We begin with the previouslies, and since they mention the mole inside the FBI regarding the Ghost Killer case, I’m going out on a limb and guessing that comes to a head this episode.
Hospital. Thursday, 9:23 p.m. A victim with multiple gunshot wounds and their right lung collapsed, is wheeled in. It’s Booth. Brennan comes running in and bypasses a bunch of nurses to get into the operation room, even using the “I’m a doctor” card, but they hold her back.
TWO DAYS EARLIER. Brennan is speaking in German and trying to get Booth to learn the language, but he feels all he needs to know is “Where is the bathroom?” Brennan thinks he needs to know more than that to run the Berlin field office, but Booth reminds Brennan he still has to go in front of the congressional panel before it’s a done deal. Brennan thinks it sounds like he doesn’t want the job, and Booth points out their great life and their great home.
Booth’s phone rings, and someone has gotten through on Booth’s secure line to tell him they need to meet. He has information on the McNamaras and the FBI. Booth immediately sets up a meeting place and time and hangs up. He tells Brennan, who’s instantly concerned about how the guy got Booth’s number, but Booth says he has plenty of time to trace the call when he gets into the office. He’s not worried, but Brennan clearly is.
Booth gets into the office. Sweets tells him the phone was a burner, but they got the location. Booth says he’ll head over there, but unfortunately, the fire department got there first. The place is burned down, and they found a body inside.
The location is a trailer. The team is already there. Cam says it looks like the person fell asleep smoking. Booth wants to know if she’s calling it an accident. She’s not, but the fire department is. Booth points out she can overrule them. When they get inside, Booth is dismayed to see that the body is mostly goo. Brennan is there as well, and she says the guy exploded. So much for it being an accident. Brennan says he’s Caucasian and asks Booth if he thinks this is the guy who called him. Booth thinks so, since the call came from there. Cam finds some skin with a part of a tattoo on it. Hodgins finds some bone embedded in the CEILING. Brennan says it came from the sternum. Hodgins says he doesn’t know what set the guy off, since he can’t find any nitrates. Brennan says they have to scrape off all the tissues and bones from the inside of the trailer as Hodgins finds an empty bottle of alcohol, and Booth wonders if it’s possible to drink enough booze to explode. Hodgins says it all depends on the proof of the liquor. He says a trailer burns at about seven-hundred degrees and says a quart and a half of the alcohol he found would do the trick. Booth goes outside to find the fuse box melted in the off position, and Hodgins thinks it’s unlikely the guy was waiting around in the dark to explode. Brennan says the obvious. That if this guy was the one who had the info for Booth, someone wanted to make sure he wouldn’t talk.
The lab. Oh, hey! At last, an intern I’ve seen before. It’s Colin Fisher, Mr. Happy. The explosion originated in the victim’s stomach, so at least the head is mostly intact. The first task is to separate the heat fractures from all the others, so they can determine another cause of death besides “exploding” I guess. The guy was in his mid-thirties, and Angela confirms this matches the DMV records of who owned the trailer, a man named Wesley Foster. Angela does a comparison with the pictures she just took of the skull, and it’s confirmed the victim is Foster. As Angela goes to find out more info on the guy, Cam finds viable lung tissue.
Hodgins emerges from the trailer that is now sitting in the lab, since most of Foster’s bits are embedded in there. He says it’s going to take hours to scrape the rest of Foster off the inside. After Cam looks at the lung tissues under the microscope, she concludes Foster didn’t die from smoke inhalation. He was dead before the fire started.
FBI. Sweets comes in with the down low on Foster. He was a journalist who worked for the Chronicle. Apparently his career died five years ago, his wife left him, and he lost everything. He was writing a conspiracy blog that had thousands of posts. Some were on the McNamaras and how corrupt the FBI was. Sweets says the guy is unstable, and only a handful of people looked at the blog, but Booth said if he was just unstable, he wouldn’t be toast right now. As he approaches his office and sees Caroline and the Deputy Director, Booth tells Sweets that until they find out anything, he doesn’t want Sweets letting anyone know they’re looking into Foster. He agrees.
