The Knight on the Grid

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“The Knight on the Grid”
Bones episode
Episode no. Season 3
Episode 8
Written by Noah Hawley
Directed by Dwight H. Little
Guest stars John Francis Daley as Dr. Lance Sweets, Ryan O'Neal as Max Keenan, Patricia Belcher as Caroline Julian, Bess Wohl as Amy Hollister, and Leon Russom as Archbishop Stephen Wallace
Production no. 3AKY08
Original airdate November 20, 2007
Episode chronology
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"The Boy in the Time Capsule" "The Santa in the Slush"
List of Bones episodes

"The Knight on the Grid" is the eighth episode of the third season of "Bones," and the 51st episode of the series. It aired Tuesday, November 20, 2007, at 8pm ET. The title refers to the victim's involvement with the Knights of Columbus, and his placement on a symbolic map of Washington, D.C. by the cannibalistic killer introduced in the season premiere, "The Widow's Son in the Windshield."

Contents

[edit] Summary

Booth calls Cam to a construction site where a badly decomposed body was found. Cam realizes that the victim's patellas were removed, and the cause of death was likely a stab wound to the heart. After examining the body in the lab, Zack determines that the kneecaps were surgically removed, and Cam and Hodgins decide the victim has been dead for three days. The body also has a gemstone on it.

That evening, Brennan brings in the mail, and hears a knock on her door. It is Amy Hollister, her brother Russ' girlfriend. Amy asks Brennan where Russ is, as her daughter (Russ' stepdaughter) is sick with cystic fibrosis. Brennan tells her she does not know where Russ is, as she hasn't talked to him in months, but advises her to see their father, Max, and ask him to contact Russ. She also advises Amy to contact a cystic fibrosis expert with whom Brennan is friends. As she writes down the doctor's contact information, she notices a bloody spot has appeared on a small manila envelope that arrived in the mail. After Amy leaves, Brennan cautiously opens the envelope, which contains two kneecaps wrapped in a fabric with a seal on it.

The next day, Dr. Sweets comes into the autopsy room, where Cam is examining the body. Zack has determined that the chest wound was made by the Gormogon knife, and the gang updates Sweets on the Widow's Son case. Sweets hypothesizes that the stolen kneecaps probably have some sort of significance to the killer. Brennan brings in the patellas, which bear stress markers indicating the victim spent a lot of time on his knees. Indeed, the victim is soon identified by dental records as Father Douglas Cooper, Vicar General to the Archbishop of D.C., Father Stephen Wallace. Upon interviewing Wallace, Booth and Brennan discover that Father Cooper had been on sabbatical writing a book about early Christianity's pagan connections.

Back at the lab, Angela and Hodgins analyze the seal on the fabric and the related artifacts in the Gormogon vault. They realize that Barabbas, a rapist who appears in the New Testament, features on the seal and a tapestry in the vault, and use his symbolic association with everything backwards and upside-down to interpret a sequence of numbers on the fabric mailed to Brennan (it reads "Civitas Capitolium," meaning "Capital City"), and a map of Washington, D.C. with markers where the Gormogon's victims were found, and where the vault was located. The points correspond to an inverted pentagram and a compass, which when flipped points to a mausoleum in Silver Hill Cemetery and a mansion which is now a nursing home. Booth and Hodgins visit the mausoleum, which they discover holds another Widow's Son sculpture, identical to the one found in the bank vault, except made entirely of bones.

At the lab, Zack determines that the bones in the sculpture are from at least 18 different victims, and some of them date back over 50 years, implying that the Gormogon had a master who must be at least 70. Hodgins has determined that the gemstone is a violet jade found only in the Anatolian region of Turkey, thought by many to be the actual location of the Garden of Eden. Meanwhile, Brennan visits Amy and her daughter Haley in the hospital, and Amy pleads with her to have her father call Russ. Brennan tells her Russ probably won't come, as he is liable to be arrested for violating his parole.

Sweets, having been given the Widow's Son casefile by Booth, analyzes the tapestry and notes that a series of tarot images on the tapestry correspond to the order of the murders: a Musician ( the violinist, Gavin Nichols, discovered in "The Widow's Son in the Windshield") followed by a Bishop (Father Cooper). The next victim should be a Corruptor, which Sweets says, considering the historical context of the artwork, means a heretic or a pretender to the throne. He also argues that the master-apprentice relationship is key to the Gormogon's operations, and that since the Gormogon's apprentice had been killed before he completed the Widow's Son sculpture found in the vault (another event in "The Widow's Son in the Windshield"), the Gormogon was probably searching for another apprentice, likely a disturbed youth. He advises Booth and Brennan to use the older sculpture against Gormogon, and explains that he sent Brennan the kneecaps in the hope that she might install them in his sculpture.

