Bones 4.17 – “The Salt in the Wounds” Recap

So to the multipurpose room we go and upon entering, Booth laughs. I kinda do, too — but more at the plethora of skinny-skinny girls the casting people expect us to believe are actually pregnant or just post-birth, than at Booth’s comment about sex ed. (And lack thereof.) Becca’s there and she whispers to our next featured player that these are the people she was telling her about. As the Duo approaches Booth whispers something similar to Bones. Meet Alyssa, team captain, valedictorian over-achiever, and Alpha in this little pack. She was also Student Body President until she was removed from office for being a ‘bad example’— she got pregnant first. She’s glib and Bones feels the need to giver her a lecture on responsibility. I cringe. Booth metaphorically breaks it up by mentioning that they talked to Rory and know he’s not the father of Becca’s and Ashley’s children. Becca totally ‘duhs’and says she never said he was, and Alpha pipes up that the same guy fathered Ashley’s, Becca’s, her’s and another two girl’s babies. Guess who the lucky baby-daddy is? Clinton, aka, Nerd-boy from the gym, who is standing in the back of the room until he sees Booth looking at him after which, he retreats.

Booth follows Clinton back to the weight room for some guy-talk. Clinton makes a snark about being modest and not kissing and telling while bench-pressing a rather modest weight. They talk some more while Booth starts to add weight and Clinton watches. Not meaning any disrespect, but really meaning to push the kid’s buttons, Booth wonders how a guy like Clinton could get that many girls, let alone hot volleyball-types. He settles himself on the bench and Clinton tells him he can’t lift that much. Oh really? Booth does a quick set of five and practically sticks his tongue out at the kid. He also says that even though he can do that, even he couldn’t get girls like that in high school, so, again, what gives? Clinton, perversely, is enjoying this and brags on his skill in bed as Booth begins to move toward him, using every inch of his height to make Clinton look small. Someone is dead. He wasn’t answers. Finally cluing in, Clinton gulps, but sticks to his story. He’s the dad, but not the killer. Booth threatens DNA tests and walks off. As soon as Booth’s out of physical striking range, he crows, ‘I am the MacDaddy Supremo Baby-Daddy of GeoDub High School.’

Can I kill him? Really, can I kill him? God, this episode. Usually you’ve hit ONE person besides the parents who is sad about the deceased by now.

Body in a tank, and Vaziri’s being all scientist-like with Cam while avoiding Bones. Cam sees right through him and tells him to tell her that unless they can figure out how to examine the bones without disturbing the nicely re-hydrating flesh, he and Bones are out of luck. Vaziri looks sneaky — perhaps he’s had an idea?

Bones and Angela are having lunch as a newscaster is ‘˜casting about a pregnancy pact at the school. Bones is incredulous — there was no proof of a pact, and Angela says that it just goes to show you what happens when all you worry about is the future. And I, wait, what? Bones is with me (for once) and argues the opposite, that it’s teens that live in the moment that get knocked up. Angela ruefully agrees. Moving the conversation along, Bones asks if Angela’s alright, and if she and Roxie will remain ‘BBF’s’. Chiding Bones on the correct term, ‘BFF’, she assures her real BFF that she’s fine. But the audience really wants to know if she’s getting back together with Hodgins,s o the writers have Bones ask. Angela has the grace to look a little chagrined when she tells Bones she’s already gone there, done that, but it won’t really happen because he’s ‘the marrying kind.’And now we launch into a drawn-out discussion on how she and Bones conduct their love lives exactly the same, but with different motivations. Bones is rationally picking her targets, Angela is emotionally choosing hers. Same diff — they’re both perpetually single, but not really lacking for male companionship.

Thankfully, Bone’s PDA rings — Hodgins found pectin in the scratches on Ashley’s arm. Pectin is used in making preserves. And who do we know she was canning with? Ma Clark. Bones bolts. Nice seein’ ya, Bones.

And now we’ve moved into the interrogation room for our conversations and Booth is asking for an explanation for the scratches on Ashley’s arm. In the observation room, Sweets and Bones are wondering if the mother’s refusal to believer her daughter was pregnant is indicative of the denial of an incestuous relationship with the father. Ma admits to being angry, but it’s about the check she brought to show Booth, not because of anything else. Ashley forged a 5K check with her mother’s signature and Ma Clark caught her. Booth wants to know what the money was for, but Ma doesn’t know — all she knows is that once she started hanging around that team she didn’t need her mother anymore. It’s called being a teenager, Ma. But wait, Sweets has a theory, so he calls Booth out of the room.

Sweets thinks that Ashley may have been killed over the 5K, possibly by the ‘pack.’Booth is intrigued, and Bones jumps on the bandwagon. There were societies, like the Mosuo, where the women banded to raise children and the men were little more than protection and sperm donors — the hitch with this theory? Women trend toward shunning, not killing. But another great idea occurs to Sweets: he thinks he can figure out the nature of the girls’relationships — just let him at the Alpha. Psychologically, he means.