TEXT: "The Soldier on the Grave" [SCENE_BREAK] [Fade in: BRENNAN and BOOTH walk into the scene, ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETARY] BOOTH: I never get used to the magnitude of this place, what it's taken to keep this country free. BRENNAN: All socities build monuments to their dead, to convince future combatants that it's an honor to die in battle. BOOTH: For these servicemen it was. And somebody to use this place to protest the war just pisses me off. These are the lives that gave them the right. These men, they should be respected. BRENNAN: If they were really respected, maybe not so many of them would be buried here. BOOTH: Are we gonna get into something here, Bones? BRENNAN: I don't see why. I think we both wish this place were a lot smaller. AGENT #1: Agent Booth, Dr. Brennan. Right this way. [Camera pans out, AGENT #1, BOOTH and BRENNAN walk towards the scene. Jeffersonian employees are taking pictures of the scene and collecting samples.] AGENT #1: It must've happened in the middle of the night. Place is so big no one saw the fire. [ZACK is taking photos of a burned skeleton, leaning against a headstone. BOOTH, BRENNAN and AGENT #1 approach.] ZACK: The accelerant was charcoal starter. AGENT #1: We didn't find a suicide note. BRENNAN: If he was a protester, wouldn't he have left a note? BOOTH: Didn't need to. It's on Charlie Kent's grave. BOOTH (offscreen): Press was coming out to do a tribute to him. [BRENNAN looks up, pulls out latex gloves.] BOOTH: One-year anniversary of his death. BRENNAN: [Nonplussed] Charlie Kent? BOOTH (offscreen): He was in the National Guard. About to be drafted by the NBA when he got shipped out to Iraq. He gave
SUMMARY:
Booth and Brennan investigate the apparent suicide of a protester in Arlington National Cemetery. But Brennan and her team discover this was not suicide, it was murder, and the victim was a soldier who had served in Iraq, not a war protester as originally thought. Booth and Brennan pursue the murder investigation and interrogate the American soldiers the victim served with in Iraq. Their investigation leads to many unanswered questions about the victim's military unit in Iraq and the actions they took while on patrol there. As they uncover more information about the case, all clues point to a potential military cover-up. Meanwhile, Booth laments the horrors of war and his own shady past as a military sniper.