Bones Season 4 Finale

The Bones season 4 finale, The End in the Beginning, used the device of putting the familiar characters of the show and putting them in new roles, though with the usual situation of an unsolved murder.

Some spoilers may follow.

Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan were no longer FBI agent and forensic anthropologist, but rather a married couple and owners of a night club known as The Lab, which was depicted as a redressed set of the Jeffersonian lab in the "real" series. Most of the other characters-Angela, Sweets, a returned Zack, and several of the guest post Docs, were employees of the club. Hodgins is a crime novelist and a regular at The Lab who provides some running commentary. Brennan's dad, played by Ryan O'Neal, is a mob lawyer. Caroline Julian, an assistant US Attorney in the "real" series is a defense lawyer in the episode. Cam and Jared, Booth's brother, were police detectives investigating the murder of a man found beaten and then shot in the men's room.

Since most fans of Bones know that Booth was undergoing brain surgery, the surmise was that Bones season 4 finale was taking place entirely within Booth's head as he recovered from the tumor having been removed. But is also, as it turned out, was the plot of Bones's latest book, apparently not featuring her favorite character Kathy Reichs. (The fun conceit of Bones is that while the real novelist Kathy Reichs writes the Temperance Brennan novels, the fictional forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan writes a series of novels featuring a character named Kathy Reichs.)

The murder mystery is a kind of film noir scenario, though photographed in bright colors, that involves an Iranian businessman, gang bangers, and the real band Motley Crue. The murder mystery is dealt with in the usual fashion, with clues found and red herrings stumbled over and disposed of. The real killer is found in the last ten minutes or so of the episode in a suitably tense moment that could explode into gun play at any second.

Then Booth wakes up.

Of course it was all a dream; those who watch the show regularly knew that from the start. But it was also a story Brennan was playing with. One interesting thing, the Booth in the dream seemed far happier and less tense than he does in the "real world." Having regular sex with Brennan, whom he obviously desires in "real life" must be a great part of it.

And then came the clichéd ending. "Who are you?"

Amnesia, among other things, is the risk one takes when ones skull is opened and knives are used on ones brain. It is kind of a done thing, but taking Booth's memory of Brennan does serve to shake up their relationship a bit and set up the first story arc for season five.

Source: Bones: The End in the Beginning, TV.Com