In Which I Can't Think Of A Witty Title

Season 4, Episode 16
The Salt in the Wounds


It's one of those about-everyone-but-B&B episodes.


But, as always, there's something.


BOOTH: Right. You know what I don't get? How is it that eight beautiful girls could just give up their whole lives during high school?

BRENNAN: It's a rational decision.

BOOTH: On what planet?

BRENNAN: Earth!

BOOTH: Earth?

BRENNAN: Given the current environment, the paradigm within which a group of girls band together to raise their offspring has merit.

BOOTH: Without their fathers?

BRENNAN: Anthropologically speaking, those girls have grown up in a culture that reinforces the sad truism that women cannot count on men.

BOOTH: Don't say "men" like that. Men do not like a world without responsibility.

BRENNAN: Well, that boy whom these young girls chose as their sperm donor, he seemed more than happy with the arrangement.

(Booth looks at her, thoughtfully, before getting his phone out of his pocket.)

BRENNAN: Booth?

BOOTH: You're right.


As with most human actions (a bold statement to make, yes, but just go with me), there's more than one reason as to why Booth goes and talks to Clinton. There's the obvious, that Booth is one of the good guys, that he feels he morally needs to let this kid know that what he did was not ok, but then there's also the factor of Bones. Not only can he not let the world be one in which men can't be counted on, he doesn't want Bones to think they live in a world where men can't be counted on. Because that, in his mind, means that she can't count on him, even though of course she doesn't think that. And the fact that she's standing outside the diner, watching the guy-to-guy talk he's having with Clinton at the end reinforces the notion that he did it partly, maybe even mostly, for her, or because of her. She's reminded that not all men defer responsibility, because she sees Booth take responsibility in taking initiative to talk to the kid.