Bones: The He in the She (Episode 407)

Brennan thinks you're dumb.While the Bs silence their way through another non-therapy session with the under-used-lately Dr. Sweets, two stoners fishing find half a skeleton. Booth stops playing with a slinky long enough to answer his phone, and he and Brennan take off with ten pounds of rude between them. Cam is waiting for them at the crime scene with Brennan’s new grad assistant. She asks Mr. Nigel Murray what he’s doing there; Cam reminds her that they’re bringing her brighter grad students to the sites until they hire another forensic anthropologist to shadow her, but Brennan’s not sure Mr. Nigel Murray qualifies. Booth refuses to call him Mr. Nigel Murray. Mr. Nigel-Murray tells him to call him any nickname variation of Vincent, because he is a babbler, and also because that is his first name, instead of Nigel. It was somehow funnier when I thought she was calling him Mr. His Full Name.

Brennan says she needs Mr. Nigel-Murray back at the lab so she can aim Booth in the right direction, which Booth takes exception to. Because the body is cut in half, they need to figure out if it’s male or female. Breast implants suggest lady parts, which Booth can literally track down with serial numbers. There’s some misdirection, but Brennan thinks the defensive wounds on the hands indicate foul play.

Cam works with Mr. Nigel-Murray, who is full of endless trivia, which annoys Cam, because her entire purpose this season is to deal with socially inept and weird graduate students. Nigel-Murray thinks the eyes show evidence of plastic surgery, which jives with her fake boobs. The victim was, obviously, cut in half, which was fatal if she wasn’t dead before; the bonk on her head suggests she may not have been. Hodgins arrives with watery-buggy-particulatey information. He is rude to Nigel-Murray, because that is what he does now, also, but Nigel-Murray is awfully British and has a photographic memory, so he’s quite confident of his potential for success. Hodgins tells him that Brennan likes to emphasize the Mr. to reinforce how he’s not a doctor. After some twaddle about large-breasted women and fish, Cam asks Nigel-Murray to keep the tangents to a minimum. She gets the ID of the victim from the breast implants.

Her name is Patricia Ludmuller, missing three weeks and presumed drowned. Brennan remarks on the striking facial features, which Nigel-Murray thinks were manufactured with a scalpel. She lived on a small island that Booth says is an end-of-the-world site where weirdoes flock. They should move the Jeffersonian there. Brennan wonders why someone would go to so much trouble to look beautiful and then hide at the end of the world. Booth says that she has practically nothing that would make her part of the world, like credit cards, and before five years ago, she apparently didn’t exist. Brennan thinks if you really wanted to hide, you wouldn’t make yourself so lovely. Booth says if you really did, you’d change how you look as much as you can.

Brennan thinks the island is peaceful, but Booth thinks this hides a seedy underbelly. Patricia’s home is full of books on spirituality; Booth finds a photo that makes it seem she’s a pastor. He thinks it’s hypocritical for a holy person to get implants and veneers. Brennan thinks it’s weird for a holy man to get up and say he’s turned wine into blood. Booth makes a frustrated, why-do-you-have-to-go-there face. Booth checks the answering machine, which has a message from someone named JP who says he needs and misses Patty. Brennan studies a photo of Patricia and her congregation at the Inclusion Church. They wonder over the nature of the call. Booth gets a call that a pelvis and legs were found. They bolt for the lab.

Cam tells Nigel-Murray not to assume that both halves go together. He thinks the severed spine match up perfectly, but Cam tells him the flesh still on this part of the body indicates the dude wasn’t dead when he was cut in half. Nigel-Murray says that the pelvic bone is definitely male. Cam’s like, that’s nice, but look, a vagina! She’s going to do DNA testing, but it seems they have one victim with two sexes.

The Bs meet with Sweets to get their lingo straight: the victim was a post-op transsexual. Brennan explains how the whole operation part works, but Booth gets the wiggins. Sweets explains that transgendered people feel born into the wrong body; surgery and hormone treatments correct it. Booth wonders if pastors can believe God makes those kinds of mistakes. Sweets asks if Booth thinks God makes those kinds of mistakes. Booth thinks God expects us to overcome. Sweets says that “trans” implies moving beyond and across; it’s very spiritual. Booth posits that some religious crazy found out about Patricia, which is motive. Sweets suggests another, more likely: Patricia slept with a man who found out she was transgendered and flipped. Booth thinks he can tell from the sound of that “ain’t-too-proud-to-beg” call that the man didn’t know Patricia wasn’t a “real woman.” Sweets calls him out on that, but Brennan wants to know if Booth’s made any of those Temptations phone calls himself. Booth: Let’s not talk about me.

Sweets asks if they’ve considered that Patricia was murdered because of something that happened before gender re-assignment. Booth is looking into who she was before she was she. He then tries to figure out pronouns, which shouldn’t be that hard: she was she when she died, she stays she, but Booth can’t figure it out and confuses even Brennan, who’s a genius.

