What’s Worth Watching: ‘Bones’ on Fox for Thursday, October 22

Bones, “The Carpals in the Coy-Wolves,” Thursday, Oct. 22, 8/7c, Fox

Bless Betty White. At 93, the beloved TV legend still has plenty of game. With a cocked eyebrow and glimmer of mischievous delight in those still-sharp eyes, she upstages the Jeffersonian regulars in an enjoyable episode of Bones. Her reputation precedes her, playing fabled forensic anthropologist Dr. Beth Mayer, every bit Brennan’s (Emily Deschanel) match when it comes to observation and scientific deduction.

Dr. Beth is also a bit of a Dr. Ruth, dispensing advice to a sexually frustrated “squintern” while observing with amusement the bickering between Brennan and Booth (David Boreanaz) after she decides to kill off “Agent Andy,” the character in her books based on Bones’s heroic husband. Dr. Beth’s motto boils down to “Embrace the heat,” and White sells it with warmth.

The case itself is fairly timely, involving a victim who made a number of enemies while obsessing on fantasy football. (One of the suspects, an NFL running back, is played by Fox game analyst Ronde Barber.) But it’s the timelessness of Betty White that makes this episode worth watching.