- Mailman Steve Rifton's corpse is found in frying fat, hence extremely decayed over two weeks. He was reported missing for three months. The highly intelligent man's passion was the computer game Punky Pong. He recently lost the world record, which was bitterly contested. Both motive and means require several theories based on forensic findings until things start fitting. Meanwhile Jeffersonian intern Colin Fischer gets three Avatar tickets, which also excites Hodgins and Sweets, so they cover for each-other to take turns standing in line for the best seats. Colin's tent however offers an unexpected alternative 'entertainment' for two.—KGF Vissers
- When the remains of a competitive gamer are discovered in a grease truck, Brennan and Booth are called to investigate the case. The victim, Steve Rifton, is the only active player known in the gaming community to have received a perfect score on a famous video game. Steve turned his success into a lucrative partnership with a gaming referee and charged fans to play on the very machine that gave him the perfect score. But between sour business deals and bitter competitors, the team at the Jeffersonian must work to narrow down the many suspects with motive for ending Rifton's reign as gaming king. Meanwhile, Hodgins, Sweets and Jeffersonian intern Colin Fischer take turns camping out for tickets to a movie premiere.—FOX Publicity
- A pair of men empty the grease bins outside a seafood restaurant. "Smells like shrimp," one man complains. That's not shrimp! They discover body floating in the gunk -- a dead one. Fast forward to morning as Bones (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) arrive on the scene. Officers carefully lift the body out of the grease, but the skin slowly begins to slough off and drop to the ground. Only a skeleton remains. It's even grosser than it sounds.
Back at the Jeffersonian, Colin Fisher (Joel David Moore) boasts about having slept with almost 100 women, which has Sweets (John Francis Daley) and Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) questioning their own prowess (or lack thereof). Super stud then examines the victim, determining he had been beaten and stabbed. Camille (Tamara Taylor), in the meantime, points out the presence of grease indicates neither injury did the ultimate deed. "Cause of death is drowning in cooking," she quips.
Booth has news: a 26-year-old mailman was reported missing a few weeks back. Booth then notices the missing man's postal route and the regular grease-truck route intersect. B&B then interview the victim's widow. "You know who Steve is, right?" the distraught woman asks. Turns out the man was a professional video-game player who excelled at "Punky Pong." In short, thousands of challengers might want him dead.
B&B head out to interview such a competitor, an autistic boy named Dougie Seeger (Jordan Orr), who plays the game on one of the few remaining vintage arcade units. Turns out dead-guy Steve would watch the kid play while delivering mail to the house. The boy's father, Keith Seeger (Evan Arnold), was creeped out by it. B&B then head back to headquarters, where they watch a video of Billy Gabel (Oren Skoog), an angry gamer claiming to be the king of Pong. "He stole my crown!" Billy says of the dead man. Sweets then watches the video, theorizing Billy might murder someone who "stole his identity."
The trio head out to Billy's arcade-repair business. The Pong master denies any knowledge of Steve's death, but does accuse the victim of turning in a doctored videotape of the perfect game. In fact, Billy seems angrier at a man named Chris, a video-game referee who awarded Steve the crown. The ref and Steve then went into business together, but might have had a falling out. B&B and Sweets then head to an arcade to question Chris, who appears surprised to hear Steve is dead. He claims the champ just up and disappeared on him one day -- so he took on a new business partner in hotty Deidre (Jessalyn Wanlim), a rare female gamer. Bones then uses an infrared light and discovers blood marks on Chris's "Punky Pong machine." Uh oh.
Back at headquarters, Camille and Angela (Michaela Conlin) watch the videotape of Steve's perfect game. Neither can spot any sign it has been doctored. HOWEVER, Camille does notice a virtual death in the game strongly resembles the case at hand. "The injuries the monkey suffers are the same as the victims," she observes. In the meantime, the blood on the machine has been analyzed and it does NOT belong to the victim. More than likely, kids with nosebleeds have dribbled on it over the years. Colin then sticks his hand into the machine and gets poked by a piece of piping. The result is a small circular wound similar to one found on Steve. "Billy Gabel has a whole supply of this piping at his workshop," Bones says. So the team heads back to Billy's place. They not only discover Billy, but Deidre. "She's just here for parts," Billy insists. Bones orders all the piping seized.
Sweets, meanwhile, is waiting in line for a sci-fi movie with a bunch of geeks -- one of them an extremely attractive young woman. Tory Payne (Kaylee DeFer). Perhaps spurred on by Colin's three-digit claim, Sweets flirts excessively -- even though he has a girlfriend. The aggressive girl geek kisses the good doctor, who doesn't do a convincing job of resisting.
Back at the headquarters, Bones and Colin make a discovery: the victim had a debilitating wrist condition brought on by the stress off constant game playing. "On the day the videotape was made, he would not have been capable of playing the game," Bones says. In other words, Steve was a cheater. Who, then, was playing on the tape? After taking another look at the perfect-game videotape, Bones has a thought: Dougie. Steve might have taped the autistic boy playing and send it in to Chris as his own. Hodgins, meanwhile, reveals that the victim's wounds had traces of peacock feathers and fescue -- all of which point toward a local golf course with both. Bones theorizes the murder weapon might have been golf club.
Back in the geek line, Colin shows up to relieve Sweets in line. Of course, the aggressive geek girl immediately shows an interest in stud-boy Colin, who immediately shows interest back. Sweets is a bit put out to discover that another, more experienced man could replace him so quickly. Hodgins soon arrives to explain the "quality of the experience is much more important than the quantity." In other words, Sweets is stud enough for keeping a girlfriend as long as he has. Just then, the movie line starts to move. The pair decides to leave Colin in the tent with the geek groupie and catch the 3-D action movie themselves. Good call.
B&B then head back to Dougie's house. They discover the father of the boy is a member of the golf club. "You think I killed the postman?" the father asks. Booth then notices the man's 3-iron is missing. Dad breaks down and confesses. Turns out he saw Steve videotaping Dougie's game and then saw Steve on the news claiming to have completed a perfect game. It was too much. Dad accosted Steve, trying to get the gamer to confess and give credit where credit was due. "When he refused to credit Dougie, I lost it," he tells B&B. "It wasn't right." Case closed.
But not the episode. Later, Booth says he can understand the father trying to defend his son -- to a certain extent. "Something breaks your kid's heart and your own heart rises up," he says. "It's a natural response." The two agree to disagree -- and then play a game of "Punky Pong."
The actor who plays Colin (Joel Moore) plays Norm (a scientist) in Avatar. Obviously, they were pleased for him and paid tribute in this episode. It's a lovely touch that he doesn't bother to go see it!
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