[Lowing]
- [Siren Chirps] - [Booth] Can you make anything out?
Yes. It's a crater.
We know it's a crater, Bones. The question is, what caused it?
You should ask a geologist.
- I can tell you for sure it's not a meteor. - You got a look what's inside?
Not for long. State troopers didn't want anyone getting near it until you people got here.
- That's very nice of them. - But what did it look like?
Uh, I'm pretty sure it was meat.
Meat wearin' clothes.
- [Booth] What do you wanna do? - Let's take a look.
Mmm. So what do you think? Dead?
I'm just saying, ifhe fell out of a plane, that plane is long gone by now.
No sign of a parachute.
- What do those shoes look like to you? - [Booth] Loafers.
He hit the ground at approximately 200 kilometers per hour.
How can you tell that by his shoes?
124 miles per hour is terminal velocity for a falling human.
So we're gonna go with the theory that this was once human?
I've never read about an alien encounter in which the aliens wore loafers.
How much you wanna bet Hodgins has?
[Saroyan] The crows and critters sure made quick work of him.
Yeah, but these Calliphora vicina eggs will confirm time of landing.
Blowflies on aliens. Who knew?
You're taking a shot at me because I happen to believe...
that we are not all alone in an infinity of space?
It's not the believing in extraterrestrial life that's odd.
- It's the believing that they're visiting us. - This guy is wearing loafers.
Aliens don't wear loafers, people.
- Even if they wanna pass unnoticed amongst us? - Before taking us over?
Oh. Oh, this is harassment.
You know, it's illegal to mock people for their fundamental beliefs.
Is the tissue damage consistent with a long fall?
- Definitely. - You've seen something like this before?
Suicide off the Chrysler Building. At least this one didn't hit the pavement.
A human being reaches terminal velocity after falling 200 to 220 meters...
depending upon air resistance.
Velocity would be achieved between five and eight seconds...
depending upon atmospheric conditions, body position and clothing.
He fell from a minimum of 1,200 feet.
- I can run through the math if you'd like. - Send me an e-mail.
- Extremely porous bones. - What's that mean?
That means he was ill.
His right femoral head shows significant demineralization.
[Brennan] Zack?
- I'd put him at... 130. - 130 what?
- Years. - Old?
There's an alternate explanation.
- Then that's the one we should go with. - He was in outer space.
And so he fell from outer space in a pair of loafers?
Hodgins left too soon.
- [Device Buzzing] - The F.A.A. reports no recent accidents involving anyone...
falling from a plane, balloon or blimp, commercial or otherwise.
The F.A.A. doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire universe, my friend.
Little green men?
Gray. They're gray. Not green... gray.
Being as you're half alien yourself, you should know that.
If they dropped him from orbit, he'd have burned up and his loafers would've fallen off.
lfhe was an abductee tossed out of an interplanetary spacecraft...
why do his bones show that he has spent an extended time in outer space?
The only rational explanation is that he was an astronaut.
Astronauts lose two percent of their bone mass for each month spent in space.
Our victim's legs, hips and lower vertebrae have demineralized over 20%...
indicating 10 months in space.
- Do we do that? - The longest shuttle flight was STS-80.
- 17.66 days in 1996. - The longest we know of.
The man who spent the most time in space was a Russian cosmonaut.
- That we know of. - Why do you know that?
- My knowledge is vast. - Why did I ask?
Anyway, there can't be all that many people who have accumulated 10 months in space.
That we know of.
Call Booth. Tell him to see if anyone's missing an astronaut.
Meet Colonel Calvin Howard...
senior training specialist and crew liaison in the shuttle program.
Currently working in the National Space Agency in Bristol, Maryland.
Angela just sent me her work in progress of the partial skull reconstruction.
She says we expected too much too soon.
But the shape of the head, the cheekbones...
Close enough for jazz.
Six months on the international space station.
Plus, a number of servicing missions to both the Hubble and Lansing Telescopes.
Wait. Does that add up to the right amount of bone rot?
Loss. Bone loss. And... yes.
- Has anyone reported him missing? - No, not exactly.
