Season 1, Episode 22
The Woman in Limbo
It's always nice to start with a FANGIRL MOMENT, isn't it?: Booth putting on her jacket for her and putting his arm around her shoulders as they're walking... and here starts all those little physical gestures they do that have so much meaning behind them, but of course they have no conscious idea. <3
And, a big discontinuity situation: in season 3, Booth said he was 35. In another episode, Brennan said the difference in age between her and Booth was five years, and it's more than safe to assume that he's older than her. That makes her 30 in season 3, 28 in season 1, which started in 2005. In this episode, Zach says Brennan started at the Jeffersonian in 1998. She would have been 21 in 1998. We always could have said that she was just a very advanced student... except in The Girl in the Fridge when her friends-with-benefits professor showed up, he said she was 23 when she was his student.
Doesn't work.
But it's TV, so it really doesn't matter all that much.
Now, there are quite a few B&B moments in this episode. His telling her to go home when she finds out it's her mother. His bringing her chinese food in the middle of the night multiple times.
And then, this:
MCVICAR: Your father is a hard man, Joy.
BRENNAN: My name is Brennan. I’m Dr. – (she sighs) I’m Dr. Temperance Brennan.
(MCVICAR scoffs and walks out of the barn)
BRENNAN: I work at the Jeffersonian Institution. I’m a Forensic Anthropologist. I specialize in identif – (she starts to break) in identifying – in identifying people when nobody knows who they are. My father was a science teacher. My mother was a bookkeeper (she starts to cry) My brother – (she wipes her tears) I have a brother. (now her tears are flowing) I’m Dr. Temperance Brennan.
BOOTH: I know who you are. Hey. I know. (He pulls her into him and holds her tight.) It’s okay. Shh. It’s gonna be alright.
The first hug that wasn't after a near-death situation. And seriously, the scene is done so well, I'm not even going to bother analyzing it. The meanings and implications of it all are made so apparent in the scene, it would be a disservice to try and explain it. It remains one of my favorite scenes to this day. Go watch it. Right now. Seriously. Absolutely perfect for their last emotional scene of the season, and a beautiful marker of the further ascent of their relationship towards something meaningful. Go and ask Brennan at the beginning of the season if she ever thought she'd be crying in front of Booth, hugging him, within the year, and she'd probably laugh in your face. Same goes for Booth telling Brennan his feelings about being a sniper.
They're getting closer. Their connection is getting deeper.
And, of course, the last thing we see in regards to them, Brennan's dedication of her book to her “partner and friend, Special Agent Seely Booth”, is one of my favorite things EVER, pretty much, and also acts as the perfect marker of her feelings for him and her own emotional development for the end of the season.
They're partners. And friends.
Lovely episode, and very much about reinforcing the fact they are friends, which becomes the basis of their relationship - and also makes it that bit more difficult to graduate to a sexual relationship, of course - so much more to lose. I do wonder though, that if a second season had been unsecured at this point, they could have also swung into romance at this juncture. As it stands, this was a great set-up for S2.
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog, and I'm reading through all your posts from the beginning so I know I'm very late commenting here - but I just wanted to say, about the discontinuity of Brennan's age. We know from The Death of the Queen Bee that she graduated high school in the class of 94, which more-or-less works with Brennan being 28 at the start of S1 (and 21 in 1998). I can't recall the exact quote, but maybe Brennan actually first came to the J as a grad student or intern?
ReplyDeletePerhaps, actually. I hadn't considered that before. However, though, I think there are some other discrepancies I've heard elsewhere about both her and Booth's ages not being consistent.
ReplyDelete