In 'The Bond in the Boot,' it's James Bond at the double as a courier carrying a briefcase is killed. State Department requests discretion while investigating due to National Security concerns. This has a very nice theatrical-feel opening to it and keeps you guessing until the very end.
In 'The Plain in the Prodigy,' Bones and Booth investigate the murder of an Amish piano prodigy. Featuring some lovely piano playing in this one, it's slow, and the ending is, well, an anti-climax, to say the least!
In ' The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,' Brennan and Booth investigate human remains found at a neighborhood block party BBQ pit! This is a very colorful episode; one of suburban politics and secret scandals giving each neighbor in the cul-de-sac a motive for the death of one of their own. Meanwhile, Jeffersonian intern Arastoo comes clean about his background, and even manages to lose his accent!
In 'A Night at the Bones Museum,' Brennan and Booth are called to investigate what appears to be charred human remains on an electrical fence. The mysterious corpse is later determined to be a mummified Egyptian royal (mummy) on loan to the Jeffersonian. The anthropological mystery has Brennan in a tizzy, and when the Jeffersonian curator prepping the mummy for exhibition is murdered, the team suspects foul play. Meanwhile, later in the episode, Brennan goes on a date with Booth's supervisor, Andrew Hacker (the always great Diedrich Bader - Drew Carey Show), and Sweets' girlfriend Daisy Wick returns to the Jeffersonian - on a trial period!
In 'The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken,' when the mutilated remains of a local chicken farmer set to inherit a chicken factory farm aggressively protested for inhumane living conditions and animal cruelty are discovered on the bank of a nearby river, Bones and Booth are on the case. Beginning with a nice government conspiracy theory re: a breed of half-man, half-chicken, jokes are abounding early on! Angela's lack of sex starts to get to her too. But worse than that, she is bothered by the farm's practices and launches her own animal-rights campaign - to save a little piggy!
In 'The Dwarf in the Dirt,' Booth, still suffering some lingering effects from his brain surgery, has to get re-certified for FBI marksmanship (his shooting is all over the place now!). Meanwhile, the remains of a little person are found in a VERY fake-looking studio street sink hole!! The victim, Bryce DaFonte, also known as "The Iron Leprechaun," was a popular wrestler, but surrounded by gold coins, well, something just ain't right!
In 'The Foot in the Foreclosure,' Booth's grandfather, Hank comes to live with him and tags along as Brennan and Booth investigate a burnt burnt on a master bed found by a real estate agent while showing a property to prospective buyers! Meanwhile, Hank tries to play matchmaker for Booth and lets Brennan in on some family secrets. And there is a GREAT PriceCo scene between Hank and Booth that is worth its weight in TV gold!
In 'The Gamer in the Grease,' when the remains of a competitive gamer are discovered in a stores commercial grease vat, Brennan and Booth are called in. And the scene where the body is removed and the skin all slips off is wickedly hilarious and yet disgusting in equal amounts! The victim turns out to be a gamer who received a perfect score on a famous video game, Punky Pong. Meanwhile, Hodgins, Sweets and Jeffersonian intern Colin Fischer take turns camping out for tickets to the movie premiere of 'Avatar'! And yet, come the end, only two make it in!
In 'The Goop on the Girl' (the Christmas episode), an explosive start to this episode means when a man dressed as Santa Claus blows up during a botched bank robbery, Brennan and Booth have to figure out why! And trust me, the explosion is well done, the after effects wicked! But, don't think too hard as you might well guess who started the mess in the first place! Meanwhile, Brennan makes plans to spend Christmas in El Salvador, but her father convinces her to spend the holidays with him and Margaret Whitesell, a newly discovered distant relative - aka her real life sister, Zooey Deschanel! And trust me, this has a VERY emotional, tear-jerking last few minutes!
In 'The X in the File,' a seemingly out-of-this-world case brings Brennan and Booth to New Mexico where they investigate human remains with extraterrestrial attributes! Sure enough, bones veto's that idea, but soon the search is on for a killer. Pretty much a backwoods, slow going episode, it's very (as you'd expect) much a Mulder and Scully debackle at its finest. Back at the lab, Angela and Jeffersonian intern Wendell come clean about their relationship - and yet nobody is surprised!
In 'The Proof in the Pudding,' Mr. White and his team of government agents put the Jeffersonian Lab on lock down and demand that Brennan and her forensics team determine a cause of death for an unidentified, but highly classified set of remains ie: President Kennedy! A very contained episode this one, but it works nicely. During the show, a side bar is that Cam worries that Michelle may be keeping a big secret from her. Which moves onto Angela possibly carrying around a little secret too!
