn't enough to kill.
But would certainly be enough to daze the victim
so the assailant could gain control over her.
Right. And we also know that the underside of
her fingernails contained her own skin cells,
which would indicate
that she was bound...
and that she tried to
claw at her restraints.
None of which gives us
cause of death.
Ma'am, if I could speak?
You are.
Of course.
Uh, I heard about
your little girl,
and I just wanted to say that there's
nothing special about biting.
My mama said I used to chew on folks
like a cannibal at Thanksgiving dinner.
And I turned out okay.
You served time in a juvenile correction
facility for stabbing your stepfather.
Well, I stabbed him
in self-defense.
L- I went to juvie for theft
and malicious mischief.
Yeah, that doesn't sound good.
All I'm saying is that biting is,
you know, pretty average behavior.
And since my daughter
is not average,
I'll prove that
she's being unfairly maligned.
Did you see this,
Mr. Abernathy?
Uh, yes. That's an antemortem injury
to the right zygomatic.
Blunt force consistent
with a violent blow.
Degree of remodeling indicates that the injuries
occurred approximately three months ago.
Whoever murdered
Rebecca Pearce...
might have just been finishing what
they started three months ago.
So, Pabla Sepulveda's
whole family is saying...
that she was with them the night of
the murder. And you believe them?
I believe it was enough for her
lawyer to get her released.
Right, but the techs are still seeing if
there's anything at the crime scene...
that ties her to the murder?
Yeah.
But till then, I got another
loon for you to look at.
Gordie Rand. Rebecca and he met
through an online dating service.
He looks 12.
Yeah, he's 22.
Lied on his profile
and put up a fake picture.
They only met once...
for coffee.
But, look, seems Gordie
didn't understand the word no.
Oh, she filed a restraining order
against him.
Right, look at the date of the restraining
order. It was three months ago.
That's around the time Dr. Brennan
said Rebecca was hit in the face.
Right. Now, look at the admitting
doctor's note for cause of injury.
€œAccidental fall in home.â€
So here's where
Mr. Shrinky comes into play.
If Gordon Rand attacked her, why
didn't Rebecca report him? Uh, fear?
She probably thought that
by reporting him,
she would incite him
and make matters worse.
She had a restraining order. One call,
and the cops would have picked him up.
Yeah, but she knew
the justice system.
She knew that it didn't always work.
So her survival skills kicked in.
Was there any additional contact
after this, uh, incident?
Yeah. He sent her these
a week before she disappeared.
That's... creepy.
So, what can you tell me
about Rebecca Pearce?
Uh, nothing to tell. Things got
complicated, so I broke it off.
Did they get complicated around the time
that you started making naked videos of her?
She was totally into it, man. She was
playing to the camera. You're delusional.
You know what?
You are a stalker.
You delude yourself into thinking
that there's a real relationship.
No.
Then it finally sinks in after hundreds
of phone calls and letters.
Romance is a dance-You move forward,
they move back and vice versa.
A dance? Really? Okay.
Give me one example when she
moved forward to you, just once.
It's a-it's a subtle thing, man.
What are these? Love tokens?
Yeah.
She liked the Halloween movies.
It was on her profile. So if you
guys were so right for each other,
why'd she take out a
restraining order against you?
Well, all respect to Rebecca,
that's when she took it too far.
And then you smacked her
in the face.
I would never do that.
I loved her.
And I followed every rule
of that order.
Where were you on the 17th?
I was at-at home, I think.
You think? Do you have someone
who can back up your story?
My morn.
Your morn?
You live with your morn? I
bet Rebecca found that hot.
I need your help with something,
but it must remain between us.
Yeah. For you, anything.
Christine has been accused of something
based on the word of a two-year-old...
whose neural connections
haven't fully formed yet.
I heard.
She bit a kid.
No-Allegedly. A child was
bitten, but-
There's no definitive evidence
that it was Christine.
You don't accuse anyone,
even a child, without proof-
photographs or measurement
of the alleged bite mark.
What do you need?
I need you to access some records
from Christine's day care.
You want me
to hack their server?
I need you to pull
Emma Carter's records...
and see if there's any visual
evidence of the alleged bite.
You know this is
pretty extreme, right?
Motherhood makes demands
that you can't ignore.
Did you identify the fiber particulate
I found under the victim's nail?
Copolymer of a 6C diamine
and a 12C diacid.
Copolymer?
It's a synthetic fabric?
Nylon-based velvet
treated with purple dye.
I've e-mailed you the results.
Okay.
Did you find something?
When I was examining the feet,
I noticed, uh,
perimortem hairline fractures to the
talus, calcaneus and distal fibula.
Could that result from the
victim kicking her assailant?