- Not exactly? - Well, astronauts are regarded as viable terror targets.
Their whereabouts are extremely confidential.
I bet if you told the agency...
you were going to identify Howard to the press, they'd be a little more cooperative.
Yeah. You know, I have been a wonderful influence on you.
Well, actually, I learned that move from Cam.
Well, I went the other way with it, okay? Looked up his wife in the phone book.
Did my husband die in some kind of training accident?
- We don't believe so, ma'am. No. - It couldn't have been.
- How do you know that? - Because the Space Agency would be all over this.
You're probably right. They wouldn't let anybody else take the lead, not even us.
You say your husband left the day before yesterday?
- On what airline? - Cal flies himself.
- What kind of plane? - He has a turboprop Cessna out at McNichol.
What exactly does a senior training specialist and crew liaison do?
Um, we're not supposed to discuss these things.
For the past three years, Cal's been training others to go up.
- Because he lost his medical clearance? - How did you know that?
His X-rays show that he was suffering from a dramatic loss of bone density.
Must've been hard on the colonel...
training others to do what he loved to do.
No. Cal was a team player.
He was training her husband, James, for almost a year.
- Actually, it was hard on him. - It would be hard on any of them.
All they ever do is think about going back into space...
and all we ever think about is getting 'em back home.
Is there some kind of rule that astronauts' wives travel in packs?
When you marry an astronaut, no one really understands except...
Except other people who are in the same situation.
This is Cal's itinerary, uh...
mainly when he intended to call me and... [Inhales]
when he'd be back.
You expected your husband home today?
Yeah.
[Sniffles]
Yeah, I just need to know if it's still in the hangar or not.
It's a Cessna turboprop plane registered to Colonel Calvin Howard.
Thanks.
It just seems so odd. Those women stick together like a harem.
What? They support each other, you know? A lot of service wives are like that.
Well, what about astronauts' husbands?
Look, their husbands train for years, Bones, all right?
- Their families invest their entire lives. - [Cell Phone Ringing]
Yeah?
Are you sure? Okay, great.
Thanks. Well, plane's still in the hangar.
Well, if that's the plane he got tossed out of, then it didn't fly itself back.
If someone simply pushed him out of the plane, there might not be any evidence.
We have to hope there was a struggle.
Excuse me. Can I see some I.D., please?
Well, yeah, sure. I'll show you mine if you show me yours.
Right. Here you go.
That airplane belongs to the agency.
Our information is that it belongs to Colonel Calvin Howard.
- The agency leased it to him. - Well, it's being investigated as a possible crime scene.
- You were Colonel Howard's boss? - Yes.
Nina Sanborn. I carry a rank equivalent to an air force general.
Hmm. Why didn't you report him missing, General Sanborn?
Equivalent, I said. I'm a civilian.
Cal was... Colonel Howard wasn't missing. He was barely gone a day.
General Sanborn, I know you people are really tight-lipped.
But I'm really good friends with a very aggressive federal prosecutor...
who's great at getting warrants.
Agent Booth? I got the usual fibers, hair, particulates.
No blood? No sign of a struggle?
Nothing. You'll have my full report by the end of the day.
Great. Okay. I need to know what Colonel Howard was working on at the time of his death.
Get your warrant, Agent Booth. Dr. Brennan.
Hey, excuse me, "equivalent to a general" Sanborn.
- I got that warrant. - Why didn't you just tell her right away?
Well, I was hoping that we could all be friends.
Let me see that.
[Sighs]
These are the documents you subpoenaed from the agency?
Yeah, but all the info's blacked out.
- Want me to see if I can get anything out of this? - Can you?
No. I'd need originals. These are photocopies.
- Then why'd you offer? - Well, why else would you ask me here?
'Cause you're a conspiracy nut, and I thought you'd enjoy filling in the blanks.
- With paranoid ravings? - It's better than nothing.
- Lansing Telescope. That mean anything to you? - Yeah.
It's a multigazillion-dollar, deep space...
multifrequency telescope that keeps needing "repairs."
- Why'd you say it like that? - It doesn't need repairs.
There's no rust in space.
