The Source in the Sludge





Episode Summary

Hi! I'm a fakey fake skull. I look nothing like

a female or someone of Middle Eastern ancestry.

"I failed my comps because I clearly do not

understand standard anatomical position..."

Comments

Forensic

Is it just me, or are the fake skeletons getting even more ridiculously fake? I mean, this is a decently rated show. I'm guessing it makes a bunch of money. Good fake skulls are, like, a few hundred dollars. Full skeletons are maybe $2,000. Just buy a dozen, for Pete's sake. These prop skulls are horrible. I screencapped it this week to demonstrate.



Cranial sutures can tell you age-at-death, but only after they're fused because the technique is based on obliteration of the suture lines as you get older. So cranial suture obliteration would not tell you someone was in her late 20s. However, Brennan could have meant that the sphenooccipital synchondrosis (aka the basilar suture) was not closed or had just recently closed, which would put someone's age-at-death in the mid to late 20s.



Estimation of ancestry was dumb. If I found someone with both Caucasian and Asian features in metro D.C., I'd think: 1) I guess this person could be of mixed ancestry, like a huge number of Americans; and then 2) well, this ancestry stuff is bullshit.



If the medial collateral ligament was violently ripped, causing damage to the bone, that would be an avulsion fracture (like on the mandible). But Brennan insisted there were no fractures to the skeleton.



Brennan comments that she found striations from ligatures on the left styloid, but doesn't say of what (she meant, I assume, the 5th metatarsal, since she was talking about the ankle).



I also screencapped the main scene where the skeleton was laid out at the Jeffersonian. Not bad, but they never put the radius and ulna in the right place. Maybe if I complain for enough seasons, they'll fix it? Eventually?

Plot

Daisy failed her oral exams. Bwahahahaha. Daisy is the worst. But wait, why isn't Brennan on Daisy's committee? Also, Brennan's other interns are supposed to be, like, the most brilliant people in the world. Why does she put up with Daisy?



New Feature! I'm calling it: " Bones Writers Can't Check a Map ." Angela's screen showed that the Nazims were living in Greene, Virginia, with a fake zip code. Greene is a county (the county north of where I grew up) but not a city. (It is, incidentally, the seat of Stanardsville. Which does not have an extra D. Oh, Virginia city names.)

I'm calling it: " ." Angela's screen showed that the Nazims were living in Greene, Virginia, with a fake zip code. Greene is a county (the county north of where I grew up) but not a city. (It is, incidentally, the seat of Stanardsville. Which does not have an extra D. Oh, Virginia city names.) Dialogue

"Orals are an antiquated, useless tradition meant to make professors feel superior." - Brennan.









Ratings

Forensic Mystery - C. This was resolved within a few minutes. Not terribly exciting a mystery.





Forensic Solution - D. I know the writers string out the discoveries, but this week was pretty absurd. Brennan and Daisy find no fractures. Then a few striations. Then two different avulsion fractures. And sharp trauma. Also, the ancestry estimation was ridiculous. As was the age-at-death from the cranial sutures. And the sex from the terrible fake skull features. Yeah, this episode just irritated me.





Drama - C-. Did we think that Freddie Prinze really did it? No. But I may be biased about the amount of drama in this show since I've been binge-watching Scandal while getting the baby to sleep.