- The flattened remains of a woman are found in a recycling plant, leading the team to a wedding planner, the woman's fiancee, and the owner of an online dating service. As the Squints work to solve the case, Bones and Booth are at odds when it appears that someone they know is cheating on a friend/colleague.
- Meriel Mitsakis' body is found, mechanically crushed in a recycling plant. She had experimental plastic toe surgery, as final touch for a life long-planned perfect wedding with Mike. Tracing her wedding dress, Booth and Bones see Sweets' bossy girl, crazy Daisy, being fitted for one, presumably with her fiancé. Against Booth's and the others' advise, Bones ends up telling Lance. Meriel's multiple infidelity made her enemies, some without alibi. She was overrun by the car owned by her date (from the cellphone-proximity dating service) which Hodgins also uses.—KGF Vissers
- Two sanitation workers at a dump appreciate their new coworker, a garbage chick. One admonishes the other that God doesn't appreciate lusty thoughts. He replies if God doesn't want him talking like that, he should send a sign. So they move to another bale of garbage, and there's his sign: a bloody outline of a woman on cardboard. They think it's the Virgin Mary.
Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) arrive. Even Booth crosses himself. But Bones runs a quick chemical test: not a miracle, dried blood. The onlookers, which include the priest, watch as the team unbales the garbage. Then, inside the pallet, they find a crushed, mushy, soggy body.
They can't pull her off the cardboard back in the lab because she's too mushed into it. The victim had her toes surgically shortened.
A plastic surgeon looks at the x-rays-definitely his work. Meriel wanted to fit into Christian Louboutin sandals for her wedding. This allows Bones to talk about how ridiculous the concept of monogamy is and Booth to defend it in a conversation fraught with subtext. The doc offers to leave so they can continue their lovers' spat. Of course, he's surprised they're just coworkers.
Bones meets with her fiance and her best friend, Genie (Mayim Bialik). It's a Blossom sighting! He thought it was silly she wanted to have surgery on her feet, but they knew how important the wedding was to her.
Angela (Michaela Conlin) finds Wendell (Michael Grant Terry), the eager lab tech who has borrowed an expensive piece of machinery from Egyptology without asking. Cam (Tamara Taylor) tells him it's something he could be fired for - but he cuts her off, saying he found something. Cam fishes a straight pin out of the victim's flesh. Angela deduces she must have just had a dress fitting.
Booth and Bones go to a bridal shop, where the owner tells them they're meant for each other. She remembers Mariel. She fought with Anya, their best bridal consultant. But she was not there, the conflict escalated, and Anya slapped Meriel, so she had to let her go. Booth tries to tempt Bones with wedding dresses, but she objects on principle. Then, they hear a woman trying on a dress and giggling with glee. It's Daisy (Carla Gallo), Sweets' girlfriend. She's hugging another guy (but we don't see his face). Booth explains to Bones they will be keeping the sighting to themselves.
Back at the office, she wants to tell Sweets (John Francis Daley), and Booth cuts her off at every chance. Instead, he asks Sweets if dealing with crazy brides all day could drive someone nuts. (Um, duh?) Sweets say violence in brides is rare, and infidelity is much more common. Booth jumps in and drags Bones out.
They meet with Anya, who said Meriel insinuated she didn't know what she was doing. Then Meriel threw pins at her. That's when Anya slapped her. She worked there for 29 years and prided herself on being a "gentlewoman," which, incidentally, is her alibi.
Cam and Wendell try to figure out how to get mushed Meriel off the cardboard. Finally, he suggests they scrape her off.
Hodgins reports his maggot findings: the bugs were sauced on tequila, which means Mariel was, too. He also found glycerin on Meriel's clothing, which the bridal shop uses to preserve bridal bouquets.
The team approaches mush Meriel with a giant plastic slab as Wendell talks about removing a pizza from the oven. They slide it under her and remove her from the cardboard, squishy sounds driving home the point.
Over lunch, Bones asks Booth if he thinks Anya did it. He's not sure. She notes he's usually certain, and he says no, that's her, declaring she's never getting married. Instead, he suggests she has issues and should bring them up with Sweets. But she doesn't think taking relationship advice from a man cheating with an engaged woman is a great idea. And then Sweets and Daisy walk up. Up jumps Booth, dragging Bones away before she can speak her mind. But he's too late. Daisy sits, and Bones remains rooted to her chair. As Booth pulls Bones away, Sweets suggest they get dinner. Daisy has plans, Bones asks with who, and Booth finally succeeds in getting her out the door. "If they want a healthy monogamous relationship, they should be open and honest," Bones tells him. "Yeah, well, that's not the way a relationship is supposed to be," he says.
