- The Jeffersonian team investigates the murder of Jack Spindler, a successful employee at a brokerage firm by day, but a stripper by night. When the team learns how Spindler's moonlighting affected his personal life, they start to question the people closest to him, including his stripper friend, Storm. Meanwhile, Booth's mother shows up after a 24-year absence in his life and makes a special request of him.—Anonymous
- A demolition apprentice 'stumbles' upon a bloodily decomposing corpse, dressed in a male striper's fireman uniform. An implant identifies him as Jack Spindler, a successful apprentice in Seth Harrison's investment brokerage firm, where he seemingly objected to dirty tricks. He recently rowed with stripper-colleague Storm. Meanwhile Booth's initial joy over his long-absent mother Marianne's surprise visit years after she abandoned him and his brother due to abuse by his father turns bitter when he learns she plans to wed Reggie, whose children she helps raise for years.—KGF Vissers
- A young man tries, with intermittent success, to operate a giant shovel. Of course, he manages to accidentally snag a badly decomposed body from construction the site and dump it on his yelling boss. She yells even louder.
At the office, Booth is greeted by his mother. It's been 24 years since they've seen each other. "I guess I should start by apologizing," she says. But Booth doesn't want to hear it. He knows the hell his mom went through and claims not to hold a grudge. "I don't hate you, mom," he says. "I missed you." They hug.
At the construction site, Bones explains that Booth is in a good mood because his mother has returned after "abandoning" him. The victim appears to be a firefighter ... until Hodgins discovers tear-away pants and a thong. "I think our victim was a stripper," Camille observes. Seems logical. At the Jeffersonian, Wendell theorizes that the dead man was dragged into the building -- and the killer knew that building was going to be demolished. A way to hide the body.
The man is then ID'd as a stockbroker, Jack, who was recently reported missing. So the victim was moonlighting as an exotic dancer. Later that evening, Booth and his mom catch up over glasses of wine. Booth continues to appear totally OK with his mom showing up after decades. He only bristles when mom brings up her abusive ex-husband, Booth's dad. Bones enters and, using her usual tact, matter-of-factly points out the signs of abuse on mom. "I was thrown down a flight of stairs," mom says. It's an awkward moment.
The next day, Booth interviews the victim's boss, who reported him missing. He is shocked to learn that Jack was a stripper, especially given his considerable salary. He then offers to help Booth manage his pension. Booth ends the interview. In the meantime, Bones and Wendell find evidence of a condition common with overweight children in the victim. Sweets, in the victim's apartment with Booth, theorizes that this led to "painful body issues" that the man tried to resolve through stripping. They then listen to a message on the dead man's answering machine from a woman accusing Jack of cheating.
Later, Sweets interviews the woman who left the message. She is from a very rich family and explains that Jack convinced her father to invest millions. She then suggests that Sweets looking to a stripper named Storm, who gave Jack his big break when he was broke. Jack repaid the man by taking his clients. "They got into an epic fight at the gym a couple of weeks ago," she says.
Mom and Booth go to the park -- and she announces that she is getting married to a piano player with two kids. "I want you to give me away," mom says. For the first time, Booth becomes angry. So his mother was being a mom to another family? "I thought you said you couldn't handle a family?!" Booth asks. Mom becomes defensive and the talk goes downhill fast from there. At dinner with Bones, Booth refuses to talk about the fallout with mom. Bones then reveals that while researching a scholarly paper on stripping, she posed as a stripper. Booth, who has a lot on his mind, can't even go there right now.
Bones and Booth then track down Storm, who is performing as a cop at a birthday party for a group of screeching women. He claims Jack was his friend, despite their recent disagreement over clients that came to blows. Wendell, meanwhile, discovers cause of death: a severe contusion to the spine. Hodgins finds a bed bug encased in the wound. Was the stripper killed in a motel room? Later, a crying mom tries to explain herself to Booth before saying goodbye -- seemingly forever. Booth keeps quiet, but appears sad.
Camille then matches DNA found on the victim with a woman, Cynthia, who recently had a bachelorette party. Turns out that she slept with Jack -- and was caught by her husband-to-be, Jason, who was arrested for assaulting her. "I pushed her," the man claims when questioned by Booth. "What happened between Cynthia and me is none of your business." Jason admits he was furious at his future wife, but says Jack was long gone when he found out.
Back at the lab, Angela discovers a chain of deleted emails on Jack's computer that detail his boss's plans to exact an illegal investment scheme that would've cheated clients out of much, much money. So the boss is brought back for questioning and denies any wrongdoing -- at least in terms of murder. The boss says that Jack took to the scheme and duped his girlfriend and her family out of $200,000. "That's who you should go after," the boss says.
Unfortunately, the girlfriend's rich father has put a whole bunch of high-priced lawyers between her and Booth. Evidence is needed. Later, Bones reexamines the Bones and finds particulates that would all be found in a toy gun. And who has a toy gun? Storm, the fake cop. Storm explains that the toy is part of his costume. "I think you beat him with it," Bones says. Booth then theorizes that Storm met Jack at a hotel -- one with bed bugs -- and killed him after finding out that the thousands of dollars he had invested with Jack was all gone. "It was every cent I had," Storm says. "I just wanted my money back!"
So case closed. The episode ends with Booth having second thoughts and taking Bones to his mom's wedding. It's a sparsely attended affair at the local church -- and mother and son share a huge hug. All appears forgiven and Booth meets his new stepfather. And Bones catches the bride's bouquet -- who saw that coming?
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