Bones Episode 6.12 The Sin in the Sisterhood

ACT 1

Cam sits, unamused, in a hospital waiting room. Dr. Paul Lidner rushes up to her. He should have this baby delivered any minute. Cam thinks she should leave. It's been five hours. They aren't going to make dinner. Plus, she just got a call. They need her to solve a murder. Paul hastily tries to reschedule. Coffee later today? Cam agrees with a smile.

Booth and Brennan move slowly through a cornfield. They can't seem to find the crime scene. Booth hoists Brennan above the corn. It's over there! Cam is already on scene, examining the body. She estimates that the victim has been dead four weeks while Brennan adds that the victim is a male in his early 40s. There is evidence of a gunshot wound to the sternum. Thunder interrupts the conversation. It's about to rain!

ACT 2

Wendell notices that muskrats have gnawed on the bones while Hodgins laments the fact that he missed the rain and subsequent mud bath. Cam believes the gunshot wound is consistent with a close range shot. They haven't found a bullet so there is no way to narrow down what type of gun the killer used.

Cam visits Booth at the FBI. Booth reports that there is no bullet yet. If they don't find one, it means the victim wasn't killed in the cornfield. Cam changes the subject: she wants advice about Paul. Every time they schedule a date, he is called away by a patient. Booth advises Cam to give Paul a chance. If she likes him, she shouldn't let him get away.

Brennan can tell from the bones that the victim spent a great deal of time supporting his weight on his hands while engaging in a forward pushing motion. Wendell knows exactly what that means: sex. Booth calls with the identity of the victim: Ed Samuel, 41. He rents farm equipment and he went missing one month ago.

Booth and Brennan meet the victim's wife, Maryann Samuel. She is surrounded by her father, Dan Lambertt, her sisters, Beth and Carol, and her eleven children! Brennan comments that Ed clearly enjoyed having sex. Booth changes the subject: does Ed own a gun? Maryann answers that Ed kept one in the bedroom. Beth can show them.

Cam checks in with Hodgins and Wendell in the Ookey Room. She is thinking about life. Cam has a life? Unfortunately, not so much. Wendell found potato particulates in the chest wound while Hodgins found plant particulates on the clothing. How exciting! Wendell doesn't think anyone around here has much of a life.

Brennan whispers to Booth that the children may be congenitally deformed. They aren't the result of multiple births yet they appear too close in age. Booth tells Brennan to keep it down. They just have small heads. Beth hands them a box with the gun while Brennan finds a photo album on the shelf. Beth does not want her to look at it but Brennan has already discovered their secret. It explains why the children look the way they do. They all have different mothers. Ed was married to Maryann, Beth and Carol. These women are sisters AND sisterwives.

ACT 3

At the Diner, Booth and Brennan get a lesson on polygamy from Sweets. He learned all of what he knows from watching television. Maryann was the only one legally married to Ed. Beth and Carol were both married in religious ceremonies. This allowed Ed to stay out of jail. Brennan can understand the argument for polygamy. It is necessary in certain cultures, namely those that have a shortage of men. Booth and Sweets think jealously is the motive for murder.

Paul phones Cam from the hospital to cancel their date...yet again. Cam is disappointed but stoic on the phone. She tells Paul that he has to do what he has to do. She hangs up.

Booth speaks with Dan Lambertt, the sisterwives' father. Ed and Maryann met at church when they were teenagers. Dan was thrilled when they got married...but a few years later Ed wanted to marry Beth as well. Dan was shocked but what could he do? His daughters now live a difficult life filled with prejudice because of their choice. A man named Pete Mill even keyed Beth's car because she was a polygamist.

At the Lab, Brennan explains the arrangement to Angela. Ed's wives kept a strict calendar, which determined when each wife would spend time with her husband. Angela doesn't understand why one man would want three wives. Brennan believes it was so he could produce eleven children in eight years. Cam busies herself shooting guns to test ballistics. Brennan is confused. There is nothing to compare the bullets to since they haven't recovered a bullet from the scene. Cam doesn't care. She is shooting this gun.

Brennan confers with Wendell in the Bone Room. They are a bit distracted by the gunshots but Wendell conveys that there is a perimortem bruise on the pelvis and some trauma to the mandible. There are also particulates embedded in the exit wound. It is the result of blowback from the gunshot. Hodgins enters: the plant particulates on the clothing are from a pecan tree.

