Review: Bones 10.07 - “The Money Maker on the Merry-Go-Round”

This episode focuses on the dirty nature of trading on Wall Street, and gives viewers some insight into Aubrey’s background. I’m slowly starting to trust and like Aubrey more each week!

*****SPOILERS BELOW*****

The murder victim of the episode is found by some unfortunate kids trying to play with a merry-go-round, when a skull shoots out. At Brennan and Booth’s house, they are having some parenting concerns over Christine’s use of the word “jackass.” Booth thinks it’s a gateway swear word, while Brennan thinks it’s an appropriate, non-violent way of expressing herself.

Aubrey tells Booth that there was a string of robberies at a hostel near the playground the past month, so if their victim was staying there, then someone at the hostel may have seen it. At the Jeffersonian, Brennan and Dr. Wells are having their typical back and forth. Wells tells Brennan that he plans to be a better forensic anthropologist than her one day. After some pretty gross “arts and crafts” with the skull, Cam and Angela determine the victim is Toby Wachlin.

Mrs. Wachlin tells Booth and Aubrey that Toby was a trader at Horizon Equities. She was out of town and their maid Lucia told her that Toby never came home from work the night before. They go talk to Toby’s boss who admits last week Toby pressed a wrong key and lost the firm 8 million dollars, but says that last year he made the firm half a billion dollars so there was no reason to kill him over such a small amount. Toby’s boss points them to Blair Ellis, a co-worker who lost some money because of Toby’s mistake. Blair tells Booth and Aubrey he was upset, but didn’t hurt Toby.

Hodgins determines Toby wasn’t killed at the playground; he was killed somewhere that had been recently fumigated by a company called Insects No More. There was also cocaine found in Toby’s system. Booth tells Brennan that Aubrey has a problem with Wall Street because his father was arrested when he was 13 for securities fraud. He isn’t in jail because he skipped bail and got on a plane for Croatia; leaving Aubrey and his mother alone and broke.

By using trace evidence of specific trees found on Toby’s remains and Insect No More’s records of recently fumigated houses, the team determines Toby went to Derek Caplan’s (co-worker) after work. Booth and Aubrey go to his house, where there was a massive party with hookers, alcohol and cocaine. Derek says Toby was at the party that night, but he didn’t murder him. However, techs find blood in one of the back bedrooms and it looks like someone tried to cover it up. After recreating the crime scene, Angela determines the murder weapon was a candlestick. The candlestick has fingerprints of a stripper Mackenzie from the party.

Mackenzie says that Toby was using her “services” and he didn’t have the money to pay her, so she took his wallet, ring and phone as collateral. He charged her and she swung the candlestick at him, nicking his arm, but she says that was it. Toby said he could get her the money, but he needed his phone and left; he never came back. Hodgins and Wells analyze the candlestick and it’s not the murder weapon.

There is a locked file on Toby’s phone that can only be unlocked with a scan of his eye; so Cam and Angela unlock it using his eyeball. It’s an audio file of Toby’s boss planning a bribe. Booth and Brennan go and arrest Toby’s boss. There’s blood all over the corner of his desk and they confirm it’s the murder weapon. It turns out Toby was blackmailing his boss, but the boss continues to deny the murder even though it happened in his office. Toby’s boss has an alibi in the form of timestamped pictures with a lady friend.

Booth and Brennan bring in Toby’s co-worker Blair to talk to, because his computer was logged in at 2am. He denies it, but they find Toby’s blood on Blair’s ring, that he chipped on Toby’s skull while beating him. Blair admits it and says he didn’t mean to kill him, he says he was trying to teach him a lesson. The guy clearly has a bit of an anger problem!

Brennan goes to talk to Aubrey about his mini-crisis he is having. Brennan may be the best person to talk to him, likely being able to relate to his situation, having been left by her own parents as a child. She says the pain is always there, but fighting it is the problem; the pain is part of who they are and they have to accept it. In a bit of Brennan insight, she says “it isn’t easy, but nothing of value is.”