When Booth gets in his office, the Deputy Director immediately questions him about how the McNamara case has resurfaced, and Caroline says she told him Booth has it all in hand. Booth downplays it and says from everything he’s found out, they’re dealing with a harmless crank. The Deputy Director points out he’s a dead, harmless crank and reminds Booth he’s going to be testifying in front of Congress and doesn’t want the McNamara case hanging over him. The Deputy Director will even supply Booth with additional agents, but Booth assures him it’s just routine.
Once the DD leaves, Sweets says he’s astounded Booth won’t even tell him. Booth says that they’re dealing with a conspiracy inside the FBI, so he doesn’t want anyone to know about it…yet. Sweets does not look happy.
The lab. Fisher is looking at what’s left of Foster and contemplating on how much ugliness there is in this world. Hodgins asks how he’s just realizing this, but Fisher got himself an awesome therapist who showed him how great life could be, which makes gooey Foster even more horrible. Brennan comes in, upset the bones aren’t clean, but they’d been unable to separate the bones from the vinyl, until they came up with the brilliant “put the dryer on medium” technique. This gives Brennan access to the skull, and she soon realizes Foster’s teeth are chipped, and it happened perimortem. Hodgins thinks he got into a fight with his killer, but Fisher says the carpals are intact. Brennan thinks a cube or funnel was forced down the victim’s throat. Fisher says it’s how they got the alcohol down his throat and figures the killer had his hands inside Foster’s mouth. He scrapes in-between Foster’s teeth, hoping to get epithelial cells.
Angela discovers Foster’s computer hard drive was stolen, and Hodgins, the conspiracy theorist, thinks “they” (the ones who start wars and poison our environment) did it. Hodgins assumes that nothing of importance was on the hard drive, and that Foster would have everything secure and hidden. Angela wants to know how he knows that. Hellloooo, Angela. Have you MET your husband? Because that’s what he would do, of course. He tells Angela to check cloud-based backups and places he’s worked, while he keeps checking the trailer.
Bones and Booth. Bones says Foster must have realized Booth was the lead investigator on the McNamara case and thinks he should ask the DD for more help, but Booth is still reluctant. She says Sweets thinks that because this is may be Booth’s last case before he gets promoted, he wants to prove he’s still the best, but Brennan thinks he just doesn’t want someone to get away with murder. Then Angela calls Booth and tells him she found out Foster’s last place of employment. He was a night janitor at Crius Security, a holding company owned by the McNamara family. This means he’d have access to computers and files. Booth says he needs to find out what Foster saw there.
The lady at Crius says she doesn’t know who Foster is, and all of the janitors are hired by an independent contractor. Booth points out the thing about him having access to the computers, etc., but the lady says that Crius is a security services company. Nobody can break into the computers. Booth confirms they supply consultants to the FBI and State Department. Booth wants a list of the people and the services they provided, but the lady refuses, even after Brennan points out a man was murdered. She says their operations are bigger than any one man. Booth turns their own words against her and surmises that if one man did compromise their system, he’d be expendable. The lady basically kicks them out of her office, and Booth lets her know he’ll be back with a search warrant.
The lab. In the trailer, Cam finds a piece of Foster’s ventricle and says he had a heart attack about a month ago. Hodgins says it’s no surprise, since he drank and smoked. He says if he can separate out the particulates, he might be able to find some left by the killer. Fisher finds a nipple with a nipple ring fused into it. Hodgins says it’s made of high-grade stainless steel, which is not typical for piercings. Turns out Hodgins was right about Foster not keeping the information on his computer, as the ring is a memory chip.
FBI. Sweets is shocked that Crius won’t tell Booth anything, even though he has military and civilian NCIC security clearance. Sweets says that since it’s a murder, Caroline can get them a warrant for the records. But Caroline shows up to tell them it’s no go. She went to three judges, and none of them will give her the warrant because of national security. Sweets points out that it’s special circumstances, due to the murder and Booth having clearance, but they say murder hasn’t been proven. Booth gets upset and says the Jeffersonian has more than enough evidence and wants to know if Caroline showed them the file. She tells him not to shoot the messenger. Sweets wants to know who would have control over three judges, and Booth is all ready to find out when he looks at his phone and remembers he has to do lunch with the DD and Congressman Hadley from the subcommittee.
The lab. Brennan and Fisher. Some of Foster’s injuries suggest the killer gave him CPR. Apparently he was accidentally killed when he was tortured. Fisher says that if the information is still on the nipple ring, Foster didn’t give it up.
