Bones: “The Toughman in the Tender Chicken” – Review

A scout troop sponsored by Jefferson finds human remains floating in the Savage River. Preserving the evidence as well as possible, they bring the remains back for examination by Dr. Brennan and the team. Angela’s facial reconstruction strangely resembles a half-man half-chicken, and Booth’s query identifies the dead man as Nick Raven, head of Cluckston Farms.

At first, I thought this episode would be too quirky for my taste—like the time Brennan and Booth investigated the murder of a man with a horse fetish, or the time they went undercover with a traveling circus. I found I didn’t care much about how exactly Raven was killed or the quality of the suspects. This episode hooked me because it put Brennan and Angela’s friendship to the test.

Previously sworn to six months of celibacy, Angela has become attached to several animals, what Dr. Sweets might call surrogates for her affection. As part of the B story, Angela tried to raise money to save a pig from being killed and made into bacon. Brennan first refuses to donate to Angela’s cause, saying rationally that saving one pig won’t make much of a difference. It was a small thing, yes, but just the kind of small thing that could have snowballed into a grudge. As long as they’ve been friends, I thought Brennan would recognize sooner that she had to humor Angela. In any case, Emily Deschanel has a knack for keeping Brennan sympathetic even when the doctor struggles with simple concepts.

Also, Angela apparently breaks her fast, getting intimate offstage with Wendell Gray. This made for some great double entendre dialogue later. I’m interested to see if they develop a full-fledged relationship. Wendell is, after all, an unapologetic meat-lover.

Brennan and Booth track down the Cluckston employee who fought with Raven before his death. The employee says he tried to pull Raven free of the chicken-plucking machine that killed him, and Booth believes him, but Brennan is able to prove the man pushed Raven to his death.

In the epilogue, Booth is concerned that he was fooled, worried that brain surgery has left him less able to do his job, but Brennan consoles him. As I’ve said before, I like that Booth has become more dependent on Brennan for his personal well-being. I see it as a natural development of their five-year-long partnership.

About Gerald So

Gerald So covers THE BIG BANG THEORY, BONES, BURN NOTICE, NCIS, NCIS: LOS ANGELES, and PSYCH each week for BSCreview. His personal blog is If You Want to Know About My Life.