Patricia’s congregation memorializes her on the beach. Brennan wants to know how they knew the body found was Patricia’s, but Booth reminds her the island’s not that big, plus their pastor was missing. Booth joins them in prayer until she tells him he’s not a member. “It’s not a gym!” he hisses. The group breaks up, and the man eulogizing, Wade, tells the Bs that they were just sharing in their loss. Wade did finances; Chuck was Patricia’s assistant. Wade doesn’t know if the congregation will survive without Patricia. “Why?” Brennan asks. “You’re a group of people with a common superstition. That shared illusion should be enough to bind you.” Booth tries to shush her, but Wade says Patricia would have appreciated her honesty. Booth is like, yeah, she’s real honest.

Chuck doesn’t understand why the FBI are there, given that it was an accident. Patricia went swimming, the way she did every day, and she had an accident. The Bs say they don’t know how she died, but they know something happened to her. Chuck is a little belligerent about how people in the church all have a past and are all guilty of sins. He leaves, and Wade says he’s taking it hard. Patricia gave him a community and life of purpose. Booth asks about JP, who is standing there, watching the ocean.

Back at the Jeffersonian, Angela’s feeding Booth information about JP based on photos and the body language within, for no real reason except comedic misdirection. JP only joined the Inclusion Church in the last six months. He had a drinking problem, therefore legal problems, therefore marital problems. Angela thinks the photos say the marital problems are continuing. Booth asks, and JP admits they’re working on it; his conversion hasn’t gone over well. Booth plays the message for him, but JP says it wasn’t what it sounded like. Angela interrupts to tell Booth to look at a photo of JP and Patricia; she says JP knew. Booth doesn’t think you can tell from a photo. JP’s caught onto how Booth’s talking not to him but to an earpiece, and he does know what Patty “was before.” Booth asks how he felt knowing Patricia wasn’t a real woman. “Don’t say Patty wasn’t a real woman. It makes you sound ignorant,” JP snaps. Booth lays it out: JP had an affair with Patricia, found out about her past, and angry that he lost his “manhood and religion” in one go, killed her. Angela asks if Booth’s being a jerk on purpose to make him mad, right? It’s working to make him mad, anyway, because JP says he didn’t want to fall for the pastor, but he did, and it didn’t change when he found out what she’d been. He doesn’t know who she was before, but he knew her, and she was a woman. Angela looks at a photo of them together and agrees Patricia was meant to be a woman.

Cam, Brennan, and Nigel-Murray go over the chemicals found, which indicate hormone replacement therapy as well as vaccinations for traveling in the Far East. Nigel-Murray says that only 20% of Americans have passports, which is relevant in that he’s thinking Patricia went to Thailand for her reassignment surgery. Brennan disapproves of the conjecture, which isn’t what they do in the lab. Cam gives her a threatening look. “But… very good, Mister Nigel-Murray.”

Nigel-Murray lunches with Hodgins and asks about his predecessor. Hodgins, coolly and without blinking: “He joined forces with a serial killer who was the last in a long line of cannibalistic murderers specializing in knocking off members of secret societies and building skeletons out of their body parts.” I don’t know why they keep reminding us of that. Nigel-Murray hopes it doesn’t happen to him. He asks if Zack’s coming back. Hodgins quietly says no, he’s locked up for the rest of his life. “But we all still like him.” Angela arrives and says she has something to show Hodgins, but she says it in such a weirdly serious way, I can’t understand it. Like, why is it so important she show it to Hodgins first? Because he’ll know what she’s thinking? I don’t know, whatever. I’m going to pretend their still dating until one of them sleeps with someone else.

Because they can’t figure out who Patricia was before she was Patricia, Angela’s done a series of sketches to find out what she may have looked like as a man. She asks Hodgins if he recognizes it. “Evil spirits come out!” he replies, a little too pleased. Angela: Yep, pretty much.

The team, sans the Bs, gather in Angela’s office to watch televangelist Patrick Stevenson, who ran a “donate much money and you will be saved because God wants your money” creepy kind of church. He disappeared six years ago on a world tour. Cam is wicked impressed with Angela’s discovery. But there’s more: in the video, we see Patrick with his wife and son.

Mrs. Stevenson meets with the Bs. She was told by the Thai police that her husband was robbed and killed. Brennan tells her that a sex change operation in Bangkok is about $25K. Mrs. Stevenson asks if they want her to believe her husband stole from the church to fund a sex change. Would he have offended God in that way? After all, we’re made in God’s image, who are we to alter that image. Brennan, awesomely, is like, I can SEE your face lift, lady. She thinks that’s different. Booth mediates: it’s augmenting God’s work, not undoing it. Brennan skips this part and says they have DNA confirmation. “Do these people believe in DNA?” she asks Booth. Booth shows Mrs. Stevenson checks that Patricia sent monthly; she asks if Patrick was repaying the money he took. “Actually, it’s more accurate to say that Patricia was repaying the money that Patrick took,” Brennan says. That is good.

When asked if she’d heard from Patricia, Mrs. Stevenson says no. Her son would have told her if he’d heard from his father. But… she’s not really sure where he is, either. Ryan took over for his father, but had a crisis of faith five years ago and left the church. Booth asks if Patrick has any enemies, but this is a boring red herring just to show how callous and weird Mrs. Stevenson is: very.