So-called "repair crews" are up there retrieving classified information.
Classified information, huh? The telescope is pointed up at the planet Pluto.
Pluto's no longer a planet. It was demoted.
And if the Lansing was pointed away from the Earth...
why would they need to black out all this material?
- Huh. - Can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
What's the deal on proposing to, you know, a woman?
- Oh! - I mean, what is the absolute proper way to do it?
I don't know. The one time I did it, I got shot down flat.
- Did you do it by the book? - Mm-hmm. Well, no.
We were waitin' for the stick to turn blue or not to turn blue...
and I realized I wanted to marry her if the stick was blue or not.
Yeah. That's sort of what I did, only without the sticks.
You asked Angela to marry you?
- Apparently, I didn't do it right. - Do it again.
Go all out this time, right...
with the dinner and the gettin' down on one knee, the violin.
Forget the violin.
Hey, hey, hey. With his bone density...
Colonel Howard sure as hell wasn't going back into space again.
Yeah, I know. That's why he was training his replacement.
- His replacement? For what? - To repair the Lansing Telescope.
Oh! Brothers in arms, my brother.
That replacement's the guy who can tell you things the agency doesn't want you to know.
Eh.
- Makes you feel small, doesn't it? - Because the picture's so big?
No, because the universe is so big.
You're not looking at the universe. You're looking at an enlarged photograph of Earth.
Well, you see one thing, and I see another thing. Personally, I like what I see.
Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan.
I'm afraid Commander Adams is scheduled for time on the A300 Zero-G.
- You're welcome to talk to him there. - The Zero-G?
The vomit comet.
[Man] It makes no sense.
A man flies eight missions into space, and he falls out of a plane?
- I don't think so. - All right, look.
You don't know anyone who would want to throw him out of a plane?
Look, I don't mean to tell you your work...
but shouldn't you be tracking down everyone who flew over that particular piece of real estate?
We are. But not everyone files flight plans.
And not everyone sticks to flight plans.
And you didn't answer the question.
Look, I don't know anyone who didn't like and respect Cal Howard.
It's just that all these, uh, itineraries...
people keeping secrets... even from their spouses.
Look, sir, I understand you have to ask questions like these.
But Cal Howard and Jean Marie were a very solid couple.
- Did you ever get drunk together? - What?
What my partner is trying to ask is if you two were buddies.
Did you go out and have drinks and exchange confidences?
- Yes. That's what I asked. - Yeah, sure. Of course, at times.
So you would've known if his marriage was in trouble?
- Yes, sir, I would. - How can you be sure?
[Man On Headset, Indistinct]
Because Cal knew when I was unfaithful to my wife.
- Colleen? - Right. You guys met her at Cal's place.
Look. That has to stay between us.
Strictly between us.
Cal Howard was my friend, my colleague and my teacher.
If somebody tossed him from an airplane, I'll do whatever I can to help.
Then why do I get the feeling you wanna tell us something?
[Man On Headset, Indistinct]
[Man #2] Prepare to go weightless.
We're about to go weightless. As the plane reaches the apogee of a climb, then falls...
we will have 15 to 20 seconds of weightlessness.
[Man On Headset] ...two, one.
[Brennan] That was great.
[Booth] Man, you're not kidding.
I would like very much to do that again.
I believe you were about to tell us something?
Cal was talking to the S.T.C.
- The what? - Space Travel Coalition.
It's a privately funded space exploration and tourism group. And did you?
- [Together] Did we what? - Vomit in the comet?
No, I didn't vomit. Okay, I'm sure they were trying.
They can try me anytime. It was truly amazing.
You had a little bit too much fun, okay?
What's up with this whole thing about the space tourists?
Celestial joyrides for gazillionaires.
Selling seats on a spaceship that don't even exist yet.
And won't even be viable for at least another few years.
That's what they want you to think. But these guys are swimming in dough.
I already bought my ticket. I wanna see what's going on up there with my own eyes.
What?
- These are the victim's clothes? - Yes.
And you'd like me to do what with them?
Construct a three-dimensional hypothesis of what caused this damage to the clothing.
