Bones - S8E15 - "The Shot in the Dark"

Over the last few years, I've been slowly re-watching Bones.  Recently, I watched "The Shot in the Dark" (S8E15) and noticed a detail that's not particularly significant but that does provide a subtle connection between this episode and previous episodes that deal with Dr. Brennan's relationship with her mother.

After Dr. Brennan is shot, she has a number of visions in which she sees her mother.  In some of these, she's wearing a dolphin necklace:

In two previous episodes, Dr. Brennan comments on her mother's love of dolphins.  In "The Woman in Limbo" (S1E22), when her mother's remains are found in the Jeffersonian, she remarks, "I remember this belt buckle.  I borrowed it without asking.  First day of high school.  My father had it specially made for my mother because she loved dolphins."

In "Stargazer in a Puddle" (S2E21), she points out a drawing of a constellation in a murder victim's home and says, "This one's Delphinius [sic], the dolphin.  It was my favorite when I was a child.  My mother and I both loved dolphins, so that was something that we shared."

The dolphin necklace that she's wearing in this episode is never commented on, but it does provide a link to these earlier, related episodes.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - S5E19 - "To Catch a Jedi"

This post contains spoilers.

Recently, I re-watched the Star Wars: The Clone Wars episode "To Catch a Jedi" (S5E19) and noticed an interesting detail.  Near the end of the episode, Barriss Offee (whose identity isn't revealed until the next episode) steals Asajj Ventress's mask and lightsabers and, disguised as Ventress, attacks Ahsoka Tano.  During the fight, she slashes a pipe so that the resulting exhaust temporarily stuns Ahsoka.

At first, I thought this was just a reference to a similar event in The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke directs exhaust from a cut hose in the carbon freezing chamber at Vader, creating enough of a distraction so that he can retrieve his fallen lightsaber, but it actually has a closer analogue in an earlier episode of The Clone Wars, and this holds greater significance.

In "Cloak of Darkness" (S1E9), there's a lightsaber duel between Luminara Unduli and Asajj Ventress in which Ventress does the same thing:  she cuts a pipe in the Jedi cruiser so that the steam compromises Luminara's vision.  Ahsoka was present at the duel (albeit the later stages), and since Barriss is Luminara's padawan, it's likely that she's familiar with it, too.  In "To Catch a Jedi," she adopts this move as an-other facet of her disguise and an-other way to make Ahsoka believe that she is Ventress.

Breaking Away

Last month, I watched this performance of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90, subtitled "Italian."  It reminded me that the fourth movement is used in the soundtrack of Breaking Away.  I'd realized before that there's a connection between the "Italian" symphony and the affinity of one of the main characters for all things Italian, but I had two more realizations about the use of this movement in the soundtrack.  Earlier this week, I watched the movie again to reacquiant myself with it.

Dave Stohler, one of the main characters, is obsessively interested in bicycle racing and the Cinzano team in particular.  About twenty-four minutes into the movie, after he's learned that the team is coming to race close to where he lives, there's a scene where he rides his bicycle down the highway as part of his training.  The fourth movement of Mendelssohn's symphony is used as the soundtrack here, and its "presto" tempo marking matches the ever increasing speed at which Stohler races and his urging himself to go "Faster!"

The other realization I had is that there's something of a similarity between Stohler's pretending to be Italian and Mendelssohn's writing a symphony inspired by Italy.  Of course, these aren't exactly the same, but common to both is this looking to a foreign culture.  Neither is the genuine article:  Stohler is American, not Italian, and the "Italian" symphony, unlike some of the veritable Italian music used in the film's soundtrack, was written by a German.