'Bones' Goes Back to Basics

I know this is going to sound a lot like my recent 'Castle' post, but it's good to see a show go back to its roots. And 'Bones' did just that in "The Crack in the Code".

If you've read any of my previous posts, you know that I've been disappointed with 'Bones' so far this season. That being said, I thought that tonight's episode was the best one of the season.

One of the biggest problems with the seventh season of 'Bones' has been the lack of interaction in the field between Booth and Brennan. Obviously, I completely understand Emily Deschanel's decision to reduce her time in each episode due to her pregnancy. However, her decreased screen time has hurt the quality of the episodes. So much of 'Bones' is based on Booth and Brennan's chemistry.

I'm not sure whether or not Deschanel was featured more heavily in tonight's episode than she has been in the last several weeks, but it felt as though she was around a lot more. The scene at the very end of the episode, when Brennan is able to see the beauty in the house that Booth has purchased because "the bones are there" was touching.

The addition of a new villain also helped make the episode stronger. I've always thought that the best episodes were those where the characters were dealing with complex cases, and challenges that had a sense of severity attached to them. The idea that this new serial killer is intelligent enough to rival Brennan is interesting, and it will be fascinating to see how she deals with this in future episodes (in tonight's episode she unequivocally refused to believe that anyone could be smarter than her). 

We are six episodes into season seven of 'Bones', and FOX has stated that this season will have a minimum of 17 episodes. That means we do still have at least 11 episodes left to go (I say "at least" because FOX did make the statement that if they had enough production time they would make a total of 22 episodes, we'll see what happens there...). However, the show is now on hiatus for several months, with no set release date so far. And just when the episodes were getting good again.