In Which Bones Comforts Booth

Season 1, Episode 21

The Soldier on the Grave

BOOTH: I never get used to the magnitude of this place, what it's taken to keep this country free.

BRENNAN: All societies build monuments to their dead, to convince future combatants that it's an honor to die in battle.

BOOTH: For these servicemen it was. And somebody to use this place to protest the war just pisses me off. These are the lives that gave them the right. These men, they should be respected.

BRENNAN: If they were really respected, maybe not so many of them would be buried here.

BOOTH: Are we gonna get into something here, Bones?

BRENNAN: I don't see why. I think we both wish this place were a lot smaller.

She says it herself this time. Here's yet another issue for which they have opposing views, but an argument is avoided by her mentioning what they both have in common with it.

BOOTH: He was hit by a roadside bomb... just outside the green zone. He left a wife and two kids. The fact that he was near this --

BRENNAN: You believe somehow he's still here watching?

[BOOTH swallows hard.]

BOOTH: Yeah. You don't. I get that.

BRENNAN: I know you think he's a good man. That's -- that's enough for me.

Another “if I can't respect the law, I can at least respect you” situation. It shows both 1) development in Bones' own emotional sensibilities as to recognize Booths' feelings as more important than her own opinions, and 2) the development of their relationship and of her feelings for him to the point where she would put her opinions aside as to spare his own feelings.

NON B&B OBSERVATION:

GOODMAN: So you don't think we should stand up to tyrants?

HODGINS: Sure. [Smirks] I've been waitin' for the press to do that for three years now.

ANGELA: I can't believe you took the bait.

GOODMAN: Yeah. Me neither.

I just love that moment. Heeheehee.

BRENNAN: I just think inside, you're still military, Booth. You might be too close to this one. I just wanna make sure you stay objective.

BOOTH (offscreen): I know how to do my job.

BOOTH: I was doing it just fine long before I met you.

BRENNAN: You're angry.

BOOTH: [Annoyed] Well, because I have people all around me with opinions about the war who don't know what the hell they're talking about!

BRENNAN: I've been in Sudan, Rwanda. For two months I sifted through the wreckage of 9/11 trying to help the families of the victims.

BOOTH: All I'm saying is that this is just another case. That's all. It's just-- It's another case.

BRENNAN: [Looks away.] You're not such a great liar yourself.

[BOOTH sighs.]

BRENNAN: I'm your partner. Let me be your partner.

This shows an interesting point in her emotional development at this point. She can recognize that he needs support right now, with this case, however, she's providing it under the guise of trying to get him to “stay objective”. What he needs is emotional support, and subconsciously, she knows this (which becomes more apparent in the “I'm your partner. Let me be your partner” line). But she's not quite at the point yet where she can consciously acknowledge that she knows it, nor can she consciously give him emotional support. She can consciously keep him objective, though. So that's what she goes with, for now.

BRENNAN: John Wayne syndrome.

BOOTH: Don't tell me you're gonna trash the Duke?

BRENNAN: Wh- are you kidding? I love the Duke.

BOOTH: [Imitating] I wouldn't have guessed that one, little lady.

BRENNAN: Remember "Stagecoach?"

BRENNAN: [Imitating] "Listen, cowboy. Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."

BOOTH: What was that? The Duke? That was horrible.

BOOTH: That was like, Jerry Lewis.

BRENNAN: Was not.

The particular exchange is irrelevant to their relationship, other than the fact that it shows that they're at the point where they can goof around like that in the middle of a conversation about a case, but I just love it because her imitation is so bad, it's hilarious.

And then, something pretty big happens.

BOOTH: I've done some things.

BRENNAN: I know.

BOOTH: No, no, you don't.

BRENNAN: But it's okay.

BOOTH: Well, not-- not as a secret... [Booth sits] it's not. I have to be uh, honest about myself. [Brennan sits next to him] I-- I have to be able to tell someone.

BRENNAN: You will in time, Booth. You will.

BOOTH: [Haltingly] I was sent to Kosovo. There was this Serb, General Raddick, who led a unit who would go into villages and, you know, destroy 'em. Women, children, all-- all killed because he wanted to ethnically purify his country. He'd done this twice before. I mean, we had facts, proof. 232 people just erased.

BOOTH: I was the sniper sent in to stop him. He was set to leave in a couple hours. It was his son's-- son's birthday. A little boy maybe about six or seven. I can still hear the music from the party, you know? That song just playing in my head. Nobody knew where the shot came from, but, you know, they knew why it came.

BOOTH: They said I saved over a hundred people. But, you know, that little boy who didn't know who his father was, who-- who just loved him... he saw him die, fall to the ground right in front of him. That little boy all covered in his daddy's blood was changed forever. [Sighs] It's never just-- It's never just the one person who dies, Bones. Never. Never.

[BRENNAN places a hand on his forearm, silent. BOOTH places his hand atop hers.]

BOOTH: You know, we all die a little bit, Bones. With each shot, we all die a little bit.

Like Angela said, knowing when “just a simple touch” is needed. When she puts her hand on his arm, the game changes, in both her emotional development and their relationship. He looks down at her hand and realizes this. She's growing. This is a situation both we and they don't see all that often, her being the one to comfort him. And while he's grateful for it, he's not entirely sure just how to deal with it as it is, so he puts his hand on top of hers, and continues, “It's never just-- It's never just the one person who dies, Bones.” He's telling her about life, he's telling her about how things are. Even while he's the one being comforted, for him to be truly comforted, he still needs to feel like, at least partly, he's the protector, the one doing the comforting.

But see what he's doing there? See that stroking of her hand with his thumb? (FANGIRL MOMENT: OMG SO CUTE) Uh-oh. Something's getting started there. Now we're really getting into some emotional stuff with them. I think this marks the start of the bigger ascent they're about to take in their relationship, that'll eventually flatline and possibly even descend a little in season 2, after what happens with Cam in the Epps case gives Booth a wake-up call.