In Which They Have A Moment On A Whole New Level

Season 5, Episode 5
A Night At The Bones Museum


HACKER: I just wanted to make sure there's nothing going on between the two of you. I wouldn't want to get in the middle.

BOOTH: No, nothing whatsoever, sir. Strictly professional.

HACKER: Are you sure?

BOOTH: Yeah, positive.

Oh hey there, lowering of eye contact from Hacker as Booth says “strictly professional”. I see what you did there, implying that Booth doesn't entirely mean what he's saying.



Which is a big “DUH”.



BRENNAN: Why would I talk about you?

BOOTH: Because I'm what you've got in common.

BRENNAN: If you're concerned that I'd discuss any perceived shortcomings -

BOOTH: Shortcomings? What shortcomings?

BRENNAN: Honestly, Booth, Andrew and I are attracted to each other. I'm sure neither of us will think of you for a second.

I think it's notable how Bones is always going back and forth between being all clinical when talking about Booth, e.g. “perceived shortcomings”, how he's not as intelligent as her, etc., and then nearly putting him on a pedestal (e.g. the last scene of this episode). And it's because, well, most of the time she's still Rational!Brennan. Or, at least, she's Brennan thinking she has to be Rational!Brennan. She's scared of being emotional in regular, normal life. But when it comes down to it, when it's important, she says what she truly thinks.






HACKER: It's been a while since I've met someone, you know, special and, uh, oh, hell, I just don't want to make a fool out of myself if Temperance is only going out with me 'cause I'm the boss.

BOOTH: Right. Listen, Sir, Bones doesn't feel the pressure to act or do or say anything that she doesn't want to and no one, no one can make her. That what makes her... Bones.

HACKER: (relieved) Okay, thanks, really.

BOOTH: No problem.

Oh god, his face during that little bit screams “little boy in love” so much. It kills me. In a good way.

BOOTH: Stop right there. You said you weren't going to talk about me, and you talked about me.

BRENNAN: But I - I didn't mean to talk about you. I told him I didn't want to but, you know, I like that story and I guess it just popped out.

BOOTH: Popped out? I don't need Hacker knowing about my mother's meatloaf.

BRENNAN: Why are you so upset?

BOOTH: Because... what goes on between us is ours.

BRENNAN: Come on, Booth, you must've told a lot of people the meatloaf story, right?

...and then the look on his face makes her realize, oh shit, he didn't. He only told her.
And then, of course, Cam to the rescue.



As we all know, it's not about how she told Andrew about the meatloaf. It's that he thinks she doesn't care enough about the “sanctity”, for lack of a more accurate, less contextually melodramatic word, of their relationship. He thinks she thinks both him and her relationship with him are nothing special. Which of course is not true, and she knows it's not true. It's just that she wasn't entirely aware before that their relationship was particularly special to him – that's why she assumed the meatloaf thing was something he had told tons of other people.

But she realizes, oh no, he hadn't. Their relationship is special.

And, inadvertently, Booth has revealed something in his feelings for her, to her. She hadn't realized before how special their relationship is to him. But, it is. And, by the last scene, she'll reveal (again, inadvertently) that she feels the same way.

This type of revelation has never really happened with them before, until now.

The game is changed, my friends.

BRENNAN: (she smiles, then a beat later.) I have to speak. I hate these things.

BOOTH: What are you talking about, Bones? You're great at these things. Listen, you changed history. How many people can say that?

(During the next few lines, Booth and Brennan keep moving closer to one another)

BRENNAN: You can. Every arrest you make changes history. You make the world safer.

BOOTH: With your help. So, Andrew...I thought you were going to take him to this thing. That's what he told me.

BRENNAN: I was, yes, but...you and I - this was our case and I guess...what goes on between us, that should just be ours. Isn't that what you said?

BOOTH: Yeah.

(And then there's a moment where you think that the two of them are finally going to kiss when they hear the murmurings of Angela, Hodgins, Cam, Sweets & Daisy - who then appear at the top of the staircase.)

ANGELA: Come on, you two. The Ambassador is about to speak.

(The rest of the group heads back up the stair, leaving Booth & Brennan alone again. They have another moment - she adjusts his tie and he pushes a strand of hair behind her shoulder.)

BOOTH: Thanks.

Ok, I'm sorry, but I feel I really just MUST go a little teenage girl on you for a second:
OH MY GOD.
SHUT. UP.



THAT MOMENT.
JUST SHUT UP.



And they get closer and closer and closer, and then the pause... and then, the inevitable interruption. Of course.



It's interesting to look at this in comparison to earlier seasons, like in season two, for several episodes before the last Epps episode and Booth's speech about how people in high-risk situations can't be involved, they had a “moment” almost every episode for a few episodes in a row. And while those “moments” were great and lovely and freak-out-worthy... watch one from season 2, and then watch this one. They're on different levels. This one has a lot more visible emotion. It's like, before they were mostly either “Wait, are we having a moment?” or “Heeheehee, we're having a moment!” and now it's like “Oh shit, we're having a moment.”

Another interesting comparison is that in earlier seasons, most of the time it was one of them who eventually broke the moment. Switching the subject, talking about work, leaving, anything, but it was almost always because of them and not because of an outside source that the moment ended (or, that the moment never morphed into something else). Now, more and more, the moments are ended not because of them, but because they're interrupted by someone. They now need that outside source to end it because they're less and less able to end it themselves.

And even more remarkably, in this case, once they're interrupted, they don't automatically get all embarrassed and split apart. They stay partly in it a second longer; she fixes his tie, he pushes back her hair (OH GOD DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THAT. I WILL MELT INTO A PUDDLE IT IS SO DAMN CUTE. BOOTH COULD YOU BE ANY MORE OBVIOUS LIKE SERIOUSLY?!).

Of the two to keep the moment going on, it's Bones who does it. She reaches out for his bowtie. In fact, she's the one that evokes almost everything in this scene. Much of it is due to her feeling guilty about betraying Booth's trust, but like Booth said earlier, Bones doesn't feel pressure to do or say anything she doesn't want to. She easily could have made it up to him with a trip to the diner and an apology. But she wanted to take Booth to the museum function. She wanted to say everything she said about him. She wanted to fix his bowtie. She wanted to stay in the moment. Now, whether she's consciously aware of this “want” is less likely than more, but the fact remains that she still wants to do all those things.

Now, every great B&B scene has to have a good foundation, and this one has it, they have almost ALL the classic B&B conversation aspects: Booth reassuring Bones, Bones talking about how great Booth is, another reminder about how they both need each other to do what they do, a reference to them being partners or, in this case, what their being partners implies (“what goes on between us, that should just be ours”). Except now, because of that extra-visible emotion in this scene, combined with the fact that they move continually closer and closer to each other... there's a little something more to this scene, not just in the “moment”, but as a whole. The way it's played, you can feel almost like there's more at stake now.

Which, there is, because in eleven episodes, everything is at stake.