In Which There is SO MUCH Analyzing To Be Done

Season 4, Episode 25

The End in the Beginning


Well. This episode. Oh, this episode. I remember exactly the uproar (and that is the understatement of the century) that ensued after this episode. So much anger. So many people hated it.

Here's the thing:

I didn't hate it.

I actually really loved it.

And I still do.


The phrase “bad fanfiction” is thrown around a lot in regards to this episode, but really, it is just damn clever. I really, really wish I could do a thorough analysis of the whole episode, B&B and non-B&B, go through each character's alter-ego and what it means, point out all the little references to past episodes, but unfortunately, I have an announcement that will blow your minds: I do, in fact, have a life. Believe it or not, it's true. A pretty busy one, actually. And writing a post like that would take time that I just do not have.

But don't you worry, there is more than enough B&B-related stuff to go through. Hot damn, is there.

HODGINS: [narrating] A storm approaches. Still over the horizon, but there is lightning in the air. Are either of them aware of the gathering turbulence? Can the feel the crackling of electricity in the wind? Or are they only aware of the power they generate between themselves?


I suspected heavily at the time that this whole speech was foreshadowing, but dear lord, I had no idea just how much it would be. A storm is coming = shit's going to happen. Still over the horizon = not for a little while. Lightning in the air = the beginnings of it will soon be felt. Are either of them aware of the gathering turbulence? = do any of them have any fucking clue what they're about to go through? Next sentence = same. Or are they only aware of the power they generate between themselves? = Or are they so wrapped up in their chemistry that they ignore the situation as a whole?

Which, I think, is a lot of their problem. They get so content with just resting in their chemistry, that they don't realize (or don't acknowledge) that there are implications that come with this chemistry.

Speaking of that first scene, I'd like to talk about what I like to call The Clock Conspiracy (yes, the caps are necessary; it makes it more fancy and legitimate). If you look at the clock, in the first scene, it reads 4:23 or whatever the exact time is. But when the scene changes and it's morning, it reads 05:26 (or again, whatever it is). It's an entirely different clock. And when asked about it, Hart Hanson said that everything done in that episode was for a reason.

I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE, HART HANSON.

The most obvious explanation is that the first scene was, in fact, not the alternate universe of Booth's mind but was real life, in the future, of Booth and Bones. Which, that very well could be it. It could also not be that, or be that but kind of not really. A lot of people don't buy the future sex theory, but I personally don't see what else it could be, if the clock DOES mean something like HH implies.

But this show has taken turns in ways I had never thought before, so what the hell do I know.

MAX: Why’s it so hard for your husband to see the ways of the world?

BRENNAN: Because he wants me to be proud of him.

As is true of RealLife!Booth.

BRENNAN: Cam says everybody thinks I’m a cold fish.

BOOTH: Nah, what you are is Iceland. Cold to the touch, but underneath you’re all volcano.

BRENNAN: (giggles) I don’t like people thinking that I’m a cold fish.

BOOTH: Look if you were really a cold fish, you wouldn’t care.

As is true of RealLife!B&B. How many times have I said that Booth knows that she's really not as cold as she seems? It sure feels like a lot, even though it's really only been like, four times, maybe.

There's an interesting possibility I want to point out. So, AU!Brennan (AU = Alternate universe, Booth's dream/Brennan's book) doesn't want to let Sweets' band audition. She thinks they're stupid. AU!Booth is all for it. Once they play, AU!Brennan thinks they're really good, she likes them, and AU!Booth thinks the opposite.

Metaphor for RealLife!B&B's different changing feelings about Sweets' psychology, perhaps?

Think about it:

Neither of them were ever really for Sweets to begin with, true, but still RealLife!Booth was EONS more open to it than RealLife!Brennan. But, as the show has progressed, Brennan has slowly opened up to it more, while Booth has become more and more closed up, not wanting to talk about things.

Just a thought.

BRENNAN: We will discuss it. Since we are partners.

Oh heyyyyyyy, I see you there, shout-out to how they're partners in real life.

It makes me happy that even in an alternate universe, B&B still consider themselves partners.

And then, we have the ending monologue. This is what Brennan writes:

You love someone, you open yourself up to suffering, that's the sad truth. Maybe they'll break your heart; maybe you'll break their heart and never be able to look at yourself in the same way. Those are the risks. That's the burden. Like wings, they have weight, we feel that weight on our backs, but they are a burden that lifts us. Burdens that allow us to fly.

Interestingly enough, this is also what AU!Hodgins says in his voiceover, EXCEPT, he also has this part, right before “Those are the risks”:

You see two people and think they belong together, but nothing happens. The thought of losing so much control over personal happiness is unbearable.

These two sentences belong to the main idea of the whole thing, but are unable to be said by Bones. The first one, because she has yet to allow herself to realize fully that she and Booth do belong together, not only because she is not far enough in her emotional development yet to do so, but also because neither of them really can at all in the situation overall yet. There's too much at stake, and the whole “we can't work together and be together” argument is still there, although it is slowly being worn down. And the second one, because of precisely what it says. That thought is unbearable for Bones right now. Literally, unbearable.

And then, as if there wasn't enough to talk about, I just have to point out the symbolism of how Booth doesn't wake up until she deletes her book.

But point it out is all I shall do for now. I'm saving the actual discussion of it for season five.