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Two days straight of Bones makes a good week, right? Last night a new episode of Bones aired called Mayhem on a Cross; and here filled with Bones Spoilers…
Complete Recap and Spoilers of Bones 4×20 – Mayhem on a Cross
We open in Norway, where the lamest-looking black metal concert ever is going down inside a warehouse. Above the stage hangs a skeleton on a cross. Cops enter. “Definitely human,” a Norwegian officer says. They shut down the concert and send the body to a familiar group of investigators working in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
“The Norwegians say the victim died here,” Camille explains. Turns out the black-metal band stole the skeleton from a U.S. black-metal band. Brennan, after examining the skeleton, theorizes that the body has been the recipient of an “ancient torture in which the victim was held face down while his back was sliced open; his ribs were then broken at the spine and then spread to look like an eagle.” So there’s that.
Bones, in the meantime, is shaking hands with Dr. Gordon Wyatt, who explains the many sub genres of heavy metal. Wyatt is in town to be interviewed by Sweets, who is apparently writing a book about our favorite non couple, B&B. The news makes Booth’s eyebrow arch. Sweets wastes little time in picking Wyatt’s brain.” This is probably the best work I have ever read on the dynamics of opposite personality types working towards a common cause,” Wyatt says. But there’s a rather enormous caveat: “Brennan and Booth are in no way opposites.” Sweets, who has spent months writing, doesn’t take the news well.
Back at the lab, Angela’s face reconstruction program has placed the victim as Mayhem, a recent member of a black-metal band called Spew. The only problem: the band apparently has never played at a bar, club or — Satan forbid — arena. “Concerts are set up at secret locations and only insiders are invited,” Hodgins explains. BUT, Hodgins says the victim’s boots have traces of bovine residue. A slaughter house!
Brennan, Booth and Wyatt head to said slaughterhouse and find Spew with a new, living bassist practicing. One of the band members spits (spews?) on Booth’s badge, so the agent takes the next logical step: emptying his gun into the amplifier. Nice. Seconds later, the members of Spew sit in the interrogation room. The lead singer, an arrogant little pup named Pinworm, claims that Justin/ Mayhem quit the band about a year ago. Sweets then notices that one of the band mates lowers his eyes. “The one called Grinder is different from the others,” Sweets later tells Booth. “His body language reveals an emotional connection to the victim.”
Elsewhere, Camille and Clark are taking another look at the bones. They theorize that the victim was “shot in the ass” months before he was killed in a yet-to-be-determined manner. After the murder, someone (probably the killer) tried to dig the bullet out. Strange. Sweets and Wyatt, meanwhile, interview Grinder, whose birth name is the decidedly less intimidating Darryl. Turns out Darryl and the victim were childhood friends. Darryl quickly informs the pair that a band called Zorch might be behind the killings. Sweets, who claims to have been into the hardcore music scene as a youth, recognizes the band as a death-core outfit. “They consider themselves death core,” Darryl/ Grinder says. “I consider them crap core.” Oh, snap!
Cut to another lame black-metal show. This time, Brennan and Sweets are in the audience. Sweets, though, is dressed up like one of the death-obsessed partygoers. Brennan even notices old scars on his back. Just what was sweet little Sweets up to as a youth gone wild? Just then, the lead singer of Zorch holds a knife to his throat while the crowd chants. “Don’t worry,” Sweets says. “It’s fake.” The singer then slits his own throat — and falls to the floor. Looks real to us. So much so that Brennan calls for help.
Cut to the interrogation room, where the rasping lead singer sits with a bandage around his neck. “Do you have any idea who switched your prop knife?” Brennan asks. “How about Spew?” The two bands, it seems , are sworn enemies. The singer is mum — at which point Booth urges Brennan through her ear piece to get angry. And she does! “I will perjure myself if I have to because you … make … me … sick!” Brennan yells. “Punk!” This swaggering Brennan has the intended effect. The singer explains that he heard rumors of a body buried nearby, dug it up and used it for a prop — until it was stolen by the Norwegians. Either way, he didn’t kill Mayhem.
B&B & Wyatt eat lunch at the diner. Wyatt explains that he is leaving psychiatry to become a chef. He also explains that reading Sweet’s book revealed an unhealthy focus on the childhoods of Booth and Brennan. That prompts Brennan to tell of the scars she noticed on Sweet’s back — probably the product of whipping. “That explains his near obsession with your childhood trauma,” Wyatt says. Turns out Sweets had a rough go of it as a youngster, too. He’s trying to relate by delving into B&B’s painful pasts.
Back at the lab, Camille, Hodgins and Angela look at footage obtained from cell-phone cameras at various Spew shows. One shows Mayhem being shot in the ass. “Not so tough when the blood is real, are you metal boy?” Camille quips. A few keystrokes later, Angela has a reasonably clear photo of a woman in the crowd, who could be the shooter. That woman, Lexie, is soon in the interrogation room. She admits to shooting Mayhem in the buttocks at his request. I”He was always trying to prove to the other guys that he was more hardcore than them,” she says. Booth then tells Lexie, now a mainstream musician, that Mayhem/ Justin is dead. She breaks down, confessing to Booth that Justin asked to join her band — and that a fanatic might have killed him for it.
Sweets supports the theory, saying: “Following her into the mainstream would be seen as the ultimate betrayal.” He also believes — and Wyatt agrees — that the killer would keep a totem from the kill to prove his value to the hardcore community. Booth suggests that the bullet dug out of Mayhem could be seen as such a totem. And wouldn’t you know it? The lead singer of Spew, Pinworm, wears a smashed bullet around his neck. Brennan, meanwhile, explains that the murder weapon was probably choking by barbed wire. Ouch.
Faster than you can say “Pinworm is on the hot seat,” Pinworm is on the hot seat. B&B head into the interrogation room to question the wacko, while Sweets and Wyatt stay behind the one-way glass. Wyatt takes the opportunity to reveal what he knows about Sweet’s tortured childhood. Turns out our boy wonder was adopted at a very young age. “Special needs … a damaged child,” Wyatt says. Sweets admits as much, saying his adoptive parents saved him. Wyatt explains that this is the very reason Sweets believes he can help others.
The interrogation, meanwhile, isn’t going so swimmingly. Pinworm is smug, so Sweets points out that all the kid wants is an audience. Taking the doc’s suggestion, Booth says the lead singer of Zorch just confessed. Pinworm is immediately hostile, explaining that it takes a real man to choke someone with barbed wire. Of course, B&B never mentioned that the victim was killed in such a manner. “I believe the correct term is ‘gotcha,'” Wyatt says. He and Sweets give each other a very non-hardcore high five. Case closed.
But not the episode. Wyatt explains to B&B that Sweets is desperately looking for a “family” and that he needs to bond with the usually dismissive pair. So Brennan and Booth head to the office, where they find Sweets working late. Brennan admits that her foster parents locked her in the truck of a car for two days. Booth, teary eyed, explains that “If it wasn’t for my grandfather, I probably would’ve killed myself as a kid.” Sweets smiles. He appreciates the gesture. And the trio head to dinner.