TV.com

Bones Season 5 Episode 9

The Gamer in the Grease

Favorite

Watched It I've Watched This 5

Next
Episode Previous
Episode

AIRED: Dec 03, 2009

8.6

User Rating

375 votes

Your Rating: 10
Your Rating: 9.5
Your Rating: 9
Your Rating: 8.5
Your Rating: 8
Your Rating: 7.5
Your Rating: 7
Your Rating: 6.5
Your Rating: 6
Your Rating: 5.5
Your Rating: 5
Your Rating: 4.5
Your Rating: 4
Your Rating: 3.5
Your Rating: 3
Your Rating: 2.5
Your Rating: 2
Your Rating: 1.5
Your Rating: 1

Rate Now

EPISODE REVIEWS
By TV.com Users

Write A Review

Episode Summary

EDIT

Booth and Brennan are called in to investigate the death of a competitive gamer. The gamer's success gave him many admirers -- but also a lot of enemies, which make for multiple suspects in the case. Meanwhile, Fisher bonds with Hodgins and Sweets.

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (12)

A Disappointing Hour-Long Commercial for Avatar

7.0

By silvermoore, May 07, 2011

Not only was this episode of Bones a blatant commercial for the upcoming James Cameron flick, it also featured a goofy Sweets/Fisher/Hodgins side-plot (that, despite being irritating at times, was the highlight on the episode) and an utterly predictable case that was a rip-off of the awesome documentary King of Kong. Worst of all, there were few interesting interactions between Booth and Bones. This episode was definitely a filler episode, if I've ever seen one.

On another note, Angela finally sees the "Angela Forever" tattoo of her face on Hodgins' arm, which her dad had done to him as revenge after the couple broke up. Angela insists that he has to have it removed, which makes me wonder . . . since Hodgins is all rich, why didn't he have it removed right away? I don't know, but I hope they don't get back together. I like them much much better apart!moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
3 6

Flag
Share Hide
The body of a postman/video game champion is found in a huge vat of used grease and Brennan is wondering why she is there.

10

By CUL8TRBY, Apr 10, 2011

Apparently Booth had requested Brennan even though the body wasn't at the bone stage. Booth is showing his feelings for Brennan more and more with each episode. The special effects was great when the workers was lifting the body out of the grease everything just slided off the bone including organs. The remainder of the show gave us some insight to a few geeky members of the crew. I was disappointed in Dr. Sweet's and his demeanor with the tattooed girl. Will he be questioning his love for Daisy next? Speaking of Tattoos, Hodgins looked like he doesn't have any desire to be removing Angela from his arm. Angela looked honored until Hodgins told her that her dad put it there. Will these two reunite or stay friends with benefits? Either way I think Hodgins will have Angela Forever.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
2 1

Flag
Share Hide
Booth and Bones enter the world of hi-stakes arcade gaming when a postal employer, who won fame as a competitive gamer, is murdered. Meanwhile, Fisher, Hodgins and Sweets bond over their love of the film, Avatar.moreless

8.5

By johndoe70, Apr 10, 2011

Overall a great episode that is made specifically for geeks and gamers everywhere. The episode's murder-mystery itself is nicely written, although it would have been nice if the arcade game highlighted in the episode had been an actual classic arcade game instead of a fake game, which is clearly invoking some nostalgic memories of two classic video games; Pong and Donkey Kong.

The Fisher, Sweets and Hodgins male bonding scenes add some nice moments as well as comic relief. I am not entirely sure how I feel about overt product placement/advertisement in a television series, but in this case it works well and feels believable.moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
1 2

Flag
Share Hide
Loved it!

9.5

By vicky24c, May 23, 2010

In this episode of Bones, the following happens. When a world champion gamer is found dead, Bones and Booth are called in to investigate And what follows is a case full of twists and turns, which leads us to finding out that the gamer cheated, and was not in fact world champion. Hodgins, Fisher and Sweets all head over to the advance screening of the movie "Avatar", which adds even more humour to this episode. Overall this was a good episode, which showed that a father's love is greater than anything else. A good episode, which has put me in the mood for next week's AMAZING Christmas episode (If you haven't seen the promo yet, go and watch it now. Booth and his boxer shorts is all I will say!).moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
0 2

Flag
Share Hide
Our victim this week is a old style video gamer and the suspects are other gamers. Fisher got tickets for the preview of Avatar and he shares with Hodgins and Sweets. So one of them has to stay in line at all times causing interesting problems.moreless

9.0

By jyarter, Apr 18, 2010

OK, can you say shameless promotion? The amazing part to this is the fact that they had to have taped this episode a while ago and so the timing had to be pretty close for air date of the episode to opening date of the movie.

Bones and Booth spend most of their time trying to solve the case while Dr. Saroyan tries to figure out why she can never find everyone around working at one time and Angela tries to keep the boys away from her huge high def screen.

In the end the case didn't turn out to be that much of a piece to the story compared with the Avatar promotion. I really don't remember a show doing this much promotion for a film ever?

Still the whole Tory Payne played by Kaylee Defer part with Sweets, "Want to see my tattoos?" was pretty funny. When Fisher shows up he takes over because Sweets is sweating bullets at this point. Also the fact that the line went in and Fisher and Payne were still in the tent was a riot. Pretty funny stuff.

