Well, Season 5 skips ahead a bit and Booth has had time to regain his memories and personality quirks... well, most of them anyway. Sweets (John Francis Daley) clears him for duty and the anxious agent is ready to start solving some murders again with his favorite squints. But as much as he insists on being himself again, there are still quite a few little differences in his personality, and Brennan is the one who keeps pointing them out. Not only that, but it becomes obvious early in the season that Booth has fallen in love with Bones. The question is, how real is it? Like many of the residual effects of Booth's coma, the love he is feeling could very well dissipate after a few weeks, so will the sexual tension we've been feeling from the two characters from the show's start finally break, or will it just fade back into part of the series' background relationship like before? Well, that is one of the main focuses of this season, and I don't want to reveal it for any first-time viewers.
Of course, while the Booth/Brennan relationship is always on the top of the list with this series, it is by far not the only one. Camille (Tamara Taylor) struggles with her newly adoptive teenage daughter whom we were introduced to last season, while Angela (Michaela Conlin) continues to struggle with her prescribed celibacy. Meanwhile, Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) continues trying to get over Angela.
The circulating grad student assistants continue this season as well. While not all of the temporary helpers are present, most of them return. Clark Edison (Eugene Byrd) and his business-only attitude comes back, though his all-work exterior cracks a few times this season, while Daisy Wick (Carla Gallo) is hired back on as an assistant, thanks to Sweets. The fact-filled Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright) shows up a few times as well, and so does the ever dreary Colin Fisher (Joel Moore). The biggest returning character from that batch, though, is pretty-boy Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry) whom Angela ends up falling for when she finally ends her celibacy, much to Hodgins' chagrin. This season introduces another recurring helper in the Muslim Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat) who seems to be a contradiction of science and religion, but he also tends to provide a few interesting insights into both several times throughout the season.
While the relationships are a major aspect of Bones, they are only about half of the equation, the other part being the cases they have to solve. Bones: The Complete Season 5 throws a few doozies their way and puts our characters in some interesting spots.
The season starts off with a psychic claiming that she knows where some bodies are buried. When one of the bodies turns out to be the psychic's sister, she becomes one of the obvious top suspects. Another early episode concerns the body of a dwarf in the sewers... the crazy thing is, the bones are green. Needless to say, leprechaun jokes are abundant in "The Dwarf in the Dirt."
One of my favorite episodes this season is "The Proof in the Pudding" where a government group storms into the lab, locks everyone in and requires that they determine the cause of death on a set of bones before the evening is out. As the team tries their hardest to do the job, they also start investigating who is holding them captive and who the body could be. The leading theory is something the resident conspiracy nut, Hodgins, is dying to prove right.
In the episode "The Gamer in the Grease," the world's top-ranked Punky Pong player is found dead in a vat of grease. This episode was obviously inspired by the Donkey Kong competition and surrounding controversy, though those events haven't lead to quite as drastic an end. For those not familiar with the story, check out our review of The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. A side story in this episode involves Hodgins, Sweets and Fisher trying to hold their place in line while waiting for the premier of Avatar. There is a good bit of humor involved, as each character tries to find an excuse to leave the lab to relieve the one currently in the line. I found this particular movie plug amusing, primarily because Moore plays one of the movie's main characters, Dr. Norm Spellman.
Another good episode brings Bones and Booth to Brennan's home town just in time for her class reunion. Not only do we get to see some interesting views of her as a kid, but the urban legend theme surrounding the murder is only enhanced by the presence of Robert Englund (the original Freddy Krueger) as the school's creepy janitor.
What I believe to be the best and most revealing episode this season is also the show's 100th, "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole." Here, Booth and Brennan have finally read Sweets' manuscript concerning the two's relationship and his belief that they are secretly in love with each other (mind you, this is on top of the Booth's post-coma brain issues). Brennan sees one major problem with Sweets' evaluation, though, the case he notes as being their first one together isn't, and as a result, Sweets fears all of his conclusions that came from that initial case could be flawed. Sweets has the pair retell their real first case. This episode is great because it not only shows how everyone started working together, but it also puts everyone back in their original styles (including Hodgins' curly hair), and yes, Zack (Eric Millegan) also returns. What results is a very revealing episode that sheds a whole new light on a lot of the characters' relationships, chief among them, of course, being Booth and Brennan.
Naturally, one of the special features in Bones: The Complete Season 5 is about the 100th episode and Boreanaz's directing of the episode. Others include extended episodes for a few key storylines, audio commentaries on select episodes, deleted scenes and a gag reel. There are also two featurettes: one focusing on the creation of the various bodies for the series and another about training Thyne and Vahdat how to use nunchucks for a scene in "The Devil in the Details" where a horned body appears burning on a church altar.
While The Complete Season 5 doesn't offer a lot in the way of extras, it has about what you would expect from most TV series these days, and the high definition nature of the Blu-ray is fully appreciated, especially during some of the goopy bodies the team has to work with, the most notable being the one from "The Gamer in the Grease" since the man's skin actually slides off his bones when attempting to move him. Needless to say, if you are watching the season on Blu-ray, you might not want to do so while eating.
All-in-all, Bones: The Complete Season 5 has a good selection of solid episodes that are entertaining, and the running stories of the various relationships are always good to watch. Bones fans should definitely continue their collection with this season, but those not already engrossed in the various characters' histories should back up a few seasons and watch the show from the start.
