Directed by David Boreanaz
Written by Karine Rosenthal, Dean Lopata, Michael Peterson, & Pat Charles
A blizzard causes a city-wide blackout and hampers the team's efforts to solve a murder case possibly related to a viral outbreak of Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF). Booth and Brennan, however, are not on site due to being trapped in the elevator of Booth's apartment for the duration. Meanwhile, Angela and Hodgins receive troubling news that could affect their unborn child.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Physics: Although it's fun, the potatoes aren't necessary for the batteries Wendell makes to recharge the cell phone. The power comes from the metals; the potatoes provide a medium that completes the circuit of the battery. The actual power comes from the metals and the lab would have had all the acids and salts necessary for a much more sophisticated setup.
- Big Blackout: A blizzard cuts the power to DC.
- Bottle Episode: The episode finds Wendell, Angela, Cam and Hodgins stuck in the lab while Booth and Bones are stuck in an elevator with seats from old Veterans Stadium (with Sweets helping them from outside the elevator). As with many bottle episodes, there is lots of character development, including Bones and Booth agreeing to try a relationship at a future date.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Hodgins and Wendell do this (with a healthy dose of MacGyvering) when they are trapped by a blizzard without power, and they have to solve the case quickly because the murderer might be contagious. The clearest example is when Hodgins actually manages to vaporize some of the metal shrapnel and analyze it. Justified because they work IN a museum.
- MacGyvering: Special mention goes to Wendell Bray, who managed to take X-rays with scotch tape supplying the needed (static) electricity during a blizzard, and used a potato battery to power a cellphone.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Wendell and Hodgins frantically attaching wires while Angela yells, in the background, "Guys! The phone!" and rock music ramps up the mood... the fact is that Hodgins and Wendell are frantically hooking up potatoes for a very, very big battery.
