This week’s mutilated corpse has been brought to you by obsessive compulsive disorder.

Bones is one of those shows that has completely locked itself into its format. It broke slightly from the pattern last year when it was discovered that one of the lab rats was actually a deranged serial killer. This seemed like a hopeful development. The Gorgomon killer story line was one that was active enough to keep audiences looking for clues. It helped to tether the series and to allow for an interesting linking of episodes.  As I have mentioned before, I hoped this trend would continue. So far, the attempts Bones has made to impose some overarching themes have been ineffective. Aside from the Bones and Booth “will they/won’t they” subplot, its really been all about Hodgins and his emotional issues. Although its natural for him to be in turmoil, with his best friend turning out to be a killer and Angela breaking off the engagement, I am having a hard time seeing how this will turn into something more intriguing. This episode showed some signs that those hopes I had aren’t totally unfounded.

This week the band of corpse pokers is focused on the headless body of a science fiction writer who has a penchant for older women and obsessive compulsive disorder. The crew, though having a difficult time figuring the cause of death due to the lack of a head, follow the inevitable chain from the victim’s middle aged girlfriend to his psychologist to his sleazy book publisher. In a startling development, Zack escapes from the loony bin and helps the team solve the murder. He finds an obsessive pattern that points to the the victim’s mother as the murderer. Zack, after a cute coffee shop scene, returns to the psychiatric ward. In the end, Zack claims that he did not actually kill anyone last season but was only an accessory to the Gorgomon murders. We’ll see if the Zack story line grows in the coming weeks, I certainly hope it does. Bones could use some deeper intrigue.