In Which Again, There Is SO MUCH Analyzing

Season 5, Episode 1

The Harbingers in the Fountain

I like this episode a lot. But, I have some qualms with how they dealt with this whole “Booth realized he was in love with Bones, but not really because he was in a coma” thing. They are qualms I can explain in certain ways to make them not qualms anymore, but most of the explanations tend to be of the “taking a jump” variety.

That's for later, though.

It's interesting how she went to Guatemala right as he was being released. It makes perfect sense, of course. She goes through Booth almost dying AGAIN, sat by his beside while he stayed in a coma for four days, wrote this whole book that was basically about them being in love (yes, what we saw was Booth's coma brain's interpretation of her book, but it had to have been at least partly them in fictional form for it to ruffle her feathers so much that she deleted the whole thing), deleted it, he woke up, he didn't know who she was, she finds out he had this crazy intense dream where they were married, and she doesn't have Booth to help her through it all. So instead of dealing with it, she heads to Guatemala, to separate herself from all it.


Of course she does.


AVALON: You brought him the light that showed him the way home. Without it, he would’ve died.

Back to the whole “he couldn't wake up until she deleted the book thing”. Avalon says it; she was the one who got him to wake up. He couldn't live with the “fantasy” life of them still going on, because that would mean he couldn't have the real thing. The fantasy has to end before the real thing can happen.

Which can also be seen as a metaphor for them, if you think about it. They have this “surrogate relationship” now, which in a sense is a fantasy. A “relationship” without all the strings. They can't have a real relationship until they end this “fantasy”.

BOOTH: All right, um, that place that, I went to, you know, in my coma dream, it was just Bones and I. It was so real.

CAM: You’re in love with Dr. Brennan.

(BOOTH stares at CAM who is smiling at him, then looks away. There is a significant pause.)

BOOTH: What I’m wondering is, am I the same guy?

CAM: A sweet, kick-ass, FBI murder-solver with hard fists and a lion heart? Yeah, you’re still him. My advice, for what it’s worth: forget the bruised brain, and go with your lion heart.

BOOTH: Right, right yeah, and uh tell Bones how I feel.

CAM: Yes, except be sure about your feelings because if you crack that shell, and you change your mind, she’ll die of loneliness before she’ll ever trust anyone ever again.

Cam is completely right. He should be sure, because if he's not and he screws her over, bye bye any future love for Bones.

It's what Sweets says that gets me.

SWEETS: (opens the laptop) Now this uh, (shows a picture of a brain) this scan was taken before your operation. The green and blue colors indicate very low activity.

SWEETS: (pushes a button) The same scan while you were in a coma. Just lit up like the 4th of July. You were dreaming of being in love, of being married, right?

SWEETS: (pushes a button) Same scan. Three days ago. Before your operation, you were not in love. After your operation you were. Conclusion: your feelings are not real and will fade away like every other symptom of your coma.

Yes, it makes sense “scientifically”, but really, Sweets simply CANNOT believe that Booth doesn't have feelings for her. He should know better than anyone that he does, that he did before the surgery. Those feelings may have been brought to the surface due to his post-coma brain activity, but it doesn't mean that they never existed before.

And here, we have my explanation, trying to justify Sweets' action: it's one of those whole “all-knowing shrink orchestrating activities so that they work out best in the end”. He may know that Bones can't deal with Booth being in love with her right now, because he knows she can't deal with her own feelings for Booth quite yet. He may know that after Cam planted the whole “you better be careful” seed in Booth's brain, he's much more likely to second-guess himself about the whole thing, and if he did go through with it, he might second-guess himself after the fact not because he doesn't love Bones but because the idea was put in his head. He may know that his top priority is to get them working together in the best way possible, which would not happen if they have this GIGANTIC emotional thing happen.

So yeah, let's just go with that. Let's give Sweets and Hart Hanson the benefit of the doubt, here.

BOOTH: Bones, your arm. Look.

BRENNAN: Oh god.

BOOTH: No, don’t pull it out. Don’t touch that! (BRENNAN pulls it out of her arm) Bones… Easy, I gotcha. Gotcha, gotcha. It’s gonna be all right, alright? Alright.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

BOOTH: (rests his chin on her head) Easy. Ambulance is on the way, ok?

BRENNAN: Ok. Keep the pressure on it.

BOOTH: Ok, I got it. I got it. Just relax. Just trust me, alright? I’ll take care of you. Shhh. I’ve got you. Breathe. I’ll take care of you. I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. I got you. (BOOTH kisses BRENNAN’s head) I’ve got you, baby.

I'm sorry, this is so necessary:

I'VE GOT YOU, BABY.

AND HE KISSES HER HEAD.

<3

AVALON: The world scares you, so you wrap it up neatly in bonds of reason, education, and proof. All riddles are solvable to you except for one.

BRENNAN: Yes, the riddle of how you knew where your sister was buried.

AVALON: No. The riddle you can’t solve is how somebody could love you.

BRENNAN: (laughs) Well, I’m beautiful and very intelligent.

AVALON: The answer to the question that you’re afraid to say out loud is, (AVALON draws a card) yes, (she puts down a card entitled “The Sun”) he knows the truth of you, yet he is dazzled by that truth.

More setting up for the 100^th episode. She doesn't understand how anyone could love her; she's the scientist, the cold scientist. She doesn't think she can love, so she doesn't know how someone could love her, then.

BRENNAN: Well I’m sure in a few weeks you’ll hate clowns again. Be back to normal.

BOOTH: Yeah, a few weeks.

(BOOTH turns to walk again. BRENNAN stops him.)

BRENNAN: What did you want to tell me?

(pause)

BOOTH: That I love you.

(BRENNAN stares at BOOTH.)

BOOTH: In a professional you know (hits her arm) atta-girl kinda way.

BRENNAN: Atta-girl kinda way?

This, I don't like.

Well, kind of.

He might as well have just told her he loved her in the NOT professional, atta-girl way. Because for that pause, for those few seconds, she wasn't sure which one he meant. There's a high chance she thought he meant the NOT professional att-girl way. And so for him to go and be like “lol jk”... it's doing exactly what Cam and Sweets told him not to do, just on a smaller scale. And yes, of course Rational!Brennan ignores the pause, ignores anything she might have felt during the pause, because she thinks, of course he meant it in a professional, atta-girl way. So, it's not as bad as if he had said he loved her in the not professional way and then changed his mind. But it IS damaging to her psyche, because even if Rational!Brennan can consciously forget the pause, her subconscious can't.

But, to try and justify it: Booth just had a brain tumor. He's feeling like he's in love with Bones, but he's having people telling him he's not... and he's confused. He doesn't know what to do. So he says it. And he sees the look in her eyes, and he knows that what everyone is saying is true, that if he's not really in love with her, he'll break her. And he loves her too much to have anything like that happen. So he panics and takes it back.

It's ok, Booth. We know you know deep down that you love her. We know everything happens eventually.


AND SPEAKING OF WHICH...

AVALON: You two are going to keep doing things as usual.

BOOTH: Sometimes you gotta settle for second best.

(AVALON gives the two of them a look. BRENNAN looks a bit confused.)

AVALON: By the way, my cards tell me this all works out eventually.

We're back to the word “eventually”. He could have had her say it works out “someday”, or “at some point”, or any other word or phrase that means the same thing. But he chose “eventually”. It couldn't possibly be a call-back to any past crazy epic speech, could it?

And you know what? If you're going to have any character tell me that everything is going to work out with B&B, I would want it to be nobody other than Cyndi Lauper as a psychic. Because Cyndi Lauper is awesome. So if she says it'll all be ok, I believe her.