‘Bones’ Season 11, Episode 20 Recap: A Frozen Body Is Found

In tonight episode of Bones, a frozen body is found in northern Alaska and it is thought to be billionaire Henry Charles. His party had been looking for another expedition party, the Frank party who had all been cannibals.

Cam’s sister has arrived to help plan the wedding to make amends for their strained relationship.

The entire team is eager to study the body because of his fame as it is confirmed that it is Henry Charles. Dr. Edison reveals he was a part of Henry’s final expedition.

Upon first inspection of the body, he did not freeze to death but he was murdered by blunt force trauma to the skull. Dr. Edison is now a suspect.

Booth and Aubrey begin their investigation, focusing on the members of the expedition team.

Hodgins starts trying to figure out what the murder weapon could be by smashing anything that would be needed for an expedition into model skulls.

Booth and Aubrey start with Dr. Edison but he has already retained a lawyer and refuses to talk, raising suspicion.

Given Charles’ injuries, it is suspected that he was pushed or had fallen. However, Angela shows the team that there was nothing high enough in the area for him to have fallen at all.

Bones and Booth go to see Marcus Eldridge, another member of Charles’ team who has become incredibly successful since he went missing due to writing a book about the trip.

As Cam and her sister Felicia begin their wedding planning, Cam is unnerved by how much Felicia has planned and organized without her.

Upon further inspection, Angela realized that the glaciers had shrunken exponentially since the expedition 10 years ago. What are 10 feet tall now were almost 80 feet tall then. Falling from that distance could easily explain Henry Charles’ injuries.

Next on the list of suspects is Hazel Mitchell, the woman who was working with Henry on the day he went missing. Booth and Aubrey question her based on that fact, but it turns out another member of the team named Declan Marshall changed the schedule last minute and moved her to a different location. Her alibi is that she was with Dr. Edison, but not in a professional capacity.

Dr. Bray tries to talk to Dr. Edison again and get him to talk to Booth so he can clear his name. Edison still refuses.

Declan Marshall is the next person questioned by Booth and Aubrey. Dynamite was found on Henry Charles’ hands, the same dynamite that Declan was supposed to use to break up some of the glaciers. He explains thats only because Henry was a bit incompetent and was getting into things he had no experience with. He also explained that although reports showed that the group left in a helicopter right after Charles went missing, Declan bribed the pilot Alice Took to stay an extra day.

While questioning Alice, she reveals to Aubrey that she saw Charles in an argument with another member of the team right before he went missing.

The hut he was found it was also sent to the Jeffersonian and Hodgkins and Aubrey find large traces of blood which could have easily been caused by puncturing an artery in the skull.

Angela and Bones also find an injury on the skull that would be caused by someone punching him in the head. The amount of force needed to cause such an injury would mean the attacker wasn’t wearing any gloves. This will allow easier identification from knuckle patterns.

Wedding planning is still a bit strained for Cam and her sister. She’s not too happy with any of the options Felicia has given her and is discouraged but doesn’t want to seem ungrateful since Felicia keeps mentioning how hard it was for her to take time off work to come.

Angela was able to create a hand image from the knuckle imprints, it doesn’t match anyone they’ve already questioned. The only person left is Dr. Edison.

Booth and Bones are finally able to question Dr. Edison, with his lawyer present. He admits to punching Henry because of how he was treating Hazel, who Dr. Edison was deeply in love with. He said that he left the hut immediately after punching him which leaves him without an alibi. Bones agrees to reexamine the evidence with the team but not to do anything more than that because it would be unethical.

Bones re-reads Eldridge’s book and sees that he didn’t include any of the conflict between the crew. She also finds that the pictures included in the book to show the cannibalism were out of focus just enough to hide the fact that they don’t show any evidence of cannibalism at all.

Bones and Aubrey question Eldridge and posit that he killed Charles because he found out what Eldridge was doing and was threatening to expose him. Eldridge denies the claims.

Cam, Bray and Hodgins find new evidence in Charles’ re-hydrated brain. The bone fragments turn out to be from Hazel’s ax that she used to help Eldridge fake the cannibalism forgery. She felt that she didn’t want to ruin her career because of both Eldridge and Charles’ stupidity.

Cam finally admits to Felicia what she really wants for her wedding, after being urged to do so by everyone else. Felicia understands completely and wishes she was honest from the beginning. She also explains she was just trying to make up for their strained relationship in the past.

Dr. Edison returns to the lab to resign after getting pummeled in the press due to the murder case. Bones reveals that she has seen the reports and has written an article in his defense, causing him to rethink his resignation.