In Which We Have More Double-Meaning Monolouges

Season 4, Episode 2
The Man in the Outhouse



BRENNAN: He can hold his breath for three minutes down there.
BOOTH: Underwater?
BRENNAN: Of course.



This part makes me giggle like a twelve-year-old who just heard the word “penis”. The way she says “of course!”... PRICELESS.



BRENNAN: I know what I'm doing, Booth.
(Brennan steps into the elevator but Booth puts his hand on the door to hold it open.)
BOOTH: My gut says you're going with your gut on this one, and we all know how that ends up. Not good.



Uh-oh. Looks like someone is starting to resent White Knight Booth (the way she says “I know what I'm doing, Booth”? RAWR). She picks and chooses when she's ok with him being protective. Which makes sense at this point in their relationship, because by Brennan's thinking, since it's not like they're sleeping together or anything, it's not like they're together or anything, so who says he should have jurisdiction to say who she does and doesn't sleep with?



SWEETS: What?
BRENNAN: Uh, we share an intellectual bond. I don't have physical feelings for him. He understands that.
BOOTH: Not if he's straight. (to Sweets) Right? Am I right?
SWEETS: You are hot.
(long pause)
BRENNAN: You're here for a reason?



Again, just posting this because it makes me giggle like no other. The pause after he says she's hot, and more importantly, his facial transformation when he realizes that came across so, so wrong... so funny.



(taking a moment to be utterly shallow for a second, though, I think this might be my favorite Brennan look. Straight hair, slightly past shoulder-length, and that eyeliner... very, very hot.)



SWEETS: Does it seem that your partnership provides a surrogate relationship, making it more difficult to form other bonds?
BRENNAN: A surrogate relationship wouldn't necessarily be such a bad thing because then I could avoid the sting of rejection, which, however fleeting, is still uncomfortable.
BOOTH: Right. Okay, look, I'm sorry. You know what? If Mark and Jason don't know how lucky they are, they don't deserve you in the first place.
BRENNAN: All relationships are temporary.
BOOTH: No, that's not true, Bones. You're wrong. Okay, there is someone for everyone. Someone you're meant to spend the rest of your life with. All right? You just have to be open enough to see it. That's all.



So, I somehow completely, one hundred percent forgot that this scene existed. Which is thoroughly shocking to me, since it is such an amazing scene. Definitely one of my top ones (I'm thinking, just for kicks, once I'm through to the end of season 5 with this blog, I'll post a list of my top five or ten or whatever favorite scenes, since it seems like I say a scene is “one of my favorites EVER” every other episode or so). And definitely fairly close to the whole showrunner-speaking-to-audience-through-character thing that happened in 2.16 that I mistakenly said didn't happen again until the end of this season (although, in this scene, it's not quite as overt). So, just like with the scene in 2.16...



Implications for Booth and Bones: First off, this scene is acted phenomenally by D.B. and E.D. The way he speaks so low, and so direct to her, like Sweets isn't even there, and the look on her face the whole time... god, just amazing.



But anyway, there are so many things to say about this. The fact that she sits and really listens, that she allows him to verbally comfort her emotionally in a time when she's not in extreme immediate emotional distress, is a first for her, that we've seen. Mostly in situations like that, she'll just brush him off. But for once, even though she's not about to start sobbing or anything, she lets him say what he has to say, and doesn't brush it off as “sentimental” or “irrational” or anything. This is a huge step forward for both her own emotional development and their relationship.



The fact that neither of them shun this idea of a “surrogate relationship” says a lot about what they are actually aware of with their relationship – mainly, the fact that it is a surrogate relationship, that it's basically a relationship, just without sex, which is something us, the viewers, have known for seasons now. The fact that they have now acknowledged and accepted this is a big deal. Of course, it leaves a lot of unsaid stuff just kind of out on the table, there, but not being acknowledged (“well, if we're basically in a relationship anyway, why don't we just make it a real relationship...”). But they seem to be fine with leaving it out there and just ignoring it, for now. The thing is, once it's out there, it acts almost as a catalyst to the end of the season for them finally starting to realize their feelings, hence Booth's dream and Brennan's book.



And, the fact, that they have this long pause after Booth finishes talking, where they're just staring into each other's eyes... and it's not awkward after. Booth doesn't break the gaze, glance towards Sweets, and say something to brush off the meaning of what he just said. Brennan doesn't glance away and make some comment about Booth's sentimentality or her rationalism. They have accepted that they have a surrogate relationship. There's no need to be awkward anymore, because it has been said. They have accepted it, in front of Sweets. In a way, it's technically the first stage of their romantic relationship.



Implications for fans: “There is someone for everyone. Someone you're meant to spend the rest of your life with”. Read as: Booth and Bones are meant to be together. “You just have to be open enough to see it.” Read as: Booth and Bones (although it ends up being Bones this is really the issue with) just need to really see it, see that they belong together, see that they can't spend the rest of their lives with anyone but each other. In context of season 5, this ends up being an issue with Bones, mostly. She rejects Booth because she thinks she has to protect him from her cold heart, but what she doesn't understand yet is, cold heart or not, she can't spend the rest of her life with anyone else, and neither can he.