'Bones,' Season 7, Episode 4, 'The Male in the Mail'

In "Bones," Season 7, Episode 4, "The Male in the Mail," several boxes filled with the dismembered remains of a human being are found at a dead letter office. And Booth's estranged father dies, much to the FBI agent's relief.

Spoilers surely follow.

One of the rudest things in the world is to not dispose of one's kill in a proper fashion. Dexter Morgan has the right idea with his garbage bags tossed into the bay. Now some postal workers are traumatized for life.

Brennan and company trace the packages back to a Ship 'n Print store and find a whole parcel of suspects. It seems that four of the employees had won the lottery, three thus becoming ex-employees, the fourth remaining in a job that gave him personal satisfaction. There is a strange love triangle that involves a woman and two married employees. One of the clues involves the results of sex on top of a copy machine.

As it turns out, though, the real killer is neither of these people. The killer is a young man who was not in the lottery, is a practicing Buddhist, and believes in non-violence. The victim made him set aside his non-violence beliefs by objecting to his side business of mailing magic mushrooms to various customers. Using the tools available, the victim was killed, dismembered, packaged up, and mailed off.

The side plot involves Booth finding out that his estranged father has died from his granddad, who had raised him. Booth spends the entire episode trying to pretend that he doesn't care, as he rather hated his father. But his body language, his facial expressions, and his tone of voice suggests otherwise.

Booth's attempts at nonchalance creeps everyone else out, even the emotionally stunted Brennan, who has had daddy issues of her own. Finally a box filled of memories, old photos and the like, brings forth Booth's real grief. Of course the old man was sorry for being a jerk and was sorry he had never said he was sorry.

Particularly poignant are two ticket stubs to a World Series game Booth and dad has attended. That had been a perfect day and now there would be no others.