Booth. Lunch with the DD and the congressman, who’s telling booth it’s a pro forma hearing. DD points out it was difficult to pry Booth out of the field, but Congressman Hadley says that’s why Booth is their nominee. Too many bureaucrats get into these positions, and they have no experience on the ground. Hadley tells the DD he’s surprised he’s letting Booth get away, and the DD says it’s not easy. As Hadley tells him the opposition is going to try and put him through the wringer, Booth’s phone rings. He says he has to take it. The DD looks pissed off, but Hadley lets him go with a warning to put it on vibrate the next day.
Lab. Angela was able to uncover a lot from the chip, including bank records and transcripts of private meetings between people in government, business, political activists, and foreign officials. There’s a bunch of photos as well, which Angela will run through facial rec. They all appear to be surveillance photos. As Angela flips through them, Booth tells her to stop at a photo of what appears to be a young woman shooting up. Booth says he took that photo.
Booth and Sweets are going through the photographs at the lab, rather than Booth’s office. Sweets talks about how the photos are good for blackmail, but Booth says it’s not for money but getting people to do what they want. Caroline comes in to say that if they don’t find out who’s behind this, they can all be in deep trouble. Booth says the photo he took was supposed to be for a routine drug stakeout. Turns out the woman is Senator Wilby’s daughter. Wilby withdrew from the senate race, when he was a lock to win, so the picture must have been why. The intercepted emails Foster got, uncovers financial improprieties by business leaders, foreign ambassadors, and state department officials. Caroline says they have to find one of them who will talk, but Booth thinks they won’t even know who’s blackmailing them.
The lab. Brennan and Fisher figure out through his injuries, that Foster’s upper limbs were twisted. In answer to why he didn’t fight back, Cam comes in to say there were three assailants. Turns out it’s good Fisher got those epithelial cells from the teeth. Cam was able to identify two Caucasians and one of African descent. Running them through CODIS and NDIS revealed no matches.
Booth and Sweets. In the stuff that Angela uncovered from the chip, is information on McNamara. Caroline doesn’t understand why, since he was involved in the blackmailing. The answer is, he wasn’t. There were a bunch of documents showing questionable business dealings, like bribes to foreign countries. Even McNamara couldn’t avoid jail time if it got out. This explains why they were able to use McNamara’s security firm and how they blocked the warrant to investigate it. Caroline clarifies that they’re looking for someone within the FBI who can control businessmen, politicians, and foreign officials. Booth says the pictures go back twenty years. He says they can’t just storm the FBI, since they don’t know who’s behind it. Sweets suggests going public with the information, but Booth nixes that idea. He doesn’t want to ruin the lives of the blackmail victims. Booth wants to pretend they’ve never seen the information, until they find out who’s behind the operation.
Brennan, Fisher, and Hodgins. Brennan says two of the guys held Foster down, while the third “bastard” tortured him. Hodgins has not been able to find any particulates to identify the assailants. Fisher finds an odd fracture that Brennan says she hasn’t seen since she identified remains in Iraq. She says the fracture was caused by a take-down strangle hold. It’s a maneuver used by delta force operatives. Fisher is optimistic, since this means their DNA will be in the system…
Except for their DNA has been erased from the system, as Brennan is telling Booth, who says the delta force guys don’t leave a trace. He knows, because he’s worked with them. Brennan wants to know if he’s just giving up, and Booth takes offense to that. But Brennan is steaming mad, since she thinks he’s telling her they’ll never find the killer. He tells her he knows she needs to be in control. Brennan is worried that the killers will find out they’re closing in on them, and she doesn’t want to sit back and wait for the worst to happen. Booth says they have to let the bad guys win. He wants Brennan to issue a report saying it was an accident. Brennan hates to say she’s wrong, when she’s never wrong, but Booth says that’s why they’ll believe it. This will give them time while Booth goes to his hearing, and they keep digging. Brennan is happy, because it will put them in control again.
The next day. Booth is about to go into his hearing. He’s talking with the DD, when Brennan comes running up and says she’s sorry she’s late, but she had to finish her report on Foster. Of course, she says it was an accident, and Booth reiterates the thing about him being a harmless crank.
