In Which We Have... Some Actual ANGST?! Say What Now?!

Season 4, Episode 8
The Con Man in the Meth Lab

(as if we needed to add more to this long-ass entry, but I wanted to mention that today is the five year anniversary of the day Bones premiered (September 13th, 2005)! Hooray, Bones!)

This is a positively marvelous episode. One my favorite episodes overall. It's also a very difficult episode, but in a good way. This is the first real B&B angst we see on the show. Yes, they've argued before, quite a bit, but that's typical for them, and anyway, it was never really any angsty arguing. There have been sad episodes before, heartbreaking episodes before, but it never had to do with problems between them.



For the first time, they really have a problem that has to do with their personal relationship. And because it's the first time, it's incredibly hard to watch, after having nothing but personal relationship progress with them.



That's also what makes it such a riveting episode to watch.



SWEETS: Why don’t I know about this case?
BOOTH: (Whispers) Bones, its top secret.
SWEETS: But you told Dr Brennan.
BOOTH: She’s my partner okay.



She's his partner. And I think since the Bones-not-knowing-Booth-wasn't-dead incident, after all her rants about how she's his partner, she deserved to know personally from him... I think it got to him, and it changed how he sees their relationship. So she gets to know more things now. Because I think he knows that although she didn't breakdown and didn't cry at his funeral or anything, his “death” affected her profoundly, psychologically, or at least it would have had he really been dead and she would have had to deal with that reality past the funeral. And so the fact that she wasn't informed... he's trying to make it up to her now, basically.



JARED: Wha… w, wait this is Bones, right? Not some ugly FBI woman with a moustache.
BRENNAN: I don’t have a moustache Jared.
JARED: Seeley would you mind?
BOOTH: Mmm No, why would I mind. ‘S alright.
JARED: Which means this is a great time to hang up.
BOOTH: Um-hmm. (He flips his phone closed).



He doesn't even try to hide the fact that he doesn't like this idea. But he eventually gives his “blessing”, because it's not like he has a rational reason to say no. It's not like he's in love with her or anything, riiiiiiiiiiiight?



Oh, Booth. Staying in your comfort zone, as Jared says (which is the next quote).



BRENNAN: Definitely. (Jared laughs) I was thinking how Booth would be bored, at a function like this.
JARED: This kind of event would make Seeley very nervous. I don’t mean he’s incapable, my brother’s very very capable. It’s just, it’s like Seeley’s afraid of success. He stays in his comfort zone. Drove our dad nuts. (He sips his drink).
BRENNAN: Really?
JARED: Maybe that’s what made him a good sniper. He doesn’t like to be visible above the ridge line so he keeps his head low – instinct. Me on the other hand, well I cannot help but run that ridge.
BRENNAN: Can you give me an example?
(Jared leans in and kisses her)
JARED: I bet you Seeley never took that risk.
BRENNAN: Nope.



Jared, Jared. Fucking Jared. Asshole Jared.



I don't even want to talk about it.



I do, however, want to talk about after the kiss, and more specifically, her “nope”. She just says “nope”. Doesn't follow it up with a “but he wouldn't anyway, we're just partners” or anything of the like. Doesn't elaborate with anything implying she would want him to either, but still. That's something.



BOOTH: Do you think I’m a loser, like that guy in there. Some clown in some dumb-ass uniform who basically can’t do any better? Is that what you think?
BRENNAN: Well, anthropologically, males tend to rank themselves into a hierarchy. There’s no shame in not being at the top of the hierarchy.
BOOTH: You’re not answering the question Bones. Answer my question. (His cell phone rings, he answers). Booth.
(Cam's phone call; after it ends...)
BRENNAN: Booth…
BOOTH: Bones, lets just go and do our work. (He exits; she grabs her bag and follows.)



