‘Bones’ Recap Season 8 Premiere: "The Future in the Past"

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So we’ve been waiting for, an eternity it seems, the new season of “Bones” to finally makes its debut of “The Future in the Past.” The Season 7 finale left us with so many unanswered questions and a mighty fine cliffhanger. Dr. Brennan (Bones) had been accused of murder and decided to run away with Christine leaving Booth alone and bewildered. It was a great finale and everyone had high hopes for a killer (no pun intended) premiere.

Let me just say that it started off with a bang … the words “3 Months Later” appeared first with a BLONDE Bones sitting on a blanket with Christine in the middle of nowhere. Whoa. She’s showing her photos of Booth and you can just see that she’s sad and missing him. Max walks up and says they have to run again (obviously that’s something they have been doing for the past few months).

Back at the Jeffersonian, Angela is trying desperately to clear Bones’ name by trying to figure out how she was planted in the surveillance footage. Hodgins tells her to search for other clues.

Lt. Flynn, the FBI agent in charge of the case, questions Booth and tells him that they have to go through his phone calls, emails AGAIN and Booth tells him to go after Pelant (Booth saw him on the surveillance footage at their house, but Pelant somehow erased it before it could be seen by anyone else). Flynn says he can’t, they have no evidence or anything on him.

Clark, now in Brennan’s position and in her office, asks Angela to come in and talk about the case. He obviously runs things a lot stricter (have to put things in binder, kind of a stickler). Dr. Saroyan comes and tries to stop the fight between them and she has to remind Angela, “He’s not Dr. Brennan … You will respect him.” She basically puts her foot down. Like always.

Back to Bones and Max, where Bones is leaving to go somewhere? Then it cuts to Pelant teaching a class at college and, who would have thought, Booth shows up. This obviously won’t be good. Pelant tries to get a restraining order against Booth, blah blah blah.

Cut to the middle of nowhere .. everyone from the Jeffersonian is looking at an uncovered dead body. The strange thing is … it has already been dug up, brushed down – leaving brushed off clues as to the murder, etc etc. Angela figures out that it was Brennan who left it like that and Flynn creates a search team to try and find her.

Cut to the opening title/credits and I am UPSET! THE THEME SONG HAS CHANGED.

IT SOUNDS WEIRD. WHO DOES THAT?!

Back to the Jeffersonian, where they are looking at the skeletal remains of a woman. Angela says (we don’t know how she knows though) that Bones did this to try and clear her name .. that Pelant killed this woman. Saroyan says to send the info to Booth via email (which is something that was forbidden regarding anything from Pelant) she says there is “No evidence that this was done by Pelant.” Everyone stares, as do I.

Cut to Angela and Booth talking. Angela says that Bones left a message that said “Have Hope” and Booth says how pissed he is that she communicates with Bones and he can’t. He misses the woman he loves and his child. He then gets the email from Clark about the body – some woman who was killed ten years earlier.

Bones is in a hotel room watching the news about the body being found – she is looking at everyone (Angela, Hodgins, Clark) looking at the remains, saying how she wishes Booth was there so she could see him. Then it cuts to Pelant watching the same thing and he pauses the screen on Angela looking at the flowers Bones left.

Booth calls Saroyan and tells her that the woman that is dead was the guidance counselor at Pelant’s old high school. He is very cryptic with his phone conversation with Saroyan, but she deduces that he is on his way to see Bones.

Pelant is at home hacking into the FBI database and sees the files on the guidance counselor’s body and murder. He looks worried and says to himself, “Okay, Okay” and smiles. UGH. I hate this guy.

Sweets gets questioned by Flynn who (hilariously) diagnosed him and covers for Booth. Love Sweets, always have and always will.

Booth is in a swanky hotel room as he hears something and grabs his gun. The door opens slowly and he is attacked by someone. As he goes to punch said person, he stops and says, “Bones?” They have a quiet moment between each other and then begin making out intensely. Ah, love. The next morning he is playing with Christine (you can really tell he missed her) and they discuss how she discovered the guidance counselor’s body, etc etc. Booth quotes some pretty smart facts about organic composition and Bones is impressed. He confesses to reading her books why she was gone, “They are thick, they are … really heavy.” Max walks in and tells them that Bones, Christine and him have to get going again since Pelant will obviously try to pin the murder of the guidance counselor on her.

