Booth and Brennan are called in on a case where a body has been found encased in concrete. And Booth has a toothache so he's cranky, but he doesn't want to go to the dentist.
Angela goes with Brennan to Christine Brennan's grave to mark the anniversary of her burial. Her father arrives. Brennan refuses to speak to him and instead calls the cops. Later he breaks into her house to see her, and remains persistent, trying to reconnect with her.
The concrete body, aka Cement Head per Booth, turns out to be a known criminal with a long and heinous rap sheet. Booth makes up fun names for the folks involved in the case. The body is Cement Head (although it's really concrete), and the suspected killer is Ice Pick. Their boss, though, is just Gallagher, as Booth doesn't seem to see the point in a nickname there. Ice Pick died in a car accident, but Booth wants some evidence from that case re-examined--namely Ice Pick's severed leg from the car accident. Booth interrogates the bounty hunter who saw Ice Pick burn in the crash. She comes on to him, then scats when Brennan calls to report evidence the bounty hunter was involved in a cover-up regarding Ice Pick's death. For the record, Booth seems to have a thing for sassy women of color. And blondes. He's a man of varied tastes. I wonder if he likes short brunettes? Ahem.
Ice Pick apparently amputated his own leg and killed somebody else in the car crash to throw the cops off, and has been retired and playing with model airplanes ever since. Booth tracks him down, but is outwitted, tied up, and smacked around. By a guy with one leg. I think the toothache has put Booth off his game. Gallagher then arrives, dragging Booth off to torture him for information about Ice Pick. He also does Booth the favor of knocking out his infected tooth. Of course Brennan, Brennan and Co. come through to rescue him, but not until he's been through rather a hard time.
The case this week was pretty straightforward, with few surprises, but there was a lot of good character interaction to balance it out. Brennan's gradual acceptance of her persistent father was nicely done. I like Booth's attitude toward Max Keenan--"In the Old West, they would have called him a hero." This is consistent with his comments from "Judas on a Pole," when he said he'd rather deal with a straight criminal than a crooked cop. At the same time, he's perfectly willing to arrest the man, and acts a bit miffed when Brennan lets Max go. Booth had some great comedic moments tonight, too. I loved the scene where Brennan was looking at his tooth. Once again, David Boreanaz is fearless when it comes to looking like an idiot on camera, to hysterical effect. And on the other side of the acting equation came the torture scene, also very well played. It reminded me a lot of the torture scene from "In the Dark," when Spike's torturer-for-hire pokes Angel through with hot pokers. It also reminded me a bit of the torture scene from Casino Royale, though Boreanaz was, unfortunately, not nearly as naked as Daniel Craig was.
One quibble--while the repetition of the Poco song made for a nice bonding bit between Brennan and her father, and later Brennan and Booth, I don't think it worked very well as a backdrop for the scene where it was used. It seemed a bit too perky to accompany Booth being stabbed with hot screwdrivers.
Bones on iTunes:
Keep on Tryin'--Poco
