'Bones' season 12 episode 3 spoilers: Murdered old man inspires Brennan and team to reflect on own mortality

Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and her team's trip to a retirement home inspires some personal bouts of self-reflection in the next episode of "Bones."

Titled "The New Tricks in the Old Dogs," episode 3 of the 12th and final season of FOX's long-running crime drama brings the team in to investigate the brutal murder of an old man left to rot in an acid dump site. And as if this isn't enough of a complication, Brennan and her team will also find themselves in the middle of some retirement home drama, which may inspire them to think about their own mortality.

And as they dig further into the case, the team of forensic analysts, who finds themselves in close proximity to death every day, will also begin to explore life with talks of marriage and kids. What kind of legacy will they be leaving behind when their time to leave the world of the living finally comes?

Brennan seems to have had her initial dose of these thoughts when she hit her 40th birthday in the previous episode of "Bones." Instead of accepting gifts on her self-organized surprise birthday party, she was the one who made the humbling effort to give the people around her the gift of honor, acceptance, and recognition. What other realizations will Brennan have in the upcoming episode of the series that has seen her through her ups and downs in the past 12 years?

The trailer for the next episode also teases a humorous scene where some members of Brennan's team are arguing about the missing murder weapon, suggesting all sorts of possibilities before Dr. Cam (Tamara Taylor) cuts in and tells them not to look any further than a cane since the murder victim was an old man previously residing in a retirement home.

Is Cam's hunch right, or will the missing murder weapon turn out to be something totally unexpected?

"Bones" season 12 episode 3 airs on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 9:00 p.m. EST on FOX.