Back to the Jeffersonian, Clark and Dr. Saroyan are examining the body and trying to find cause of death. She was hit in the head from behind by a weapon. Hodgins comes in and says that it was a rock. Clark is upset because that doesn’t make sense to the wound. He mentions the binder again and everyone just looks at him (even I’m getting super annoyed by him being in charge).

Angela is at the diner with Caroline talking about how she is going to start from scratch to try and figure out how Pelant framed Bones. Angela mentions how she figured out how Pelant forged Caroline and Bones’ electronic signatures, but she can’t prove that he actually did it since he was able to cover his tracks (mumbo jumbo I didn’t understand). Caroline gets excited that she can get cleared and back to work on the case.

Bones tells Booth that she really needs to examine the bones of the guidance counselor. She says how she feels like she is in prison and she hates it. Booth tells her to keep trying and that she has Christine and him and that’s all that matters. Cute.

Sweets is confused that Caroline was able to get the case file and she tells him that Sweets and Caroline are back on the case. They begin looking at the evidence for the guidance counselor murder. They talk about a few things like Pelant being suspended for hacking into the school’s database to change a date, how the counselor wrote a letter of recommendation for him. Sweets talks about the letter and how the linguistics of it and figures out that Pelant recommendation letter was forged. He wrote the letter, killed the guidance counselor to get into Stanford. What a jerk.

Angela tells Hodgins that the knicks on the guidance counselor’s body aren’t from being buried but from cut marks. Angela says that she wishes Bones could see the progress on the case and asks Hodgins for a favor. He figures out that they have been talking. We learn that they (Bones and Angela) leave flowers for each other as code. Angela won’t tell him the code to protect him and everyone else.

We see Hodgins at a cemetery with flowers (obviously going to leave them for Brennan). All of a sudden, Pelant steps into frame behind him (I gasped so loud). Hodgins walks up to him and says that they are close to figuring everything out and that he better stay away from all of them. Pelant begins talking about his psychological files at the FBI and how he is a conspiracy theorist. He says, “You aren’t capable of murder.” BUT THEN HODGINS BEGINS TO CHOKE HIM! (I had an epic freakout). Hodgins goes on this rant explaining step by step on what his body is doing reacting to being choked (really freaked me out seeing him like that) and then pelant just smiles and lets go of his hands, staring at him. He realizes what Pelant was doing and lets go, walking away.

Back to the Jeffersonian, Flynn is questioning everyone. Hodgins is talking about Pelant, Angela confesses to the cryptic flowers. Flynn demands that she tell Brennan to come in and Sweets tells him that Bones wouldn’t dare show up to a cemetery again since Pelant has figured out the flower system. The scene then cuts to the cemetery and Max figures out that Pelant is there. He tells him that he won’t lead him to Bones. He is heading to Mexico instead. (Guessing that is part of the agreement with Bones that if something happened, he would leave or not return. So she would know? Guess we will see).

Hodgins admits to Sweets that he interacted with Pelant, choking him. Sweets begins to profile Hodgins’ behavior (typical right?) but Hodgins talks further and tells him that Pelant wanted him to kill him. Good information to know in the case, apparently.

Clark figures out that the guidance counselor’s throat was slit and Dr. Saroyan says that he needs to tie the weapon to Pelant. Dr. Saroyan apologizes and says that she realizes now that Clark working to clear Dr. Brennan’s name will lead to him losing his position. He smiles and she says that she will never forget him working so hard on it.

Back to the hotel, Max hasn’t returned in five hours and Booth says that they need to go. They have a little spat as to why she left in the first place, he “understands” but he doesn’t. The scene cuts to Pelant looking at FBI records and codes and Clark’s name comes up with his information (uh-oh). He says, “You should have stolen that car Agent Booth.” (Not really sure what that meant .. but I figure we will soon find out).

Booth stumbles upon Max trying to start the car outside the hotel. Max tells him that he saw Pelant at the cemetery. He tells him to switch cars (Booth gets the stolen one and he will take Booth’s bought car). He says that Pelant will follow him and he will kill him as he drives off. Booth screams his name (obviously knowing that it’s not a good idea). Booth calls up Flynn and tells him that Bones is fleeing and gives him the car information. Flynn tells him, “You are the second person to call reporting that car stolen.” Booth just hangs up and throws his phone.

Hodgins walks into Dr. Saroyan’s office and says that everyone needs to leave, including the security guards while he “works on binder stuff.” But Saroyan knows he’s meeting someone else. We see everyone leaving the building and the lights being turned off, but a door opens and guess who shows up? Hodgins, Angela … with Booth and Bones. They begin working on figuring out the guidance counselor murder. Sweets shows up and he has a problem with this whole thing. Booth only wants him there to protect Bones if anything goes wrong. Booth … leaves? (Odddddd). They continue working on the body.

