The Maiden in the Mushrooms is the twenty-first episode of the eighth season of Bones.
Summary
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 of biting another classmate. Then, Hodgins uses all of his tools at the Jeffersonian to chemically recreate Finn's special hot sauce.
Synopsis
Two young people are on a scavenger hunt inside an old factory. They soon discover a human skull. Disgusting. Back at home, Bones admires Christine's paintings, comparing them to abstract art. Booth shares bad news: Christine bit another kid at daycare. The proud mama refuses to believe it. Bones and Booth then head to the factory and discover the remainder of the body hidden among blooms of mushrooms. The woman was impeccably dressed, yet ended up dead in one of the worst neighborhoods in Washington D.C. Strange.
Back at the lab, Bones determines that the victim suffered a blow to the head, but it wouldn't have been enough to kill the woman. Angela then finds a possible match through facial reconstruction. It matches a 20-something who was recently reported missing by Judge Trudy, a popular television personality. Meanwhile, Bones hears that biting among toddlers is "average" and becomes quite angry. Christine, according to Bones, is far from the average child.
Bones and Booth head to "Citizens Court" and interrupt a taping/trial. They meet Jill, the interim producer who replaced the dead woman. Trudy theorizes that the victim was in a bad part of town recruiting people for the show. The TV judge also reveals that her bailiff, Griff, used to date the victim. Back at the lab, Hodgins eats the last of Finn's hot sauce, which was made by his dead grandmother. To make up for it, Hodgins recreates the molecular structure of the sauce. "I'm not going to let that hot sauce die," Hodgins explains. Unfortunately, one compound remains a mystery. The game is still afoot.
Booth and Bones interview Griff, who explains that he and the victim adopted a dog before breaking up. He also explains that the victim was obsessed with her job and specialized in riling up the real people on the show. "She went out of her way to push buttons on the crazies," Angela says. One of those "crazies," who recently appeared on the show, is brought in for questioning because she lost a case and threatened the producer. She refuses to cooperate.
While the cops check out the woman's alibi, Booth identifies another "crazy" reality star, Gordie, who had a restraining order filed against him by the victim. Booth interviews Gordie, who claims the victim was into him. Booth accuses the young man of being a straight-up stalker. Meanwhile, Bones asks Angela to hack into the daycare center computer to she if there is any physical evidence on the two-year-old whom Christine is accused of biting. An amused Angela agrees to play along. Bones and Booth watch behind-the-scenes video of the Judge Trudy show and realize that Trudy is actually quite drunk.
So Trudy is brought in for questioning by Booth and Sweets. "You're more than a social drinker, aren't you?" Booth asks. "I can tell by the way your hand is shaking." Judge Trudy reluctantly admits that she has a problem. It also turns out that Trudy's contract could have been voided if she had been caught. Did she kill her producer to stop her from talking? Angela then discovers that Christine's daycare buddy has been bitten on the arm. Angela compares the bite marks and determines that the odds are good that Christine is responsible.
Hodgins then tests a batch of hot sauce on Finn, who determines that it's perfect. Hodgins, feeling bad that he ate all of the original sauce, found a rare herb common to swampy areas to complete the recipe. Finn, looking at a bendy bone from a piece of sauce-soaked catfish, then determines that the victim was likely strangled. The evidence is not clear because the producer was young enough to, like the catfish, have a bendy bone in her neck. Bones is impressed. Jill is brought back in for questioning and admits that she badly wanted the victim's job -- and was also sneaking vodka to Judge Trudy.
Later, a cause of death begins to emerge. The victim was hanged from a stairwell in the factory and then cut down, producing small fractures on the bottom of her feet. There are also marks on the victim's mandible with traces of dog dander. The producer was strangled with a dog collar. So Griff is brought back into the office. The bailiff admits that he went to pick up his beloved dog from the victim and found the dog dead and tied to the deck. The dog died of strangulation when it ran off the deck. "I couldn't let Rebecca get away with that," says Griff, who hung his ex-girlfriend in a similar manner.
Case closed. Hodgins and Finn then head to a local restaurant and let the chef taste the hot sauce. She loves it and offers to sell it. Hodgins demands that it be called "Opie and Thurston's Hot Sauce." Booth and Bones eat dinner and Booth warns that Christine will misbehave over the course of her life. He then notices that Bones had a bite mark on her neck. "Christine got excited," Bones says. "That doesn't mean she bit Emma."
Cast
Main Cast
- Temperance Brennan - Emily Deschanel
- Seeley Booth - David Boreanaz
- Jack Hodgins - T.J Thyne
- Angela Montenegro - Michaela Conlin
- Camille Saroyan - Tamara Taylor
- Lance Sweets - John Francis Daley
Interns of the Week
Guest Cast
- Judge Trudy Morris - Gina Hecht
- Bailiff Griff - Jason Gerhardt
- Jill Ryan - Allison Scagliotti
- Gordie Rand - David Petruzzi
- Pabla Sepulveda - Yelyna De Leon
- Rebecca Pearce - Danielle Harris
- Timothy - Jeff Howard
- Grace - Kim Hidalgo
- Susan Feniger - Susan Feniger
- Sanjay Patel - Duncan Bravo
- Lars Nicholas - Alfred Adderly
Featured Music
- TBA
Notes
- Hodgins had a haircut in this episode.
- Judge Trudy is a parody of Judge Judy.
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