When it’s Hadley’s turn to question Booth, he asks what Booth’s connection to Daniel Johnson is. Booth looks taken aback, since just the day before at lunch, Hadley was about ready to adopt him. Booth says he can’t answer that, so Hadley gets extra antagonistic and says Johnson was a U.S. citizen Booth assassinated in Afghanistan in 2002. Booth says there are government directives in place that prevent him from talking about any operations that happened in Afghanistan. Hadley keeps trying to get Booth to admit he killed Johnson, but Booth says those are classified documents Hadley shouldn’t have access to. Hadley cuts him off to say he’ll take that as an admission of guilt and asks Booth if he thinks the law doesn’t apply to him and thinks it’s important, since they are about to confirm him as a chief law enforcement officer in a foreign country. Booth tries to say Hadley doesn’t understand, but Hadley once again cuts him off to say how embarrassing it would be to confirm an assassin. Booth stands and says Hadley is out of line, but Hadley says if Booth won’t answer, he has no further questions, and the meeting is adjourned.
The press hounds Booth with insulting questions about how he feels he’s above the law. When he and Brennan get away, they agree that someone got to Hadley, so they must also know Booth is still investigating the FBI. Booth thinks the whole promotion might have been a setup, because they looked too closely at McNamara during the ghost killer investigation. Brennan wants to know why it’s just Booth they’re after, and he says he’s serving as a warning to everyone. As they’re leaving, the DD says he not only has to withdraw Booth’s nomination but also put him on administrative leave. Brennan thinks this means Booth is fired, but when the DD tries to say it’s just administrative leave, Booth stops him and says he knows this essentially means he is fired. The DD says his hands are tied. They get away before the press can hound Booth again.
The lab. Cam thinks Brennan should be with Booth, but she says the best way to help him is to solve the case. Hodgins comes in to say that Fisher found a trace of a metal particulate. As Hodgins tries to draw it out, Fisher gets to the point. It was the watch band of a delta force commando. It sliced into the bone. Cam thinks she can work backward. In other words, if she gets a list of all delta force commandos within the past fifteen years, she can find the three who’ve had their DNA erased.
Angela comes in and tells them she figured out how they got to Hadley. She ran facial rec on all the pictures and found one of Hadley smooching with a man. Brennan thinks Booth can use the picture to make Hadley talk, but when Angela offers to call him, Brennan won’t let her use the phone.
Booth is packing up his office, while a uniformed officer watches him. Brennan comes in and pretends she wanted to help him pack up (even though he’s totally done). She kisses him ansd slips him a note saying they know why Hadley was blackmailed.
Hadley gets into his car to find Booth in the passenger seat. Before Hadley can call the police, Booth shows him the picture. Booth asks if that’s why he became a congressman, to let criminals run the country, but Hadley says they’ll kill him. Booth says not before he shuts them down, but Hadley says it’s bigger than Booth can imagine, and he should just go away like they want him to. Booth says it’s not going to happen and says he has all the stuff they’re hiding, and he’s not going to keep it to himself. Oh, Booth, you’ve been so smart up until this point. Why didn’t you at least pretend? Of course, as soon as he leaves, Hadley is on the phone.
At home, Booth has packed Brennan’s bag. He tells her to take Christine and go, and she doesn’t have a choice. Yeah, buddy, you can try that. He says Hadley took the bait. He called the burner cell, and they’re sending a team after Booth. Angela heard the whole thing. Oh! I guess the thing with Hadley was intentional. Sorry I doubted you, Booth. He says it’s his fight, but Brennan says they’re better together. Booth is in no mood to argue about it. He says the guys trying to kill him are about forty minutes out. Then he takes out chunks of C4 that Brennan is alarmed to find out he’s been keeping in the garage, but Booth points out it’s stable until it’s detonated. Brennan says they’re delta force, and they know he’s a Ranger, so they’ll be ready. Brennan says she has a gun and is a good shot (I guess she’s forgetting a few episodes ago…). But Booth is resolute. They have a child to think about. She needs to just go to Max’s. He says he’s not asking her, he’s telling her. Brennan says she hates him for telling her to walk away. Then Booth stops her and says he loves her. She tells him not to die. Then they kiss, and she leaves.
