Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away"

The most profound line in Bones 9.14 tonight comes from a chess mentor who tells Sweets: "You cannot drink your glass away."  The mentor says it's supposed to be an old Russian saying.  I have no idea if it is - nothing comes up when you Google it, except a page in which the word "glass" does not even appear.  But it's a great saying, I think, anyway, because it embodies Bertrand Russell's Theory of Logical Types, which, among other things, helps us understand that a container is different from things it contains.   A glass contains liquid, and that's what we drink away or consume, not the glass.  Similar to a garbage can, which contains stuff that we want throw out, but not the can itself.   Anyway, Bertrand Russell, were he still alive, would have liked that line in tonight's Bones, and so would have a few Greek philosophers, too.  (And if you're interested in garbage cans and theory of logical types, you might enjoy this little essay.)

As it is, Sweets is the most contemplative in tonight's show.  His reentry into the world of chess - his affinity for chess being the glass that he cannot drink away - goes a big way to helping solve the case. That solution, in turn, harkens to another ancient Greek theme - the Oedipal complex, or a son's passion for his mother.   The killer of the chess master turns out to have a fatal weakness - he doesn't want to sacrifice his queen, which in this case turns out to be not only the piece on the board, but the son's mother, who might well have left the son in favor of the master, at least in the son's psycho vision.

So although the lab work made its contribution in tonight's episode with Bones and the assist of the droll Canadian intern, the real star of the plot was human psychology, the Greek tragic kind, and well analyzed by Sweets.

The other element worthy of note is Cam being selected as "outstanding woman of science" - an obvious and frankly absurd slight of Bones, who's understandably annoyed.  Cam, to her credit, is sensitive about this, while Angela, not to her credit, thinks Bones just has to accept that these things happen.  And Booth's opinion is much like Angela's.   I know - that's the pc thing to do.  I know an editor of a magazine who withdrew himself from an award competition, because he had already won so many times.   But what's the logic of that?  Give the award to second-best person?   In the end, it all works out sort of ok in this episode, and there's a good laugh involved, but I would have preferred a resolution in which Bones got the award, period.

Because genius such as the kind Bones possesses deserves to be recognized always and not drunk away in a toast to collegiality.   Hmm, did Bertrand Russell or the ancient Greeks have a theory about that?

See also Bones 9.1: The Sweet Misery of Love ... Bones 9.2: Bobcat, Identity Theft, and Sweets ... Bones 9.3 and NCIS 11.2: Sweets and Ziva ... Bones 9.4: Metaphysics of Death in a Television Series ... Bones 9.5: Val and Deep Blue ... Bones 9.6: The Wedding ... Bones 9.7: Watch Out, Buenos Aires ...Bones 9.8: The Bug in the Neck ... Bones 9.9: Friday Night Bones in the Courtroom ... Bones 9.10: Horse Pucky ... Bones 9.11: Angels in Equations ... Bones 9.12: Fingernails ... Bones 9.13: Meets Nashville, and Wendell

And 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 ... Bones 8.21: Christine, Hot Sauce, and the Judge ... Bones 8.22: Musical-Chair Parents ... Bones 8.23: The Bluff ... Bones Season 8 Finale: Can't Buy the Last Few Minutes

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

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