Sweets interviews Pete Mill at the FBI. He owns Mill's Pecans and A LOT of guns. He is also against polygamy. He believes in family values. His long rant gives Sweets the creeps. Maybe Pete should get a lawyer.

Booth and Brennan have a meal at the Diner. The bullet is officially not in the cornfield, which means the victim was not killed there. Booth doesn't think all three women were happy. Brennan believes Booth has a bias against polygamy. It is clouding his judgment. Booth gets a call. Maryann Samuel filed for divorce six weeks ago.

Maryann apologizes for not coming clean. She hadn't even told her sisters about the divorce. She didn't mind sharing Ed with them. She wanted to make sure they were looked after...but Ed was also seeing another woman. He was having an affair.

ACT 4

Cam ignores her ringing cell phone as she works. Angela wonders why she isn't answering. Cam knows that it's Paul and she doesn't want to speak to him. It just isn't going to work. He hasn't kept a date in three weeks. Angela fully supports Cam. She should snub him until he comes crawling back.

In Angela's Office, Angela and Brennan agree that the bullet came into contact with a hard surface when it exited the body. This caused the blowback. Hodgins arrives with information on the particulates in the blowback. They are digested pecans that have been rendered into rock. What animal turns pecan into rock? Cam enters with more news. Ed was exposed to high levels of radium. It caused the damage to his mandible. Someone was trying to poison Ed Samuel.

Sweets questions Heather Lakefish, the grad student that tutored Ed's son in chemistry. She was sleeping with Ed but she didn't know he had three wives. She only knew about Maryann. She found out about the others when they all came to confront her. Heather admits that there was radium salt in her lab but it recently disappeared.

FBI Techs carry radium salt out of the Samuel home. Maryann and Beth are distraught. It doesn't belong to anyone in their home. Carol confesses: the radium salt belongs to her.

ACT 5

At the FBI, Carol accepts blame. Her sisters knew nothing about the poison. Booth lets it slip that Maryann was getting a divorce and the women begin bickering. Booth gets back to the point. Carol explains that she poisoned Ed to spend more time with him. It was her job to care for him when he was sick. She wasn't trying to kill him! Booth decides to book her for attempted murder anyway.

Paul Lidner arrives at the Lab to find Cam firing guns. Cam is surprised. She admits they are both workaholics but where does that leave their relationship? Paul came to say that he cares about Cam more than his job. He wants to make this work. He reserved a table at the Founding Fathers tonight. Cam is touched but she has to solve a murder. Paul will be there at 8PM no matter what. It's okay if she stands him up.

Hodgins discovered that Pete Mill distributes his excess pecan crop as livestock feed to the local co-op. He plans to feed the animals pecans and then retrieve their feces to see what matches the particulates he found. Wendell does not want to help.

Booth thinks the victim was a moron. He was poisoned and shot. Living with three women is a recipe for disaster. Brennan agrees that the victim should have realized how complicated his relationships were becoming. Perhaps the victim was a bonehead...an asshat...even a nitwit! Booth and Brennan laugh. They are terrible.

ACT 6

Cam watches a rendering of the shooting. It seems that the victim was on the floor when he died. Brennan asks Cam to do a full ballistics report referencing all the guns she tested. Cam refuses. She has a date and needs to get ready. She is going home. Wendell is happy for Cam until Brennan wants to test her theory out on him. Brennan realizes that the murderer kneeled on the victim's pelvis thereby causing the perimortem bruise. Hodgins arrives with news: a turkey digested the pecan and turned it to rock. Dan Lambertt owns and feeds turkeys.

Hodgins and the FBI Techs scour the property of Dan Lambertt. Hodgins finally finds the bullet. Brennan and Wendell test the ballistics and they have a match. Booth confronts Dan. He admits that he couldn't let Ed go unpunished for cheating on all three of his daughters. Why weren't they enough for him?

At the Founding Fathers, Cam arrives for her date. She sees Paul, waiting for her. Should she go over? She almost gets cold feet but she runs into Booth and Brennan. She can't leave now. Cam joins Paul at their table. He has a gift for her: a scarf.

Booth and Brennan watch from across the bar. Paul and Cam make a nice couple. Booth tells Brennan that Ed did not love all his wives equally. He loved Maryann the most. He always went back to her on Sunday, the day he was supposed to spend alone. You can love a lot of people but there is one person that you love the most. What if you let that person get away? Booth replies that that person isn't going anywhere. They toast to their partnership as Paul and Cam kiss.