TEXT: "The Skull in the Desert" [SCENE_BREAK] TEASER (Medico Legal Lab - Forensics Platform. Zack and Brennan examine remains, Hodgins uses his computer) ZACK: The victim was stabbed upward of 30 times. Every rib is marked. Vertebrae sternal, vertebrae costal. BRENNAN: What kind of weapon? HODGINS (looking at pictures on his computer of Angela's vacation): Who vacations in the desert? It's like lunching at the dump. ZACK (distracted by the pictures of Angela on Hodgins's computer monitor): Uh, pointed, with no cutting edge. Like a giant ice pick. (Hodgins changes pictures on his monitor to one of Angela in a bikini) HODGINS (Grinning at the picture): Whoa. Angela. BRENNAN (Focused on the remains): Or a sharpened screwdriver. HODGINS: We warned her about the sun, right? We told her to cover up, avoid melanoma? ZACK (seeing the new picture Hodgin's has switched to: Angela kissing a man in front of a rocky hill): Who's the guy? HODGINS: Her boyfriend Kirk. ZACK: Angela has a boyfriend? BRENNAN: Every year for three weeks, Angela has a boyfriend and a vacation, HODGINS: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Playing house in a post-boho rustic artist's cabin in the desert with her overpaid pseudo-celebrity photographer boyfriend-that is not a vacation. BRENNAN (Bent over the remains): Eight months to a year dead, correct? HODGINS (Distracted): Yeah, yeah. Pupae casings, maggots, blah, blah, blah. Eight months of a year. (Hodgins opens a videoconference with Angela on his computer) HODGINS: Angela, we're betting. Are you using Crisco or butter for
SUMMARY:
While on vacation in the desert, Angela contacts Brennan to ask for her help in identifying a skull - she's afraid it's her boyfriend, Kirk, who left on a photo shoot and has been missing for several days. The skull is sent to the lab, where Zack and Hodgins confirm that the victim died of a gunshot wound, had traces of peyote in his hair, and, sadly, is Kirk. Booth thinks the murder is drug-related, but the investigation leads them to a counterfeiting ring in the middle of the desert.