Tonight's mystery involves a skull which bounces off (or is thrown from) an overpass into a windshield. The skull turns out to belong to a concert violinist who liked to sleep with older women. I like him already. Well, except he's dead, and he's been cooked and had his face eaten off by cannibals. Which really is not what you want to be watching while you're eating a grilled chicken sandwich, let me tell you. Obviously during hiatus I forgot the cardinal Bones rule, which is never to eat while watching.
Anyway. The skull contains stone particles that lead the team to a bank vault filled with museum pieces that seem to be related to various occult subjects. Among these is a silver skeleton with various parts replaced by real bones, one of which is also from the dead violinist. Other parts, though, are from other people. It looks like someone is assembling the skeleton with each bone coming from a different body. After they're cooked and chewed on by the cannibal, of course. Which turns out to be cannibals, one of whom is a really creepy kid with a diamond tooth. Hodgins makes connections to the Illuminati, and as the evidence mounts, it seems he might be on the right track, after all, as there are many parallels to secret societies.
In the meantime, Hodgins and Angela search for Angela's mystery husband so they can have her previous marriage annulled. Booth, disturbed by Brennan's sudden habit of not calling him in on cases, tries to get to the bottom of her withdrawal. Brennan blames it on Zack's absence, while Angela feels it has to do with Brennan's unacknowledged feelings for Booth. Booth thinks it has to do with his not telling Zack not to go to Iraq. Brennan refuses to hire anyone to replace Zack, which turns out to be fortunate, because Zack comes back mid-episode, with a buzz-cut and something of a mystery behind why he was sent home from Iraq.
In atypical fashion, tonight's episode ends without a resolution. Jason, aka creepy cannibal diamond tooth guy, is murdered in his cell (or perhaps committed suicide, but the death is ritualistic enough I'm betting on murdered), but the bones bear the marks of another person's teeth, so the underlying cabal or whatever it turns out to be remains to be discovered. It's my understanding this case will play itself out through the entire season, which is a neat twist to add to the show. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Overall, I really enjoyed this premiere. The show picked up the loose threads from last season nicely, and the multi-season arc with the silver skeleton looks like it's going to be fun. The character interplay continues to be fun, with some new undercurrents between Booth and Cam, and a sightly elevated level of sexual tension between Booth and Brennan. The latter could be too cloying if played too hard, but in this episode it's cute and fun to watch. Hopefully the rest of the season will be as engaging as this very enjoyable premiere.
