"Bones" The Plain in the Prodigy (TV Episode 2009) Poster

(TV Series)

(2009)

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7/10
Chopin
donegan-7236231 July 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The last piece played to his parents. Chopin Nocturne No.1 in B flat minor, Op.9 No.1
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7/10
Not what you might expect
ctomvelu110 October 2009
B&B investigate the death of a young piano prodigy, who just happens to be Amish. This leads them to Pennsylvania's Lancaster County and a meeting with various Amish folks, including the dead boy's parents. It was hard to watch this and not to think of the Harrison Ford Amish rime drama or the Tim Allen comedy where he is on the run from the law and poses as an Amish man. The solution to this particular mystery is incredibly sad, by the way, so watch this with a box of tissues close at hand. No Amish were harmed in the making of this episode. That's because no Amish actually appear in it. They do not produce actors and shy away from the camera.
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9/10
Everybody's afraid of the unknown
AMButterfly19 July 2012
Warning: Spoilers
Amish culture is so hidden, so different that people expect the worst of it - in this episode the first 2 suspects were Amish. But the ending was very refreshing, being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, just when our Amish boy has made a life-changing decision.

It was a very good episode. Sad, but very good. It also showed the regular cast in a new light a little bit: Brennan comforting someone with a touch, Booth as the protective father, Cam as not her most confident because she needs to deal with some teenage sex-problems in her own family, Sweets playing air-piano etc. It managed to jump between funny and dramatic smoothly and allowed some pretty brilliant supporting acts get the main light instead of the main characters. The Amish brother, played by Brian Letscher in particular was great.
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9/10
Not a great ending but still a great episode
krahnnikki19 October 2022
Hi Bones Booth! I started listening to your podcast in august and have finally caught up to ALL the episodes and will now follow along week by week!

I love this episode it is always one that sticks out to me because I really loved the piano music and how they treat the parents. I like that they give them the picture and the dvd at the end. I tear up at the end every time.

The only reason i rated it a 9 instead of a 10 is because I know we all hate when it's like an accidental death or something. I remember being unsatisfied by that ending before.

Also - best sad parents we've had in awhile.
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RE: Song at the End
piaffe6320 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Just in case, I believe, the song at the end of the episode is River's Edge by Great Lake Swimmers.

While the writing for the teenage sexuality subject was quite awkward at best, the rest of the subject matter that addressed Dr. Brennan's conflict with the restriction of religion and the musical gift that Levi possessed was quite refreshing. The heavy subject matter at the end was a nice balance with the comedy of Booth's talk with Perry. It was also nice not having so much of the episode devoted to the underlying emotional attachment between Booth and Brennan.

I hope the writing of future episodes take on a more balanced tone like The Plain in the Prodigy.
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9/10
Well Done View of the Amish Tradition
Hitchcoc4 February 2023
We need to realize that the Amish are not so simple in their integration. The more fundamentalist may live in the 18th century, but they have been integrated, out of necessity, in some respects, to the modern world. Putting that aside, the story of the young man is quite tragic considering his gifts. The one thing that bothers me is how his body was disposed of. It seems that the guy who pushed him would have just taken off. To move a body and do what was done seems unlikely. There are some tender moments, and it would seem that Brennan learned a few things. She knows so much about the world, but is so clueless when it comes to living in this world.
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10/10
Season 5 Episode 3 The Plain in the Prodigy
flamingoes_woot1 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
I just watched this episode. I have to say it's definitely one of my favorites. I thought it was so sad though because the hot piano player died...from a burglar? what a shame; i cried. I enjoyed seeing them bring back Michelle, Cam's adopted daughter, even though the actress was different (the original actress was Dana Davis, I think)... lol Booth totes scared the guy with his sniper rifle (props David Boreanaz, originally from Buffy, the best show ever!!) I also liked how at the end they cut between Levi playing, his mom, his dad, Bones and Booth, and then Levi's face at the end. Bones is one of my favorite shows, and while the newer episodes seem more focused on the Bones/Booth romance in a new way, it's probably attributed to Booth's coma, etc., but I still find them riveting. I think the director for season 5 is amazing and i hope they continue the show. Sorry for my run-on sentences and random blabbering, you need 10 lines to submit.
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10/10
WHICH Chopin 'Etudes' was Levi playing ?
lavendershrub22 October 2009
PLEASE, does anyone know WHICH Number 'Etudes', and in which key, Levi played in the DVD which his sad parents saw at the end. I have been playing my two dvds of all the Chopin 'Etudes' and have become thoroughly mixed up and cannot fathom out which Number Levi was playing. If anyone can help I would be most grateful. Thankyou. When I previewed this, it said there was a spelling mistake in using 'dvds' -but surely everyone uses 'dvds' or 'DVDs' !!! This was a very sad episode, building up the story - but I think a very rushed ending with a petty thief we knew nothing about ! Isn't the key to these sort of shows the audience trying to guess who the murderer is. And I hardly think Amish girls and young men would be quite so hedonistic as showed when Brennan and Booth called at the flat of Joseph and saw the 'party'. A very topsy-turvy world for them - but surely not to the extent of illicit and wrong sex, and drugs, which their very conscience from their upbringing would FEEL wrong to do.
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7/10
Doesn't make sense!
m_wolf-6722020 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Spoiler alert!

