The Male in the Mail is the fourth episode of the seventh season of Bones.
Synopsis[]
Dismembered remains are discovered in several mailing boxes at a dead letter office, and the Jeffersonian team identifies the victim as an employee of a local Ship 'n' Print, where the staff recently split the winnings of a lottery prize. The team uncovers a complicated love triangle between two married employees and the victim, and while motive points to the husband, a critical clue leads them to solve the crime definitively. Meanwhile, Booth's grandfather breaks some unexpected news about Booth's father, and Special Agent Genny Shaw learns the importance of teamwork.
Summary[]
The episode begins with the Manager of a dead letter office showing an employee around, when the employee opens a box that seems to be filled with guts and a human skull. As expected, the employee screams and comically the Manager retires saying "it's up to you now kid" as he throws him his hat.
Bones and Booth are arguing about living arrangements in the diner, when Booth's Grandfather walks into the diner. He greets Brennan with a smile before informing Booth that his father has died. Bones instantly goes to ask how he died, and is told it was because of liver failure. Hank snidely remarks to Booth, "I guess all that drinking finally caught up to him." The phone rings before Booth can give a proper response to his Grandfather, insisting that they have a case. As they leave, Bones tries to ensure that Booth is alright.
At the crime scene, Cam jokes that she wonders if the killer does gift wrapping. Booth does laugh and asks if they could get it all wrapped up quickly, Brennan asks once again if he's alright. Cam at this point is confused as she asks what happened, Booth is being very much like himself and doesn't want to talk about it. Bones characteristically just blurts out the fact that his father had just died, causing Booth to become even more upset that it was brought up and walks away. Cam looks between the two with a sorry look.
Cam and Clark are concerned that the packing materials are changing the body, compromising any tests that would be done on the tissue or any more chemical damage to the bones. Hodgins wheels in a machine saying that it would help, Cam is unsure and asks "aren't they used in eye surgery?" where Hodgins replies that there's got to be an eye in there somewhere. Hodgins explains that he can use the laser to remove the box from the tissue, it doesn't take long and end up the body separated as a compacted large cube of meat with bones visible at some angles.
Back at the FBI, Special Agent Genny Shaw hands Booth a copy of the shipping information where the two find that the shipping labels were sent to fake addresses so they would end up in the dead letter office on purpose. Booth says that he's going to call someone to track where the labels were created, Shaw pipes up and informs him that she's already sent them over to Angela where Booth laughs "You know, I am not authorised to give you a raise" stating she has done a good job. Shaw expresses that she's sorry for his loss, dampening the mood but Booth politely asks to stick with the case.
Back at the Jeffersonian, Clark found an anomaly. He informs Bones as she's readjusting her bra. After Clark makes a comment, she explains that "tender or swollen breasts are very common in the third trimester. It's very uncomfortable, my bra size has increased by two cup sizes." This leads to an awkward exchange, before Clark becomes too uncomfortable and asks to focus on the remains.
In Angela's office, she shows Shaw how the tracking of the label works giving the address. In the car, the topic of Booth's father's death comes up again between Bones and Booth showing how concerned she is. Clark called letting them know that they found the identity of the victim, Oliver Lawrence who has been missing since last May. Not only that, but extensive testing with ancient weapons (Hodgins's idea) has revealed that the victim was killed with a guillotine. Sure enough, B&B arrive at the shipping company and quickly discover a modern-day guillotine designed to slice stacks of paper.
Booth interviews the manager, who reveals that he and three former employees bought a lottery ticket together and won $60 million. The three employees promptly quit. Left out of the group were Oliver and Tony, who still works the front desk and showed off his Buddhist necklace made from human bone (actually a fake, Bones points out). Later, Agent Shaw studies the winning number and discovers that they are a combination of Oliver's birthday, street address, and high-school basketball number. Her theory: one person killed Oliver for the ticket and the others found out, trading silence for a share.
Booth and Sweets bring in all the former employees/lottery winners, who say they only want to help, but it seems awfully clear that they're hiding something. Booth then gets a call from Angela, who has examined the shipping orders from the day Oliver died. Turns one of the lottery winners, Ralph, printed out the labels on the remains-filled packages. Ralph denies killing Oliver, but admits that Oliver was a fifth winner. "We were saving his share until he came back," Ralph says. "That is the truth. I swear." Ralph then claims that everybody used his code on the printer because his code was "1234."
