The Plain in the Prodigy is the third episode of the fifth season of Bones.
Summary
Brennan is investigating the discovery of scattered bones along a train track. A cursory study of the remains suggests that the victim was a young male, and that the remains have been at the location for a few months. Meanwhile, Cam and Michelle are having mother/daughter issues. Michelle wants to spend the night with her boyfriend Perry, but Cam refuses to give her the okay. Cam gets even more upset when she spots the couple sharing a very involved kiss.
Angela, Hodgins, and Clark are in the lab examining the bones. Without evidence of fluoride or processed food in the body, it's suggested that the victim wasn't from the U.S. Clark is sent back out to the field in order to gather up more of the remains. The team then figures out that the victim actually was from the U.S, and that he was Amish.
The victim (Levi Yoder) was reported as missing two months ago. Brennan thinks that Levi was on his Rumspringa, the Amish tradition for young people to leave the community and experience the outside world before they decide to either leave the Amish life forever, or remain in it for the rest of their lives. Levi's parents are told of their son's fate by Booth, and they reveal that Levi had gone to D.C. with a friend named Josef Beachy.
The team figures out that Levi died soon after the last time he and his parents spoke. His body was caught beneath the wheels of a train car and dragged along, which was why his bones were scattered all along the tracks.
Booth and Brennan search through Levi's room and come across a collection of rocks. Before they leave the Amish village, a girl (Sarah) approaches them and asks them if they're there because of Levi. Booth gives her his card. Booth and Brennan then go to Josef's apartment. Josef, bong in hand, answers the door, and a large group of Amish youth are having a wild party inside. Brennan complains that the party isn't "in the proper spirit of Rumspringa." Booth takes Josef in for questioning. Josef says that Levi moved out because he wasn't interested in partying, but Levi would take off for hours at a time and never reveal to anyone where he went.
Hodgins takes a look at the box of rocks Brennan brought back from Levi's room. Nothing seems special about the rocks until Sweets walks in and quickly notices that they look like piano keys.
Michelle asks Cam about going to a dance with Perry, but when Cam questions Michelle about her sex life, Michelle tells her to mind her own business. Cam flounders in trying to warn Michelle about having sex so young, but they end up having an argument.
Booth tracks down Levi's piano teacher, a woman named Mrs. Turner. Levi had taken up a job working for Mr. Turner as well. Mrs. Turner said that Levi was a musical genius and that he'd sent her a DVD of himself auditioning for the National Conservatory. While at the Conservatory, he made a number of musician friends. Angela manages to ascertain where the DVD was filmed.
Booth and Brennan talk to two of Levi's friends from the Conservatory, Karen and Tony. Karen shares that Levi's father visited him right before he disappeared. When confronted, Mr. Yoder denies doing anything to hurt his son. Levi apparently didn't tell his parents about wanting to play the piano since music is forbidden in their culture.
Sarah, the Amish girl from before, is ready to talk about Levi. She says she and Levi dated before he left for his Rumspringa. In his letters to her, he would talk about his love for music, and she feared that he would stay in the outside world and leave her. Her brother Amos had also disappeared for a day, after she told him about Levi's eagerness to practice the piano.
The team now has enough of Levi's remains to postulate a cause of death. Levi might have fallen from the window of Karen's apartment.
Booth talks to Amos, who admits that he went to talk to Levi to try to convince him to go back to Sarah, but that was all. Meanwhile, Michelle and Cam make amends. Later, Perry encounters Booth, who warns him about doing anything inappropriate with Michelle.
Levi's fingers appear to have been broken before he was killed, and Brennan suggests that Karen might have seen him as a potential rival for a spot in the Conservatory. Karen says that she has a lot of connections within the Conservatory, so she was probably a shoo-in to get a spot. She didn't have any motive for killing Levi, and Levi wasn't around when she returned to their apartment. His money was missing, but not any of his things.
Levi had evidently decided to return to the Amish lifestyle and broke his own hand to remove the temptation of playing music again. The killing was an unfortunate, random event. Levi arrived at the apartment right when a burglar was inside. They had a fight, and Levi was thrown out of the window and onto the tracks. Booth and Brennan bring a portable DVD player to Levi's parents and play a recording of Levi practicing his audition song for them.
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
Intern of the Week
- Clark Edison - Eugene Byrd
Guest Cast
- Michelle Welton - Tiffany Hines
- Daniel Yoder - Randy Oglesby
- Rebecca Yoder - Jennifer Parsons
- Karin Lin - Kaitlin Doubleday
- Tony Salinas - Arjay Smith
- Amos - Brian Letscher
- Perry Wilson - Michael B. Jordan
- Eleanor Turner - Marcia Ann Burrs
- Sarah - Stephanie Turner
- Joseph Beachy - Drew James
- Levi Yoder - Reider Niklewicz-Larsen
- Thief - Shawn Hook
Featured Music
"River's Edge" - Great Lake Swimmers
Notes
In this episode, Brennan reveals that she had lost her virginity when she was 22 years old.
Despite Booth's quip, Pennsylvania Amish are permitted to wear buttons.
Factual errors:
-The mother of the victim is seen wearing a wedding band. This would be unlikely in real life, as the Amish do not wear jewelry of any kind.
-Typically, frames and pictures are not hung on the walls in Amish homes.
Quotes
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