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Recap / Bones S 1 E 18 The Man With The Bone

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A centuries old fingerbone found with a corpse in a National Park may have connections to a possible pirate treasure stash on Assateague Island.

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  • Artistic License – Geography: Far from the bustling tourist town that it's portrayed as in the episode Assateague Island has no resident population and the tourism it does have is mostly camping, hiking and the like.
  • Artistic License – History: Assateague Island has no particular association with Blackbeard or pirates in general. A few may have stop there from time to time but that's about it.
  • Berserk Button: Brennan is (rightly) incensed at having her bones stolen, but she goes off on Goodman—who, it should be noted, is technically her boss—chewing him out for the Jeffersonian's lack of security and throwing it in his face that she had the opportunity to work at Stanford and turned it down for this position.
  • Blunt Metaphors Trauma: Booth, lampshaded by Brennan:
    Booth: At this point, it appears as if the stolen 300-year-old bones are being used to, you know, salt the shaft.
    Brennan:: "Salt the shaft"?
    Booth: Yeah. You know, an investor spends a million bucks. He gets antsy when nothin' happens, and then—voila! You know, pirate bones appear and, uh, the golden goose keeps, you know ... [crudely demonstrates] ... laying those eggs.
    Brennan: (confused stare) Okay, that is a ... convoluted metaphor, Booth.
    Goodman: It's a hoax, Doctor Brennan. Like Piltdown man.
    Brennan: Oh, got it. (to Booth) Why can't you be clear like that?
  • Eskimos Aren't Real: Zack expresses surprise that Hodgins believes in pirates, and Hodgins snarks back that they're not Santa.
  • Expy: 'Branson Rose' aka Richard Branson-similar name and is a billionaire adventurer.
  • Hidden Depths: No pun intended. Both Brennan and Hodgins reveal in this episode they're avid and extremely competent scuba/cave divers.
  • I Was Beaten by a Girl: To prove that Branson Rose's Special Forces history is BS, and therefore rule him out as a suspect, Brennan slaps him—twice. Both times he doesn't resist, which is all the evidence they need. His lawyer is outraged and demands Brennan be arrested for assault, only to have Rose quickly usher him out of the room and scold him for potentially splashing it all over the news he's suing a woman for slapping him.
  • Precision F-Strike: Upon discovering that a skeleton has disappeared:
    Brennan: Where the hell are my bones?!
  • Replaced with Replica: Part of the plot involves bones being stolen from the lab and replaced with fake ones. Naturally, Brennan isn't fooled.
  • Treasure Hunt Episode: The victim worked for a rich guy who was searching for pirate treasure. Angela can't understand why pirates who got their hands on anything valuable would hide it in some underwater cave instead of spending it.

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