Directed by Tony Wharmby
Written by Karine Rosenthal, Stephen Nathan, & Noah Hawley
The remains of a man are discovered in the woods among ornaments that look like eyes, supposedly related to a local legend about a woman who was (wrongfully) convicted of witchcraft and beheaded. The woman who was with him escaped, but has been re-admitted to the psych ward.
Tropes
- Asshole Victim: The murder victim was a serial cheater and used his girlfriend's mental illness to make a horror movie.
- Ax-Crazy: Literally; the murderer snapped and decapitated the victim with an axe.
- Enforced Method Acting: In-universe, Graham slipped his mentally ill girlfriend Lori drugs and threw cow's blood on her in a dark forest to make his horror movie look realistic.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The episode involves college students filming a Blair Witch knock-off in the woods when one character was apparently "possessed" by the ghost they were looking for and goes on a killing spree. Although the real course of events is solved, it turns out the camera actually caught the ghost on tape. Angela and Hodgins decide that it's an optical illusion, and try to convince themselves of it very hard.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Despite the investigation having a neat little answer for all the supernatural phenomenon surrounding the case, Hodgins and Angela see something in the video that may or may not be a real ghost.
- Paranormal Episode: The main plot of the episode is the team trying to figure out whether the victim was actually killed by a local witch spirit as the locals claim.
- Promotion to Parent: The victim's brother raised him after their parents died, leaving Brennan to ponder what might have happened if her brother had done the same. Ultimately however the situation did not end well as the victim turned into an entitled, abusive jerk and the brother's mental health degraded from the stress to the point of killing his brother after one awful action too many.
- Sarcasm Mode: After learning that Zach is pretty open-minded about supernatural things, Cam at least believes in the afterlife, and knowing Hodgins too well to even ask, Brennan enters this mode for the remainder of the case.Brennan: Zach, place some garlic around the remains and chant the Hmong ritual for preservation of souls.Zach: Really?
