In Which Bones Want A Baby ("Whoa!""Horse.")

Season 4, Episode 24

The Critic in the Cabernet

SWEETS:  (He opens the blinds on his office window and walks back to sit down in his chair.)  It’s quite simple.  Whatever Agent Booth says, you respond with whatever word or phrase pops into your head.  And vice versa.

BRENNAN:  Well that’s ridiculous.  I can’t properly respond without careful thought.

BOOTH:  Can’t we just make it a drinking game?

This is pretty much the perfect archetype for all three of their characters and their relation to psychology. Sweets, always wanting to do yet another exercise, Bones, pointing out the irrationality of it, wanting time to think, and Booth, just wanting to avoid it all together by cracking a joke.

Perfect.


I'm not going to post the whole scene, because that's a shitload of lines, but I feel like making a random note to say that for about six months after this episode, because of this scene, anytime someone said “whoa”, I thought (or, sometimes, said) “horse”.


You know you're watching too much Bones when...


But, anyway.

ANGELA:  Fine.  Yes.  Absolutely.  But you do know how this is supposed to work, right?  You get naked together.  You devour each other in a passionate frenzy.

BRENNAN:  Booth would think that would create an emotional bond between us.

What's that I spy there? Bones diverting her eye contact with Angela at the end of her sentence? Yeah, it doesn't take a Sweets to determine what that most likely means.

BRENNAN:  I know sometimes you don’t think I’m empathetic.  And it can be difficult for me sometimes.  But I would love my child, Booth, I would.

BOOTH:  I know.  I—I know that, Bones.


The way he looks at her after she finishes her first sentence... oh god, too much. He hadn't realized before that she's starting to really pick up on little human cues and whatnot, he hadn't realized he was starting to rub off on her, so he never really bothered too much to try and hide his reactions with anything having to do with her and empathy. And he's upset about that, because he doesn't really think she lacks empathy. He just reacts that way because, on the outside, she seems like she lacks it, but he knows inside, she IS empathetic, and he would never want to make her think otherwise, because she looks to him for an emotional reading of herself, in a way. She feels things, like anyone else, but she can't put it into words; she doesn't know the terminology. But Booth does. So she relies on him to learn the truth about her own emotional capabilities, and he knows this, which is why he gets that look on his face when he realizes she thinks he thinks she doesn't have empathy. Because he knows that if she thinks that he thinks that, she'll think it's true.

BOOTH:  You really liked holding that kid, didn’t you?

BRENNAN:  Yeah.  I’ve been thinking about how exciting it will be to expose my own child to early pattern recognition.

BOOTH:  You know, they like singing and, uh, when you make funny faces at them, too.

BRENNAN:  Yeah, of course.   I will make a diverse schedule.

“Diverse schedule”, eh?

This, along with this next little bit:

SWEETS:  There are sperm banks that guarantee high IQs and exceptional physical prowess, yet you specifically chose Agent Booth.  Why?

BRENNAN:  He has traits like courage and compassion and empathy that would be tremendous assets to my child.  Sperm banks don’t catalog those traits.

BOOTH:  Did you just say something nice?

BRENNAN:  No, I gave an objective evaluation.

BOOTH:  Oh, because it sounded like you said something nice.

BRENNAN:  No.


...makes a point of something. Bones is very hyper-rational in this episode, even moreso than normal. A coping mechanism so she doesn't have to deal with the emotional implications of having a baby with Booth? I think so.

And that hyper-rationality flows perfectly into emotion after the scene with Stewie in the interrogation room. Her rational, scientific side that's in hyper-drive right now knows that seeing things = not good. Very not good. Like brain tumor not good. So it makes sense that she's completely freaking out. Because her rationality is telling her that something is very, very wrong.

ANGELA:  Go.  He shouldn’t be alone before he goes in there, Brennan.

BRENNAN:  I just wanted all of you to know (She chokes up.)… statistically, he should be fine.  (Everyone nods.  Angela hugs her and she returns the hug, then disengages.)  This isn’t about me.  (She walks away.)

Well, two very big things here: 1) The obvious: she's not telling them that, rationally, he'll most likely be fine so much as she's telling herself, and 2) the slightly less obvious and actually kind of making a jump but whatever I'm going with it: “This isn't about me”. Yes, she's talking about how it's Booth who's in trouble, not her, and it's a coping mechanism so she doesn't get too emotional and blahblah, but there could also be a double meaning, perhaps. “This” can refer to both the immediate situation, Booth's going into surgery, and the less immediate situation, her wanting his baby. She may have finally realized that this also would have affected him quite a great deal. Or, it could also be that it wasn't ever about her, but about Booth: she didn't necessarily want a baby, but she wanted Booth's baby.

Like I said, a jump, but there have you.

Now, I've said here that I'm extremely sentimental before, right? So it shouldn't be any surprise to anyone that the silent scene when all the doctors are doing things around Booth, and he's looking around all lonely, makes my heart shatter into a million pieces? Good.

And, oh man, the thing about life or death situations is that people stop giving a fuck about hiding their feelings, which is why he lights up like a damn Christmas tree when he sees her outside the room finally.

By the way, it's also no surprise to anyone that when the camera cuts to Bones after the shot of him seeing her and lighting up like said Christmas tree, I automatically start crying, right?

Ok, good.

And when they continue staring at each other once the doctors enter again... I think that's one of the most underrated B&B moments. You usually don't hear people gushing over it, they gush over the kiss or the cheek kiss or their hugs much more. But this is so much better than most of those. When the doctors come back in, they are thrown off for a second, they look away, but then Booth looks back, and a milisecond after that, Bones looks back. And they have another second, another second where they are the only ones there, like the doctors aren't even there, where they can have their connection and not deal with the implications of it. For another second, they just be. And for that extra second, they are the ones that prompt it, not the situation like the first time. They are the ones who decide to look back at each other.

BRENNAN:  What’s wrong?

BOOTH:  Listen, Bones, if I don’t make it…

 BRENNAN:  Booth, you’re gonna be fine.

BOOTH:  Yeah, but if I’m not… I want you to have my stuff.  You know, for a kid.

BRENNAN:  Booth.

BOOTH:  I want you to.  You’re gonna be a really good mom.

BRENNAN:  You’re gonna be fine, Booth.  I’ll be right here.

BOOTH:   I’m ready.

Again, the whole conversation is self-explanatory. But a couple lines stick out – most notably, when he says she'll be a good mom. For Booth, the father, the one always promoting parenthood, her emotional guru of sorts, for him to say that to her, that is one of the highest praises in her mind. And she's overtaken with that for a second. But then she remembers, under the new circumstances he's just proposed, the only way she'll be a mom as of now is if he dies, which just cannot happen, so she says “You're going to be fine, Booth” in a thoroughly dismissive way, because it simply will not happen, in her mind.

FANGIRL MOMENT: OH GOSH WHEN THEY'RE HOLDING HANDS AS THEY WHEEL HIM INTO SURGERY <3<3<3