In 'The Dentist in the Ditch,' a human skeleton is discovered in the trenches of an old Civil War battleground, so Brennan and Booth come out and get dirty! And despite the historical location, Brennan quickly identifies the bones as belonging to Dan Pinard, a present-day local dentist. Booth's brother, Jared, returns from his travels with some surprising news about his new girlfriend, and a new friendship is formed between Hodgins and British lab intern Vincent Nigel-Murray (who soooooo resemebles Clay Atkin it hurts!) as they work overtime to clean the bones of a stubborn clay residue which is preventing the team from determining a cause of death.
In 'The Devil in the Details,' Brennan and Booth investigate a set of uniquely disfigured remains allegorizing biblical text ie: is it Hellboy himself?! Great opening scene! One quote midway through is "Protect us from the Evil on high," and then the scene cuts to a shot of Capitol Hill! Due to all roads leading to a former patient at Havenhurst Sanitarium, Booth and Brennan find they are quickly confronted with suspects who are hard to characterize as either good or evil.
In 'The Bones on a Blue Line,' in a very well scripted, well shot, yet badly-CGI'd opening scene, a subway train is thrown off the track by 60,000 galloons of flood water, and Dr. Sweets and his new-found traveling companion are thrown about the car - only one survives! In the mess outside a partially skeletonized body emerges out of the overflow. Within the episode, Brennan weirdly allows an Asian, and VERY nosy reporter to follow her every move around the Jeffersonian Lab re: her second book being such a great success!
In 'The Parts in the Sum of the Whole,' the milestone 100th episode directed by Booth himself, we get to flashback to six years ago when Brennan and Booth recount to Sweets the first case they worked on together - which was NOT the same one he thought he had written about in his book! Basically, it tells the story of how they ALL met and is quite funny, and charming for the most part. The main plot is the death of a girl and them trying to uncover new leads about who killed her ie: a well-connected district judge.
In 'The Death of the Queen Bee,' Brennan inadvertantly goes back to her alma mater, Burtonsville High School, where she and Booth investigate the discovery of an unidentified skull and upper torso. And yes, they are having a massive reunion party! With Angela's help, they identify the victim as one of Brennan's classmates, and so she goes undercover with Brennan as her husband to find a killer! This one also stars Robert Englund ('Freddy') as a creepy, dark and offbeat janitor!
In 'The Predator in the Pool,' human remains are discovered in the gigantic indoor Aquarium and so the hunt is on for who, why and how! Evidence suggests that it could be a guest lecturer, and notorious self-help guru preaching the healing power of the ocean (who's gone missing), but the actual ending is out of the blue brilliant!
'The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle' and 'The Witch in the Wardrobe' cannot be reviewed as the disc was scratched, sorry!
In 'The Boy with the Answer,' a wicked opening montage leads us to the trial of 'The Gravedigger' aka Heather Taffet (the brilliant Deirdre Lovejoy). She is on the verge of being released, her assaults against various members of the team to be thrown out, if everyone at the Jeffersonian cannot work overtime to uncover the forensic evidence needed to now elicit a brand new, damning conviction. Now this was edge of the seat stuff all the way through!
In the final episode, 'The Beginning in the End,' the team works to uncover clues buried under a life's worth of possessions saved by a hoarder in order to solve the mystery of his death. Meanwhile, Angela's father (the brilliant Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top!) has a specific purpose for his most recent visit, and Brennan and Booth are confronted with unique opportunities - to move away, far, far away and leave the city behind. Wonderfully, for me (as a friend of the band, and admirer of their music), the episode plays out to a One eskimO song.
This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.77:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:
Disc 1: Episode commentary wth Actors ... funny, upbeat and reveaing!
Disc 2: Episode Commentary with Producers ... sorry, but VERY boring!
"The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken" extended version
Disc 3: Episode commentary
"The X in the Files" extended version
Disc 4: Episode commentary
David Boreanaz: Directing the 100th Episode (7:20)
The Bodies of Bones Featurette (10:50)
Disc 6: Episode commentary
3 Deleted Scenes (3:36)
Gag Reel (4:23)
The Nunchuck Way ... a VERY funny quick featurette! (2:40)
www.FoxHome.com
'Bones - The Complete Fifth Season'