BONES 12×11 Recap (Aubrey’s POV) – The Day in the Life

At this point, I’m not entirely sure if anyone is reading these. But, I’d rather be talking about Bones to only myself, than talking about something else with a crowd of people. Writing posts holds me accountable. In this post-(new)Bones world, that anchor is essential. Because everything else seems so entirely out of control. Once again, I’ll say that I watch Bones every day. As much as I can. Generally 8-10 episodes, sometimes more (I am extremely fortunate to have a job which allows me to watch television while I work). So it’s not as though I sit here constantly wallowing. Well, I do wallow daily, but not because I haven’t seen these characters in some time. If I couldn’t watch and enjoy reruns, I don’t know what I would do. I love each and every episode as much as the first time I saw it. Actually, I love all the episodes more and more with every new viewing. Besides my pet, Bones is the love of my life. So I’m attempting to operate as I always have. Since not much has actually changed. But the problem is, I can’t stop thinking about the things that have changed. And that’s devastating. When your universe implodes, mental and emotional stability become nearly impossible tasks.

I have no idea why I always start these things off with some uninteresting description of my pathetic existence. No one cares. But if no one is reading, then really, what’s the issue? Nothing to lose. I spend the majority of my day not speaking to people. Not venting. Not allowing myself to fully process my thoughts. So my cluttered brain is sometimes my biggest enemy. I suppose that even just sharing a minuscule portion of my thoughts helps somewhat. I also have run out of interesting introduction ideas. I can’t speculate about upcoming stories, obviously. So I just sort of let myself start writing with no plan and no rules.

Now for Aubrey, if I haven’t already lost you yet. During the first two parts of this episode, we watched Aubrey act a bit more peculiar than usual. And we learned that he drank entirely too much for some seemingly inexplicable reason. Perhaps he was just trying to have some fun. But something was also quite clearly going on between himself and Jessica. At this point in time (meaning two months after the episode aired), we can understand why he was so intent upon imbibing drink after drink at the reception.  But when initially watching the first two segments of this episode, it was incredibly confusing. Something was wrong. But what? The last time we saw the couple, they seemed solid. And prepared for a future together, eventually. So what was the problem? Did Jessica find out about his transfer to LA? Was she upset? Or was she concerned that he hadn’t asked her to go with him? It was difficult to nail down the precise reason here.

The episode picks back up again at the reception. Specifically, during the conversation between Karen and Hodgins. They are talking about Zack’s trial the following day, which we had already seen earlier in the episode. Caroline then saunters over to encourage the group to go dance. As we already know, Caroline also partook in her fair share of Hodgins’ alcoholic concoctions that night. And we get to witness her ordering one of them. “One Arastini, Gorgeous.” Everything that woman says is incredible. Hodgins hands Aubrey not one, but two Arastinis, and Caroline mistakenly believes that he would soon be delivering one of them to Jessica. “What a gentleman, getting a drink for that pretty little redhead of yours.” Aubrey corrects her by admitting that both drinks are actually just for him.

Hodgins inquires as to whether he is feeling anxious about the big move to Los Angeles. “I guess you could say that.” Aubrey is obviously  grateful for the opportunity. It’s a promotion, after all. But, as Karen astutely and correctly hypothesizes, Aubrey has yet to actually ask Jessica to move with him. He believes it to be too awkward. And it’s too much pressure to ask this woman to move her life across the country for him. So Aubrey’s solution is to avoid her until he can find a better solution. That explains some of the odd behavior coming from the two of them. Hodgins and Karen commend him for considering Jessica’s point of view, “which is the sign of a healthy relationship.” But Caroline offers up some hard truth. “Of course, you’re avoiding her, which isn’t.” She’s not wrong. Aubrey considers just “ripping off the band-aid.” And Karen asks him if he knows what would help with that. Caroline (who is winning the contest for best wedding guest in my mind) says “balls.” But Karen was going to say alcohol. There is certainly some truth to that statement. She follows it up by telling Aubrey to just go ahead and seize his future. At that moment, Jessica walks over the group- but happens to be the accidental recipient of Cam’s bouquet. Another mystery solved (when I “wondered” who caught the bouquet during Cam’s scenes). And yet another extremely awkward moment between this couple. At the sight of Jessica with a wedding bouquet, Aubrey proceeds to chug the drink in his hand. And now, we are leaving the wedding once more. Have no fear. It is still not the last we’ll see of this celebration.

Aubrey wakes up the next morning, a little worse for wear. He turns to his side, and notices he’s sleeping right next to a furry pink stuffed toy. And something feels completely off. He asks himself where he is. And that’s a little frightening to me. Not because he blacked out. That can happen. But because Aubrey is not the kind of guy who would intentionally hurt someone. Even if he was completely wasted. He wouldn’t have gone home with a stranger. And even more, he wouldn’t have gone home with…Karen (not because I don’t like her, but because I’m not big on cheating).