Falling from an airplane isn't enough?
Well, that would explain the burst seams and pressure tears.
- But this seems to be... - Slashes.
Yeah. When Zack gets a hold of the bones...
maybe you two can figure out if something catastrophic happened to this man.
- You mean before he fell to Earth? - Yes.
Go do your magic.
Now?
Are you certain you can't do what needs to be done with X-rays alone?
Do you need continued access to the soft tissue?
Why would the body burst vertically when all the forces are horizontal?
Ah. So you need more time with the soft tissue to answer that?
Not really.
Please explain to me your reluctance to remove the flesh from the bones.
I'm all right with it, Zack, if it's absolutely necessary.
Even the boiling part.
But perhaps you could at least acknowledge that this is a person?
- Was, you mean. - Was someone's husband, Zack.
What does that have to do with removing the flesh from his bones?
[Sighs] Fine. Do what you have to do.
Thank you.
- [Saroyan] Igor. - I beg your pardon, Dr. Saroyan?
Nothing.
Hey, Bones, I ran a check on S.T.C.
- They're part of the tinfoil hat squad. - What's that?
They wear tin little hats.
- Probably to keep aliens from controlling their minds. - Oh. Schizophrenics?
It's hard to believe that Colonel Howard was part of an organization like that.
Do they have access to planes?
Access? Are you kidding me? They actually have a border patrol division.
"Members fly their own private planes...
and do bimonthly sky patrols in search of U.F.O.'s."
- Do they file flight plans? - Bones, you're a genius.
Look, two nights ago, they had planes on U.F.O. patrol...
within spitting distance of where Colonel Howard's body was found.
Look, we're not a collection of kooks.
Just ordinary people with a mission to promote a friendly liaison with the visitors.
That's quite a manifesto.
Until you've had an encounter, you couldn't possibly understand.
- You've been abducted? - Multiple times.
- Mm-hmm. - Through hypnosis, I discovered that medical testing was done.
- And follow-ups were required. - Are there any side effects from these medical procedures?
You mean like tin hats?
Paranoia, outbursts of anger, loss of connection with reality?
You asked me to come. I'm here.
I run a very successful aeronautics engineering company. I'm richer than God.
Do I appear to have lost contact with reality?
Well, what about post-abduction syndrome?
Similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
- P.A.S. is very real. - I admit to bouts with it.
Frankly, it's one of my main motivators.
When we meet the visitors face to face, they will explain so many things to us.
Including why you were taken.
And why they put an implant in me only then to remove it.
Great. Do you, uh, know this guy?
Colonel Howard. Of course.
So it's true that you offered him a position with the S. T. C?
Yes.
As a method of bringing credibility to your organization?
Yes. But you have to understand, it was Colonel Howard who came to us.
- Why? - He wanted to pilot our suborbital flights.
Till your spaceships were ready, he was gonna help you look for the U.F.O.'s?
Laugh if you must, but Cal didn't think we were crazy.
He'd seen something himself up there, you know? And he's hardly the first.
Quite a few astronauts and military pilots have reported seeing evidence of the visitors.
- Colonel Howard told you this? - Yes, he did.
So trust me, I would've been proud to have been the one to send Cal Howard back into space.
- Would've been? - He changed his mind six weeks ago.
That didn't make you a little angry?
No, not angry. Disappointed.
Great. Then you wouldn't object to my partner and I taking a look at your fleet of planes?
No, not at all.
Why do you think Colonel Howard changed his mind?
They got to him... through his wife, I believe.
- "They"? - The agency.
- They can be very persuasive. - Persuasive?
In my opinion, the agency would rather have Cal die...
than have him announce to the world he'd seen a visitor.
That's not true. The agency loved Cal.
- They valued him. - Why didn't you tell us about S.T. C?
Because it's embarrassing.
Cal wanted to get back into space so badly, he would even listen to those crazy people.
Did your husband see something up there?
Yeah, something that made him sympathetic with Mr. Bahr's organization?
Well, obviously you know that he did, or he said he did.
- And you doubted him? - It doesn't really matter now, you know?