A reasonably funny episode with some gross bits at the beginning and very light bits near the end. The killer is found out and Sweets and Hodgins can enjoy the movie. Thanks for reading...moreless
DO YOU AGREE?
5 3

Flag
Share Hide

See All Fan Reviews

Cast & Crew: STARS

EDIT

David Boreanaz	Special Agent Seeley Booth
Emily Deschanel	Dr. Temperance Brennan
Michaela Conlin	Angela Montenegro
Tamara Taylor	Dr. Camille Saroyan
T.J. Thyne	Dr. Jack Hodgins
John Francis Daley	Dr. Lance Sweets

See All Cast & Crew

Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

EDIT

Laura Heisler	Jill Rifton	Guest Star
Kaylee Defer	Tory Payne	Guest Star
Oren Skoog	Billy Gabel	Guest Star
Joel David Moore	Colin Fisher	Recurring Role

See All Cast & Crew

Watch Online

Episode Photos

Sweets (John Francis Daley) on Bones fro...

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Company
Jeffersonian intern Colin Fisher (Joel D...

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Company
Hodgins (TJ Thyne) and Jeffersonian inte...

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Company
Brennan (Emily Deschanel), Booth (David ...

© 2009 Fox Broadcasting Company

See All Photos

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

FILTER BY TYPE

TRIVIA (6)
ADD TRIVIA
- When Sweets is checking the YouTube rant, he pauses it to talk to bones and booth. When his phone rings, however, we see a shot of the screen again, and the guy on the video sits back with a look of disgust, as if his rant is disturbed by the phone call.
  EDIT SHARE
- The box of wine Fisher brings to the Avatar line is from Dunwood Winery, which is the winery owned by Charlie Dunwood, the murderer in the Season 4 episode "The Critic in the Cabernet."
  EDIT SHARE
- Brennan asserts (and Booth doesn't disagree) that because Dougie Seeger was autistic, he didn't care that someone else took credit for the Punky Kong record he broke (and thus his heart wasn't broken either). People with Autism do have emotions though, and they do care about things, they just have trouble expressing and communicating how they feel.
  EDIT SHARE
- After this episode aired, the fictional Punky Pong game featured in the episode became available online for real-life play in the Bones section of Fox's website.
  EDIT SHARE
- There's no reason for Angela to get mad at Sweets, Hodgins, and Fisher when they are watching a preview of the movie Avatar on her monitor. Angela was watching the movie The Mummy on her monitor with Cam (for non-work-related reasons), in the episode "A Night at the Bones Museum."
  EDIT SHARE
- There is a heavy focus on the upcoming film Avatar in this episode. Joel David Moore (Fisher) is featured in the movie, which comes out in theaters on December 18th.
  EDIT SHARE
QUOTES (7)
ADD QUOTES
- Brennan: (to Booth) I believe that due to my superior learning curve, I can beat you at this game, despite your superlative strength and your remarkable reflexes.
  EDIT SHARE
- Angela: (about the tattoo of her on Hodgin's arm) My father did that to you?
  Hodgins: Let's just say, I think he was trying to prove a point.
  Angela: I am so gonna kick his Texan bad-ass. You- you need to get that removed.
  Hodgins: Why?
  Angela: Because we are not together anymore, and I- I don't want you sweating all over my face, and I- I you need to get that lasered.
  EDIT SHARE
- Cam: Are you out of breath, Mr. Fisher?
  Fisher: No, I'm- I'm just thankful I'm breathing, you know. Never know when that luxury will end.
  EDIT SHARE
- Booth: You don't like the reasoning in my math.
  Brennan: I've realized recently that you use a different number system, like the Babylonians' which was ... base sixty. I don't understand your system, but I can see that it works.
  EDIT SHARE
- Booth: You know what I'm thinkin? Lonely housewife, you know, husband away on a business trip ... bow chicka wow wow.
  Brennan: What's bow chicka wow wow?
  Booth: You know, boom clicka mow mow. Uh it's a very uh, common porno plot theme.
  EDIT SHARE
- Cam: Do you know where the cricket and the grass came from?
  Hodgins: Yes, yes. North America.
  Cam: Great, so Asia's out.
  EDIT SHARE
- Fisher: All friendship is fleeting and ends in abandonment.
  EDIT SHARE
NOTES (3)
ADD NOTES
- Featured Music:
  "The World Is" by Matthew Ryan (when Mr. Seeger explains his the reason for his crime at the FBI)
  "Rain or Shine" by Matthew Perryman Jones (when Brennan tries playing Punky Pong at the end of the episode)
  EDIT SHARE
- International Air Dates:
  United Kingdom: December 10th, 2009 on Sky1/Sky1 HD
  Spain: February 12th, 2010 on Fox
  Australia: February 21st, 2010 on Channel Seven
  Latin America: March 10th, 2010 on Fox
  Sweden: March 28th, 2010 on TV3
  Norway: August 19th, 2010 on TV3
  Slovakia: October 27th, 2010 on JOJ
  Finland: October 30th, 2010 on Sub
  Germany: November 4th, 2010 on RTL
  Czech Republic: April 14th, 2011 on Prima
  EDIT SHARE
- Even though Stephen Christopher Parker appears in the credits for this episode (as Barry) and can be seen in the background as Hodgins explains to Sweets that it's okay that he's been with less women than Fisher, he has no actual speaking part or significant role in the episode. One can only assume that his scene ended up being cut out of the episode.
  EDIT SHARE
ALLUSIONS (1)
ADD ALLUSIONS
- This episode makes multiple references to the 2007 documentary The King of Kong. The documentary follows Steve Wiebe as he tries to take the long-standing Donkey Kong championship from Billy Mitchell. This episode's characters of Steve Rifton (the victim) and Billy Gabel (a suspect) are based on the two main characters of The King of Kong, though some details get crisscrossed between them. In the documentary, Steve Wiebe is treated like the good guy underdog while Billy Mitchell comes off as conspiring to keep him down -- and in the episode it's Steve who was conspiring to destroy Billy, who stole his Punky Kong crown.
  EDIT SHARE