ACT ONE

Two homeless men go scavenging for food when they come across a burning body in a nearby trashcan.   Back at Booth and Brennan’s house, Brennan makes pancakes.  Booth tries to make breakfast for Brennan like usual, but Brennan wants to use her skills that she learned as a fry cook on the run.  The couple have a few awkward moments before they get a call about the body.

The crime scene reminds Brennan of a bridge that her and Christine slept under while on the run.  Booth isn’t pleased by hearing this.  While looking at the body, Brennan determines that the victim is a Caucasian male.  The victim has an alloy metal melted to his vertebrae.  Cam notices that the victim’s hands have been manicured.  Brennan hypothesizes that this location is a body dump and draws from her experiences on the road.  Booth gets upset that Brennan is doing part of his job and she should concentrate on the bones.  Booth snaps at the FBI and lab techs to get the body back to the lab immediately.  And the couple departs extremely frustrated with each other.

ACT TWO

At the lab, Cam extracts the organs from the victim.  Finn becomes a little squeamish around the meaty remains.  Finn tells Cam that the victim suffered multiple fractures to the ribs, femurs, and tibias.  Cam finds sutures on the heart, meaning he had heart surgery, and she says they can get a serial number from the stents.

Booth takes out his aggression at the gun range.  Sweets asks Booth what is going on with him and Brennan, because he heard there was tension at the crime scene.  Booth is angry that Brennan cooked breakfast when that’s his thing.  Sweets understands that the change from having Brennan here and then on the run was hard.  Booth gets a call from Brennan—they have an ID.

Booth and Brennan question the victim, Richard Bartlett’s, wife, Pamela.  Pamela tells them that her husband was a white shoe divorce lawyer who wasn’t liked by many people.  Pamela suggests they talk to Richard’s assistant, Margot Sandoval.

On the platform, Finn, Hodgins, and Cam watch Angela weld off the metal alloy from the victim.  The metal is the nib of a fountain pen.  The victim was stabbed with it.

Booth and Brennan go to Richard Bartlett’s law office, which is under construction.  Construction worker, Chad Lester, points them in the right direction to Bartlett’s office.  While walking to the office, Booth tells Brennan he wants to take Christine to the carousel, but Brennan said she already did that when she was on the run, and Christine didn’t like it. When they arrive at the office, Booth is uncomfortable being at a divorce attorney’s office, but Brennan reminds him that they aren’t married.  Assistant, Margot, answers the door.

Margot tells them that they need a warrant to search the office.  Brennan ALS’s from his collection.  Booth goes over to the shredder, which is still hot.  Margot tells him that Richard left instructions in case of his death…she was just following orders.

ACT THREE

Brennan goes into Angela’s office and tells her that she needs to reconstruct the pieces from the shredder.  Angela is more concerned to see how Brennan is adjusting to being back home.  Brennan tells her that there is nothing to be concerned about--everything is fine.

Finn comes into the Ookey Room for the clean skull from Hodgins.  Cam comes in with the victim’s stomach; she needs Hodgins to search through the contents.  Finn tells Cam that the fractures on the skull were from a fall and not from a stabbing.

Sweets comes into Booth’s office with Bartlett’s case files.  There is one case, Carmichael vs. Carmichael, where the couple got extremely heated and even left the victim a threatening voicemail.  Sweets tells Booth that Bartlett had a meeting scheduled with the Carmichaels the night he was murdered.

At the Carmichaels’ home, Booth and Brennan are shocked to see the now-happy couple, Gavin and Melanie.  They explain that they were going to see Richard to undo their divorce.  They want to work through their problems.  Melanie tells them that she is pregnant and that has changed everything.  Gavin is even using his architect skills to design them a new home.

ACT FOUR

Hodgins has the results from the stomach contents.  He tells Cam that it contained poblano chiles, curry paste, and rat meat.

Sweets questions Paulo Romano, who hired Bartlett to handle his divorce.  Sweets has taken the paste, peppers, and the pan he used to cook the burger to confirm it was Paulo who gave Bartlett the ratburger.  Paulo says that Bartlett charged him way too much and in return every Tuesday he fed him a ratburger.  Paulo says that he didn’t kill Bartlett.  In fact, Bartlett raved about the burger – it’s even in his emails.

Hodgins shows Angela a stabbed mango with the fountain pen.  While stabbing it, Hodgins nicked his own hand and got some DNA on the murder weapon.  He found a fingernail, which he can hopefully get DNA from as well.  King of the Lab!

Cam and Finn go over the victim’s injuries, which don’t match up.  It seems like the victim fell head-over-heels, but there’s no head wound to prove the scenario.  Angela comes in and offers her services to find possible scenarios.  She also tells them that she found something in the shredded documents:  a photo of Bartlett’s wife and his assistant, Margot, getting hot and heavy in bed.

ACT FIVE

Sweets questions Margot, who claims to be in love with Pamela.  She tells Sweets that Richard found out about the affair and confronted her.  Margot shredded the picture to protect Pamela, but Sweets informs her that Pamela is now gone.  Margot is stunned by the news.

Angela shows Brennan and Finn possible scenarios that happened to the victim, but all of them are ridiculous and aren’t the answer.  Finn suggests that it looks like the victim fell down a vertical staircase.  Brennan realizes she knows what happened.

On the way back to the construction site, Booth tells Brennan that he wants to try and take Christine to the carousel again.  Brennan gets offended by Booth accusing her of not knowing how to take care of Christine.  She tells him that she did fine on her own.  Booth gets frustrated, feels shut out.  Brennan doesn’t want to fight now.

The couple is fuming when they get to the site.  Booth has had enough—he’s angry.  Brennan tells the construction workers she needs to see the construction chute.  Booth and Brennan ignore the warnings from the workers.   Brennan goes into the chute and sees blood and tissue.

ACT SIX

Back in the Bone Room, Brennan re-examines the bones.  Booth comes in to apologize.  They act polite and civil.  Finn interrupts, giving Brennan the skull.  On the skull there are cracks that contain the accelerant that was used to burn the victim.  Finn tells them that Hodgins checked: the accelerant that was used was a highly flammable solvent that is usually used by architects.   Booth and Brennan make the connection: Gavin Carmichael is an architect.

Melanie tells Booth and Brennan that her husband didn’t kill Richard.  She tells them that she cut her finger signing the divorce papers, and that’s why her fingernail is on the pen.  Booth tells them that they know their legal fees were past due and Richard was not a patient man.  Brennan tells them that they know Richard purposefully confused their divorce papers so that the documents would be null and void.  When the couple heard about this, they stabbed him in the neck.  Gavin tells them that he wants to make a deal, but Melanie tells him to shut his mouth.  Apparently, everything isn’t great in their marriage.  Brennan tells them the Richard died from being tossed down the chute, not from the pen stab.  Melanie tells them that Gavin was the one who tossed him down the chute.  The couple fight about who actually murdered him.  Booth and Brennan know that they are both caught and that these people should have never gotten married.

Back at home, Brennan comes home and apologizes to Booth.  She tells him that she talked to Sweets, who believes that she is subconsciously rebelling over the fact that her happiness also depends on Christine and Booth’s happiness.  Booth tells her that things between them will get better and that the time they spent apart they won’t get back, so they should enjoy each other more now.  Brennan agrees and thinks they should go to the carousel tomorrow as a family.