'Bones' Season 8, Episode 18: 'The Survivor in the Soap' Recap

‘Bones’, season 8, episode 18, ‘The Survivor in the Soap’

Dr. Saroyan and the intern Arastoo share a quick kiss before their date, making sure to keep their secrecy. As she leaves for her date, an FBI agent arrives with a chemical vat containing a body. So much for the date.

At Bones and Booth’s apartment, Booth says they need a vacation, but doesn’t want an education vacation. They get called into work and postpone their vacation planning.

Bones determines the victim, stuck in soap in the barrel, to be male. They determine the victim was placed in the barrel about 36-48 hours prior. Bones determines the male was 20-30 years old, and likely African. Due to a disease present in the bones, she thinks he might be from West Africa.

Angela identifies the victim as Symchay Conteh, reported missing by a man likely using a fake name from a gas station.

Booth and Sweets go to Symchay’s apartment and get let in by his janitor, also from Sierra Leone. Sweets notices that there’s no African memorabilia, so he likely was trying to start his life over.

Arastoo runs the victim’s soap body through an industrial dishwasher, cleaning off all the soap. He uses the moment to apologize to Dr. Saroyan for their missed date.

Booth and Bones meet up with Symchay’s immigration official, Alex, who says he worked many part-time jobs and had a mysterious job working for an immigration lawyer and getting paid under the table.

Booth and Bones go to the refugee center, hoping to meet with the lawyer, Wilford Hamilton. They tell him that Symchay is dead, and he’s distraught. He said that he hired him to help other refugees get on their feet, and find a place to live and a job, and that everyone loved him. But one of his old friends, Breema Cheloba, returned to the US illegally and came to Symchay and Wilford for help, but they refused him since he was there illegally.

Alex, the immigration official, signs on as the overseer of the case, and gives Booth Breema’s file, and says that he was deported before for almost beating a man to death. The fingerprints in Symchay’s apartment confirm that Breema is back and has been staying with him.

Arastoo and Bones try and determine a cause of death, but the victim has several past injuries making it difficult. Bones notices a deformation in the shoulder joint, which she recalls from her work in Darfur; it was common in child soldiers who were forced to carry and shoot AK-47s.

Booth and Bones go to an art gallery, lead there by a check that Symchay received prior to his death. They see Kimberly Singer’s exhibit, showing photographs that she took as a war photographer in Sierra Leone about 20 years prior. She met Symchay 3 days prior when she hired him to cater her gallery exhibit, but didn’t see him after that. She says that Symchay broke down when he saw the photos. Bones notices a boy in one of the photographs, and determines that the boy was Symchay. Singer is surprised by that revelation.

Singer has a pound of potassium hydroxide in her studio, but she denies any involvement in his death. Booth recognizes that Singer has PTSD.

In the lab, Arastoo finds the cause of death. A bayonet wound in his chest. Angela compares the voice on the 9-1-1 call with the voice on the taxi dispatch calls and finds they match. They think the taxi driver and the person who reported Symchay missing was Breema. The taxi was registered to a man named Anthony Johnson.

Booth tracks down Breema and brings him in for questioning. He admits to being there illegal. Booth asks what happened to Breema’s hand, and he says that the rebels cut it off when he refused to kill his teacher when he was a child. Breema says he didn’t kill Symchay, despite being forced to kill in the army before.

Arastoo points out that Breema couldn’t have killed him because it would require two hands to perform the motions that killed Symchay. Hodgins reports that the wound contained fragments of chrome-plated steel and potassium chloride, which is commonly found on AK-47s. Arastoo says that it’s impossible to slice with the barrel of an AK-47 and tells Hodgins he’s wrong. The two get into a heated argument when Dr. Saroyan splits them up.

After a late-night brainstorming session, Bones and Booth decide to bring Breema to Singer’s art gallery, hoping he’d be able to reveal some information in what Symchay saw that triggered him. He sees a picture which features a familiar face; the janitor from Symchay’s apartment building. Joseph Embarga.

Booth brings him in for questioning, and he denies any knowledge of Embarga, and says his name is Tony Dennis and is a legal citizen. He knows that Booth has no fingerprint records for him, and any DNA evidence would have been destroyed in the revolution. Joseph keeps quiet and tells Booth he’s wasting his time.

Booth keeps him talking, and Angela analyzes the recordings of his voice and matches them to Joseph Embarga’s voice. However, Bones has yet to prove Joseph’s killing of Symchay. She notices a second stab wound, which indicated a pitchfork-like weapon. Bones says it was an African Tribal mask, because she’s seen it before… Dr. Saroyan walks in and reveals that Joseph Embarga’s immigration lawyer was none other than Wilford Hamilton.

Bones and Booth and a group of officers storm his office. Bones points out the tribal mask hanging on the wall, which tests positive for blood. She also says they keep large supplies of potassium hydroxide to use for cleaning. Booth says he killed Symchay because he threated to expose him for shielding a war criminal. He says he did it for the money. They arrest him.

As the case wraps up, Arastoo tells Dr. Saroyan that his cousin was used a child soldier when he was younger. She hugs him, but he protests saying they’re at work. She says it doesn’t matter, and she announces to the rest of the team that they’re dating. Hodgins claps.