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The Bones that Foam is the sixteenth episode of the fourth season of Bones.

Plot[]

A bungee-jumping couple plunged off of a hot-air balloon after getting married only to come face-to-face with a corpse lying at the bottom of the gorge. After ruling out suicide, Brennan, Booth and Sweets find themselves in the dirty side of the automobile sales industry. At the Jeffersonian, Cam notices an unknown substance oozing from the body and puts the lab into lockdown. The team have only 24 hours to unravel the mystery before the bones disintegrate.

Summary[]

A couple gets married in a hot-air balloon, tethered to the balloon by their ankles; they're bungee jumping. The couple jumps from the balloon only to come face-to-face with a dead body resting on the rocks below. The couple screams, and then continues bouncing.

Booth and Brennan are on the scene. The former wonders whether the discovery ruined the couple's wedding night. The latter, naturally, doesn't understand why it would. After examining the remains, Brennan announces that the death was not an accident, and that somebody purposely threw the victim. The group then returns to the lab and Brennan reveals more news: the victim was undergoing a dental procedure. Vincent then realizes that the skin is moving. Camille cuts the skin and a green, foamy substance oozes out. Camille yells for everybody to move away from the body, then announces a lockdown.

Later, Brennan begs to examine the oozing corpse, but Camille says no. It could be a toxin -- and contagious at that. The body will stay sealed up in a giant plastic tube. Angela, meanwhile, has some good news: the victim's dentist has identified the body and passed along his emergency contact info. So Brennan and Booth head out to meet the dead man's brother, used-car salesman Chet Newcomb, and his wife, Vanessa. Chet, who appears to be very sickly, is heartbroken to hear the news of his brother. He also points the finger at Jungle Jim, the owner of the lot. It turns out that the victim left to work at a rival auto business and "got into" it with Jungle Jim.

When Booth and Brennan pay Jungle Jim a visit, there is a monkey sitting on his shoulder. Jungle Jim then claims he fired the victim, Alex Newcomb, when his sales record slipped. Alex reacted by shoving Bananas, the pet monkey, off Jim's shoulder. "I think it shows a basic lack of humanity to push a monkey," Jungle Jim says.

Booth and Brennan then visit Alex's last place of employment, Criterion, another car dealership across the street. Booth asks two salesmen if Alex had any enemies. They both respond with the same name: "Lemon Guy," an angry customer who took a golf club to Alex's windshield. Back at the lab, no toxins can be found in the body so Camille calls "all clear." "But we proceed with extreme caution," she warns. Vincent then touches a bone with a metal rod and it immediately begins to dissolve. "It's disintegrating," he explains. Asks Hodgins: "We're losing our evidence?" He is correct. The team now has a limited amount of time before the body completely disintegrates.

At the same time, Booth brings in Lemon Guy, who admits to breaking Alex's windshield -- but denies having anything do with the murder. Hodgins, in the meantime, has found strawberry body glitter on the victim's clothing. The very same kind of glitter that "might be utilized by a lap dancer." Seconds later, Booth and Brennan enter a strip joint and meet "Strawberry Lust". She recognizes the victim as a "regular" but denies any knowledge of his death. After giving Booth a lapper we find out Ms. Lust does have some interesting info, though. Alex got in a fight the last time he was at the club. The man he was fighting with, as it turns out, was one of the salesmen from Criterion.

Back at the lab, Vincent and Hodgins are examining the body. The former turns on a magnifier lamp when the body suddenly bursts into blue flames. Camille believes that the body was emitting hydrogen, but doesn't have enough time to figure out why. Booth goes to visit the Criterion salesman, Buddy. The two take a test drive in a very fast car and Booth puts the pedal to the metal in an effort to scare the man. It works. "He stole a client from me and I punched him in the nose!" a terrified Buddy screams. Buddy then tells Booth a drunken Alex hailed a cab and headed to Jungle Jim's on the night of his death.

Hodgins, in the meantime, has figured out a way to stop the victims body from melting -- or at least slow it down. He sprinkles antacid on the green ooze. The body then petrifies almost instantly.

In the interrogation room, Brennan, who has taken a sudden interest in becoming an expert at "manipulating" people, decides she wants to question Maureen, a perky woman who works alongside Jungle Jim. It doesn't go well. Brennan doesn't realize when the woman is joking and when she is being serious. Still, Maureen admits Alex frequently stole her sales and that "he punted sales to his brother".

Back at the lab there is good news; Hodgins has discovered monkey feces on the body. This almost certainly is from Bananas, the monkey. Booth and Brennan head to Jungle Jim's lot, where an FBI tech finds evidence of blood. Someone, probably the victim, bled in the Jungle Jim garage. A highly-corrosive tire cleaner on hand would explain the odd, oozing state of the corpse (as well as its flammable state). The murderer tried to dispose of the body by soaking it in tire cleaner. "Everyone who works here is now a suspect," Brennan says.

Back from break, Camille decides to crack the body open—until Angela interrupts with a better suggestion. She will attempt to "virtually re-grow the bone." Angela's futuristic plan works within seconds. Angela and Brennan examine the computer recreation of the skeleton—and notice an odd gash. This leads Angela to figure out that the weapon was a pair of tailor shears. Booth and Brennan head back to Jungle Jim's to arrest none other than Vanessa Newcomb, a seamstress. As it turns out, she stabbed her husband's brother, because Alex caught Vanessa with another man—Jungle Jim, in fact. "It was just one time," she cries. "I told Jungle Jim I'd have sex with him just once if he didn't fire Chet!" Alex, who loved his brother so much he was stealing sales and passing them along to his sibling, found out. Vanessa then killed Alex to save her marriage. She is led away in cuffs.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Intern of the Week[]

Guest Cast[]

Featured Music[]

  • "Stuck To You" - Nikka Costa
  • "Hearbeats" - Jose Gonzalez

Notes[]

  • It is the first episode directed by David Boreanaz
  • When Brennan says she has been to 74 interrogations, it fits into the series well, considering this is the 74th episode.
  • In this episode, Vincent says "I'm secreting adrenaline", alluding to The Princess and the Pear conversations. In that episode, Sweets suggests that his "heart was pumping", but is corrected by Brennan, who informs him his "adrenal glands were secreting". Later in The Princess and the Pear, Brennan seems to have adopted the phrasing herself, telling Cam "I secreted copious quantities of adrenaline". It makes more sense for Vincent to use the term as adrenaline is the British Approved Name for the chemical, where American researchers and medical professionals call it epinephrine.

Quotes[]

"I've never seen an insect like that. Except in Alien."
―Hodgins

"Maybe I can help... Why is it that nobody every says to me "Gee Angela, this looks impossible but maybe you're the person would could solve the problem.""
―Angela

Booth: [Refering to the Audi] Driving a machine like this is like making love, you have to go gently.
Brennan: I go for more passionate and uninhibited than for gentle.
Booth: Bones, gently.


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The Princess and the Pear
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The Salt in the Wounds
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CategoriesMain Characters ·  Relationships


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