Back at the lab, Clark and Bones examine the victim's bones and discover that Oliver was engaged in a struggle before he died. He was struck by some sort of object. Later, Booth cooks a spaghetti dinner while pops goes through the paperwork concerning the death of Booth's dad. Booth is dismissive. "Good or bad, he was my son," pops says. "I'm a little disappointed that you don't see the hurt I'm feeling." Booth apologizes. Says pops: "Seeley, we're family. We've got to get through this together." Booth agrees, and promptly signs all the paperwork as he was apparently named the executor.
In the lab, where Camille and Hodgins continue to examine the body parts. They discover that the victim had a bone growth on his left hand. Angela, meanwhile, examines images from the shipping company's copy machine. She finds that someone copied a woman's buttocks. Next to the buttock's is a male hand with a bone growth. Looks like the victim and a lady were doing the deed on the copier and accidently hit the "copy" button. "Now we just have to figure out whose tush this is," Angela says. Angela matches the size of the buttocks with the buttocks of lottery winner, Sheila. It's exact.
Sheila is brought in for questioning ...and she brings her lawyer, who refuses to let his client talk. Still, Sheila, a married woman, can't resist after being confronted with copy-machine evidence that she slept with Oliver. "I'm a slut, not a killer," she snaps. Booth wants to know where her husband was the night Oliver died. She doesn't have an answer. "I hate my job," the lawyer mutters.
Later, Pops tells Booth that he's leaving town -- but wants to read Booth a letter that his father wrote. "Just shut up and listen," Pops snaps. The letter is full of regret, saying that he loved Seeley and Booth's brother. Pops then gives Booth a wooden box left to him by his father. Booth doesn't want to open it.
Clark, meanwhile, has discovered that the blows to the victim's bones were made with an industrial tape gun. Angela checks the models used by the shipping company and discovers a match with a certain tape gun. Better yet, the marks indicate that killer was left handed. And which of the lottery winners was left handed? Turns out that Sheila's husband, Hugh, is a lefty. But when shown the evidence that Sheila was fooling around with Oliver, Hugh storms out of the interrogation room on his lawyer's advice -- the same lawyer, by the way, that was representing Sheila. Back at the lab, Hodgins finds a sliver of a material jammed into the packaging. "It's bone," he says. Bones discovers, however, that this bone did NOT belong to the victim. Instead, it comes from a "Buddhist necklace made of human bone" -- or at least a fake one.
So Booth and Agent Shaw bring in Tony. Tony quickly admits that he was dealing drugs and shipping them out from the store at night after everyone had gone home. Agent Shaw then presents Tony with the chip of bone from his pendant. Turns out that Oliver discovered Tony was shipping drugs and they got into a fight. "I have been non-violent for over 25 years," Tony admits. "I lost it for five minutes." Killer found. Case closed.
Later, Bones tries to get Booth to open up about his father. "For the time being, we're sharing our lives and that means you can't shut me out, Booth," Bones says. So Bones makes Booth open the box from his father. Inside is a Purple Heart, a Father's Day card from Seeley, and pictures of the two together from long ago. Booth tears up, especially when he finds ticket stubs to the World Series game they attended together -- their one perfect day. Finally, Booth smiles.
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[]
Recurring Cast[]
- Hank Booth - Ralph Waite
- Special Agent Genny Shaw - Tina Majorino
Guest Cast[]
- Connor Trammel - Chris Tallman
- Tony Dunson - Jesse Head
- Sheila Burnside - Briana Lane
- Hugh Burnside - Ben Savage
- Ralph Berti - Wayne Wilderson
- Bob Fisher - Allan Wasserman
- Tom - Ellis Williams
- Ronald - Brian Jones
- Edwin Booth - Frank Krueger
- Oliver Lawrence - Aaron Mills
Featured Music[]
- " What Happens Now " - Lex Land
Quotes[]
- Saroyan: Well this is certainly a first for me.
- Brennan: Me too, I've never seen this part of the post office before.
- Saroyan: Yes I thought they sent the dismembered bodies to a completely different place.
- Lawyer: I hate my job.
Trivia[]
- This episode is one of several episodes that highlight that the employees at the Jeffersonian are not as bright as the claim to be. The victim was found in several boxes and worked at a shipping company. Later Clark finds plastic in one of the wounds, and that the murder weapon had a serrated edge, it then take a few minutes to realize it was a tape gun. The kind you would find at a shipping company.
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