Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge

A really funny-bones droll Bones tonight - funniest show this season - with not one but three top-notch stories, almost all interconnected.

The best involves Christine, accused of biting another little girl in day care.  Just about everyone other than Bones tells her a bite or two at that age is normal.  But Bones won't accept that Christine did the act without evidence, and certainly won't accept that Christine is "normal" - she's far better than normal, obviously.  Lots of great exchanges on this between Bones and Booth - and some excellent facial expressions from Booth, too - but my favorite part of this storyline comes when -

The judge - or, to be more precise, the Judge Judy character in a mock courtroom for television - is questioned by Booth and Bones about the murder victim, who was the producer of the courtroom show.   After the questioning is finished, Bones asks the faux-judge one last quick question - would you find someone guilty of biting someone else without evidence?  There's also some good body language in this series of scenes, with Booth almost shyly showing his FBI ID to the television camera - after he assertively uses it to stop the mock television trial so he and Bones can question the judge.

Bones's question to the judge is just a piece of her whole campaign tonight to prove Christine innocent - not only to the world but in her own mind.  Part of this of course also involves the folks back at the Jeffersonian, who from the outset of the case get treated to Bones interjecting questions about the day care bite to anyone who will listen.  At one point she defends her action as what motherhood calls for - good for her!

But also at the lab we get the minor story of Hodgins' eating the last of Finn's beloved late grandmother's catfish sauce, and Hodgins vowing to "Opie" to recreate the sauce.  The master of chemical compounds of course does this, and in a satisfying concluding scene we see how this could lead not only to Finn's happiness but Hodgins's recouping some of his lost big money - you can't get a much happier ending than that.

And, just for good measure, we get a pretty neat crime and solution story, with the motive being the ill treatment  of a dog, which is an understandable motive.

But .... is Christine guilty of the bite?  Well ... probably ... there's a better than 70%  chance that she is according to Angela's computer models and Christine does also bite Bones on the neck, much to Booth's amusement ... But ... is she guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?  All I can say is, were I on the jury, my verdict would be: not guilty!  Certainly not without better forensic evidence.

See also Bones 8.1: Walk Like an Egyptian ... Bones 8.2 of Contention ... Bones 8.3: Not Rotting Behind a Desk  ... Bones 8.4: Slashing Tiger and Donald Trump ... Bones 8.5: Applesauce on Election Eve ... Bones 8.6: Election Day ... Bones 8.7: Dollops in the Sky with Diamonds ...Bones 8.8: The Talking Remains ... Bones 8.9: I Am A Camera ... Bones 8.10-11: Double Bones ...Bones 8.12: Face of Enigmatic Evil ... Bones 8.13: Two for the Price of One ... Bones 8.14: Real Life ... Bones 8.15: The Magic Bullet and the Be-Spontaneous Paradox ... Bones 8.16: Bitter-Sweet Sweets and Honest Finn ... Bones 8.17: "Not Time Share, Time Travel" ... Bones 8.18: Couples ... Bones 8.19: The Head in the Toilet ... Bones 8.20: On Camera

And see also Bones 7.1: Almost Home Sweet Home ... Bones 7.2: The New Kid and the Fluke ...Bones 7.3: Lance Bond and Prince Charmington ... Bones 7.4: The Tush on the Xerox ... Bones 7.5: Sexy Vehicle ... Bones 7.6: The Reassembler ... Bones 7.7: Baby! ... Bones 7.8: Parents ...Bones 7.9: Tabitha's Salon ... Bones 7.10: Mobile ... Bones 7.11: Truffles and Max ... Bones 7.12: The Corpse is Hanson ... Bones Season 7 Finale: Suspect Bones

And see also Bones 6.1: The Linchpin ... Bones 6.2: Hannah and her Prospects ... Bones 6.3 at the Jersey Shore, Yo, and Plymouth Rock ... Bones 6.4 Sans Hannah ... Bones 6.5: Shot and Pretty ... Bones 6.6: Accidental Relations ... Bones 6.7:  Newman and "Death by Chocolate" ...Bones 6.8: Melted Bones ... Bones 6.9: Adelbert Ames, Jr. ... Bones 6.10: Reflections ... Bones 6.11: The End and the Beginning of a Mystery ... Bones 6.12 Meets Big Love ... Bones 6.13: The Marrying Kind ... Bones 6.14: Bones' Acting Ability ... Bones 6.15: "Lunch for the Palin Family" ...Bones 6.16: Stuck in an Elevator, Stuck in Times ... Bones 6.17: The 8th Pair of Feet ... Bones 6.18: The Wile E. Chupacabra ... Bones 6.19 Test Runs The Finder ... Bones 6.20: This Very Statement is a Lie ... Bones 6.21: Sensitive Bones ... Bones 6.22: Phoenix Love ... Bones Season 6 Finale: Beautiful

And see also Bones: Hilarity and Crime and Bones is Back For Season 5: What Is Love? and 5.2: Anonymous Donors and Pipes and 5.3: Bones in Amish Country and 5.4: Bones Meets Peyton Place and Desperate Housewives and Ancient Bones 5.5 and Bones 5.6: A Chicken in Every Viewer's Pot and Psychological Bones 5.7 and Bones 5.8: Booth's "Pops" and Bones 5.9 Meets Avatar and Videogamers ... Bad Santa, Heart-Warming Bones 5.10 ... Bones 5.11: Of UFOs, Bloggers, and Triangles ... Bones 5.12: A Famous Skeleton and Angela's Baby ... Love with Teeth on Bones 5.13 ... Faith vs. Science vs. Psychology in Bones 5.14 ... Page 187 in Bones 5.15 ...Bones 100: Two Deep Kisses and One Wild Relationship ... Bones 5.17: The Deadly Stars ...Bones Under Water in 5.18 ... Bones 5.19: Ergo Together ...  Bones 5.20: Ergo Together ... Bones 5.21: The Rarity of Happy Endings ... Bones Season 5 Finale: Eye and Evolution