Bones 11.10: Shake-Up

Well, I finally caught up with Bones this season, and the final episode of the Fall, 11.10, was a strong one indeed.

Aubrey and Hodgins are both injured in a bomb blast.  It looks as if Aubrey is more seriously hurt, at first, as Hodgins walks out of the hospital saying he's ok just all sore.  Aubrey recovers, but Hodgins collapses - shortly after he tells Angela that he now wants to have more children, something he realized after his brush with death.  And Hodgins collapses just as Cam, in another room, is likely about to tell Arastoo that they're finished.

This is a pretty good shake-up and set-up for the Spring.  Hodgins' collapse is presumably not life-threatening, but the doctor tells our assembled group that he's paralyzed.   Significantly, no asks if the paralysis is reversible, and this opens up a variety of possibilities.  Hodgins continues in a wheelchair but pursues some kind of cure is the most likely.

Bones needed to shake things up.   The replacement of Sweets with Aubrey has helped the series, as much as I liked Sweets, because Aubrey has brought new cards to the table.  I would have hated to see any other of out major characters killed, but Hodgins in this new condition will change the nature of the Jeffersonian, giving it an Ironsides quality.

This season, so far, has been good.  Booth and Bones as cowboy and cowgirl in episode 11.09 was a delight, and the NSA story in 11.08 was excellent, giving Booth, Bones, and Aubrey a chance to expound on their views of Edward Snowden (whom I happened to see on Skype at Bard College in October).

The series still has a lot of juice, and I'm looking forward to more.

See also Bones Back for Season 11: Aubrey and 'Audrey' ... Bones 11.2: Back in Place ... Bones 11.5 Meets Sleepy Hollow 3.5: Time Travel

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ...Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian ... Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough ... Bones Season 10 Finale: Rehearsals for Retirement?

And 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 ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

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

#SFWApro

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

My Concern about Trump: A Scenario

Trump is now leading in the GOP polls, by as much as 20 percent over his Republican rivals.  One way of making ourselves feel not that worried about this is to point out that polls are not the same as ballots cast in an actual election, and polls have been wrong before.

So, what would happen if Trump were to lose the first few Republican primaries, despite leading in those states by sizable margins in the polls?   Again, a common prediction, that makes those who oppose Trump feel better, is that faced with such results, Trump would fold up and go home.  His ego would not allow him to continue in the race as a loser.

But what if his ego leads to another result?   Imagine Trump losing in Iowa, then in New Hampshire, then in South Carolina.  His supporters would go ballistic.  They might well scream that those elections had been rigged - that the votes were wrongly counted against Trump by the GOP establishment.

What would Trump's response be to such a groundswell of rage?  Would he tell his supporters, no, they need to calm down and accept the reality that Trump had lost?  Again, that is what we'd like to think, but -

Let's say Trump, still riding high on the adrenalin of all that vocal support, decides to buy into what his supporters would be screaming - that the elections he had lost had been rigged?  With his billions of dollars, he could go to court, and petition the courts to overturn the primary results.

Eventually, that could well go to the Supreme Court, which would need to hear those cases in a hurry.And, as in the election of 2000, the Supreme Court would again be in a position to decide on the American Presidency - who would next hold the office.

Far-fetched?  Probably ... maybe ... but it did happen once before.

Bones 11.5 meets Sleepy Hollow 3.5: Time Travel

Catching up with the Bones-Sleepy Hollow cross-over show that was on around Halloween, about two months ago.  One might wonder what the two shows could possibly have in common, given that Bones is about hard forensic science and Sleepy Hollow is ghostly fantasy.

Well, Booth from Bones and Abbie from Sleepy Hollow are both FBI agents - and unorthodox, when need be - so there's that.  And, as Booth points out to James, Booth does have an usual first name, Seeley, which gives him something in common with Icabod.

But there was something even more intriguing running through the two hours.  The reality of Sleepy Hollow is that Icabod Crane has indeed time traveled from his origins in the American Revolutionary War to our present day.   Since time travel, as far as we know, is impossible - see my Tricky Business of Time Travel for more of why I think this is the case - Bones is confronted with an intractable paradox when confronted with irrefutable forensic evidence that Icabod has come from the past.

Drawing on Sherlock Holmes, she correctly says that when you remove everything that's impossible, whatever remains is likely the truth, however highly improbably that might seem.  In a crucial scene in the first hour, Bones is left with two highly improbable possibilities: (1) Icabod in 2015 had an ancestor in the 18th century with identical handwriting (something which she rightly says has never been seen before) and time travel (which we all know has so far never been seen, at least in no way that's been reliably recorded).

Since Sleepy Hollow is fantasy in many more ways than just time travel, Icabod's time travel is not so surprising in that universe or series.   But the world of Bones has, till now, been our world, including even the possibility of UFOs some seasons ago (unlike time travel, there's nothing paradoxical or explosive of logic in space travel by aliens).

But what about time travel?  Will its possible admission into the world of Bones result in its playing a role in some future Bones scenario?  Probably not, but good for Bones for even opening that door a little.

