Bones (TV Series) The Secret in the Siege (2013) User Reviews

Pelant has to GO

[redmaxdrive · 8/10 · 7 May 2013]

It's official: I can't stand Mr. Pelant anymore.

It's bad enough that he tried to destroy a all-girls school and bankrupted Hodgins and Angela in the attempt. He's killed several people and gotten into and out of places that he shouldn't have been able to enter. And in this episode, he gets his panties in a twist when it looks like he doesn't have Booth and Bones's undivided attention. He's turned into a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum; I can't take him seriously anymore. Case in point: threatening to kill innocent people if Booth doesn't call off his engagement to Bones is not a move worthy of Pelant's supposed genius.

He should've taken a little time to review their track record more thoroughly, namely when they took down the Gravedigger. She thought she could outsmart the team and she wound up not only getting caught, but also killed by a rogue sniper. I hope the audience is fortunate enough to see Pelant get taken down in such a spectacular fashion, preferably in the first episode of next season. The little monster has outlived his entertainment value and I want him GONE.

5 Radom Innocent Victims

[mermaidsylvie · 10/10 · 22 May 2020]

Did you notice when Palent said that if booth tell Brennan why he can't marry her he would kill 5 Radom innocent Victims but he only described four victims and not 5

The writing is getting weaker

[Sonofzion77 · 1/10 · 30 April 2013]

*spoilers* I understand how exciting it is to have an arch nemesis in a show like bones and they have had some good ones over the years. Palant started out well and has gotten weaker and weaker as time goes by. They have all of these confrontations with him in the beginning but by now they have him hidden in some "tech bunker" able to see literally everything that is happening to all of the characters all of the time. The man is not omniscient. Yes, big brother is out there, there are a lot of cameras in D.C. but I highly doubt that anyone installed a camera in a flower trellis in some random garden just so that Palant could watch it happen. It's an insult to Bones and Booth's characters that they would not be secretive about this. Bones is the one who took her baby and disappeared for months on end to "protect her family" but now she's full of stupid happy juice when she wants to get married? Also this whole, "If you tell Brennan that I want you to not marry her I'll know and kill people" is ridiculous. Anyone with a brain could come up with several ways of telling the person THAT YOU LIVE WITH about this "secret threat" without being seen or heard.

Weak. This episode was the weakest I've seen pretty much ever for Bones.

The nadir continues.

[AceRoccola · 3/10 · 30 September 2014]

To the surprise of no one, this season finale sees the return of insufferable super hacker Christopher Pelant. Pelant, who originally appeared in season 7 (really? Has it only been that long?) and then just kind of...stayed, has since become the series' resident Boring Invincible Villain. With each appearance his impossible deeds grow more absurd and the writers test the patience of their audience a little further.

The episode plot is whatever. Bodies of FBI agents show up. Turns out it's Pelant. He's using papers that Sweets wrote to plan the crime scenes. The FBI guys worked with Booth at some point. It's all very implausible and all very cliché and it works out about how you'd expect (people die, Pelant wins, audience asks why they still bother to watch the show, etc).

The problem, in a nutshell, is Pelant. He is no longer a character. He is merely a plot device that allows the writers to do whatever they like and explain it away with "Pelant did it". Want Hodgins to lose his fortune? Pelant can do that. Want to have Booth and Brennan get engaged then immediately have it called off to build drama? Don't bother writing something plausible, Pelant can do it! And my God, the ways he does those things are getting more ridiculous by the episode.

The most egregious example of Pelant's absurd magical tech power in this episode, and ever, is when he rigs up an impossible combination of nonexistent technology to create fake videos of a long dead FBI agent (meant as instructions to said dead agent's mentally unstable daughter). Pelant talks into a camera, and then his computer produces a video of the dead FBI agent replicating his speech. Face, voice and all. The actual actor, just right there, saying the stuff that Pelant says into his camera. What's that, you say? That's really dumb? Yes, yes it is. We are ostensibly meant to believe that Pelant whipped this perfect dead guy simulator together with his stunning genius, but it is simply not something that can be done. Pelant single handedly shatters the uncanny valley in creating these videos and no matter how smart he is or how much money he has, it's just not believable that anyone could create something like this (they really could have used it in Tron: Legacy, though).