The lab. Apparently everyone is upset Booth is on a suicide mission, but nobody is going to stop it. Hodgins walks in and says he pulled dichlorofluoromethane from the soda machine. Bottom line is, it may help Angela clean the chip, so she can get the rest of the information. Cam is still sifting through the delta force stuff, but there’s thousands of records. Hodgins’ experiment appears to be working.
Back at the old homestead, Booth is arming himself to the teeth. It looks like he’s rigging the place up with the C4 and some homemade explosives, and suddenly I’m worried the whole thing at the beginning about their beautiful home, was foreshadowing that they’re going to blow it up.
Brennan is driving with Christine, when Fisher calls with the news that two of the delta force guys were righties, but one was a lefty. She says that would help Booth discern from which direction they’d attack and how they’d fight, but unfortunately, he’s not answering his phone, since he’s afraid they’re listening in.
Homestead. There’s an explosion, then someone enters the house, gun drawn. Booth hides behind a kitchen counter.
Lab. Thanks to Hodgins, Angela has all of the information on the chip. Caroline immediately notices pictures of the three judges who denied her warrant, but except for the pictures, everything else is encrypted. Cam comes over to find out what’s happening. Angela asks for quiet as she decrypts.
But then alarms start going off. There’s an intruder alert, which means they’re being hacked, but after Pelant, Angela set up a failsafe where she has ninety seconds to remove all of the vital data before they shut them down. On the bad guys’ end, they think Angela lost all the data, and they’ve been successfully shut down. She says how long it will take them to get back up and running, is another story.
Homestead. Another door blows in, and someone enters. We don’t see who they are, since they’re covered from head to toe. Booth manages to take one down, but there are two more who are shooting up the place. He shoots one of his booby traps, and it ignites one of the guys. As he tries to put out the flames, Booth comes out and starts to question him, but the guy is not down yet, and a fight ensues. They eventually separate, and when the other guy reaches for his gun, Booth shoots him. Then one of them shoots Booth in the leg. Another is creeping down the stairs, and Booth takes out a mirror to track him. When the guy gets next to another booby trap, Booth shoots it, and the guy breaks through the banister and plunges to the floor. The explosion also left a HUGE hole on the wall. I see my prediction is coming true. Booth is severely hampered by his leg. He manages to get a table on its side and move it with him to hide behind, but judging by the holes, I’m guessing it’s not much of a barrier to the bullets. Anyway, the bad guy’s gun gets stuck. In between them is another gun. They both go to grab for it, but the bad guy gets there first and shoots Booth in the chest. Then Brennan comes in and shoots the bad guy. Booth tells her there’s still one left in the house. Brennan asks if the two down are right-handed. Booth says they are, and she says she came back to tell him about the left-handed guy.
The bad guy shoots at Brennan, and Brennan shoots back. The guy goes down, and Brennan tries to attend to Booth, but the bad guy gets back up. Brennan’s gun either jams or has no more bullets. The bad guy comes at her with a knife and manages to knock the worthless gun out of her hand before kicking her across the kitchen. Booth trips him then does that thing where he twists the guy’s neck. Now he seems to be really dead.
Brennan goes to Booth and pulls open his bullet-proof vest. It looks like the bullet might have been powerful enough to penetrate the vest.
Hospital. Booth is in surgery. Brennan paces. They have to use the paddles on Booth, but his heart starts beating again. The whole team, plus Caroline, come to comfort Brennan. The doctor comes out and verifies Booth is alive but says there’s a problem. Brennan manages to run past him to where Booth is recovering. He looks out of it but okay. However, there are a bunch of FBI agents barring Brennan from entering the room, and she freaks out when she realizes Booth is handcuffed to the bed. The DD is there and says Booth killed three FBI agents who were coming to serve a warrant on him. Then he tells the agents to arrest Brennan. They take her away, kicking and screaming Booth’s name.
The end until the fall.
Wow. That was powerful. An excellent season finale that will leave viewers on the edge of their seat. We still don’t know who the FBI agents were, Booth is no longer an FBI agent and is under arrest, and Brennan is under arrest. Can’t wait to see how they get out of this one, but I’m sure the team comes to the rescue. 
CJ Stevens falls asleep every night to the comforting flicker of her TV. Nothing makes her happier than the little red dot on her dv-r, notifying her one of her shows is taping. She edits books for a living and was even known among her editing comrades as “the grammar police.” Ending apostrophe abuse is her calling.