Booth is with Flynn trying to get Pelant arrested for breaking parole (he had been hacking into the FBI emails, etc etc). Flynn says he can’t do anything with no proof and Booth tells him, “How will you feel if Pelant gets away with this and then maybe kills someone close to you?” Flynn caves and calls some analysts to come and figure out the computer codes.

Bones and Hodgins are still trying to figure out the murder. Bones tells Sweets that she was hung, gutted and bled to death. She figures out that she fell, hit her head and then was drug up and moved. They just need to figure out the murder weapon. Meanwhile, Booth and Flynn go to arrest Pelant and he denies doing anything.

Hodgins tells Dr. Saroyan that he knows she made Clark send the email to catch Pelant. She smiles and denies it, as always. He tells her that he will stay at the lab to “watch over things” over night so the security team doesn’t have to check things. Bones will be working again on the case. Woot. Angela tells Bones that she can’t figure out the code that Ethan Sawyer wrote on the wall (from the finale). Sweets walks in and figures it out for them – the triangle stands for the three sides of Pelant. He tells them that one of the sides is that Pelant wants one of them (Angela, Sweets, Bones) to kill him. Angela’s face goes blank and Sweets and Bones leaves her to work and figure out exactly what the code means.

Bones is looking over the findings in Clark’s binders and tells Dr. Saroyan that Pelant didn’t kill the guidance counselor with an ax. Dr. Saroyan is shocked that she has figured that out. Bones tells her that he was fat in high school. Dr. Saroyan shows her digital yearbook photos, but Bones tells her that in the original yearbooks, he was never pictured. Bones tells Dr. Saroyan that she knows he was fat due to his stature and walking patterns due to extreme pressure on his bones. She tells Dr. Saroyan that Pelant used a Japanese sword (from Hodgins findings) to kill the guidance counselor. A sword Pelant’s grandfather would have brought back with him from the war, a family heirloom. Dr. Saroyan tells her they will get a warrant to search the family home. She turns and tells Bones, “You got him” and they both share smiles.

One of my favorite songs begins playing, “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers, as we see a montage of Clark figuring out that sword was the murder weapon, Angela putting the code together and finally…Pelant being put away for murder. Max is talking to Booth and tells him “This guy Pelant…he needs killing, Booth.” Angela uses the code to remove Brennan from the surveillance footage and everyone is smiling and happy. My favorite moment was when Booth walks into the interrogation room and Pelant is smiling. Booth opens the box and removes the sword and Pelant’s face just falls. Loved the montage.

Finally, we cut to the Booth/Bones residence (Bones is still blonde and I’m wondering if they will keep her blonde?). Everyone is there celebrating and Flynn goes up to make a speech/toast, it’s all really sweet. Dr. Saroyan announces that the Jeffersonian needs TWO anthropologists, one for crime and one for serious anthropological work. Clark gets wide-eyed as he says he would love to do some serious work and Bones says she loves crime. Everyone seems happy .

Cut to Bones and Booth alone, she has dyed her hair back. YAY. Finally things will get back to normal (I find it funny that Booth is wearing a Flyers shirt). Bones apologizes and Booth tells her that she did the right thing. They begin to make-out and take each others clothes off (Wowzas) when Booth’s phone rings. He goes to answer it and we find out that Pelant is not Pelant.

They rush to the Jeffersonian and see that he is being represented by the Egyptian government. Caroline tells him that his DNA, medical records, everything puts him to a new identity and they are shipping him back to Egypt that instant. Booth asks Flynn if there is anything that they can do. Flynn tells him no. Pelant comes up to Bones and gives her a flower. She slaps him and he is taken away. Booth asks her what the flower is and what it means. She says that it is a Marigold and that it means “pain and grief.” Booth takes the flower, throws it away and they leave. We then see someone pick up the flower out of the trashcan. That person is Flynn and the episode fades.

Very interesting twist at the end, don’t you think?

Overall, I thought the episode was pretty good. I got a little frustrated that they caught Pelant so quickly so I’m glad that the twist was there. I didn’t think he would be caught so easily. I’m hoping that they try to fight him the rest of the season. I love love love serial killers. But then again – I would have liked the relief of knowing he was caught for good.

Leave your comments below and look out for the next episode on Monday, September 24 at 8/7C on Fox.