- The trial of The Gravedigger hits close to home for members of the team, and everyone at the Jeffersonian must work overtime to uncover the forensic evidence to elicit a conviction.
- Booth, Bones and Hodgins hope that the trial of 'Gravedigger' Heather Taffet, who nearly killed each of them, will bring them closure. Their hopes are cruelly smashed when the monster, defending herself, gets judge Drufey to disallow most of the evidence. She then taunts them to solve the 'number' which can lead to a missing victim, a young boy. When they do, examining the corpse would cause a complete mistrial and thus impunity. So Bones convinces everyone to scrap their own trials and stake everything on the boy's yet unproven murder. Max tries to handle the case his way.—KGF Vissers
- We open with a hazy dream sequence in which Bones (Emily Deschanel) runs for Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) and finds him screaming and bloody but can't get to him before he's dragged away. Next, she runs to save Booth (David Boreanaz), who's trapped behind a submarine-type door in a room quickly filling with water. Then someone knocks her over and she finds herself lying in a grave, with the Grave Digger standing over her with a shovel, slowly dumping dirt on the lid of her glass coffin.
Bones wakes up with a start. TV news tells us the Grave Digger case begins today with an evidentiary hearing and former federal prosecutor Heather Taffet (Deirdre Lovejoy) will be defending herself against multiple murder and kidnapping charges.
One of her victims, a 10 year old boy, has never been found. Bones, Booth and Hodgins will all be testifying.
At court, Bones bristles that Booth is coddling her. Her dad Max (Ryan O'Neal) also shows up to lend moral support she says she doesn't need. He reminds her the case is far from a slam dunk.
In court, Cam (Tamara Taylor) is up first, followed by Booth, then Hodgins all testifying about evidence, including the Taser Taffet used on Booth, and answering Taffet's questions about the illegality of their search based on info given to them by Booth's brother.
Caroline (Patricia Belcher), the prosecutor, argues to keep the evidence found in the storage locker in, but Judge Dufrey (H. Richard Greene) rules it's out. Taffet argues all charges should be dropped but the judge defers to Caroline when she wants to go forward.
As they're taking Heather away she approaches Bones. "You're so brilliant, why couldn't find something as simple as the number?"
Bones is rattled by the taunt, thinking she missed something.
Back at the lab, Sweets (John Francis Daley) thinks Heather was serious about there being something else. He rubs Hodgins the wrong way.
Caroline joins Booth at the diner with a box of files.
Angela (Michaela Conlin) goes back over the ransom call, trying to find Heather's voice. Hodgins finds nothing new in the soil samples. He confesses to her that he's barely keeping things together and feels helpless.
In her office, Bones is driving herself nuts pouring over files looking for numbers. She thinks her logic might have been compromised by "all the relationships" she's in right now.
Booth notices Heather's one call in custody was to Salt Lake City, area code 801. Booth dials the number: it's a pizza place.
The records show she hung up after 10 seconds. Bones thinks it has to be the number she referenced.
Angela runs a numerical sequencing program and finds it's a GPS location in remote Virginia. They head there and dig. They find a freezer with a young boy's decomposed body inside, the one she kidnapped.
Back at the lab, Bones realizes Heather wanted them to find the boy because they couldn't testify as experts when they're the victims in the kidnapping case. She suggests Caroline drop their case and just prosecute for the boy's murder, but Hodgins doesn't like the plan. He can't believe she'd drop it that easily. She reminds him he's not the only one suffering and points out dismissing their case is the only logical thing to do. He agrees.
Booth comes to Bones' place and tells her he asked Caroline to drop his case, too. She tells Booth about her nightmares. "She's never going to get the better of you, I promise," he says.
At the lab, they examine the boy's body. They find evidence he was strangled, which doesn't fit her Taser MO. Bones worries Taffet planned to use the inconsistencies to create reasonable doubt.
Booth testifies hey have credit card evidence Taffet was at the mall where the boy was last seen. Taffet asks Booth if he knew the agent on duty the night she was arrested was from Salt Lake and suggests the number was put in her file by mistake.
In the hallway, Max asks Booth if he realizes they're being played and suggests they get off defense.
Cam stops by Sweets' office. She's worried Taffet might get off and he acknowledges it's possible.
A sheriff's department van returns to the prison and Max lurks outside. He aims a rifle at the van and waits for Taffet to get out. Booth runs up behind him and jumps him. They duke it out a little and Max argues he should shoot Taffet because Bones might die. Booth ends the argument with a punch.
Bones apologizes to Booth for her dad. Then he calls asking her to bail him out. She says she's leaving him there until the trial is over. Bones admits part of her wishes he'd done it.
Bones tells Booth she's finding evidence the boy put up a good fight. Booth mentions his son would have done the same thing and probably bit her ear. That leads Bones to go check for DNA on his teeth.
Angela makes headway with the ransom call and has unscrambled it to clearly reveal Taffet's voice. She testifies about it later. Taffet asks if she has a sound engineering degree (she doesn't). She plays a version of the tape unscrambled by an FBI guy with a PhD in sound stuff and it sounds like Angela. Taffet argues they can be made to sound like anyone.
Booth comes to get Bones to testify and cautions her not to get too technical.
In court, she testifies the killer used their left hand and weighed about what Taffet does. Taffet questions her credentials and Bones gets snippy with her. She says the killer was also Taffet's height and when Taffet questions her again Bones describes the boy dying a torturous death as he was buried alive. She says she's uniquely qualified to comment on it because she was buried alive, too.
It's Taffet's turn to question and she immediately asks if her kidnapping experience may affect her findings. Taffet asks if she's seeing a shrink and the jury scribbles furiously when she says she is.
In the lab, Hodgins has found a dust mite in the boy's teeth which might have human DNA in it.
He testifies about it followed by Cam, who says the cells in the mite belong to Taffet.
Taffet homes in on the fact the evidence was destroyed during testing because the sample was so small. She asks to have it thrown out because of the Jeffersonian's staff bias, but the judge says it's up to the jury to decide if it's credible.
Later, Booth toasts Bones, thinking Caroline nailed the case. Bones is worn down by dealing with "murders and victims and sadness and pain." She says she got into murder because of him, but he promises tomorrow when they've won the case, everything will be perfect.
Caroline gives her graphic closing argument, recapping the evidence. Taffet argues the team is biased. But Caroline says Taffet is resorting to slander because she has no defense. Taffet claims she's a scapegoat.
Waiting in the hall, the team looks worried. But Hodgins says it doesn't matter because no matter what, he's got Angela. He tells the team they're married.
The jury's back.
They find Heather Taffet guilty of kidnapping and murder. The team cheers and Taffet looks shaken, then pissed. "This isn't over," she tells Bones.
Later, the team celebrates in the bar. Sweets says he never doubted anyone. Bones offers the newlyweds a toast: "Best wishes for a successful blending of familial obligations as well as a monetary and property consolidation."
Max says good night to his daughter. Bones tells Booth she has the sense everything's changing. She worries something might happen to Booth. He suggests she might need some time off and she thinks she might need more than a little time. She flags a cab.
"I'll see you tomorrow, right?" Booth says, then he watches her drive away.
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