Complaints have been made about Pelant's secret evil tech bunker in general, and I can't say I'm a fan either. I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt as far as funding is concerned. He did steal an entire fortune from Hodgins the last time he showed up, after all. The internal logic of the secret tech lair isn't so much the problem though, it's more the fact that the writers thought it needed to happen at all. And it isn't just the stupid ideas. Pelant himself has far, far overstayed his welcome. He's a bad joke that never ends. As a character and as a villain he never was at the same level as previous big bads. Gormogon, in particular, was a high point that the series never managed to return to. The Grave Digger and others, while not quite as engaging, at least had something to offer. Pelant has nothing going for him. He's just an omniscient, omnipotent convenience. He lets the writers shuffle characters around, change relationships, and kill off whoever without actually having to write a reasonable sequence of events to lead to these moments. It's lazy and insulting.

I'd like to think it's no coincidence that the ratings and the reviews for this series have suffered since Pelant's appearance (though the awful ghost episodes and other season 8 mishaps can't have helped either). The Gormogon plot kept people interested. It was a mystery that the audience was actually intrigued by. Pelant is not a mystery, or even a real character, he's an annoying plot device. Let's move on already.

Higgins was right

[kols · 1/10 · 30 April 2013]

A very disappointing episode, especially the ending, resembling more a rushed Soap Opera script than the usual high quality writing that characterizes Bones.

First, I'm not hot on recurring Villains; Epps, Brodsky and Pelant make me groan every time they show up. The Grave Digger and Gormogon were exceptions basically because, rather than being treated with excessive melodrama, their scripts were intelligently crafted and the story lines brought to satisfying conclusions. Brodsky follows that line but suffers from unnecessary and pointless elements like his penchant for "collateral" damage and ceaseless attempts to justify his actions. Rouges, once turned, do not spend time in self-justification. That issue is buried with the turn.

But that's not the big problem with this installment of the Pelant epic and there was a very simple story outline that could have saved the episode: Pelant's use of the Daughter to target the episode's victims. Discovering and dealing with this link could have made for a good episode. Instead, the writers throw so many rotten tomatoes at the story line that, until the very end, you haven't the faintest idea what's going on.

One of those tomatoes is Pelant's transformation from an evil McGuyver, working with scrap and salvage, to a techno-wizard with, apparently, unlimited funds to buy the most up-to-date, sophisticated equipment and seat them in a multimillion dollar environment.

Another is how the Sweets/Both targeting was handled (mishandled) - the whole issue pops up out of nowhere and does nothing but inspire an insipid chase scene.

Worse, far worse, is the writer's introduction and denouement of Brennan's proposal.

Pelant's previous incursion into Both/Brennan's relationship, forcing Brennan's flight and exile, nearly destroyed it but, over the course of several episodes, the writers reestablished it in a believable manner. This time, they've gone a step too far. No relationship can survive a broken proposal and simply introducing the issue when it is irrelevant to the storyline stinks of audience manipulation.

When Pelant threatens innocents to force Both to recant, the writers really screwed up and missed a golden opportunity to turn a weakness into a strength: all Both had to do was secret Brennan in a secure location, like the proverbial bathroom with the tap running, and tell her what Pelant had done. That would have strengthened their relationship and set the stage for next season's premier: destroying Pelant once and for all.

Instead, Both says nothing, breaks the proposal and destroys their relationship. In the real world, breaking a proposal breaks the relationship, period. In this case, Booth chooses to put his individual sense of responsibility for those innocents above his love of Brennan instead of sharing that responsibility with her. You, or I at least, have to wonder what the writers were thinking. Are they so divorced from reality that they don't understand the consequences of their plot elements? Are they intentionally taking a question many viewers have (when will Both and Bones get married) and using it to destroy their relationship? If so, why?