That was three years ago. It was his last mission...
and the agency explained it in such a way that Cal was satisfied.
Look, it's important we know the truth, Miss Howard.
[Sighs] Why?
Because what I've seen, your husband was a man of principle.
And ifhe saw something, he wouldn't just back down to save his career with the agency...
even ifhis wife begged him to.
He insisted on filing an official report. He wouldn't withdraw it.
- They asked him to? - Yes.
But he stuck by his story. They weren't happy with him.
But like I said, that's ancient history.
Cal's friend knew about the S. T.C. His wife knew. Maybe the agency did as well.
So they killed him by tossing him out of an airplane?
That field is less than a mile from the coastline.
Obviously, they were aiming at the ocean and they missed.
The question is why. I mean, it's a big ocean, right? There has to be a reason.
Maybe it wasn't a U.F.O. that Cal saw.
- Ah. - He could've seen something else.
Oh, yeah, like a death beam or a space baby.
I was thinking more along the lines of a spy satellite or experimental technology.
Maybe the agency was afraid...
that Cal was sharing sensitive information with the S.T.C.
Well, regardless, our government does not kill people. Okay, Bones?
[Scoffs] You were a sniper.
Wasn't it our government who sent you to kill people?
Just saying.
[Sighs]
[Liquid Bubbling]
Mmm! Something smells good.
Help yourself.
[Groans] Those definitely human bones?
Because apparently, there are a few types of aliens... races, if you will.
One is quite reptilian, widely known as Greys.
- Definitely human. - Another's bone structure's more amphibian.
These bones are as human as you are.
If you only knew how irony-packed that is.
It's a joke.
Don't you be coming around to boil me in the middle of the night.
There's a strange callus formation on his right femoral head.
Also, bone marrow edema in the same spot.
- Healing from a fracture? - No.
It's some kind of tuberous cortical defect.
I've never seen anything like this before.
- Now you're freaking me out. - I have to get Dr. Brennan to take a look at this.
It looks like he was in the initial stages of osteonecrosis.
What did you get from the tox screen?
Excess levels of vitamins "D," "K," "E," "A," and "C"...
along with glutamine peptides and creatine monohydrate.
[Zack] All the supplements he was taking before his last space mission.
There's something odd about the texture of this bone.
Leucine, isoleucine and valine.
He foresaw going back into space.
- This is not bone. - [Zack] What is it?
A callus has formed over some kind of thick, porous substance.
- Careful. - It's an implant of some kind.
I never saw anything on the X-rays.
How could that not show up on X-rays?
What the hell is this?
Zoantharia of the order Sclerotinia.
Sclerotinia has a calcium carbonate exoskeleton...
with a porosity similar to human bone.
Which would make it biocompatible.
- So it wouldn't show up on X-rays. - Wait.
So this is coral, like from a reef?
Suspended in a biphasic hydroxylapatite calcium phosphate coating.
Theoretically, the calcium from the exoskeleton would grow...
hopefully overcoming the loss of his degenerating bone.
Then this attachment would be...
An electromagnetic device implanted to accelerate growth.
So it's a combination ofhuman and alien technology.
Don't say that to Booth. But if that's the case...
then all the vitamins and amino acids he was loaded up with...
- were mainly to ward off infection. - And he'd need them too.
Bone marrow's highly susceptible. This is a very risky procedure.
I gotta say it. Frank Olson.
He was a U.S. Army scientist in the '50s...
and an unwitting participant in Project MK-ULTRA.
They said he committed suicide, but an exhumation 45 years later proved he was murdered.
You need more. Project Paperclip, MK-Artichoke.
And who could forget Tuskegee?
The government experiments on people, and then abandons them or worse.
What's the point of this experiment?
The main obstacle to long-term space travel is bone demineralization.
If the space program could overcome this one effect...
their funding would triple overnight.
Well, there you go. Experimental program for deep space fails...
and the evidence has to be gotten rid of.
By tossing it from a plane? Why notjust have the visitors toss him into the sun?
- That... is a good question. - [Saroyan] No, it's not.
Sometimes when people try to cover things up, it goes wrong. That's all.
