Bones – Season 8 Episode 16 – Recap – The Friend in Need

The recap of Bones – Season 8 Episode 16 – “The Friend in Need”:

On how the murder victim was discovered: A homeless man decided to bring an old suitcase (that he found in a nearby river) into a pawnshop, in hopes of earning some cash. But when the clerk refused to buy the suitcase off of him, the homeless man opened up the suitcase. They found a teenage boy’s body crushed and packed into the suitcase.

On Brennan & Booth’s interaction at home: Whilst Booth (David Boreanaz) was working on a crossword puzzle, Brennan (Emily Deschanel) blurted all but one answer—she didn’t know the answer to the six-letter word that comes after “Gilligan’s.” I found it very surprising that Brennan has never heard of Gilligan’s Island before! Being the rational girl that she is… she consulted an Atlas.

On Michelle avoiding Cam to spend time with Intern Finn/her boyfriend: Since Cam’s daughter Michelle (Tiffany Hines) is on vacation from college, she decided to come back home. Her main intention, however, wasn’t to visit Cam (Tamara Taylor)—it was to visit her boyfriend Finn (Luke Kleintank), who also happens to be one of the interns at the Jeffersonian Institute. Then, Michelle asked Finn not to inform Cam about her coming back into town, but he told Cam anyway. Cam wasn’t angry with this per say; she was more upset with the fact that Finn had broken Michelle’s trust. Needless to say, Finn was perplexed. Also in the episode: when Michelle & Cam finally met up, Cam revealed her newfound intimate relationship (with an intern named Arastoo) to Michelle.

Michelle and Finn

On the murder victim and potential suspects: The murder victim was named Manny. The squinterns at the Jeffersonian Institute initially believed Manny was a druggie because they had found Special K on his remains. And, he was last seen at a party two weeks prior to the day that his remains were discovered.

Let’s break down the potential suspects into four sections. The plot was a bit convoluted: 

Suspect #1: Saunders. Manny was involved in a one-sided love affair between himself and a girl named Cat. Though Cat had no intention of ever dating Manny, Manny fell in love with Cat. At the party: he spotted her dancing with another boy named Saunders, which caused feelings of jealousy and over-protectiveness. He argued with Saunders, and then Saunders ordered him to get out of the house.

Suspect #2: Cat. Due to the fact that Cat felt creeped out by Manny following her everywhere and that she felt ashamed by Manny embarrassing her at the party, she blurted out some unfortunate words: “I hate you, Manny! I wish you were dead.” When the FBI brought her in for an interrogation, she was immediately crossed off the Suspect List because she didn’t mean what she said to Manny. She revealed her deep, dark secret to Dr. Sweets (John Francis Daley): that she had been raped at the party. It turns out that her rapist was a boy named Nick Pavonetti.

Cat

Suspect #3: Nick Pavonetti. At the party: Nick spiked Cat’s drink with Special K, and then raped her. When Manny found out about Nick raping & attacking Cat, he confronted Nick. Nick knocked Manny unconscious, then packed & crushed Manny’s living, breathing body into a tiny suitcase, and then planted the Special K drug in the suitcase with Manny’s deceased body. Later in the episode: Nick unwisely confessed to the murder of Manny and the raping of Cat. Booth & Brennan said it best: “You (Nick) are so stupid. So stupid. You just confessed to a murder and a rape. So stupid.” Lastly, rightfully so: Nick was sentenced to life in prison. Albeit Bones being just a TV show, this episode angered me because these crimes do occur in real life. I pay my deepest condolences to those who’ve lost their loved ones.

Nick Pavonetti

Suspect #4: Cat’s mother. The FBI added the mother to the Suspect List because she thought that Manny was the boy that raped Cat. She was thinking about hurting Manny because of this.

On Sweets doing everything in his control to catch Cat’s rapist: Sweets took this matter into his own hands. Stepping out of his usual professional element, Sweets took this rape case personally. Though he wasn’t raped as a child, he revealed to Cat that he had been repeatedly beaten inside of his foster home. His foster father had physically abused him as a child. The police weren’t able to find evidence of a raping, but Sweets found evidence on his own—he found photographs of Nick Pavonetti luring Cat into the garage at the party.

Sweets

I’m so happy that we learned about Sweets’ backstory in Episode 16! No wonder why he became a professional psychologist…

This was a very powerful episode, and I would like to know your thoughts. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

Thanks so much for reading this recap of “The Friend in Need”!