'Bones' Season 8, Episode 19: 'The Doom in the Gloom' Recap

“Bones”, season 8, episode 19, “The Doom in the Gloom”

A woman comes to in a shed. Disoriented, she goes for the door only to be hit by a massive explosion, throwing her backwards into a shelf.

Elsewhere, Sweets and Booth watch a Kung-Fu movie when Sweets gets a call about an apartment in Georgetown. Booth gets a call soon after calling him to the scene of the explosion.

At the scene, the charred remains seem to be decapitated. Booth notices lots of scorched ammunition and explosives. Bones notices she was decapitated by the shelf, and soon locates her head.

At the Jeffersonian, Bones and Daisy find two gunshot wounds in the victim. Daisy asks Bones if Sweets is moving out, and Bones confirms it. Dr. Saroyan determines the victim to be ex-military Deanna Barbieri. And Bones claims the cause of death to be gunshot wounds to the chest.

In the diner, Sweets tells Booth and Bones that Deanna was discharged after she fought with fellow soldier Carlene Blayney, and suggests they go speak with her. He has to pack.

In the lab, Hodgins tests for the kind of bullet that could also start the fire. He finds “dragon’s breathe” that doubled as a bullet and a flamethrower.

In questioning, Sweets and Booth talk to Carlene about Deanna, and she says that she and Deanna were friends until Deanna was wrapped up in doomsday stuff. She regretted getting into a fight with her, and has been trying to apologize, but Deanna dropped off the grid.

In the lab, Daisy notices an injury on one of the Bones that was still healing, and Bones determines that it was caused by a cannonball. Hodgins finds that Deanna had a cannonball press in her shed, indicating she made her own. Daisy also notices that the victim had suffered from syphilis, which pitted her maxilla bone. Dr. Saroyan says it would explain her sudden behavior shift.

Angela finds a doctor who bought up large amounts of lead to construct cannonballs. He calls himself Dr. Apocalypse, and teaches people how to make their own weapons and how to doctor themselves. He preaches the end times.

Booth and an FBI team pay a visit to Dr. Apocalypse’s ten acre farm in hopes to find him. The land is laced with booby-traps, and he is likely hiding in a bunker underground. They locate it and smoke out everyone hiding inside, including goats and chickens.

In questioning, the doctor says he met Deanna online. He says he accidentally shot Deanna with the cannon, and used it as a teaching example to the other doomsday preppers. He also reveals that he had a venereal disease.

In the lab, Hodgins finds traces of chemicals on the victim that indicates that one of the other preppers is most likely the killer.

Booth asks Sweets if any of the other preppers were crazy enough to kill, and he says that all of them were.

Hodgins and Angela recreate the crime scene and notice that the fire inside of it couldn’t have burned for the 3 hours as originally thought, but more like 1.5 hours, which would mean that none of the other preppers could have killed her because they were locked away in a training simulation at that point.

Daisy finds a puncture wound in the victim, and Bones and Dr. Saroyan determine she was stabbed from behind with a large needle, and injected with a sedative.

Angela and Hodgins recreate the bunker in 3D in hopes of finding an escape hatch that the killer would have crawled in and out of. They notice one section isn’t made from the same material as the rest, and they assume that that is where it was. Bones and Dr. Saroyan determine the needle and the sedative were both veterinarian-grade supplies, which means it would have had to be one of the preppers. Angela and Hodgins walk through the 3D bunker and find the hatch, but to go in and out of it would have caused over 6 feet of soil to fall into it, which didn’t happen, so they’re stumped.

Bones calls Hodgins and says he thinks he knows how Deanna was killed. They determine that one of the preppers drugged Deanna, left her in the shed, set up the booby trap, all in time to join the other preppers in the bunker for the perfect alibi.

Booth brings in one of the preppers, Milo Mills, who says that he’d be more than able to build that booby trap, but so would Deanna and Delores, the wife of Dr. Apocalypse. He says that Delores taught him how to be a vet in exchange for learning how to make a booby trap. Milo says he didn’t do it, and that Delores would have residue on her hands from the explosives, proving she did it.

Booth and Bones bring in Delores, and she tests for residue, not spotting it. Delores denies involvement, but Bones does another tests and it indicates the presence of the chemicals. Delores breaks down and admits to it. She killed her because she was aggressive and brought down the whole group.

Amongst the charred remains, Angela finds a letter from Deanna to her friend Carlene, essentially saying that she loved her.

At their home, Sweets packs up the last of his bags and bids Bones and Booth farewell. They both toast to him and express their sadness over his departure.

They see his two new roommates, two attractive young women, who mistake Booth and Bones as Sweets’ parents, and then say their final goodbyes.