The Predator in the Pool is the eighteenth episode of the fifth season of Bones.
Synopsis[]
When human remains are discovered in the belly of a shark, Brennan and Booth are brought in to identify the missing person. Evidence suggesting the victim had been the prey of several fish directs the team’s investigation to The Aquarium of the Atlantic, where a guest lecturer and notorious self-help guru preaching the healing power of the ocean has gone missing. Meanwhile, both Brennan and Booth navigate their own relationship when a marine biologist shows interest in Booth.
Summary[]
Catherine Bryar calls in the FBI after a tiger shark is found washed up on the beach with the remains of a human leg found in its stomach. The shark may have come from an aquarium. The Aquarium of the Atlantic admits that they'd released a tiger shark out into the wild, but deny anyone missing, although a large, expensive filter had apparently been stolen from the aquarium earlier. A grouper in one of the tanks spits out a human skull, so Brennan and her team are called in to identify the victim.
Brennan and Hodgins are suited up in scuba gear to go into the tank and retrieve the skull with aquarium staffer Ben Marcus accompanying them. They also locate the rest of the body. Meanwhile, Catherine asks Booth out on a date, which Booth refuses until the current investigation is over, but he does agree to the date.
Clark figures that the victim was male and in his early 30s. He also had a spinal cord injury, and it seems as if the shark may have attacked him while he was still alive. The victim also had been stabbed in the eye with a sharp, thin object. Along with the trauma to the throat, the injuries suggest that the victim's death can be ruled a homicide.
By using the levels of nitrate and ammonia in a piece of brain coral in the tank, Hodgins is able to pinpoint the time of death between midnight and 6am on Friday night. Checking the Aquarium visitor list on Friday, only one person is missing: Jazz Gunn. Hacker tells Brennan that he's looking forward to their date. Brennan tells Booth that they're only meeting for coffee, and Booth tells Brennan that he's going on a date with Catherine.
Sweets identifies Jazz as a motivational speaker. Paralyzed from a car accident, Jazz claimed to have been healed by facing his fears and swimming with sharks off the coast of Brazil. Jazz was supposed to have given a talk but never made it to his speaking engagement. Jazz's assistant, Tad, is brought in for questioning, since they had a public falling out years ago. Tad claims that Jazz rehired him a few months ago, and they've made their peace with each other.
Grooves on Jazz's bones suggest that they were made by a hypodermic needle, but no such needle is available to the aquarium staff. Staffer Marilyn is studying the angelfish, which she claims are all sick for some reason. Marilyn tells Brennan that she wasn't in the aquarium that night, but Booth recalls that she was. Marilyn changes her story, saying that she was helping a of schoolchildren who were sleeping over at the aquarium that night.
The kids were given disposable cameras, but none of them noticed the murder. The lights on the tanks were turned off at midnight. However, one of the pictures shows a figure standing above the tank at 2:38am. The figure isn't Jazz, so could it be the killer? Meanwhile, Hodgins is making a smoothie out of the angelfish taken in for evidence. The angelfish had died, poisoned by an organic neurotoxin.
Angela has managed to bring up a face from the picture, and it's Ben.. Booth asks Ben why he didn't clock into work on Friday night. Ben explains that he had to switch shifts with someone else and clocked in on someone else's card. Booth uncovers that Ben received payment for $10,000 from a man named Dmitri Vladov, a known Russian mobster. Ben is scared to say anything else, for fear of repercussions.
Hacker warns Booth away from trying to take in Vladov for interrogation, but Booth is adamant to do so. However, he needs strong evidence to legally interrogate Vladov. Hodgins figures out that Vladov is smuggling vodka. If he dyes the vodka blue, it will look like glass cleaner and he can avoid the taxes placed on importing alcohol. To remove the blue dye, he would need a large filter, like the ones used in aquarium tanks. With the evidence he needs, Booth goes to question Vladov, who naturally claims he did nothing wrong.
Clark finds embryonic cells in a sample taken from one of the filters, which leads Brennan to think that Jazz was getting stem cell injections in his spine, which helped him to walk again. Therefore, he was getting treatments for his injury rather than using his "swimming with sharks" experience. The squints also figure out that a lionfish's spines could cause the same grooves found in Jazz's skull. The victim must have been poisoned by a lionfish.
Jazz was facing fears by trying to confront a lionfish but his face was shoved into the tank instead, and then he was rendered immobile. The murderer then tossed his body into the tank where he drowned. Booth figures out that Jazz traveled to Brazil to get stem cell injections and not swim with sharks. However, one of his followers, Grace the schoolteacher, found out the truth behind his visits to Brazil. Jazz told her that facing her fears would cure her fibromyalgia, but he lied. And yet, there may have been a grain of truth in his statement. She hasn't felt a thing since she killed him.
Brennan and Booth go off on their dates and meet up at Founding Fathers afterward to talk about them. They tell each other that they're both happy with their new relationships.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Seeley Booth - David Boreanaz
- Temperance Brennan - Emily Deschanel
- Jack Hodgins - T.J Thyne
- Angela Montenegro - Michaela Conlin
- Camille Saroyan - Tamara Taylor
- Lance Sweets - John Francis Daley
Intern of the Week[]
- Clark Edison - Eugene Byrd
Recurring Cast[]
- Andrew Hacker - Diedrich Bader
Guest Cast[]
- Dr. Catherine Bryar - Rena Sofer
- Grace Redmon - Myndy Crist
- Marilyn Stoddard - Tembi Locke
- Ben Marcus - Toby Meuli
- Tad Benedict - Stephen Taylor
- Dimitri Vladov - Ravil Isyanov
- Jazz Gunn - Adam Paul
- Lucy Alvarez-Rodriguez - Noelle Haleas
- Security Guard - Joe Davisas
- Diner patron - Rick L. Deanas
- Lab Technician - Victor Holsteinas
- Chaperone - Lindsay Stuartas
Featured Music[]
- "Sure Sign" - Jets Overhead
- "I Stole Your Boots" - Chelsea Williams
Notes[]
- The beginning of the episode seems to bear an uncanny similarity to the Shark Arm Case from 1935. On April 25, 1935 in Sydney, Australia a human arm was regurgitated from a tiger shark in captivity. The arm was later found to have belonged to a criminal and police informant. Much of the details of what truly happened to Smith remain unknown.
I don't know what that means[]
- When Bones is on her date with Hacker at the end of the episode, he compliments her laugh, saying she has a Rat Pack laugh. Bones does not know what that means. But it could be a reference to The Rat Pack Comedy.
Quotes[]
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