Bones Wiki
Bones Wiki
Bones Wiki
2,474
pages
in: Season 5, Episodes

The Goop on the Girl

Sign in to edit

The Goop on the Girl is the tenth episode of the fifth season of Bones.

Synopsis[]

Booth and Brennan investigate the case of a man in a Santa Claus costume who tried to rob a bank but was blown up in the process. Meanwhile, Brennan's father Max asks Margaret, a distant relative of Brennan's, to spend Christmas with him and Brennan.

Summary[]

A man dressed up as Santa goes into a bank and stages a robbery. Wrapped around his body is a bomb. After an all units respond call on the radio, Booth confronts the Santa just as he flees from the bank. The Santa says that he just answered the call and his bomb suddenly explodes, coating Booth and some other people with human remains. Meanwhile, Max tells Brennan that they should have another member of the family join them for Christmas. Later, the team brings in a witness to the crime, Georgia, to the lab since she seems to be the person most covered with the flesh and blood of the Santa.

Booth, who also has evidence of the Santa on him, is also brought to the lab. Brennan starts to undress him, much to the amusement of Cam. Cam explains that the body has been injected with Beta Blockers, which causes nervous people to calm down. Hodgins discovers that the bomb had a remote detonator, and the frequency matches that of a pirate radio station with a controversial talk show host. Booth and Brennan track down the radio signal and arrest the host, Owen Thiel. During the interrogation, he swears that he has nothing to do with the bank robbery or the bomb.

Meanwhile, Sweets and Daisy debate whether or not they should celebrate the holiday with Brennan and the rest of the team. Daisy isn't very excited about Christmas since it was more likely that Jesus was born in March anyway. Max introduces Brennan to her second cousin, Margaret. Brennan discovers that Margaret is a huge fan of Benjamin Franklin and quotes him a lot, which annoys Brennan. Cam's daughter Michelle tells her that she wants to spend Christmas in Hawaii with her friend. Cam is upset, and would rather Michelle spend it with her, but she gives her daughter permission to go.

Brennan tells Booth that she doesn't want to spend Christmas in town since her cousin annoys her, but Booth convinces her to stay. Angela has reconstructed the face of the Santa and someone has identified him as Holden Chevaleer, an exterminator. Holden's mother says that Holden was a very shy man and worked on his own a lot in his garage. The bank had denied giving a loan to him and he was upset by that.

Booth and Margaret meet, and he definitely notices a family resemblance between the two women. Owen asks Booth if he could speak with Holden's mother, but Booth denies him permission, saying that it was Owen's hate speech which caused the death. The team figures out that the bomb making profile matches with a known criminal named Malaki Wallace. Malaki explains that he has a website, where anyone can learn how to make bombs like he does.

Daisy has reconstructed enough of Holden's body to see that there was a puncture wound on his right arm. This could not have been done by Holden himself because he was right-handed. The wire used to attach the bomb to Holden's chest is a patented type only found in bike locks. Holden was an innocent bystander, forced to rob the bank after he responded to what he thought was a routine extermination call.

Hodgins is attempting to recreate the bomb, and Cam notices that he has residue on his fingers. Georgia, the main witness to the robbery and explosion, also had the same residue on her fingers. Angela recreates the explosion and sees that the cab driver sitting outside the bank shielded his face before the explosion occurred, as if he was expecting it. The frequency which triggered the bomb came over the cab driver's radio. Georgia and the cabbie must have worked together to rob the bank, but didn't plan on detonating the bomb. They confess to putting Holden up to rob the bank for them.

Brennan admits to Booth that she feels sorry that Holden's mother has to bury her son during Christmas, and they both decide that they should attend his funeral. Booth tells Brennan that she has a much bigger heart than most people give her credit for. Cam takes Michelle to the airport so that she can catch her flight to Hawaii. They talk awhile, and Michelle decides to stay with Cam for Christmas. After his broadcast accidentally caused the bomb to go off, Owen decides that he shouldn't do his radio show anymore.

After the team attends Holden's funeral, they all end up at Brennan's apartment for Christmas dinner. Brennan tells Margaret that she'd rather hear what she has to say, instead of what Benjamin Franklin said. Margaret points out that that's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to her. The episode ends with the team holding hands in a silent toast to family and friends.

Cast[]

Main Cast[]

Intern of the Week[]

Guest Cast[]

Featured Music[]

  • "Here Comes Santa Claus" - Bob Dylan
  • "Snowfall" - Ingrid Michaelson
  • "Star of Wonder" - Matt Alber

Notes[]

  • Zooey Deschanel, who plays Bones' cousin Margaret, is the real life sister of Emily Deschanel. Several characters either claim they look like or confuse them for sisters throughout the episode.
  • This is the first episode Angela has ever used sculpter's clay on the victims remains to produce a face. Every other episode she uses digital means or gets an ID by drawing the subject.
  • The name of the bank; Capital Mutual Bank, was the name of the abandoned bank that contained the Gormogon Vault. It can be assumed that when the abandoned bank on the Anacostia River that contained the Vault was closed down, the bank was re-located to the corner of 12th and U Street.
  • This episode seems to take its basic premise from the real-life 2003 bank robbery in Erie, PA, in which a man and a woman called for a pizza delivery, and then strapped the delivery driver into a collar bomb and forced him to rob a bank. Due to police intervention, the delivery man died due to the explosives timer being activated. There are several marked differences between that case and this episode, however.
  • While the episode seems to be inspired from the case mentioned above, the pizza delivery man, Brain Wells, is often assumed to have been a willing participant to the robbery at first. Despite the opening scene being a clear reference to the traumatic recording of Mr Wells begging to have the collar on his neck removed that was placed around his neck after answering a call for a pizza delivery to a dead end. This call is the biggest reference in the episode as the Santa Robber cries to Booth that he ‘just answered the call’.

I don't know what that means[]

Quotes[]

  • TBA


Previous Story:
The Gamer in the Grease 		Next Story:
The X in the File
Episodes: Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12
Characters: Season 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12
Categories: Main Characters ·  Relationships


Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.