First thing we should do is find out the source of this technology.
[Sanborn] Colonel Reed was Cal's commanding officer on three missions.
So you were the person to whom he reported the U.F.O. sighting?
Oh, for God's sake.
You see what happens? You people get all secretive about things and...
What Cal saw was space junk.
It was satellite parts, a discarded hatch, a screwdriver.
That information isn't cleared.
- Sounded like more than a screwdriver. - Well, it wasn't.
Cal just thought we should be able to explain...
why it was whizzing around space at 25,000 miles an hour.
- And that's all. - Was Colonel Howard in a cast recently?
Last winter. Said he broke his leg parasailing in the Caribbean.
All of our astronauts suffer from brittle bones.
I stepped off a ladder once, and my tibia snapped like a twig.
- Why do you ask? - Because of this.
We found it in Colonel Howard's leg.
We think it's designed to counteract the effects of osteonecrosis.
Experimental surgery on one of our astronauts? Absolutely not.
Our efforts to counter bone loss are limited...
to strength and resistance training and supplements.
I trust you have documentation?
Follow me.
Thank you.
Colonel? Have you ever seen anything?
Any screwdrivers up there?
There's an awful lot up there to see, Doctor.
- The trick is not to let it cloud your judgment. - Did it ever cloud Cal's?
Never. Not once.
And yet he wanted to go back into space so badly...
in spite of the physical damage it had caused him, the pain he was in.
Let me show you something.
You see this? That's me. And that there, that's Cal.
Twenty minutes I spent out there that day...
and it is the last thing I think about every night.
- I can imagine. - No. All due respect, you really can't.
This was the best moment of my life, counting marriage, kids, everything.
I'm not saying that's good or right...
but I do know it was the same for Cal...
for all of us who went up there.
And we would do anything we could to get back.
[Hodgins] This coral's growth was aided artificially.
It was seeded with resin beads on glass plates.
Which makes it rare enough to trace to a pharmaceutical supply house...
based in Geneva, Switzerland.
I searched the literature.
There's a number of clinics and researchers working on bone replacement.
The doctor most likely to have performed this procedure on our victim is Dr. Henry Pascal.
- In Switzerland? - Based in Bethesda, with a clinic in Haiti.
Plus, he worked for the Space Agency until 1998.
- What happened? - He lost his funding and turned to the private sector.
Namely, the Space Travel Coalition.
The foil hat squad funds this guy? Booth is gonna love that.
- Why? - Because he doesn't believe in coincidences.
[Jean Marie] Cal wasn't on vacation when he hurt his leg.
He was in Haiti for a convention.
Can you think of any reason Colonel Reed would tell us a different story?
No. Please, what... what's going on?
We found evidence in your husband's remains...
that he underwent an experimental surgery in Haiti.
What kind of experimental surgery?
- To replace his bone loss. - Does that sound like him?
- Yes. - Was it like your husband to keep it a secret from you?
Yes.
Cal wouldn't want me to worry.
Cal Howard's skeleton before...
and after he fell to Earth.
Every bone showed trauma.
His clothing before...
and after he fell to Earth.
Ripped. Every seam pulled apart.
If I make the clothing translucent...
we can see that some of the clothing damage lines up with the trauma to his skeleton.
And if you isolate the bone damage caused by a device capable...
of making robust cuts in a linear path...
- The guy was chopped. - Chopped?
Yeah. Clothing damage, flesh wounds...
Bone damage. He was chopped.
Ange, tonight, you and me, reservations at Les Deux Copains, 8:00.
Wow. Fancy.
- Suit-and-gown fancy, baby. So leave your mukluks at home. - What's the occasion?
An ax or a hatchet or a machete make sharp, well-defined cuts.
- These edges are abraded. - This our guy?
- Hey, do aliens use any weapons resembling a... - A broadsword?
- How about a light saber? - No. Those can cut through any known substance.
The victim would've been completely dismembered.
If they existed, Zack.
Makeup, hair done, high heels... the whole enchilada.
Only whatever's French for enchilada.
No mukluks. Got it.
Oh.