Well, that's more consistent with damage
by a jump down onto a hard surface.
But in that case, we would expect
to see the tibiae and fibulae...
pierce directly through
the inferior portion of the feet.
And there are no compression
fractures to the lumbar vertebrae.
So a jump, but not
from a great height.
Well, maybe she was dropped from the
top of the stairs to the cellar floor.
Now, that's a distance of approximately
1 O feet or just over three meters.
So not high enough to kill her, but
it sure would've slowed her down.
Yeah.
I find for the plaintiff
in the full amount of $243.
- You said /'d win, bitch!
- Why didn't you arrest this man?
Well, because he was in county on a
solicitation charge the night of the murder.
All rise.
Oh, wow.
Weebles, wobbles and-Ow!
Wow. Okay, so what
do you think, Bones?
The judge might suffer from
a neuromuscular disorder.
She's sloshed!
Drunk.
Oh, that.
Yes.
Who's talking in my courtroom?
Oh!
From the looks of it,
she is a mean drunk.
Who's talking in my courtroom?
Okay, that definitely looks like
felony assault to me.
You don't have a good grasp
of the law, do you, Agent Booth?
Since no charges were filed,
legally, that looks like nothing at all.
Wow.
Ah, pretty cold.
Yeah, I get that way when I'm
falsely accused of assault.
Rebecca knew it was an accident and
signed documents to confirm that.
The way you stumbled
and missed the steps-
You had been drinking there,
hadn't you?
I had come back
from a business lunch,
probably had some wine.
This line of questioning
is absurd.
- Move on with it.
- This is not your fake courtroom, Trudy.
I call the shots here. You're more
than a social drinker, aren't you?
I can tell by the way
your hand is shaking.
I have an occasional drink.
Occasional. Right.
Like you had
the occasional D.U.l.
For me, it was gambling. For
my father, it was drinking.
I know a problem when I see one.
The Trudy you see on TV-
that's a performance.
Some days I need help
getting there.
Okay. So it must have been
difficult, then,
when Rebecca banned alcohol
from the set.
Nothing was banned from the set.
According to
this production letter,
you would've lost the insurance on
your show if you didn't stop drinking.
- But you're still drinking.
- Addiction is tough, even when your career is at stake.
Yourjudgment's impaired, you make
impulsive and rash decisions.
Like getting rid of the people standing
between you and that drink that you need.
I didn't kill Rebecca.
But you did find someone to
bring your booze to the set, right?
Maybe someone to get on your
good side, edge out Rebecca.
I'm not answering
any more questions.
And that's your right. But can
you see the headlines now?
€œTV's Judge Trudy Obstructs
Murder investigation.â€
Now, that is bad publicity.
So, these are from
the little girl's file.
You can see the bite marks.
Excellent.
Now we can discount the
validity of their allegations,
and I will be able to submit evidence
to Christine's day care director.
Here.
What is this?
We'll need to compare the
injuries with Christine.
You actually took an impression
of Christine's teeth?
Yes. I-l had her bite into an apple,
and then I constructed the model.
It was actually quite simple.
- And she loves apples.
- Okay.
Oh. Aha. There
is a laceration here,
in the area where Christine's tooth
hasn't yet fully erupted.
Do you concur?
Uh, well, since
the flesh is malleable,
the computer can't confirm or deny
if Christine did this.
Well, that is absurd. We can
re-create entire crime scenes,
complete assault scenaflos.
Sorry, sweetie.
The best that I can do
is give you odds.
Okay.
And you're not gonna like them.
Why?
What do you mean?
Odds are 78 to 21 that
Christine bit the kid.
Twenty-one percent
plus my knowledge of her.
I am satisfied that
Christine is innocent.
- Really?
- Of course. Thank you.
Oh, are we still on for Christine and
Michael Vincent's playdate on Saturday?
Uh, sure, yeah.
Great.
I hope this is important. I'm
trying to find cause of death.
What's that smell?
It is catfish, Opie.
Oh. That wasn't necessary,
Thurston.
But it was.
Come here, sit down.
And this?
This is the hot sauce.
Taste it.
You are gonna love it.
Uh, this is-
Oh, my God.
- How did you do that?
- A fram 0m um me/egue la.
It's more commonly known
as Guinea grain.
It's native to swampy habitats
along the West African coast.
I have no idea how your
granny got ahold of it, but-
She used to trade with
an herbalist in the woods.
Damn, if you haven't brought my
granny back from the dead!
Hey, I told you
I'd find it, right?
And you were right.
The secret ingredient was love.
That's the only explanation for
Hodgins spending so much time and-
and effort to do this.
Eat. Go. Eat.
Eat.
Hey, we shouldn't keep
this stuff a secret.
- I mean, the world would love this.
