Pelant returned in the season finale of Bones. Armed with Hodgins’ money, Pelant was a formidable opponent once again. But did Booth manage to escape the cross-hairs the computer mastermind had him in?
The case of the week started out innocent enough, with a body found in a park. But this was no ordinary victim, it was a retired FBI agent named Alan, a man that Booth had worked with hin the past. The FBI, along with Caroline, began investigating Alan’s history with the agency, but Booth and Sweets believed Pelant had resurfaced. This time, Sweets noticed an immediate connection between the placement of the body and a paper he had previously written.
A call from Pelant to Booth set off this round of the game, but Booth was hesitant to tell Brennan about his real connection to these agents: their involvement with a raid at a religious compound called Crystal Creek ten years earlier. Quite a few agents and cult members died that day, leaving a black mark on the history of the FBI. Because of a paper Sweets had written, he believed that Pelant was using a surrogate to kill these agents: a person who had been victimized by what happened at Crystal Creek.
In the lab, Hodgins blamed himself for the victims, insisting that he should have finished killing Pelant when he had the chance, but Angela didn’t want him to carry that guilt and insisted that these deaths were not his fault. Brennan was terrified when Booth told her that Pelant called him, but he insisted that Pelant wouldn’t kill him because the game would be brought to an end.
Meanwhile, a bit of research on Crystal Creek articles led Sweets, Cam and Angela to a man named Reynolds who may have been the surrogate killer. Booth went undercover in a construction crew to take Reynolds down and an FBI tactical team surrounded him. But Reynolds denied any responsibility and had an alibi, which brought Sweets and Booth back to square one.
But in the midst of the troubling investigation, Brennan met Booth to propose marriage! Booth was ecstatic, but Pelant’s surveillance showed him the proposal and Sweets was worried that Pelant would feel displaced as the most important event in their life and would escalate. Back at the lab, Angela and Hodgins believed that one of the dead agent’s daughters (Anna) was actually the killer. The only problem? She had previously introduced herself to Booth as a witness and arranged a meeting with him to kill him.
When Brennan warned Caroline about the new suspect, the FBI realized that Booth had gone to meet the killer. The FBI stormed Anna’s apartment, giving Angela access to Anna’s computer, which led to a message that Sweets was actually the one who was supposed to die. It turns out that Booth was a decoy and Sweets, who was trying to meet Booth but was stuck in traffic thanks to Pelant, was the real target. After finally getting through to the lab, Booth found out about Sweets and ran to save him, while Brennan left the lab to track down Booth.
Fortunately, Booth arrived in time to save Sweet’s life and was reunited with Brennan. In the end, Pelant shut down his network and went off the grid, so Booth sent Sweets off to question Anna. But, ominously, during a fun family outing to the park, Pelant called Booth to say “You won’t marry her, Agent Booth.” Booth excused himself to speak privately and Pelant gave him an ultimatum: Booth was to turn down Brennan’s proposal or Pelant would kill five people. “I will kill you,” Booth promised before he hung up on Pelant.
Later, Booth sat down Brennan for a talk and told her “I don’t think we should do it. I should have thought this through before.” “But this is what you want,” Brennan tearfully insisted. “But you didn’t,” Booth countered. “But I do now. I love you and I want to marry you,” Booth replied. Booth insisted they had been under pressure and rushed to an engagement and what they had was enough. Brennan managed to pull herself together and explained that she understood, but it’s clear that there’s a fracture between them now.
Yikes. Even when Pelant loses, he wins again. Bones has already been renewed for a ninth season so we’ll have to wait until the fall to see the fallout from Pelant’s latest move. But we have to wonder whether Booth and Brennan’s relationship will be forever changed.