Dr. Pascal, Colonel Calvin Howard is dead.
Not because of anything I did.
- Wow. Didn't even blink. - Colonel Howard sought me out.
- May I know how he died? - Let's just say it was a really bad fall.
- And what's this got to do with me? - Was your procedure a success?
- How do you define success? - Just answer the question.
- That's actually a fair question. - The results were heartening.
There were extremely painful calluses growing over your implant.
I'd very much like to see that.
And there was no indication of an actual reversal of necrosis.
The calluses were part of the healing process.
See, coral resorption is slow but effective as a scaffold for osteoprogenitor cells.
Incorporating the electrode was speeding the process.
In my opinion, Cal was only months away from having mature lamellar bone.
- No way to know for sure now. Right? - Correct.
Probably to your benefit to terminate your experiment before it went wrong.
Keep those venture capitalists on the edge of their seats.
[Chuckles] You think I... I pushed Colonel Howard off a ladder?
Or out of an airplane.
Look, you can have all my data, my projections, everything.
Colonel Howard goes on the next shuttle mission to repair the Lansing Telescope...
I'm in every medical journal in the country.
That mission's a month away. Would his body have been ready?
At the rate Cal was healing, I believe so.
Did anyone at the agency know about this?
We were gonna petition them officially next month.
Look, you may not like me, but I was his savior and he was mine.
I didn't kill Colonel Howard.
- Somebody's lying to us, right? - Yeah.
- Maybe everybody. - Well, this is your strength.
- Reading people's minds, telling when they're lying. - My strength? Wait a second.
The trouble is... No, no. You haven't given me anything...
that I can spring on the suspect to see how he reacts.
- Like what? - Like a murder weapon.
Or whether the poor bastard was dead before he hit the ground.
- Zack and Angela say he was. - Well, that's something. Dead how?
- Best guess right now, a broadsword. - Broadsword?
- Like King Arthur? - Yes.
Broadsword?
You know what? Bones, I like the whole alien thing much better.
Broadsword? Where do you people come up with this stuff?
I didn't say an actual broadsword. I said like a broadsword.
It was the closest analog I could access.
No traces from the weapon left on the bone?
Traces are left when the weapon cuts deeply into the bone.
Whatever this was wasn't very sharp.
- Left nothing behind. - How about shape?
[Angela] The pattern is consistent with sharp force trauma...
from a curved blade approximately 65 millimeters thick.
And if I am late for dinner, I will find whatever it is and I will hit you with it.
Wow. You... You look incredible.
- [Brennan] You really do. - You know what else I can tell just by looking at you?
You smell great.
You cannot see smell.
The victim was struck four times.
A glancing blow to the head, right humerus, thoracic and left femur.
We couldn't figure out in what order. It's almost as though it was simultaneous.
- The blow to the head is what killed him. - Come on.
Four hits simultaneously with a broadsword?
Was he attacked by the Knights of the Round Table?
Sixty-five millimeters is too thick for a sword. Did you estimate a velocity?
The blade was moving at a velocity of approximately 116 meters per second.
- What's that in American? - About 260 miles per hour.
All right, look. I'm no expert in broadswords, but I do know...
I know what happened!
- How fast does a propeller turn? - At full speed, the tips approach the speed of sound.
But Howard exits the airplane in flight.
The propeller is ahead ofhim and pulling away.
- How could he come into contact with it? - There are pusher propellers.
- It didn't happen in the air. - He was pushed into a propeller?
He would've turned into steak tartar.
Scratch one item off the menu tonight.
Not if the plane was idling.
Propeller speeds would decrease to a thousand or so R.P.M.'s.
- Let's go. - Where?
- To look for a dented propeller. Come on. - Which you do not need me for.
Hey. You're right. Here they come.
I hope you have another warrant.
This is for the, uh... the hangar, but not the individual planes.
Then why are your people looking at propellers?
Because the warrant includes anything that is in plain sight.
"Plane" sight. [Chuckles] Get it?
- It's a pun. - Yeah. This is not the only hangar we'll be checking out.
- What plane are you looking for specifically? - We'll know it when we see it.