- Oh, very true, very true.
You should slow down a little bit, Finn. You
don't want to get a bone stuck in your throat.
Not from a baby catfish.
- That's it.
- What?
Cause of death.
Th-Thank you.
You see these micro-fractures on the
transverse processes of the C4 and 5?
Yes. Well, they appear to be
consistent with strangulation.
Which is unlikely since the
hyoid bone remains intact.
Unlikely, yes,
but not impossible.
The victim was
in her mid-20s, yes?
At that age, the hyoid bone
is still very flexible.
If the conditions were right, she could've
been strangled without breaking her hyoid.
The flexibility of the young,
semi-cartilaginous hyoid,
combined with a wide ligature, could very
well have caused these micro-fractures.
Well done,
Mr. Abernathy.
Well, you should be thanking my granny.
Rebecca made it clear if there was
any booze on set, I'd be fired.
Then Trudy said if I didn't figure
out a way to get her some vodka,
she'd fire me too.
So you picked the judge.
It was just a matter of time before Trudy
fired Rebecca. This job meant a lot to me.
I'd say it worked out pretty well for you.
The show is still going on.
You got Rebecca's job.
Sounds like a motive to me.
Rebecca was my mentor.
Oh, right, yeah.
She treated you like crap. You got paid next
to nothing, and she took all the credit.
That's how everyone starts out.
Trudy said that you and Rebecca
used to fight all the time...
because she wouldn't
give you a promotion.
Sometimes I have a temper.
I can... get impatient. That's all.
I think you ran out of patience.
I think you told her to go to this abandoned
building to interview this fake guest,
and... you strangled her
with this.
Where-
Where did you get this?
Got a search warrant
for your apartment.
The team at the Jeffersonian
said that Rebecca was strangled.
We found a fiber underneath
her fingernail. No.
No, you-you've got this
all wrong.
Rebecca lent me this scarf.
That's-Oh.
That's Rebecca's scarf.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Thanks for that.
Wow, this is looking worse and
worse for you, isn't it, Jill?
Look, Jill Roberts
has motive and opportunity.
Hell, she even got her promotion
courtesy of Rebecca's death.
I believe our killer acted
on impulse and obsession.
Jill Roberts is methodical
and calculating. Okay.
You're saying that she's innocent
because her desk is neat?
No, I'm saying that Jill is only
aggressive professionally.
She didn't try to hide
her feelings.
She seemed genuinely upset
about Rebecca's death.
Hodgins identified the fiber that
was under the victim's fingernails.
Some kind of a nylon, okay?
This scarf probably matches it.
No, see, this is wool.
This is South American vicufia.
It's very expensive.
What? It's not a crime to
appreciate nice things.
Okay. Doesn't mean that
she's not the murderer, okay?
It just means that
she didn't use this.
I think you're reaching, Booth.
Our assumption was that the victim
was strangled at the top of the stairs...
and then tossed over the railing.
But Finn and I tried that
every possible way.
The yellow fractures show the
injuries from the simulated falls,
and the red show the actual
fractures to your victim.
We couldn't match the same
fracture pattern that we found.
What if the body dropped
at a 90-degree angle?
Well, how could that be possible if she
was thrown over the side? It wouldn't.
The calcaneal fractures indicate that
her feet hit the ground first...
and absorbed most of the impact.
So if I adjust
the direction of her body...
and adjust for the dead weight.
Add a ligature around her neck.
Well, I'll be damned. She
was hanged over that rail.
And then cut down
after she died.
Hairline fracturing matches.
But the victim's neck
wasn't broken.
Wouldn't your neck break
if you were hanged?
It depends on the length
of the ligature.
And if the noose was
wide enough, like so,
it wouldn't break
Rebecca's neck.
But...
it would cause tremendous
impact to the jawline.
Look.
What are those?
Three small nicks on the
anteroinferior aspect of the mandible.
Uniform and equidistant.
Small spikes.
- This could tell us how she was strangled.
- And by what.
I'll have
Dr. Hodgins swab.
They do seem to be spikes.
Like maybe from a bracelet.
Like a punk would wear.
Exactly.
So you think the victim was struck in the
throat by someone wearing a bracelet?
Impossible. There would be scraping,
as well as the indentations.
These marks were made by
applying consistent pressure.
Got it!
So, I swabbed Rebecca's mandible.
I found dander.
- Dander, like from a dog?
- Yeah, exactly.
- It's a dog collar.
- Mm-hmm.
Angie, can you call up
the file that I sent?
- So, I even found the breed.
- It was a leopard hound.
Yeah. it's a Catahoula leopard hound,
to be exact. How did you-
That look familiar?
What are you doing
with iris's collar?
We got a search warrant
for your home.