My worst fears are nearly confirmed when Karen walks into the bedroom, clad in her extremely “Karen” pajamas. She seems unfazed, and asks him how he’s feeling. And I’m completely perplexed. Aubrey begins to ask if they did something the night before, when Jessica walks in. We can all breathe a sigh of relief. For a moment, Aubrey wonders if he maybe had a more eventful night than he remembered. Jessica tells him not to be a pig. The women inform him that he was insanely intoxicated the night before, and they thought he was going to throw up in the cab ride home (actually Karen used the term “wastey-face”). Karen’s place was closer, so the couple crashed there for the night. Aubrey looks over at the mildly frightening pink animal next to him, and claims that their story explains “this thing…sort of.” I know Karen hasn’t been in a substantial number of episodes. But I feel like we know her well enough at this point to say that it’s unsurprising that she has a very pink and very furry stuffed animal just laying around her house. Actually, I’m sure there are much crazier items dispersed around that home.

As Karen exits the room to go make coffee, she decides it’s time for Aubrey to rip off the band-aid. She mentions to Jessica that Aubrey has something to ask her. And then she flees. Aubrey attempts to form a coherent sentence, but then the phone rings- which is so often the case with this show. He finds his phone buried in his shoe, and picks it up to talk to Booth. There’s a body in the woods covered in acid. Brennan cannot be there because she’s in court. So Aubrey and Jessica have been tasked to go examine the body and the scene. He begins to stand up, but it’s not entirely successful. “Oh…no.” He plops back down onto the bed. And with that, Jessica volunteers to drive.

As we’ve already seen in Hodgins’ story, Aubrey and Jessica are at the site of the body along with him. So we skip right to Aubrey and Jessica’s tense walk through the woods. Jessica is confused as to why Hodgins even asked her to follow Aubrey. She should be with the remains. She sounds strangely like Brennan here. Right then, Aubrey suddenly stops. He has decided to just rip off that metaphorical band-aid. “I want you to move to LA with me.” Jessica does not look excited. Maybe a little stunned. But mostly, she appears to be scared. “Really?” She tells him she was starting to wonder. Which answers my question of whether or not she even knew about his transfer. Though, why else would there have been an uncomfortable vibe prior to this moment if she didn’t already know. She informs him that she cannot give him a yes. Instead, she gives him an “I don’t know.”

She starts to talk about how moving across the country would affect her life, but Aubrey gets distracted by something and walks away. As it turns out, he has discovered how the two prisoners escaped. A sewer was blown open by some sort of powerful explosive.

Back at the FBI, Aubrey has a cup of coffee in one hand and some pills in the other. When you have to work with a hangover, you do whatever you have to in order to avoid feeling like death.  He walks over to Booth’s office, and we get an adorable glimpse of Christine and Hank playing. That image alone makes me so ridiculously emotional. Booth and Brennan’s kids. At work with their dad. Playing in his office while he works. It’s so simple. Perhaps unremarkable to most. But to me, it’s amazing. Aubrey informs Booth that Kovac’s wife is on her way to the FBI as they speak. Booth motions for another agent to sit with his kids while he finishes his conversation. He’s not going to let anything happen to them, meaning someone will have their eyes on the two children at all times until this situation is resolved. Booth notices that Aubrey really looks like he’s struggling, so he asks if Aubrey is still hungover. Aubrey’s answer- he’s working on it. He relays a message to Booth that he received from Hodgins. Hodgins determined that the sewer grate was blown open by military-grade HMX. I do not claim to know much about explosives. But between the words “military-grade” and Booth telling us it’s a powerful explosive, I sense that this is not a positive discovery. The prisoners would have had to steal that type of explosive. Aubrey concludes that someone must have be helping Kovac from the outside. Booth will call the Pentagon to check on any recent HMX thefts. If they can find the source of the explosives, they may be able to find out who’s helping Kovac.

Just then, Kovac’s wife enters the bullpen. Booth pushes Aubrey to talk to her, as they need to find her husband “now.” Booth knows what’s at stake if they don’t. And there is no time to waste here. I’m trying to narrate this as if I didn’t watch the reveal in the next episode. As if I didn’t know that this woman was dangerous and abhorrent. But it’s difficult. Knowing what she did, and acting like I don’t? Eh, impossible. She tells Aubrey that when her “husband” went to prison, she immediately served him with divorce papers. She claims she has not been in touch with him at all while he’s been in prison. “I want nothing to do with him.” But that same morning, she says that Kovac called her. Aubrey is going to call Angela over to the FBI to make a clone of her phone so that they can monitor all future incoming calls. “Does that mean I have to talk to him?” Aubrey tells the “wife” that she will not have to talk to him for long. And he adds that they are going to keep her safe. But who’s going to keep them safe?