We believe that Colonel Howard was struck by a propeller.
We're looking for blood stains using alternate light sources.
You think Cal walked into a propeller?
No way he makes a bonehead move like that.
- We surmise he was pushed. - But why?
Here he was, this great guy. But he was a liability to one of you.
- One of us? - Somebody wanted him dead.
That's ridiculous.
If it turned out Cal was able to reverse his bone loss...
would you put him on the next shuttle?
You know, the one to repair the Lansing Telescope again.
- Colonel Adams is slated for that mission. - Colonel Reed?
Well, Cal would be my first choice, yes.
All due respect, James, but why send the student when the teacher can go?
Look, I take no offense. Cal was the best.
[Woman] Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth.
- Blood. A lot of it. - It was washed down this drain here.
- High-pressure hose. - Can you tell which plane's propeller may have done this?
Not within the parameters of the current warrant.
Some of these planes have covers on the propellers, so we can't see if they're damaged.
That is your plane, isn't it, James?
- Take it off. - Take off the cover, James.
I respectfully decline.
It's not his plane. It's the agency's.
A propeller like that wouldn't get you very far.
- Certainly not over the water. - Which is why you had to dump Cal's body short of the ocean.
Booth! Booth! It doesn't make sense.
The whole thing would take at least two people.
Putting the body in the plane, cleaning up the blood, shoving the body out of the plane.
Who are you protecting?
♪ [Soft Rock]
Mrs. Howard? Is Colleen here?
Colleen came to see me off. Saw me talking to Cal.
He was telling me that he was going to be okay in time for the mission.
He was sharing good news.
But it wasn't good, not to me.
She slapped him. That's all.
Because she loves me.
She knew what it meant to me not to go up.
Cal took a step back.
Just one.
He fell back into the propeller.
Why didn't you just say it was an accident?
I don't know. We panicked. I mean, would they believe us?
- Would they understand? - Would you ever get into space?
[Adams] It happened because my friend shared good news with me...
and because my wife loves me.
I'm a blessed man.
♪ [Continues]
- # [Ends] - [Angela, Hodgins Chuckling]
How-How are you feeling?
- What do you mean? - It's a good meal.
Nice bottle of wine.
You feeling loving?
You didn't need to do all of this to get me in a loving mood.
I don't mean in that way.
I am madly in love with you, Angela.
You-You are the most amazing woman that I have ever met.
My life is so much better since we...
- Oh, my God. - What?
Are you breaking up with me?
Why would I get you all dressed up for dinner just to break up?
I don't know.
Because you're... I'm not thinking straight. Go ahead.
You know, I had this all laid out in my mind.
- Mm-hmm. - You are an upsetting woman.
- I'm sorry. - [Chuckles]
Please, go ahead.
I believe that if two people care enough for each other...
the rest of the world disappears to them.
I feel that when I'm with you.
I'm prepared to put you ahead of me for the rest of my life.
Angela Montenegro, will you marry me?
Dear man, good heart.
No.
Why?
I didn't do it right again.
But... How...
- Oh, you're not gonna tell me. - I don't know, Hodgins.
If I knew, I would tell you.
But when you ask me, I have to have this... this feeling.
It has to be...
I'll know it when it happens.
And I hope you won't stop trying.
I don't know if I should laugh, cry, or punch out the sommelier.
I'm sorry. I hope that you choose laugh.
I don't understand.
I don't either.
Look, let's just finish the dessert and go back to your place...
and make love, and maybe it'll come to me.
- While we make love? - I said maybe.
But... you love me?
More than you know.
- Did you eat yet? - I said I'd wait.
How did you know thatJames would tell me?
Man loves his wife. He may not be strong, but he has a conscience.
See, I... I can't tell that stuff.
And I can't tell the difference between coral and bone.
So I guess we make a great pair. Hey, speaking of marriage...
Hodgins is gonna propose to Angela tonight.
- Huh. - What?
I guess right now, it looks to me like marriage is having someone...
who will slap your enemies and then toss their dead bodies out of airplanes.
[Booth] Try not to mention that to Angela.
What's that mean?