************SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*************
I was extremely disappointed by the season finale of the show Bones. This show had some great acting, great characters, and interesting science driven stories. The season finale “The Pain in the Heart” was definitely not up to par with the rest of the series.
The problems with this episode were not with the actors. Coming in to this episode, the audience was awaiting the resolution of agent Booth being shot. The writers took what could have been a great storyline and put it to bed in about 3 minutes to be ignored (except in the childish banter by the psychiatrist Sweets). Moving on from there, the writers continued the story arc begun in the season premier: Gormagon. The staff at the Jeffersonian had been trying to pin down this serial killer cannibal up until the writer’s strike. The writers could be forgiven for casting off the Booth shooting plotline in favor of movement on the season story arc but what they did with it was badly done and unforgivable.
The main story elements in the Gormagon plotline for this episode were OK. A mandible is delivered to the lab. Zack gets blown up. The silver skeleton is stolen from the Gormagon vault. All good developments for a season finale. They should have left it at that, given the fans a cliffhanger and come back with a blockbuster season premier. Instead, they killed the show.
The writers decided to make Zack Gormagon’s apprentice and explain that his rational mind led him to believe that killing people, letting his “master” eat them, lying to his friends, and planning to run away to hide it all was a perfectly rational series of things to do. These were very out of character and were badly explained. They should have developed this a bit more (like in the three episodes since the writers’ strike). Little hints. Small bits of evidence related to Gormagon surfacing in each episode leading to the big finale. Frankly, so much time had passed due to the writers’ strike that I had completely forgotten Gormagon until they brought it up in the finale.
Another major problem was that Gormagon himself was a complete non-entity. This was very uncreative on the part of the writers. In interviews, they stated that they wanted to shake things up and end with a big shocker. Well, the best way to do that would have been to make Gormagon a recurring or main character and then make Zack the apprentice. Get rid of two characters (there’s the shakeup they wanted) and make Gormagon a formidable opponent. Heck, he eluded them all season and then we see him on screen for all of 10 seconds in which he gets shot and that’s the end of that storyline.
The stolen skeleton is ignored after the discovery of it’s theft. Zack obviously didn’t steal it. He was busy blowing himself up. So, who stole it and how. Usually on Bones, the writers would provide a tidy explanation for how things were done (kind of reminiscent of the way Murder, She Wrote episodes used to end all neat and tidy). This time, however, they decided to get out as fast as possible and ignore the depth and detail that fans of the show have come to expect.
To top it all off, the writers decided to have Zack’s character plead insanity and be sent to a mental institution allowing for the possibility of him being included as a guest star in later episodes. They really should have sent him up the river. We’ve seen (on this show even) how a character’s incarceration doesn’t limit their ability to be involved in the story any more than being in the loony bin will.
Overall, this episode was about 4 times shorter than it needed to be to tell the story the writers came up with. Bones is a show that has always presented science and investigation piece by piece to the viewers. This episode was more like a summary. The detail and depth usually present was completely lacking. It seems like the writers’ no longer wanted to be involved in the show. They effectively killed off the show – not by getting rid of a major character but by getting rid of the style, science and overall personality that made the show what it was. They effectively lobotomized the show and thrust it on stage.
The only redeeming factor in this episode was the acting. Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, Tamara Taylor, Michaela Conlin, T.J. Thyne, and Eric Millegan did an excellent job with the drivel they were given. Kudos to them and I hope they all find great gigs after this show disappears from the airwaves due to the lassitude of the show’s writers.
I’m not sure I’ll return for Season 4. I loved the series until this episode. I love the actors. But, I have better things to do with my time that watch a show that the writers so clearly don’t want to write.
