I actually watched this episode twice, back to back. I turned on my DirecTV recording literally right after my broadcast was over.
There was a lot of good angst in this episode.
The question of whether or not Christine had forged a plus out of a minus in one of her grades was a bit weak in believability.
In spite of Brennan’s value of advanced intelligence I don’t believe she'd pressure her children enough to feel as though a plus or a minus is a significant difference, particularly not to the highest possible letter which goes to show how far she’s come because early on in the series she might have based on the expectations she’d held for her interns.
She clearly seemed far more distressed over the thought of her daughter being dishonest versus getting an E- instead an E+.
At least it would have been weak in believability had it not been Wells who’d instigated it.
No contest he behaved the most out of line he has yet in this episode. It was borderline an inappropriate time for Brennan to have a professional response to not have smacked him when he'd started criticizing Christine's drawing (I'm pretty sure he didn't apply to her probation as he wasn't a suspect) and the way he used Brennan's personal life to undermine, even essentially publically slander his superior was grounds to fire his ass. Brennan needed to have required his terms to remain within professional reason and threaten to fire him if he didn't retract that voicemail greeting even merely as an idea or in writing.
I believe, however, that at its core participating in the wager and then allowing Wells his victory lap was to defend her child, then when the necessity was proven, take responsibility for her child having done something wrong and apart from Booth, Brennan's utmost respect is for evidence, she'll always concede to it. A fact Wells no doubt preyed upon. Ugh.
One good thing about the Brennan and Wells scene in her office is that they gave a small nod towards a growth in Brennan that was one of those little consistencies that I talked about appreciating. Here we had the mother who’d not long before this wanted to correct the accuracy of her six-year-old daughter's drawing of a skeleton seemingly unbothered by her own likeness being given 14 fingers on each hand.
Although there were so many things wrong with that wager I find myself wondering what Brennan's terms were, especially since it did turn out to be her victory. Now had firing him actually been her terms, that would have been quite appropriate and just brilliant!
That final scene between Booth and Brennan was a well-done display of how Brennan’s tendency to look too closely at something can cause an out of context perspective, how sometimes science is overbearing because the answer can be found in simplicity. And it was another job well done by Booth’s inner squint.
I just adored them as proud parents, how they frame Christine's drawings and celebrate her grades like they'd won the lottery. They are amazing parents.
It was awesome to see Hodgins experimenting again and the mad scientist look he got from the debris was the cherry on top.
I’m glad that he’s feeling guilty about his horrible behavior towards Angela but buying her off with expensive jewelry that she’d never in her life been known to admire was the wrong approach to redemption. Buying her off period was wrong but that $3k bottle of perfume that he’d never gotten to give her back in season 2’s in ‘Aliens in a Spaceship’ would have been the exception due to having been symbolic of a new beginning by recreating a piece of their actual beginning that never came to be.
“A man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says It says, "I love you."
I absolutely loved how Angela stepped up, let him know what she really wanted and totally stuck it to him while at the same time bringing some joy to Cam by loaning her the jewelry. If only Arastoo had been around to take notice of how that jewelry really lit Cam up and brought out the a fun, teenage side of her.
As undeserving as Angela was of what she’d had to endure with Hodgins, I can’t help but like that it happened because it’s given strength to her character and possibly to be seen, their marriage.
I’m looking forward to seeing Michael-Vincent next week, I’m feeling semi-confident that without Christine, this time it will be a substantial appearance in which he may even speak for the first time. *crossing fingers*
Karen’s interest in dating Aubrey was nipped in the bud just as I’d speculated.
I must say it was pretty stupid timing for her to ask a guy out for coffee who has a coffee mug in his hand, so I felt the comment “I already have coffee” with the sip from the mug was perfect.
The way Booth enjoyed watching Aubrey squirm and nudging him on as though he were watching a Flyers game was such a cute bro moment.
I was relieved when Aubrey was able to say pretty quickly and easily in the SUV scene that he was seeing someone and Karen pleasantly surprised me by respecting that rather than pursuing him despite being seemingly less than convinced that it's serious with this person.
She did still act as I’d predicted, though, the way she'd psychoanalyzed him every second they were together. I thought it was extremely inappropriate for her to trap him in an unsolicited therapy session while he was on the job much less reveal something about his personal life in the presence of a total stranger despite that it wasn't actually illegal because she wasn't a professional therapist with a confidentiality obligation. Aubrey still could have reported her for harassment.
Karen,was, however in the right to push Aubrey to look at his father's file, especially when it came to her attention that it was recent because that made it all the more need to know.
I’d pretty much gotten a foreshadow vibe from the moment that file was discovered and Karen revealing that it was recent and targeted at Aubrey confirmed it. I feel as though there will be a confrontation, that we will be meeting Benjamin Aubrey at some point.
Although she had her winning intuitive moments, such as when she’d ruled George Gibbons out as the serial killer in ‘The Monster in the Closet’ by pointing out his intolerance for blood and how she'd handled the file here, I’m sorry to say that overall I haven't built up a liking for her yet so I shan't be missing her, this having been established as her final episode.