TV Review: BONES – Season 9 – “The Drama in the Queen”

By RACHEL REITSLEFF / Contributing Writer

Posted: May 29th, 2014 / 11:11 AM

TJ Thyne in BONES - Season 9 - "The Drama in the Queen" | ©2014 Fox/Patrick McElhenney

Stars: David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, TJ Thyne, Tamara Taylor, John Francis Daley, Laura Spencer, Christian Gehring, Shawn Ryan, Ella Thomas, Emily Montague, D.J. “Shangela” Pierce, Joshua Bitton, Alix Elizabeth Gitter, Andrew Veenstra, Stefanie Black, Madeleine McGraw
Writer: Megan McNamara, series created by Hart Hanson, based on the life and writings of Kathy Reichs
Director: Jeannot Swarcz
Network: Fox, Mondays @ 8 PM
Airdate: May 12, 2014

In setting part of the investigation in “The Drama in the Queen” in the world of cross-dressing performers, BONES makes a sincere effort to present a sympathetic look at the culture. One problem is the episode’s title – the term “queen” plays one way within the community and another when used outside it (as here). Another is Booth’s (David Boreanaz) controlled panic when one of the performers offers to make him up. We’re sure that he’s sure he’d rather stay as he is – what’s all that defensiveness about? However, in investigating the murder of Cal Thomas, a heterosexual, married high school swim coach who had a secret identify as talented performer “Jenny,” Megan McNamara’s script manages to address a lot of myths and misconceptions involving cross-dressing performers and makes a commonsense plea for calmness and empathy.

The rest of the problems with the episode involve (as so many BONES problems do) the character of Sweets (John Francis Daley). Sweets is a forensic psychologist for the FBI. Despite his gun training, he’s not a field agent, but Booth assigns Sweets to be lead investigator when a body is found down a well. Meanwhile, there’s a new intern, Jessica Warren (Laura Spencer), a spunky young woman who tends to spout (mostly correct) theories to the annoyance of Brennan. She flirts with Sweets while both are on the job, much to the irritation of Cam (Tamara Taylor); by the episode’s end, Sweets and Jessica have gone to bed.

Really? Sweets has to bed an intern he’s just met, who is quasi-under his professional supervision (he is lead on the case) and apparently under twenty-one, within two days of meeting her? Why should we care about this, except to think that Sweets is a bit sleazy and unprofessional, despite his desire to be absolutely professional in taking the investigative lead on an FBI case, even though he’s not an investigator …? Seriously, folks, what the hell?

The excursion by Booth and Brennan (Emily Deschanel) into the world of cross-dressing entertainers allows for some discussion of secret selves, the need for unconditional acceptance from loved ones and the fact that many transgendered people are heterosexual. This includes the victim Cal, whose grieving wife (Ella Thomas, very good) struggles to understand why her husband didn’t confide in her about his other identity. Here Sweets gets to do his actual job and counsels the woman that her husband may have been afraid she would reject him, even though she says she would have accepted this as part of the man she loved.

The murder turns out to have nothing to do with Cal’s other life. He was about to turn in one of his swimmers for misdeeds, which would have resulted in expulsion; the student killed Cal to keep him silent.

The most fun aspects of “The Drama in the Queen” are the forensic scenes, where the lab team deduce that damage to Cal’s feet is the result of wearing high heels for long periods of time, and when Hodgins (TJ Thyne) and Warren do one of those messy, happy experiments.

There’s also some enjoyment to be had with Brennan’s appreciation of Sweets’ by-the-book field tactics, which exasperate the rest of his longtime colleagues. Otherwise, the episode would have benefited by doing anything except trying to get us to root for Sweets to go from zero to sixty in a matter of days with a quasi-subordinate he’s just met.

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