The Recluse in the Recliner

Season 9

Episode 24

Air date

May 19, 2014

Production code

9AKY22

Written by

Stephen Nathan & Jonathan Collier

Directed by

David Boreanaz

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The Drama in the Queen	The Conspiracy in the Corpse (Season 10)

The Recluse in the Recliner is the 24th episode and the season finale of Season 9 of Bones.

Synopsis[]

The Team investigates the death of Wesley Foster, a conspiracy blog writer who had arranged to meet up with Booth to discuss a previous case before his untimely death. Realizing that whoever killed Foster did not want him talking to Booth, the team has to try to figure out who is behind the death and how the previous case is relevant. As Booth and the Jeffersonian team dig deeper into the burgeoning conspiracy surrounding the man's death, it's evident Booth may be in over his head, and his future with the FBI is put in question.

Summary[]

Booth is to be promoted to head the new field office in Berlin, Germany and Brennan has been teaching him German. The morning before they head to work, Booth receives a mysterious phone call on his cellphone, which is supposed to be a "secure line". He has the call traced and initially brushes it off as a security breach but, just minutes later, is called to a crime scene at the exact same location where the call was traced.

Cam and Hodgins examine the charred corpse found in an incinerated trailer. The victim is identified as Wesley Foster, a former journalist turned conspiracy blogger who possessed a memory chip full of information, surveillance photos and miscellaneous documents on bribery, business malpractices and covered-up scandals involving top officials in the government, military, FBI and major businesses, some dating back to nearly two decades ago.

Angela then discovers that Foster once worked as a janitor at a security company owned by the McNamaras, hinting that there is perhaps more to the Ghost Killer case than a revenge killing. Booth questions a representative from the company but she is tight-lipped and stonewalls him due to their number of high-profile clients, including government agencies. Foster had been tortured by Delta Force operatives, indicating that he was intentionally targeted for information and then murdered to be silenced.

Booth is questioned by the congressional subcommittee before his promotion is confirmed. Prior to the hearing, Congressman Hadley assured Booth that the hearing was just pro forma and that he and Deputy Director Stark supported his nomination. However, Hadley brought up of Booth's classified missions involving having to shoot an American citizen in Pakistan. Shocked with the turn of events, Booth refuses to answer due to the classified nature of the mission, sending the press into a frenzy and prompting a reporter to ask him if he thought he was "above the law". He and Brennan manage to evade the mob of reporters and leave hurriedly. The Deputy Director puts him on administrative leave (FBI speak for "fired"), forcing him to vacate his office, and removes him from the nomination. Booth begins to wonder if his promotion was a mere "set up" and that he was deliberately being targeted to be made an example of. Angela finds an incriminating photo of Hadley kissing another man amongst the files in Foster's memory chip. That evening, Booth confronts Hadley, who pleads with him to leave the matter and disappear "quietly" like "they" wanted. Booth realizes that Hadley himself must have been blackmailed, apparently by someone with enough power and leverage to silence a politician. After Booth leaves, Hadley is seen calling someone on his cellphone.

By then, Booth realizes he and his family are in danger, now that even the most clandestine and classified details of his service record has been hacked and exposed in public. Angela traced Hadley's call to a burn phone and Booth persuades a reluctant Brennan to leave immediately with their daughter to hide out at her father Max's place. Booth booby-traps their house and lays in wait. Moments later he is attacked by three heavily armed Delta Force operatives. He manages to take out one and wound another but is seriously injured. Brennan returns to their house in time to help him kill the second. He subdues and kills the last operative before collapsing from his injuries.

Booth is rushed to the hospital in critical condition and flat-lines on the operating table but survives the surgery. He regains consciousness only to find himself handcuffed to his hospital bed and accused of murdering three FBI agents sent to serve his arrest warrant. Brennan is taken into custody by FBI agents for questioning when she protests that the supposed "FBI agents" were assassins sent to silence him and that he was defending himself.

Cast[]

Main Cast:[]

Intern of the Week[]

Colin Fisher - Joel David Moore

Recurring Cast[]

Guest Cast[]

Efran Hadley - Peter Mackenzie
Margaret Pace - Mari Weiss
Susan Sprung - Susan Angelo
Linda Watts - Joey Honsa
Dr. Hinshaw - Mark Atteberry
Hannah Francis - Jennifer Jalene
Paramedic - Troy Cephers
Reporter #1 - Marisa Chen Moller
Reporter #2 - Alex Best
Reporter #3 - Ayumi Iizuka
Wesley Foster - Trevor Eyster

Featured Music[]

"Wave" by Beck

Notes[]

Victor Stark is new Deputy Director of the FBI. It is not known if he is the immediate successor of former Deputy Director Sam Cullen (John M. Jackson) or Deputy Director Robert Kirby (Ryan Cutrona).
In the episode preview interview, series creator Hart Hanson joked that the promo could be used for 24, a reference to the intense scene towards the end of the episode where Booth takes on the three Delta Force assassins. David Boreanaz himself described the filming as "exhausting".
The central murder case appears to emulate the death of Karl Koch, a German hacker notorious for his work in infiltrating American databases for the KGB. He was found dead in the charred remains of a car fire in the woods in Germany, the circumstances being questioned even in spite of his death being ruled a suicide.
Realistically, the FBI would assign an attache overseas (specifically to embassies and consulates), not open a field office as stated in the episode.
In the scene where Booth is being interviewed during his congressional hearing, Congressman Hadley brings up an incident where Booth shot an American citizen in Pakistan in 2002 but Booth refuses to answer, saying that it is classified. Booth had served in the U.S. Army Special Forces and the elite 75th Ranger Regiment. Discussing classified was not only frowned upon within the special operations community but would have ramifications, especially in regards to national security. Hence Booth was put into an extremely difficult position.
Booth's military training comes to fore in the final scenes where he booby-traps the stairwell and doorways of his house. He kills one of the Delta Force operatives with a neck snap. Being a former Army Ranger, he would have been trained in handling a variety of weapons and in hand-to-hand combat.