Pilot

Season 1, Episode 1, Aired
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Episode Summary

In the series premiere, Dr. Temperance Brennan (or "Bones" as she is often referred to as), a forensic anthropologist, is met with the task of uncovering the identity of a set of bones which have been deliberately hidden in a lake. However, after identifying the bones, imprisoning the murderer turns out to be a politically sticky business. Bones gets help from FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, who convinces his boss to let Bones be his partner, since she's an expert in her field.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (75)

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  • Sound start promising excellence to come.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By tanargue, Aug 06, 2011 Report Abuse
    This was a great way to go. Establishing character and giving hints to back story as well. Possible spoilers here.
    Our two main characters - FBI agent Seely Booth and forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan- have met before, as he is offering an olive branch to get her to work with him again. His boss is wary.
    Their partnership has tension, she is sometimes a bit of a smoking gun and doesn't have the people skills he has. He works intuitively, she is very rational, almost too rational. She loses him a promotion he wanted and thinks he is afraid of fingering their main suspect because he is a senator.

    He is revealed as someone who cares deeply for the murdered girl and is very sympathetic with her family. She is relatively cold, scientific and awkward.

    The lab team of squints are also fleshed out -the artist, Angela who is Brennan's best (and only) friend - Hodgins, bugs and slime man a conspiracy theorist - Zack Addy the brilliant, geeky assistant.

    Then too, we are given a feeling for the way this series might go. After the funeral Booth and Brennan engage in some light hearted banter which then turns into a very serious statement, initiated by him, of how he wants to put away at least as many murderers as the people he killed when he was a sniper. She will go along with that.

    If you get the DVD listen to the commentary for this episode which reveals how the producers and creator came to cast the main roles and the strengths they bring to the series.moreless

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  • A great pilot!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By vicky24c, May 16, 2011 Report Abuse
    In this episode of Bones, the following happens. We open this episode with Bones returning home and being stopped by Homeland Security in the airport. When they open her bag they find a skull inside of her bag. She is taken in for questioning. Then in walks Booth, he gets Bones let out. We soon learn that the whole thing was staged, so that Booth could ask Bones for help on a case. He tells her about the case he needs her help on and she agrees to go with him. Soon the bones are identified as that of a young girl named, Cleo Eller who was having an affair with a senator. We soon learn that Cleo was pregnant at the time of her murder. We also learn that Bones lost both of her parents when she was 15 years old as they both disappeared. Soon her killer is found and arrested. We end with her funeral, and a special moment between Bones and Booth.moreless

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  • Meh, there's been better

    6.0
    "Fair"
    By Dignan17, Oct 24, 2010 Report Abuse
    Not great, not completely horrible. It seems to me that the scientific stuff doesn't reach the level of other shows, and all of it (as well as the rest of the show) was very rushed and had a feeling that it didn't know where it was going. I would definitely say that, with the exception of the two leads, the rest of the show should be recast. I suspect that a lot of characters will be dropped anyway, as tends to happen in shows like this. Three kooky assistants is one or two too many.

    And come on. The Jeffersonian? That's just lame. There was also a big goof right in the very first shot of the show. A plane flys in front of the Capitol building, and there's a caption that says "Dulles International Airport: Washington DC." Anyone who lives in this area knows that even if you were on top of the control tower at Dulles, you won't be able to see half way to the city. Interesting trade-off. Flights from Guatemala wouldn't fly into Reagan National, but the city isn't visible from Dulles.

    Nit-picking aside, David Borneaz is definitely the highlight of the show, and Emily Deschanel grew on me as the show went on.

    Decent, but it had better improve over the next couple episodes or I won't watch anymore.moreless

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  • a really good ep to start the show

    8.5
    "Great"
    By cube2k8, May 09, 2010 Report Abuse
    in this pilot of bones you get to know her alest part of her to start the show and what she does. and how she gets to work with the fbi agent to solve cases that has to do with by studying the bones of the body and who knew that can really tell alot from the bones. well i did but you who knew you can learn alot. this show for the start came out with a big ep about bones works with the fbi about a sticky politcal ep about women that worked with there person but no one knew what happen to her till her body was discoverd. this was a good ep and i liked the showmoreless

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  • A slick, solid debut.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By garbocats, Sep 19, 2009 Report Abuse
    First time I watched this Pilot episode I considered it promising but not overwhelmingly so, but I recently watched it again, with the benefit of a few more series' viewing under my belt, and found much to admire. What impressed me most was the skillful manner in which the core characters and the show's chief premise was firmly established from the outset - and, excepting natural development over the succeeding years - has remained pretty consistent ever since.

