“The Shot in the Dark” sees almost the unthinkable happen: Brennan getting shot while alone at the Jeffersonian, following a fight at home with Booth.
She’s Been Shot
Brennan’s fight with Booth is one of those quick and intense moments about her lack of spontaneity that ends with her storming out of the house, ending up at the one place where she can intensely focus on something else — her work.
There, she puts on one of her science-y goggles that fogs up her vision, which means she’s unable to make out the person who shoots her!
Booth gets there just in time, strolling Christine along and ready to make up when he sees her on the floor. It’s quite heartbreaking to see Booth find her with Christine crying in her stroller. Even the baby knows something isn’t right with her mother.
Mystery Bullet
Brennan undergoes surgery. Her heart stops twice — but there’s no bullet or exit wound. And there isn’t anything on Hal, either. Hal’s the guard that’s keeping watch. He unfortunately dies after being shot, and his credentials are used to access the facility.
It’s Hodgins’ job to make sense of it all: the bullet is actually blood. Which is frozen using liquid nitrogen. They’re both shot with frozen blood, which would explain why the actual bullet enters their bodies but still wounds them.
Questioning Things
Meanwhile, Brennan keeps going “in and out.” When she’s out, she enters a state of hallucinations and sees her mother. Even while out, Brennan is super rational, pointing out to her mother that she shouldn’t ask questions about her because she should know all the answers.
But they bond. She even tells her that the first gift her father gave her was a fake. When Brennan tells her dad this, he’s surprised because only he knew what he gave her was fake. This has made Brennan question whether something, anything, exists beyond death, which would contradict what she as a scientist believes to be true.
In the end, some things just aren’t explainable.
The Rest of the Story
What is explainable is what exactly happened to her and Hal. Hal isn’t just an innocent victim. He purposefully walked in on Brennan while she was working on the latest victim, who had fallen off a bridge. She was close to finding something on that victim that would explain his death.
That turns out to be gold specs from a very rare piece of art that’s stored at the Jeffersonian. That leads to the head of antiques. It turns out everyone was involved in a smuggling ring. And his blood is found in Brennan, which is how he’s then charged.
This episode moves fast, obviously heavy and quite emotional. Last week, the show teased the shooting, so we knew that was going to happen. But I’m glad that the shooting happened early on to give time to explain everything else. It could’ve very well have gone a different way: drag it out so the shooting’s at the end and make it a cliffhanger for next week. But I think it’s done pretty successfully.
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(Image courtesy of FOX)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