Further detective work reveals that Gavin Nichols and Father Cooper were both on a trip to the Anatolian region of Turkey in the previous year. The trip was organized by a lobbyist named Mr. Porter, who seems to fit the Corruptor description, and who furthermore is a member of the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Porter doesn't believe Booth and Brennan when they warn him about his safety, telling them he thinks it's a scare tactic related to some other business he has with the F.B.I. As Mr. Porter leaves, Russ walks into Booth's office, and Booth promptly arrests him. Russ blames his sister for betraying him, and Brennan goes to the prison to confront her father, who admits he told Russ that Booth wouldn't arrest him if he came to D.C. In sympathy, Booth allows Russ to visit Amy and Haley in the hospital before taking him to jail.

Meanwhile, Zack has discovered that the Gormogon has a feed in the vault which uses mirrors to see all parts of the room. He has been watching the team's every move in the vault. Realizing that Sweets might be right, Brennan install the kneecaps and prepares to transport the sculpture, hoping the Gormogon will attempt to intercept it. As the van carrying the sculpture leaves the Jeffersonian, Booth and Brennan follow in a taxi, and a motorcycle cuts them off. Booth calls the other agents' attention to the cyclist, but the cyclist drops his backpack in the middle of the road and speeds off away from the van. Booth immediately puts the taxi into reverse, but he can't get away from the pack before it explodes, causing the car to flip several times. With multiple injuries, Booth drags a wounded Brennan from the car, and pulls a piece of shrapnel from her shoulder. The object turns out to be a human tooth, which Zack matches to the marks left in the bones in the sculpture. The teeth recovered from the accident scene reveals that they were pulled from a mouth with pliers.

Booth tracks down the lobbyist, who is bound in the Widow's Son position and tells him the Gormogon is still in the area and has a knife. Booth chases the killer, but the Gormogon finds a child outside and drags him to the bottom of the pool, then climbs out of the water and escapes while Booth rescues the child. Meanwhile, Brennan goes to see Russ and explains she never told their father that Booth wouldn't arrest Russ, then implores Mrs. Julian, the prosecutor on her father's case, who has named Russ as a material witness, to let Russ go.

In further study of the older Widow's Son sculpture, Zack discovers the number "1026" etched into one of the ribs, and Angela suggests it might be a signature, and that they look in the safety-deposit box at the bank with that number. Zack prepares the box to be opened, expecting there to be an explosive installed. They retrieve from the box a key card for a Social Services office, once occupied by a man named Arthur Graves who was a legend for helping dozens of youth. Sweets' suggestion that the Gormogon targets at-risk youth seems supported, and it's no coincidence that Graves is now a resident of the nursing home located at one point of the compass on the Washington, D.C. map.

Booth and Brennan go to the home with a warrant to get a dental imprint from Graves, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. Graves hisses at Brennan when she attempts to get his imprints, revealing that he has no teeth. The nursing home attendant says Graves had no teeth when he entered the home, and that he used to be visited frequently by a man who rode a motorcycle. Brennan tells Graves they know what he did, prompting a sinister smile from the man.

At the courthouse, Booth tells Brennan he has decided to get a court order to monitor all of Graves' visitors. Amy approaches Brennan with a thank-you card from Haley, whom Brennan's doctor friend was able to help tremendously. Judge Watkins calls Booth into his chambers to discuss Russ. The judge reveals that Archbishop Wallace and Dr. Sweets had offered their support in Russ' case, pinpointing Booth's involvement, and considering Russ' parole officer's advice to forgive Russ' violation, decides to allow Russ to serve 30 days with electric monitoring afterwards, much to Julian's chagrin. Outside, Amy thanks Booth for his help.

After a montage of the various characters—Russ and his father reconciling, the squints working—we see Mr. Porter walk into his home and go into the coatroom, where a man lunges at him with a knife.

[edit] Arc and Continuity

Main article: The Gormogon

This episode continues the season 3 story arc (begun in "The Widow's Son in the Windshield") involving competing secret societies and the cannibalistic practices of a serial killer termed the Gormogon for his associations with the anti-Masonic order, the Gormogons.

[edit] Response

The episode drew an audience of 8.7 million[1]. Some reviewers [2] began to speculate that the Gormogon killer is already known to the audience as another character (possibly Dr. Sweets)—an expansion of the typical plot hook in procedural drama in which the killer is someone already introduced in the storyline.

[edit] Pop Culture References

  • Dr. Sweets refers to the Gormogon's having an apprentice as resembling the Sith: "There's always two."

[edit] References

  1. ^ Gough, Paul J., "Fox tops Tuesday as 'House' beats 'Dancing'", The Hollywood Reporter, November 22, 2007. Retrieved on November 15, 2007.
  2. ^ http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2007/11/bones-mini-tv-1.html Will the real Gormogon please stand up?

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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