By Faith McQuinn

Several questions were left hanging at the end of Season Two on BONES. What happened after Angela and Hodgins fled their wedding ceremony? Will Zack go to Iraq? How is Brennan’s father dealing with prison?

Well, tonight we got the answers to virtually all of those. Angela and Hodgins (Michaela Conlin and T.J. Thyne) are trying to track down Angela’s mysterious husband whom she can’t remember because of a Fujian alcohol that left her memory amiss. Zack (Eric Millegan) did go to Iraq, and all the Squints are missing him terribly. Especially Brennan (Emily Deschanel) who has interviewed multiple replacements to no avail, and as a result, is spending more time in the lab instead of out in the field with Booth (David Boreanaz).

Still no word on how daddy dearest is dealing with prison, but I’m sure we’ll get around to him sometime this season.

The show opens with some teenagers’ driving home from a party when a skull bounces off a truck and lodges itself in the kids’ windshield. When the skull gets back to the lab, Brennan and Cam (Tamara Taylor) find human bite marks. Looks like we’ve got a cannibal on our hands. I must say this is a great way to start a season! Last season there were boneless bodies folded in boxes, melted bodies in tubs, but I truly think the cannibalized skull takes the cake.

After Cam basically forces her out into the field, Brennan accompanies Booth to investigate an abandoned bank that may have been the scene of the crime. What do they find but a ritualistic treasure trove filled with museum artifacts and a silver skeleton affixed to an ancient looking wheel. Turns out the guy whose skull kissed the windshield isn’t the only victim. Whoever killed him made lunch (or dinner or maybe even breakfast) of a few others as well.


As the Squints are trying to figure out who did the biting, Zack returns from Iraq looking haggard, nervous, and all around uncomfortable. Everyone is happy to see him, but he just wants to get to work. Turns out the army didn’t think Zack fit the mold of the military and sent him home. Poor Zack. I’m happy to see that he’s back with the Squints, but I was really hoping he’d find himself during his time in Iraq. He’s always been one of my favorites, but I found him to always be just a little too wound up. I guess the writers don’t want to fool with what’s working, so of course, Zack jumps in and finds clues no one saw before.

Turns out the cannibal is Jack Harkness (Andrew James Allen), a teenager with a diamond tooth who thinks humans taste more like beef, except babies. They taste like fish. Yes, Allen played psycho cannibal freak to perfection. Watching his face as he described eating babies made my skin crawl just a bit. But Zack soon discovers that Jack wasn’t the only one feasting on babies. There’s another killer out there, and Jack won’t be telling us who because Booth and Brennan find him strung up and stabbed in his cell.

It looks like BONES not only started off with one fascinating skeleton but ended up with a fascinating serial killer case. I’m looking forward to going along with Booth and Brennan as they track down this guy.

But, all of us BONES fans know that the cases aren’t the most important part of the show. What’s up with Booth and Brennan? Are they going to get together this season? Was Bones really staying out of the field because she didn’t have Zack to help her out or was she avoiding Booth for other reasons? I think she’s convinced herself that it was really because of Zack, but all the Squints, and Booth too, know that there must be some underlying reason for her standoffishness. Angela thinks it’s because Brennan and Booth were left standing in front of the altar when she and Hodgins hightailed it out of town. Booth thinks it has something to do with him imprisoning Brennan’s father. I personally think it’s a little of both.


Lots of fans are hoping this is the season the two of them hookup, but I don’t know if I’m on that bandwagon yet. We all know what’s happened when the ultimate couple actually becomes a couple. It happened on FRAISER with Niles and Daphne. It happened on MOONLIGHTING with Maddie and David. Shows just get boring when the sexual tension is finally broken. I would love to see Booth and Brennan hook up, but I hope it doesn’t happen until the last season of the show. For now, I’m satisfied with the more-than-friends-but-not-quite relationship they’ve got going.