A young couple is out in the woods on a date doing some butterfly watching – well, the guy is doing the butterfly watching, the girl is trying to get him to notice her when she grabs him and plants a big kiss as they notice a huge mound of butterflies. As they fall to the ground the butterflies clear to reveal a partially decomposed body.
When Booth and Brennan arrive on the scene with Hodgins (who reveals that beautiful butterflies will eat the grosses things) they notice the heart has been ripped out of the body, all the blood drained out, and the odd smell of sulfer. This could only be the work of a chupacabra!
The body turns out to be Lee Coleman, a TV celebrity who is famous for debunking myths, particularly those around cryptozoology (unexplained creatures.) Booth and Bones travel to the nearby lodge where the deceased recently spent time gathering material for his upcoming show. While there they learn a little more about the chupacabra from the local innkeeper and his guide/assistant who takes guests out to buy the latest AR-15 rifles and hunting, hiking, and riding ATVs. Angela and Hodgins head back to the murder site to find a hidden camera common to Coleman’s show. They make a few quips about her pregnancy and find the camera which produces no viable evidence other than a tiny bit of noise (a growl?) just before Coleman shuts it off. Angela performs her magic on the audio and finds out that it’s not a natural noise, but a composite of man made sounds Through the Jeffersonian’s sound database they determine that it’s a two stroke engine and man-made deer call.
Back in the lab, we’re treated to a little humor as Mr. Nigel-Murray reveals that he’s a recovering alcoholic and as part of his AA (alcoholics anonymous – that’s not the funny part), is supposed to make amends for his wrong-doings to those around him. He confesses some rather odd lies he’s been telling and deeds he’s been doing and makes the entire lab uncomfortable. We found out later than he claims to have told his buddies that he not only had a sexual relationship with Cam, but also Dr. Brennan, and Angela. While Bones’ reaction of laughing at his story hurt his feelings (and good on her for recognizing that she did, in fact, hurt his feelings – nice job writers), the quiet, practical joke, revenge that Hodgins got was best of all – I’m not going to ruin that one for you. Rest assured, I’m sure it will change the relationship between those two in the lab. Mr. Nigel-Murray tells Bones’ that although his feelings were hurt, he knows that he has to accept the consequences for his actions.
As the investigation progresses on the murder, we are also introduced to Lee Coleman’s assistant who receives a threatening email from another cytpo-guy who was denounced and demoted to public access TV. Booth and Bones go to check him out while he is filming one of his shows and he unexpectedly asks Dr. Brennan to join him on camera where she starts to bring him down before announcing he’s a murder suspect.
Another suspect turns out to be an animal psychic who was belittled by Coleman a year or so ago and the show rerun a couple weeks before his death. Sweets is sent to check her out, but she claims to have an alibi checking out a horse with displacement issues and any of the farm yard animals can back up her claim. (Sweets makes the greatest no-verbal cues in this scene.)
Booth reveals to Brennan that he saw the Yeti (abominable snow man) when he was on a ranger training mission in Nepal. Of course Brennan tries to refute what he saw and he pushes back and says “Why can’t you just believe I saw the yeti?” It’s a straining point for their relationship and for her to either trust him or stick to science. Booth fans the flames by saying to her “You know what Bones, you’re no better than those who think the sun revolves around the earth.” OUCH!
As the evidence is gathered, it looks more and more like the creature was faked (gee, there’s a shocker) as they piece together the hair of a bear, the teeth marks of a bear, and the final element “jaw jelly”, used in taxidermy to make an animal’s mouth shine like it’s wet. When they get back to the lodge, they find that business is booming because of the recent news and the innkeeper is brought in with rope burns on his hands that correspond to rope marks on the victim’s ankles. His skin and Coleman’s is found on the rope and Sweets is about to write him up because he has evidence against him, knows who did it, but won’t tell. Finally the guy caves and says that he “did all that other stuff, but didn’t kill him”. It’s pretty gruesome and I won’t go in to the details here.
Nope, not going to tell you who did it, but I’m sure you can guess by now due to the process of elimination – or can you?
Booth finally reveals to Bones that he never really saw the yeti at the end of show and messes with her mind a bit before telling her why he did it. “The world is a confusing place.”
Editor’s notes: I thought the ending was a little weak. A hunting accident? With all those suspects? Not much of a homicide. The other guy staged a (pretty damn good) chupacabra attack to drum up business? I don’t know about you, but a chupacabra attack (or murder) at a lodge wouldn’t exactly cause me to book a weekend at the place. I do like the character writing with the regular crew. The tangle between Hodgins and Vincent Nigel-Murray is sure to pop up again soon. The “test” between Booth and Brennan has me wondering about what else might be lurking in Booth’s head.
