A high school time capsule is opened only for the remains of a teenage boy to be discovered inside, having been shoved in the capsule shortly before its internment back in the late 1980s. Among the boy's belongings is a floppy disk for a game that, had it been released back then, would have been a landmark in video game history. They also discover that the deceased is the true father of his classmate's son. Brennan and Booth receive some psychological profiling advice of the killer from their therapist, Dr. Sweets.
Tropes
- Break Out the Museum Piece: Angela had to borrow an Amiga computer "from the third floor" to process a 20 year old floppy disk found with the victim.
- Comically Missing the Point: When Janelle says Dillon loved The Cure, Bones asks what disease he had.
- Good Parents: After it's discovered that the victim fathered a child with a classmate he was tutering said classmate's then boyfriend, now husband becomes a suspect. In fact he didn't know and, while briefly floored by the discovery that he is not the biolofical father, he quickly affirms that the boy is still his son and he feels no differently about him. (It helps that he and his girlfriend were broken up at the time so there wasn't actually any cheating).
- Running Gag: Several of his academic-minded colleagues, upon learning that Booth was a jock in high school, say that he was "that guy". Later a suspect's wife states her husband was "that guy."
- Shout-Out:
- Brennan's high school crush gave her a Brainy Smurf, even though he knew she wanted a Smurfette.
- Hodgins discovers that Dillon kept cocaine in his pocket watch, leading him to draw a comparison to Miami Vice.
- Sweets was really into Voltron as a kid.
- Janelle says Dillon loved The Cure.