See also Bones Back for Season 11: Aubrey and 'Audrey' ... Bones 11.2: Back in Place

See also Bones 10.1: The Fulcrum Changes ... Bones 10.2: J. Edgar and the DNA Confession ... Bones 10.3: Meets Rush and a Dominatrix ... Bones 10.4: Brennan and Angela on a Bench in the Playground ... Bones 10.5: Two Jokes and Three Times ... Bones 10.6: A Thousand Cuts ... Bones 10.7: The A-Word and Quarks ... Bones 10.8: Daisy's Doula ... Bones 10.9: The Milgram Experiment and the Birds ... Bones 200: 10.10: Just like Bogey and Bacall ... Bones 10.11: Life after Death, and Sweets in Wonderland ...Bones 10.12: The Digital Revolution ... Bones 10.13: The Almost-Serial Killer ...Bones 10.14: meets La Parure ... Bones 10.15: Cards in Hand ...Bones 10.16: Hodgins' Money ... Bones 10.17-18: Bullies and Capital Punishment ... Bones 10.19: Do You Buy Booth's Gambling Addiction? ...Bones 10.20: Intimations of a New Jeffersonian ... Bones 10.21: Ten Years Isn't Enough ... Bones Season 10 Finale: Rehearsals for Retirement?

And 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 ... Bones 9.14: "You Cannot Drink Your Glass Away" ... Bones 9.15: Hodgins' Brother and the Ripped Off Toe ... Bones 9.16: Lampreys, Professors, and Insurance Companies ... Bones 9.17: Spartacus in the Kitchen ... Bones 9.18: Meets Day of the Triffids ... Bones 9.19: The Cornucopic Urn ... Bones 9.20: Above the Law ... Bones 9.21: Freezing and Thawing ... Bones 9.22: Promotion ... Bones 9.23: The New Intern ... Bones Season 9 Finale: Upping the Ante

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

See also Sleepy Hollow Debuts: Sleepers, Dollar Bills, and Witches and Sleepy Hollow 1.2: Patriotic Gothic Horror

#SFWApro

the Sierra Waters time-travel trilogy

Star Wars: The Force Awakens: Shakespearean and Fun

So here, at long last, is my review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens: fabulous!

Further, J. J. Abrams made a brilliant move in bringing back the father/son Greek drama conflict that animated the original trilogy, except reversing who was good and who was bad, that is, making the father good and the son bad.  That was brilliant.

And though I just hated Han Solo being killed by his son, I would have hated Han Solo killed by just about anyone else even more, because the son killing the father is also perfect classic Greek tragedy, and Shakespearean too, while we're on it.

J. J. Abrams had already shown in his Star Trek reboot that he knows how to weave in iconic, central characters from the original series.  Indeed, Han in The Force Awakens had an even more crucial role than the older Spock in Abrams' 2009 Star Trek, and that's saying a lot.  Harrison Ford is a powerful and subtle actor - a rare combination - and he brought that to this swan song in Star Wars, bringing Han's swagger, sense of humor, and soul in fine proportion to the role.

Women played a much bigger and better role than in the original trilogy, especially Rey (well played by Daisy Ridley) and her wielding of the light saber and keen sense of right and wrong, and Leia, who I actually thought was a lot better in The Force Awakens than in the original trilogy. And/or, maybe Carrie Fisher is a much better actress now.   The combination of Leia and Rey set up - what, an aunt and niece dynamic? - that compliments the father and son motif, and has the saving grace of both being on the side of light.  (I think it likely that Rey is Luke's daughter, almost certainly not Leia's.  Leia doesn't hug Rey in the way a mother would hug a daughter, certainly not one she hadn't seen in years. And Rey starting out on that backwater world reprises the way we first found Luke, in the very first Star Wars move.  For that same reason, though, I'd say there's an outside chance that Rey is Obi wan Kenobi's progeny.)

By the way, though I've been talking about the original trilogy, let me point out that unlike many dyspeptic critics, I loved the second, prequel trilogy, too, and I recommend anyone starting out on these movies should see all six, in the order in which they were originally released, before seeing The Force Awakens.

Other things: the new robot was great, it was fun to see the old ones again, and I would have liked to hear Luke at least say a word when he meets Rey at the end. Max von Sydow could have been on the screen longer, as an Obi wan Kenobi kind of character - he was on so briefly that I can't even recall his name.

This movie was so good that I wish it was twice as long.  I was glad to see Hillary Clinton say "the force be with you" at the end of the Democratic debate on Saturday, because you could say she's Leia and Trump was Snoke or maybe General Hux, or someone in between in age.   Right, I'm mixing politics into this, and if you don't like it, too bad, it's definitely something Han Solo would have done, may he rest in peace.

Star Wars, when first movie came out, brought science fiction out of the cult and into the mainstream, as I told AM New York and AP and Roy Green on his radio show.  The Force Awakens continues this grand tradition of science fiction as a Shakespearean form of our time, and hey those special effects and aliens in Maz's cantina's were a real treat, too.

See also this thoughtful review by James F. McGrath ... and here's my defense of Star Wars 2: Attack of the Clones, published back in 2002 in Locus Online ...



the force in our reality