TV Review: BONES – Season 10 – “The Geek in the Guck”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: October 26th, 2014 / 03:47 PM

David Boreanaz and John Boyd in BONES - Season 10 - "The Geek in the Guck" | ©2014 Fox/Patrick McElhenney

Stars: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, TJ Thyne, Tamara Taylor, John Boyd, Laura Spencer, Erik Stocklin, Alexandra Metz, Chad Michael Collins, Denyse Tontz, Trevor Gore, Kaden Hetherington, Sunnie Pelant
Writer: Gene Hong, series created by Hart Hanson, based on the life and writings of Kathy Reichs
Director: Milan Cheylov
Network: Fox, Thursdays @ 8 PM
Airdate: October 16, 2014

After romantic, conspiracy and loss angst, it’s a pleasure to see BONES bounce back to an upbeat, inclusive spirit with “The Geek in the Guck.” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) disagree, but no one’s soul is at stake, the squintern of the week – Laura Spencer as Jessica Warren – tests Brennan but not too confrontationally, and the case is interesting. What’s not to like?

In “Geek,” a partially decomposed body is found via computer by a couple of tween boys using Google Earth (in a search for unclothed females). The deceased is a computer gaming mogul who was, as the investigating team finds out, a control freak. The dead man had “catfished” his best friend Noah (Erik Stocklin) to break up a romance with another programmer, Anne (Alexandra Metz). Anne lost it and wound up killing the man. In a nice twist, Noah finds a connection with the up-until-now oblivious woman (Denyse Tontz) whose image the deceased had used to fool Noah into thinking he had an online relationship.

Booth and Aubrey (John Boyd) get to tackle an uncooperative videogame performer who thinks his boss was a jerk, but didn’t kill him. Audrey turns out to be a videogame geek, who loves this new case – and is pretty impressed when he sees Angela’s (Michaela Conlin) computer setup as well.

In other news, we see Brennan and Booth having some parental interaction with young daughter Christine (Sunnie Pelant), who can actually understand it when Brennan says thinks like, “Please lower your center of gravity.” Brennan is fretting over where to send Christine to kindergarten. Booth is afraid that Brennan’s choices will not allow Christine the freedom to just be a child.

At the lab, Brennan is surprised to hear that Jessica grew up in a learning cooperative. Brennan had heard of this one and had written it off as a failed experiment, but it turns out that the place has generated a couple of Rhodes scholars. It is only disbanding now because its founder is moving into a nursing home.

Jessica is holding it together, but when Hodgins (TJ Thyne) talks to her about losing her home, the squintern begins crying. Angela insists that Jessica come home with her and Hodgins.

As a bonus, we get another crazy Hodgins experiment, this one involving dropping a specially-constructed mannequin into a vat of water to figure out the height of a fall from a bridge.

The compromise between Booth and Brennan is great – Brennan gives Booth her research on kindergartens that are acceptable to her and then lets him pick which one he thinks is best. Brennan and Angela get to spend some time together and wind up talking about child-rearing and sex, and we see motion-capture action.

“The Geek in the Guck” whisks by deftly. It feels perfectly pleasant without drawing attention to how it’s done, and that is true TV-making skill in action.

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