Brenan commits Grand Theft Corpse when she realizes mid-funeral that a colleague from the Jeffersonian's Egyptology department did not die of the heart failure listed on his death certificate, sneaking the body back to the lab for further investigation and enlisting the help of the rest of her team to help cover up said actions. Meanwhile, Cam runs into trouble when she attempts to get Michelle, her newly adopted teenager, to stop smoking.
Tropes
- Accidental Murder: The victim was still alive when he got to the funeral home. The undertaker freaked out and stabbed him to death.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The victim's stepmother killed him so his inheritance would revert to her son. Because the son is blameless, he still receives the inheritance (though using her medication to commit the murder does cause her to die earlier than expected).
- Bait-and-Switch: Booth informs Brennan that the judge doesn't want to traumatize a family to get publicity for a pulp fiction writer. Brennan is enraged.Brennan: That man is a fool! (Beat) They are not pulp!
- Cassandra Truth: The judge who was asked to authorize the investigation refused to do so under the belief Brennan just wanted to write a new book.
- Eye Scream: Although it's done to Hank's dead body, the scene where they remove fluid from his eye is still not for the squeamish.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Brennan realizes that Hank was murdered and sneaks him out of his casket to take back to the lab. The hilarity comes from everyone else's reactions to her body-napping and the team's attempts to hide the fact that she's done so.
- Remember The Dead Guy: The episode opens with a wake for a co-workers at the Jeffersonian, who apparently was very close with most of the cast. Except Brennan.
- Spy Speak: Booth insists on using the code word "translation" instead of "murder". There's a lot of serious thing you can say about murder that sound hilarious if you say them about translation.Brennan: Booth, the man was translated!
- Time Skip: After it was revealed the victim's stepmother poisoned him, it skips five days to her own funeral because she sacrificed her medication to poison him.
- Unusual Euphemism: Booth makes Brennan say "translated" instead of "murdered". Oddly, in Shakespeare's time this would have worked as a metaphor.
- Wicked Stepmother: The victim was killed by his stepmother.
