Bones Review: Happy Birthday!

Well, that was quite a return for Bones with last night's "The Prisoner in the Pipe." There was, you know, a murder or something, but let's be frank: No one cares about that this week. More importantly, there was a baby, and the whole thing was handled fairly well. I'm very impressed by how good a job the show has done of getting Booth and Brennan together, and the earlier parts of last night's episode provided some good examples of both of them learning to compromise while remaining in character, which gave me hope both for this show (which has already been renewed for season 8) and others doing the will they/won't they dance. I especially like when the show remembers that Booth is Catholic, as I think that's both one of the most interesting and most fundamental things about his character.

And then in the latter parts of the episode, Brennan kept doing things that made me yell, because they were so extreme as to be out of character and obvious just inserted for cheap dramatic tension. Wandering into the prison was so dumb. First of all, even if her contention that prisoners wouldn't hurt a pregnant woman were true, Brennan should know darn well that general anthropological principles don't predict the behavior of individuals in specific situations. And second, even if she were definitely, 100% safe in that environment, Booth certainly was not, and Brennan certainly knows him well enough to know that he would follow her in no matter what.

And the whole birth thing . . . oh, whatever. It was ridiculous on so many levels! Booth could certainly have driven another ten miles in the time they spent arguing with the innkeeper. Labor was ridiculously quick anyway. Brennan, so concerned about sterile environments this very episode, would not have been so okay with the barn thing, and probably would have declared the backseat of the car a better option. Booth should have called a freaking ambulance as soon as he realized they weren't going to make it farther. Brennan should not have been up and about so quickly. They presumably went to a hospital at some point, because by the end the baby had clothes and a hat, but they should not have wound up home that same day.

But, you know, whatever. BOOTH AND BRENNAN HAVE A BABY, and this whole created family around them, and this show has come so far and accomplished so much, and I may have been a little teary by the end. And now, show, you've got two working mothers of young children, and the chance to actually do a good job with that, please. Welcome to the world, Christine Angela. I hope they stop calling you Stapes soon.