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Review: #Bones “The Prince in the Plastic” (Murder, Vintage Dolls, & Chinese Instructions)

Pictured L-R: Michaela Conlin, TJ Thyne, Emily Deschanel, David Boreanaz, Tamara Taylor and John Francis Daley.

Review: Bones, Season 7, Ep. 703 “The Prince in the Plastic”

Air Date: Thursday, November 17, 2011 9/8c on Fox

Rating ★★★★★

“The Prince in the Plastic” is entertaining and full of comedic dialogue, but I wonder if all the humor distracts from the case at hand.

A young woman, Debbie Cortez (uncredited), is found Saran®-wrapped and her remains are liquefied. While I don’t recommend eating any pudding or mushy foods while watching the first ten minutes of the episode, it’s quite unique how the writers come up with varying ways of decomposing human remains and how best to work with them in the lab. The fact that they use a soup ladle to scoop up the human goo (if you will) is both stomach-churning as it is fascinating.

L-R: Daisy (guest star Carla Gallo) helps Sweets (John Francis Daley) prepare for his gun certification test

As with previous episodes, the victim’s back story isn’t enticing; however, there are a few interesting elements. Debbie was a top VP at a toy company who seemingly was on top of her game coming up with new innovative ideas for toys. The company, Dillio Toys, created the wildly popular Prince Charmington dolls which have generated millions of fantasies for young girls all over the world…including intern Daisy (Carla Gallo). I must admit, Daisy is not my favorite intern by a long shot. While I love Gallo in her other work, in films such as Super Bad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, I’m not crazy about her portrayal of Daisy—a neurotic, intelligent, and very geeky sexual intern. Something about her portrayal of Daisy annoys me. I don’t quite know how her “Lancelot,” Dr. Sweets (John Francis Daley) puts up with her.

I will say I find it very humorous when Daisy simultaneously performs an autopsy on a damaged Prince Charmington doll and the murder victim. She expresses much concern over the doll and his demise which I’m interpreting as a metaphor of some kind or perhaps a contradiction in terms of her dealing with the reality of the actual murder victim. At any rate, it’s comical how she places a little blue cloth over his faux genital area while explaining her reason for doing the autopsy in correlation to the actual case to Bones (Emily Deschanel). Turns out, his demise actually holds some weight.

L-R: Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) question Bianca (guest star Morgan Fairchild) about her involvement of the murder

Morgan Fairchild guest stars as Bianca, the CEO of Dillio Toys where the victim worked. Fairchild is grossly underutilized in this episode. We see her for a few minutes to establish her credentials and then we don’t see her again until the very end of the episode. It’s a shame to have such an iconic talent like her as a guest star only to be in two scenes. Another guest star, Rick Gonzalez, who plays the victim’s brother, also seems to be underutilized in “The Prince and the Plastic.” But I will say his performance is pretty good – very authentic. I believe the sorrow and pain in his eyes when he sees his sister’s broken vintage Prince Charmington doll. It was the last gift she received before their parents died in a horrible plane crash when she was nine.

Sweets (John Francis Daley) takes his gun certification test

While I understand the scenes relating to Sweets taking his certification to carry a gun while out on cases with Booth (David Boreanaz), I am not sure I see the relevance of it during this episode. My question – what the heck are the clear goggles they wear while doing target practice supposed to protect? If a bullet ricochets and hits the goggles, are they bullet-proof? Those goggles didn’t seem to help when he accidentally shoots a metal pole during his certification testing and the bullet bounces back to graze his arm. I guess he needed ARMor (get it, arm cause he got shot in the arm.)

One of the most entertaining aspects of “Prince in the Plastic” lies with Angela (Michaela Conlin) trying to piece together a baby walker for her infant son. The instructions are a very bad literal translation from Chinese to English but very amusing nonetheless.

Angela recites instructions to Cam (Tamara Taylor): “Gently forward piece to coupling for together with warning about many danger…I am not gonna let the baby walker beat me!”

Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) also takes a stab at putting the walker together, as he reads the instructions aloud: “Make seat with secure to fasten red pin B to happy.” I’m sorry, can you repeat that? (chuckle)

There’s another funny scene during which Bones pretend plays with the Prince Charmington doll. She puts on a very high-pitched, exaggerated British accent and creates a satirical dialogue about the Prince, “Ah subjects, I am Prince Charmington…if I had a functioning respiratory system, my lungs would be filled with liquefied human tissue, ha ha ha,” to which Bones laughs heartily, much to Angela’s confusion. Deschanel is hilarious but it’s her delivery of pretend play as a brilliant scientist who forfeited playing with toys as a young child to concentrate on science that seals it. Of course, the expression on Angela’s face is priceless!

It seems this season of Bones is leaning towards tickling our funny bones rather than stimulating our minds with intricate cases although the science is still front and center. Every case they solve, no matter how boring the back stories may be, the methods they utilize to resolve the cases are still outstanding and engrossing. And while I enjoyed this episode for the comedic aspects, I found myself a bit bored in places and not completely engaged. I love the interaction between Bones and Booth when it comes to their relationship and how they communicate with each other, but I feel like there is an element missing – that exciting, thrilling, and palpable element that puts you on the edge. Regardless of that notion, I’m enjoying the seventh season of Bones immensely, but would really love a case where the back story is as interesting and inspiring as the science they use to crack said cases.

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Photos © 2011 FOX Broadcasting Co., All Rights Reserved.

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Judy Manning

Dream chaser extraordinaire! Judy tends to be a tad sarcastic and kind of goofy! She is an avid admirer of all things supernatural, paranormal, celestial and mystical. She loves to read, write, and watches way too much TV. She enjoys many genres of film and music (and let's be honest, most music from the 80s). She also has a wicked sweet tooth. Cupcakes beware.

Judy Manning

Dream chaser extraordinaire! Judy tends to be a tad sarcastic and kind of goofy! She is an avid admirer of all things supernatural, paranormal, celestial and mystical. She loves to read, write, and watches way too much TV. She enjoys many genres of film and music (and let's be honest, most music from the 80s). She also has a wicked sweet tooth. Cupcakes beware.