Angela does a test on the cardboard as Bones blurts out that Daisy is cheating on Sweets. She tells Bones to keep it to herself, but Bones says a psychological expert should be able to handle it. They find the name of a club on the cardboard.
Bones and Booth walk into a club with bubbles floating everywhere. They're made of glycerin. The bartender remembers Meriel as the woman who sent her drink back three times - even vodka on the rocks. Booth suggests he go through the credit card receipts. They track down the boxes being recycled in the back alley. There's gravel possibly matching what they found in the victim's hair. Bones does some inspecting with black light. Booth finds a woman's cell phone covered in sparkles. Bones finds blood on the ground.
Back at the lab, Angela gets numbers out of the phone. She fixes it, and it starts ringing. She answers. A photo of Hodgins pops up.
Bones, Booth, and Angela confront him. He says it's because his phone was nearby. He was signed up for a dating service called "Date or Hate." When you're within a certain distance, both peoples' phones ring, and they get to pick "date" or "hate." And now Angela knows Hodgins is using a dating service.
Bones and Booth visit the dating company. The slightly nerdy young man running it tells them Meriel has been getting hits during the last month. The last one was the night she was murdered. Booth talks to Meriel's fiance, who doesn't believe she is cheating.
Observing in the next room, Bones asks Sweets if he wants to know if his girlfriend is cheating. He says he'd see, and he's trained to recognize the subtleties of human behavior. Bones keeps her mouth shut.
The night Meriel was killed, her fiance was at dance classes.
Bones can't take it anymore. She tells Sweets that Daisy is engaged and is sleeping with him behind her fiance's back (which seems like a giant leap for someone who strictly relies on hard evidence, but whatever). He doesn't believe it. Bones says maybe he can't read clues as well as he thinks. She tells him what they saw. Sweets start to hyperventilate a little and asks for a moment alone.
Cam, Angela, and Wendell look at photos of mushed Meriel's face, looking for imprints on her body. Instead, they find a tire tread.
Bones tells Booth she told Sweets about Daisy. But, unfortunately, he's gotten nowhere with Meriel's last dating match. Booth asks Bones why she told Sweets he's going to come in and cry and stuff. Sweets walk in, looking deflated and upset, ready to cry. He feels like an idiot. She's been canceling a lot lately, and their "intimate relations" have dropped. He thinks he's a failure as a lover and a psychologist. He asks Booth what the manly move would be. Sweets decide to confront her.
Angela runs a scenario involving the car. It shows her getting hit and the driver backing up to run over her again.
Wendell invites Hodgins to the bar with some of his single lady friends.
Bones and Wendell track down SUVs matching what they've found. They find stains that could be blood. The bumper height matches too. Wendell lifts a hair from the tire.
Booth meets with the owner of the SUV, who says he used to be engaged to Meriel. She broke it off when she met her current fiance but kept his grandmother's ring - sold it to pay for her wedding. He asks for a lawyer.
The lab tests come back on his SUV - he hit a dog last week.
Bones is shocked that everyone thinks she shouldn't have told Sweets the truth.
Angela and Hodgins go through Meriel's Date or Hate matches, including the final one, a gorgeous surfer-looking dude, Owen Smith. However, Angela thinks he looks too good to be true, like the photo was faked.
Daisy comes to meet Sweets; no idea why he's acting cold. She denies having a fiance. She was at the shop with her cousin's fiance, trying on dresses because her cousin was out of town, and they were the same size. She was trying to take advantage of that day's sale with her cousin's fiance, not hers. Goo-goo faces and apologies follow, along with some office make-up nookie on the floor.
Angela shows Bones and Hodgins what she found about Owen Smith: he's a composite of four of Meriel's other Date or Hate matches.
Bones and Booth meet with the website's nebbish founder. He drives an SUV. He says it was an accident. She said she wanted a "funny, smart, successful" guy, and that's him. But she gave him the finger when he drove down the alley to talk to her. So he ran her over - twice.
After work, Hodgins walks to the bar where Wendell drinks with his ladies. His phone rings. It's Date or Hate - with Angela's picture. Separately, they both look at their phones and contemplate. Hodgins goes into the bar.
Bones bang on Booth's door late at night. She saw Sweets and Daisy - she realizes she wanted to spare him pain but caused it instead. Bones feels like a drink and helps herself to his excellent Scotch. She intellectually knows jealousy is pointless, but she experiences it herself with Angela, Hodgins, Cam, and Booth. Because they all want to lose themselves in another person, they believe love is transcendent and eternal. She wants to believe that, too. Booth sits next to her on the couch and promises her someday. She will. They toast.
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