In the car, Brennan asks Booth if he thinks Mrs. Stevenson loved her husband. He thinks the way she spoke about him meant she was very angry with him even before he was killed. Brennan corrects him that Patrick Stevenson wasn’t murdered; Patricia Ludmuller was. Booth asks if she thinks that Patrick stopped when Patricia began. “When the butterfly emerges, does the caterpillar ceased to exist?” Brennan asks. Booth just wants to find out what happened. Brennan asks if Booth would like her as much if she were a man; he says it would be even better because he wouldn’t have to be so polite. Sometimes this show is so weird about gender roles. He asks if she would like him as a woman. She wouldn’t, because she would be jealous that he’d be prettier. He thinks he would be. He would be hot, he says. I’m looking at you, Booth, and you’re a pretty man. Doesn’t translate.

The Bs and Sweets watch Ryan Stevenson preach some ugly hatespeech disguised as religion. It’s no wonder his father hid, they think. But Ryan stops, saying he can’t do this anymore. The greed of the church makes him a hypocrite for preaching against other sins. “I am not like my father, and I am not like my mother,” he says. “I just want to do God’s work, not perform on television and milk you for your money. God bless us all. God forgive us all.” Sweets thinks he was just like his dad for turning his back on commercial worship and seeking redemption. The Bs should look for Ryan in hospitals, halfway houses, rehabs, or jails. He’s preaching to the masses, following the example of Jesus. Sweets says he’s probably within 20 miles of the church. They bet $20 bucks Sweets is wrong, but he will not be.

Nigel-Murray’s working on cause of death. He doesn’t have one yet, but he knows that Patricia had her head and her gut busted in; Hodgins adds it was by the keel of a boat. He doesn’t know what hit her fingers. They leave to show the scans to Brennan, because she always finds something they missed.

Ryan’s in questioning, his Bible on the table. Booth shows Ryan a photo of Patricia outside the Inclusion Church. Ryan’s touched by the name and the philosophy. “I wish I had the chance to know the new him. Her,” he says. He’s changed, he insist. He picks up his Bible and rips off the graffitied dust jacket. He’s learned to see the “deeper essential nature which lies right beneath.” Booth smiles and asks if Ryan thinks their bodies are like dust covers. Absolutely: rip them off and see what’s underneath. That’s what Brennan does.

Ryan says he understands now his dad didn’t abandon him. He just didn’t want Ryan to have to choose between his father and his faith; Ryan loves him for that. He hopes God can forgive him for making his father feel that way. He asks for his dad’s Bible. Booth says that when it’s not evidence, they’ll return it to him. He asks if Ryan’s ever considered returning to the ministry.

Brennan joins the team in the lab to get the details. She’s sure it was murder. They go over the injuries for the story. Patricia was hit from the back, then the side. The boat came at her and hit her head. She reached up for help, her fingers were smashed, and the boat came back and struck her again. Brennan calls Booth to tell him they know what happened.

Nigel-Murray quits, because while solving murders is neato, he values knowledge for knowledge’s sake, and the narrow scope of the work in the Jeffersonian doesn’t fulfill his need for all that excellent trivia.

The Bs are en route, as they often are. Angela and Hodgins, using the injuries and other magic, were able to narrow down the murder weapon to two boat models. Booth asks how Patricia was cut in half. Brennan explains that she was killed, sank, and bisected by fishing line. Booth asks if it means anything that she was split in two in her life, and in her death again. She doesn’t. “I didn’t think you would,” he says.

A crowd’s gathered at the dock as Hodgins studies boats for the Bs. It’s JP’s boat that’s caught his eye. Booth climbs in and asks JP about it. He’d been restoring it on the advice of Patricia. Hodgins says it definitely killed Patricia; JP insists that he didn’t take it out the day she died. He also says that he never slept with Patricia, though he wanted to; she refused because he was still married. JP’s wife starts to get veeery uncomfortable as Booth slides down into the seat behind the wheel. It’s not adjustable, and it’s too close to the wheel for JP. His wife is just about the right height. JP says he restored the boat for his wife at Patricia’s suggestion as well. Mrs. JP interrupts that he should have just done it for Patricia. She waited around for him through jail and rehab and church, and he fell for someone else. She’ll never believe he didn’t sleep with Patricia. Booth cuffs her, and she looks with dead eyes at her husband.

Ryan introduces himself to the Inclusion Church. He talks about how their outsides are different, but don’t matter. He shows his Bible, and his dad, saying that inside they’re all the same. Brennan, sitting there with Booth, says that’s totally inaccurate, given how different skeletons are, and if they weren’t, she’d be out of a job. Booth shushes her. Ryan says he wished he could have known his dad, Patricia, but he knows he’ll meet her in her Bible and in her congregation, the people who loved her. “Redemption through transformation,” Booth says. He asks what Brennan believes in. “Always swimming with a buddy,” she says. “You gather wisdom, I gather mine.”