I'm telling you. You've got
quite a shrine for your dog.
The purple velvet
matches perfectly...
with the fibers we found
under Rebecca's fingernails.
- Well, so? She was her dog too.
- That's true.
So where's Iris?
She... died.
- Before Rebecca was killed?
- Look, we know you had a palimony agreement...
which gave you
joint custody of the dog.
How did the dog die?
Rebecca was always working,
so the dog that you loved so much
probably died of neglect, am I right?
There's a tribe in Southern India that felt
that a man's animal was a part of him.
Like his arm or his heart.
If another man
killed his animal,
he was put to death in the
same manner as that animal.
Our F.B.l. shrink agrees.
Iris was hanged, wasn't she?
That's why you hanged Rebecca.
We found the grave
in your backyard.
We can dig up the dog, and it'll be
easy to determine cause of death.
I'll do that.
Don't.
Don't what?
Don't... dig up Iris.
Please.
I went to pick her up...
one Saturday, and...
nobody answered the door,
so I went around back.
Rebecca was working, like usual.
She left Iris
chained to the porch.
Who would leave a dog
tied up like that?
I told her
that I would take her.
But she said the custody
agreement was a legal contract,
that the law was the law.
Everything always went
back to that stupid show.
Iris was-
She was more than an agreement.
She was all I had left.
And there she was, hanging
off the patio railing...
dangling by her collar.
Probably went after a squirrel-
or something.
I couldn't... let Rebecca
get away with that.
That's what the law
is all about, right?
♪♪
♪ In the hearts of men ♪
♪ In the arms of mothers ♪
♪ In the pans we play ♪
♪ To convince others ♪
♪ We know what we're doing ♪
♪ We're doing it right, r
♪ May have written books
on the subject ♪
♪ But then you may still
be surprised ♪♪
Listen, you guys, I thought
you were here to do an article.
You know, my assistant never would have
set up this meeting for a tasting...
if my team hadn't
tasted it first.
Especially if you want me
involved in the marketing.
Come on, you guys.
Get that food up.
You're right, ma'am.
Please accept our apologies.
Okay, uh, but they
do not have your palate,
and we could not let you miss
an opportunity like this.
That's sweet, but you
need to talk to my staff.
Come on. Let's go! Let's go! You're
right, ma'am. Okay? We're sorry for-
Okay, what you can't see is that he is actually
the best of what this country has to offer.
Did he kill bin Laden? Wow, you
are a tough sell. Taste it.
Relax, it's just a hot sauce
we're talking about.
No, it's not just a hot sauce.
My granny made this sauce, and she
took the recipe with her to her grave.
Look me in the eye, kid. Look
me in the eye and tell me...
that you think this is the most
amazing hot sauce I'll ever taste...
and I should make an exception.
Ma'am, I promise you,
to my everlasting surprise, that this
sauce tastes every bit as good...
as when my grandmother
made it for me.
Now, men fought for this sauce.
And I-l ain't proud to say it, but my
cousin lost his hand because of it.
All right, give me a taste.
Not bad.
All right, 60 me, 40 you,
and we'll market it
with my name, my logo.
Maybe we'll make
a little bit of money.
Please, we're gonna be rich.
80120, our flavor, and...
it's called
“Opie and Thurston's Hot Sauce.â€
Okay.
I got to hand it to you, Bones, you
always find a way to amaze me.
I'm proud of you. Solving
this case was a group effort.
But I am the most valuable,
so thank you.
No, I meant I'm proud of you for not losing
your cool with the preschool director...
and Emma's mom.
Well,
when it comes to settling conflicts,
it's always better to be rational.
And the abundance of forensic
evidence against Christine...
was clearly tainted
by multiple sources.
Yeah, but the part where it became the O.J.
trial was a bit much.
But it worked.
Yeah.
You know, Christine,
she's gonna misbehave again.
She's gonna break curfew. She's
gonna have a cigarette or two.
She's probably gonna
skip school.
I know.
It's a natural part of maturing.
Natural?
Yes.
Really?
Yes.
Acceptable behavior
can only be learned...
through the experience
of unacceptable behavior.
- Why the big change of heart?
- I haven't changed.
What's that?
What?
On your neck. Is that a bite mark?
Nothing.
Christine bit you.
No-
Okay.
Christine got excited.
It doesn't mean
that she bit Emma.
Better not take her to
day care for a while.
I'll just tell them you did it while
we were making love. No, you won't.
Well, it's a believable
explanation, Booth.
What? That I gave you a hickey?
No, I'm not in eighth grade.
Ooh.
Seriously?
You got to slow down.
Boy, she really did lay
into you there, huh?
It is a bit sore.
Yeah.
What's that mean?