TV Review: BONES – Season 8 – “The Party in the Pants”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: May 1st, 2013 / 07:50 AM

Stars: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, Tamara Taylor, TJ Thyne, John Francis Daley, Joanna Cassidy, Michael Grant Terry, Brandon Barash, Jeremy Kent Jackson, Hayley Marie Norman, James Harvey Ward, Robert Pine, Lise Simms, Ryan Malgarini
Writers: Michael Peterson & Keith Fogleson, series created by Hart Hanson, based on the life and writings of Kathy Reichs
Director: Reggie Hudlin
Network: Fox, Mondays @ 8 PM
Airdate: April 15, 2013

Although the title of the BONES episode “The Party in the Pants” refers, as usual, to the case being worked, the meat of the episode is Booth (David Boreanaz) dealing with the unexpected return of his mother Marianne (Joanna Cassidy) twenty-four years after she left her abusive husband and two then-young sons.

Booth thinks he’s got his emotions under control. He understands why Marianne fled her husband, Booth’s late father, who injured her so badly that she still walks with a limp. He’s even happy for Marianne when she tells him she’s going to marry her longtime boyfriend Reggie. However, Booth loses it when Marianne reveals that Reggie has two children who she raised with him. It feels to Booth like Marianne stopped being his mother, only to become a mother to other children, and this is more than he can bear.

Brennan (Emily Deschanel), who has had to forgive her own parents for abandoning her and her brother, reminds Booth that the core of Christianity – he is a believer – is forgiveness (even as Brennan simultaneously refers to the religion as “myth”). Finally, Booth finds it in himself to take Brennan to Marianne and Reggie’s wedding, and even walks Marianne down the aisle.

All of which has just about zilch to do with the case of the week, which concerns a male stripper whose remains are found at the site of a burned-out building. At first, the deceased is thought to be a firefighter, but then it turns out he’s just wearing a tear-away fireman’s uniform. In fact, the dead man is a stripper – who was also a successful stockbroker dealing in unsavory business practices. While the dead man’s volatile girlfriend and sleazy brokerage boss are questioned, the culprit turns out to be another male stripper who unwisely invested with the deceased, only to be thoroughly ripped off.

The stripper storyline provides a few decent gags, with Angela (Michaela Conlin) and Hodgins (TJ Thyne) getting into the spirit of things in the lab and Booth being mistaken for a stripper at a birthday party. (It doesn’t help that his coat looks like something a male stripper might actually where.) When Booth tries to explain to the real male stripper, who will turn out to be the perpetrator, about the murder investigation, the ladies are in awe. “I never knew strippers had such complicated back stories!” one marvels.

Booth having to absorb that his mother raised other children while he and his brother were left with their violent father is a huge blow and Boreanaz gives a very good performance as his character wordlessly takes this in – we see him recede to a silent, wounded boy before our eyes. Having the solidly atheist Brennan appeal to Booth’s faith is an inspired touch for both script and character. Writers Michael Peterson & Keith Foglesong also give Sweets (John Francis Daley) some plausible insights as to why a stockbroker who doesn’t need the money feels compelled to strip (a bad body image in childhood is a contributing factor).

Cassidy is a powerful, grounded actress, taking some dialogue that could have been simply expository and making it emotionally revealing.

“The Party in the Pants” doesn’t quite qualify as a party, but it is nonetheless a pleasing episode.

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