A body arrives in the lab shortly before Christmas after having been found in a fallout shelter sealed since the 1950s. Upon starting the examination, however, Zach accidentally releases Valley Fever spores that send the lab into a mandatory quarantine that will not let up until after Christmas.
Tropes
- Bottle Episode: Due to Lionel's remains containing spores of Valley Fever, the entire lab is in lockdown and the cast under quarantine until their test results come back on Christmas Day.
- Contamination Situation: The entire team is exposed to an infectious body that puts the lab in lockdown until Christmas Day.
- Encouraged Regifting: The episode sees the gang trapped in the Jeffersonian by a quarantine. Everyone is stressed by the situation, especially Booth, who was supposed to get his son a Christmas present. The gang try to make the best of things and hold a pretty decent Christmas, including a Secret Santa where Zach gives Booth a robot he was working on earlier, explaining that "I thought you could give it to your son." This earns him a handshake from a delighted Booth.
- Holiday Episode: The team discusses their holiday plans around a Chinese takeout Christmas Eve dinner due to them being under quarantine.
- Karma Houdini: The murderer is long dead and thus escaped punishment.
- Maligned Mixed Marriage: Lionel, a white man, was in a relationship with Ivy, his office's African-American cleaning lady, in '50s America. When she got pregnant he promised to buy them tickets to Paris where they could get married without fear.
- Parent Never Came Back from the Store: Lionel promised he was buying tickets for him and Ivy to emigrate to Paris where they could get married but he never came back. When he never came back it was assumed he had abandoned Ivy, but Lionel really had bought tickets when another man killed him.
- Shirtless Scene: Hodgins had to hit the showers after a biological accident and for about half the episode appeared in a Modesty Towel and nothing else.
- Window Love: Everyone, when they're trapped in quarantine.