The ending doesn't make sense! Could someone please explain to me why a simple "break and enter" crook, after having accidentally sent someone over the balcony and crashing into the garbage bin below (which certainly would draw the attention of everyone in the neighborhood), why would this guy go downstairs, risk everyone seeing him, pick up the body and carry it over to the train tracks to cover up the accident? That would never happen! He would just run away, wouldn't he?
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3/10
American TV series at their worst: Handling teenage sexuality
Theodor165 October 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Was that supposed to be funny? No, awkward and shameful is more like it: how Camille Saroyan began to stammer and act really embarrassed when it came to Michelle dating a boy. And how would you see Booth's interference with the boy as anything else than an unsolicited intimidation by a puritan?

Would you, as a teenager, care to take advice from such persons who have failed to grow up and can't talk matter-of-factly about dating and sex? - Well, I thought so.

Hey, Hollywood writers, get your screenplays with such annoying father/mother characters up-to-date: in times where a lot of teenagers have access to the Internet and to information about sexuality, parents should act more maturely and lead their soon-to-be-adults teenage daughters and sons - not to chastity (that never worked anyway) but to self-determined, responsible decisions that could also welcome sexuality as an absolutely natural and enriching experience.
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5/10
Unconvincing story line involving the Amish
steiner-sam22 July 2021
Warning: Spoilers
This particular episode, "The Plain in the Prodigy," involves the death of an Amish boy in Washington, D. C., during his "rumspringa."

Levi Yoder (Reider Niklewicz-Larsen), an Amish teenager in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, had secretly taken piano lessons from the wife of someone for whom he had done construction. During his rumspringa (running around time before either joining the Amish church through baptism or leaving the church), Levi is preparing to apply to the (fictional) National Conservatory in classical piano. He left a "party house" where other Amish young folks in rumspringa stayed because he was focused on his music. He suddenly stopped communicating with his parents. His bones are found scattered along a railroad track two months after his death.

Brennan and Booth quickly ascertain the victim is Amish and visit his parents in Lancaster County. Daniel (Randy Oglesby) and Rebecca Yoder (Jennifer Parsons) say they reported Levi as missing. Daniel is briefly suspected of being angry because of Levi's music. Then they suspect Amos (Brian Letscher), the older brother of Levi's Amish girlfriend, Sarah (Stephanie Turner). Amos is known to have a temper, but he also denies any involvement. Other students competing for spots at the Conservatory are suspected, but finally, it's determined it was simply a theft gone wrong. Levi had struggled with the thief and fallen to his death from an upper floor in an apartment complex to the train tracks running nearby.

The premise of the show exceeds plausibility. Brennan can determine from Levi's bones that he had no exposure to electricity and processed foods. That is absurd because Levi (and many Amish) work for English employers who use electricity all the time. And Amish eat processed and fast food all the time. Maybe not as often as the "English," but there's no logical basis for Brennan's analysis.

The story would have been more plausible if Levi had had a classical singing voice, which would not have demanded musical instruments. Yes, Amish frown on musical instruments, but instrumental diversions would more likely have been guitars or harmonicas, not pianos. There are cases of Mennonite truck drivers from conservative backgrounds ending up as opera singers in Europe.

There is a reasonable explanation of rumspringa in an extended conversation between Brennan and Booth when traveling to Lancaster. Most rumspringa takes place near home, with the youth even living at home though there may be a car parked behind the barn. The scene of Amish girls in conservative dress at a party in Washington, D. C., is also silly. The point of rumspringa is to explore the English world, including English dress.

The dress of the Daniel, Rebecca, Sarah, and Amos is vaguely "Amish," but the females always show too much hair under their white headcoverings. Also, Amos's beard was too trimmed.
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The song at the end
povanator3 November 2009
Can anyone tell me the name of the song that was playing as Booth revealed the killer? I google searched the lyrics and couldn't find anything. I'd really appreciate it.

Since I have to have 10 lines, I'm going to ramble a little bit. I thought it was a great episode. Very moving in my opinion. It has to take a lot for someone to give up their passion for music. I am not certain I could, unless it was a case similar to this one.

I like that they continue bringing back Bones' various assistants in the new episodes.

If anyone can help me figure out the name of the that song though, I would greatly appreciate it.
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Soooo SMART yet SOOOOOO STUPID
www-trelohybrid11 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
It's sad being so smart yet so stupid lol I laughed my a s s off while figuring out that the victim is Amis before brennan lol she is so stupid !!!!!!!!!
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