Higgins was right, he should have killed Pelant when he had the chance.

If this is the best they can do, it's time to end the show

[ravnwolf-674-908296 · 1/10 · 1 May 2013]

This season has been the worst season of the show's run. The character of Pelant, as with many recurring villains in shows today, is all powerful, super-intelligent and apparently now super-rich. There is absolutely nothing based in reality when it comes to this character and I, for one, cringe and almost do not watch any episodes with him in them.

It's time for Pelant to die, but instead we get a weak and lazy season ender that, if this is the best the writers can come up with, should be the series ender. Don't get me wrong - I love a good cliffhanger. This just isn't one.

Brennan's sudden decision to marry Booth was, well, sudden. A decision such as that should take more than the first 20 minutes of an episode. And then for Booth to fall on his sword and essentially break Brennan's heart because of his sense of honor instead of doing the right thing and sharing with her the burden...I just wanted to throw something at the TV. I kept looking at the clock hoping that they were going to squeeze out something extra special and really make me like this episode in the last few minutes. But, alas, it was not to be and the screen faded to black confirming my utter disappointment.

Pelant arc awful

[diane_grist · 5/10 · 20 November 2020]

I hated the Pelant story lines, ridiculous and pointless.

Ridiculous Nonsense

[Johnny_West · 1/10 · 19 December 2021]

So ten years after her FBI agent father was killed, a young woman starts getting videos from her dead Dad telling her to kill FBI agents. These videos are digitally created by Pelant, the loser jerk who can hack into the FBI and the Jeffersonian. Pelant also checks up on Brennan and Booth by hacking their clock radio, cable TV, internet, etc. So Pelant is basically a god who has control over the FBI, Jeffersonian, and anyone else.

The story just gets more ridiculous, a total joke. Pelant calls Booth and tells him that he controls the lives of everyone in the Jeffersonian, so Booth must obey Pelant. What does Booth do? Joke show, comedy plotting, silly writing.

Amazing i thought it was great (This may contain Spoilers)

[lil_auzzie_netballer · 30 April 2013]

Everyone is talking about how crap and weak it was, and i for one are appalled. They are talking as though the writers are amateurs and are crap writers but i'd like to see them write a better thrilling and suspenseful season finale.

The Whole marriage proposal thing was great. It left a great cliff hangar and to say it was weak you must be delusional, it made everyone waiting for the next season. I think it showed Brennan's character changing and developing. And it tore through our hearts when Booth was blackmailed to turn her down.

And Pelant in the bunker was genius. It is scary and suspenseful to think he is watching you right now. It is true yes he was freakier in the early season but he still brings a wonderful mystery to the storyline. So i thought this was a second to none season finale, (other than season 6 season finale of course :)) So whoever thought it was weak and crap is kidding themselves and over thinking it. Go back to where you were just a viewer and think about the entertainment value. Because it was entertaining as anything and kept me at the edge of my seat the whole time!!!!!!

Tiresome

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 23 February 2023]

Let's drag it on and use a really tiresome reason. Pelant has been given so much power that he has ceased to be real. He has that command center where he can do anything he wants. Great. Create the greatest villain of all time. But couldn't he be finished with during this season. How many more episodes. And why can't Booth just tell Brennan in a way that doesn't blow the cover? I suppose now we have to watch Booth and Brennan mope around for a whole season because she feels betrayed and he feels like an ass. Somehow, Booth feels responsibility for the lives of others because a supernatural being is running his life. He is not responsible.

another bogus tech episode

[sandcrab277 · 1/10 · 31 July 2018]

Downright desperation by the writers to create a suspenseful season finale that doesn't work ... even the fbi isn't as stupid as the writers make them seem ... i've had with the pseudo smarties and psychopaths ...