At the diner, Aubrey grabs a large bag paper of takeout. Is it all for him? That’s certainly plausible. As he’s rushing out the door, he nearly runs right into Caroline. “James Aubrey, you look about ten years older than the last time I saw you.” He says that makes sense since it feels like a lifetime ago to him. Caroline has heard about everything with Kovac by now, and she wants to know how Booth is holding up. “Just the way you’d imagine. He’s got his kids at the office, making sure they’re safe.” Aubrey is bringing them some french fries to distract them. But I’m sure there’s more food in that bag for an anxious Aubrey as well. He asks Caroline how Zack’s trial went. Caroline tells him it went as expected, “though I made a few squint enemies in the process.” Aubrey doesn’t quite know what that means, but once again his phone interrupts the conversation. It’s Booth, and he doesn’t appear to have any sort of good news. Aubrey rushes out of the diner, calling Hodgins with some “bad news” as he moves.

Before Aubrey can speak to Booth again, he finds Jessica waiting for him at the FBI. He seems genuinely elated to see her. Which makes this even more painful, watching again. Jessica doesn’t reciprocate his happy emotions. She wants to talk. That never means anything good. And thinking about what she wants to talk about in particular really crushes my heart. They go into the interrogation room for some privacy. As Aubrey begins to joke that it’s not really the best place for them to chat, Jessica immediately blurts out that she cannot move to LA. The look on Aubrey’s face makes me want to cry. Jessica apologizes, but she needed to rip off the band-aid as well. She explains that her entire life is in DC. She’s not ready to take this step with him. And after mulling over her decision, she began to realize that they should actually take a step back instead. Aubrey is both stunned and confused. “Wait, a step back? What are you saying?” “I’m saying…I don’t think there’s a future for us. Not in LA…or…anywhere.” Everything hurts. “So, that’s it.” He sort of looks a bit awestruck as he says this. I’m sure he’s devastated. They had a connection. He thought they had a future. But, things happen. And even though it turns out that he will be staying in DC, this relationship was clearly not in the stars, so to speak. Aubrey’s phone chimes again. Angela has got a location on Kovac. He tells Jessica that he really wants to finish the conversation, but that Booth needs him. She tells him to go. Multiple times. And that’s really it for them, isn’t it. The camera remains on Jessica as Aubrey leaves the room. And her head slowly drops. And we are finally halfway through this episode. It only gets far more intense from here with Angela, Brennan and Booth.

I had a difficult time grappling with this breakup. Granted, I’d choose them to part ways over others in the show, but I had such confidence in them. They clicked. They were sweet together. They seemed to be on the same page. But grand gestures like asking someone to move with you across the country- that really makes you think. It makes me sad that Jessica essentially gave up on them. But at the same time, I certainly cannot blame her. It is approximately 2,299 miles (3,700 km) from DC to LA. And moving away from everything you know can be incredibly isolating for some. I did it, once upon a time, but I knew it was right for me. And only me. I wanted to start a new life in LA. Not carry my old one with me. Even if Jessica agreed to move, their future was still uncertain. What if she was homesick? What if it took a harsh toll on their relationship? Perhaps they would begin to resent each other. Unless they were both willing and ready to take that step,  it never would have ended well. The fact that Aubrey ultimately will not be moving to Los Angeles is moot. But it did make Jessica realize that maybe they weren’t exactly right for each other. I do not know her precise reasoning behind this. But I trust that she wouldn’t hurt Aubrey for no reason. And while he’s a little sad right now, it seems as though he’ll move on pretty quickly. I understand both points of view. I respect both of them. And I think this was a mature move, as much as it saddens me.

Next week, we are onto Angela. And I’m excited. Because things start to speed up, and there are some incredibly emotional and poignant moments in her act. It feels weird to still be recapping in May of 2017. And the fact that this is the third post on the same episode- perhaps it’s a bit excessive. But again, I’m stretching everything out as far and as long as possible. That was a decision I made even before 12×12. Note how I still cannot call that episode what it is. And what it always will be until the revival (fingers crossed). Even after I get through this episode, and the next. I will still be here writing something. Maybe I’ll recap from the beginning. Or maybe random episodes or random scenes. I can’t say at this point. But there will always be something. I have too many thoughts and feelings and I need to figuratively shout them into the void in order to attain some semblance of sanity. Well, sanity is being kind. But I need to talk and write about Bones to make me feel like there’s something for me in this world. Okay, I’ll stop being depressing. It’s just hard. All of this is so hard. But let’s end on a happy note- BONES IS THE BEST! I LOVE BONES. Okay.

See you next time for part 4!