    This has been chiefly due to tight writing, snappy dialogue, and some superb acting, most particularly from David Boreanaz. The pilot was no exception. There is instant tension between Agent Booth and the squints; a clash of different mindsets and worldviews. Dr Brennan is archly pedantic, emotionally wooden, intensely intellectual and super-focused; an exquisitely drawn character and played well by Emily Deschanel. Agent Booth (Boreanaz) is an archetypal rugged Alpha Male reliant on his gut instinct over empirical evidence, but his character is relieved by sardonic wit and a palpable sense of a powerful yet guarded emotional inner life.

    Typical of most Bones episodes, the case itself is less engaging than the characters inhabiting this storyworld. But the forensic investigations remain intriguing all the same. The identity of the killer was all too obvious. It is a preferred route in much US TV drama I feel, to shift 'criminal' blame away from a corrupt political onto one of his conniving minions instead.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Dr. Brennan's second sentence to Booth is: "Don't call me Bones" (which becomes a running theme for the beginning of the series). Another catch phrase of hers is introduced in this episode: "I don't know what that means." She usually says this when someone makes a popular culture allusion or remark. Edit
    • When Zack is taking photographs of the corpse, the video footage is clearly mirrored, as can be seen by the positions and letters on the patches on his jacket. Additionally, Zack is holding the camera lens with his right hand and shooting the photos with his left. Cameras are designed the opposite way. Edit
    • Brennan says that the next closest forensic anthropologist after her is in Montreal. Montreal is where the original Bones novels are set. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • Featured Music: "Collide" by Howie Day (as Brennan fits the pieces of the skull together) "Pain On Pain" by Feeder (as Brennan looks at the holograph, just before she has her "girl moment" with Angela) "Gone" by Thirteen Senses (at the funeral) "Busy Child" and "Roll It Up" by The Crystal Method (Syndicated and DVD releases made some changes to the songs, presumably because of licensing issues. On the season one DVD [Region 1] "Collide" is replaced with "Broken Bridge" by Daughter Darling. US syndication on some channels replaced "Pain on Pain" with "Stay For Life" by Andy Abraham.) Edit
    • The outside shots of the building where Brennan and her team work, called "The Jeffersonian Institute" in the show, are actually shots of The Museum of Natural Sciences at the University of Southern California, according to the show's DVD commentary. Edit
    • Most of the show is filmed in Los Angeles, California despite the fact that it's mainly set in Washington, D.C., where the fictional Jeffersonian Institution is located. The interiors of the Jeffersonian Institution were specially built on a large soundstage at the 20th Century Fox lot in Century City, California. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • DHS Officer: You were illegally transporting human remains ma'am. And you assaulted a Homeland Security agent. Bones: Look I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of your friends but next time you should identify yourself before attacking me. Edit
    • Brennan: Those people deserved the truth. Booth: Their daughter was murdered; they deserved the kindness of a lie. Edit
    • Booth: You're great at what you do but you don't solve murders ... guys like we do. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Bones: What exactly am I supposed to be squinting at? Booth: Ah, you know it's like pornography. You'll know it when you see it. This is a reference to Justice Potter Stewart, who during the obscenity case of Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) said that hardcore pornography is hard to define, but "I know it when I see it." Edit
    • Brennan: (responding to the fact that "she's not the only forensic anthropologist in town") Yes I am. The next nearest is in Montreal. This is a reference to the fact that the character Temperance Brennan in Kathy Reich's books (which the series is based on) though originally from North Carolina also works part time in Montreal. The real Kathy Reichs divides her time between academic duties at the Univ. of N. Carolina and duties in Quebec as well. Edit
    • Booth: What, you want me to spit in my hand? We're Scully and Mulder. Booth is referring to Fox's show, The X-Files. Another FBI, female and male partnership. Edit

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