Oh damn, just look at all that angst, right there. It's even more heartbreaking because D.B. And E.D are so good at playing it. From pretty much this scene (actually, no, from her scene with Jared), till the last scene of this episode, I really dislike Bones, for the first time on the show. Most of what she does, you can chalk up to her personality, her emotional issues, etc. And while you can chalk this up to it as well... it's different. Yes, that's how Bones is, but she should know better. This is Booth; how can she be so cruel? Part of it, though, is that it's heartbreaking to not see her admiring him. Yes, she mocks his sentimentality, his “imprecise” reasoning in which he uses his “gut”, but with all that mocking, there's always been a side of her that wishes she could be more like that, and it's always acknowledged that it's there. That doesn't happen here. And it's positively awful. And I, and I'm sure many of you, get so angry at her. But we have to remember, even if you took away her emotional issues, her fear of abandonment, of love, you'd still have her basic personality, part of which is her superiority complex and her blunt honesty. It's awful, but it's true. We cannot chalk up all of who she is to her pyschological issues.



And Booth is so profoundly hurt by this revelation of hers, that she basically thinks he's a loser, he doesn't even react by being hurt, like most people do. He shuts down completely, which makes it all the more devastating. Which brings up an interesting point – when Bones, “emotionless” Bones, gets hurt, truly hurt, and someone tries to get her to talk about it, she'll actually respond fairly quickly and let her emotions out (e.g. The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond, when the book editor implies she's only as successful in her writing career as she is because she's a “sexy scientist”). Booth, emotional Booth, gets hurt, he goes into angry-shut-down mode, and only with massive amounts of prying will he open up.



He emphasizes “work” - “let's just go and do our work”. Because that's what they do, work. They're just partners.



Except this time, they really are just partners.



NON B&B OBSERVATION.
CAM: I’ve known the Booth boys for 15 years.



More interesting math. Booth is 36 in this season on the show. This means she met him when he was 21. Whether this was what was intended by the showrunners is questionable, because they've messed up a bit on years before (i.e. by the year they say she joined the Jeffersonian, she would have been 21, and she was having sex with her graduate professor when she was 23, so even if she were super-advanced in college, it still contradicts other things said on the show). And context in which they met while Cam and Booth were still in college (even if Cam is a few years older than Booth, wouldn't she still be in college after the normal four years to get her medical degree and whatnot?) is definitely possible to think of, but still, them meeting on the job seems a lot more believable and likely.



BRENNAN: People are telling me that somehow all the credit went to the State Police because of you. Is that possible?
JARED: (He sighs) Oh.
BRENNAN: So, it is possible.
JARED: What did he say to you?
BRENNAN: Nothing.
JARED: I think this is something between brothers. No offense.
(Brennan starts to leave)
JARED: Tempe.
(Brennan turns back to him).
BRENNAN: You took advantage of him. You know you made me think that he’s a loser. And what really makes me angry is that I believed you. You know I wouldn’t blame Booth if he never spoke to me again. You’re the loser. (She leaves.)



And here, we can start liking Bones again. Her anger in this is great, because it's partly from what Jared did, partly from her not liking being manipulated, but also part of it is at herself, for letting herself be manipulated into thinking Booth was a loser. She can't believe it, because like I said, she's only ever really admired him before. And she starts to think what we were thinking during the actual scene; how could she be so cruel?



Fucking Jared, man.



BRENNAN: I would like to propose a toast, to my partner, Seeley Booth.
(We see the backs of Angela, Clark and others sat at a table facing Brennan).
ALL: To Booth.
BRENNAN: I know who he is, but I forget sometimes, because… because, he never shines a light on himself. He shines it on other people.
BOOTH: Yeah, right after I conked them on the head with it.
(There are quiet chuckles from the table of friends.)
BRENNAN: Anthropology teaches us that, the alpha male is the man, wearing the crown, displaying the most colorful plumage and the shiniest baubles, he stands out from the others. But I now think that anthropology may have it wrong (Booth looks puzzled.) In working with Booth… (She turns to face him.) I have come to realize that the quiet man, the invisible man, the man who is always there for friends and family, that’s the real alpha male. And I promise, that my eyes will never be caught by those… shiny baubles again. Happy birthday. (She clinks glasses with Booth).



Oh, Bones. You are trying so hard to redeem yourself.
And you're succeeding.



The “I know who he is, but I forget sometimes” is exactly what happened. She knows who he is, hence how she's only ever really admired him before. For her to not admire him for once was such a shock because it had never happened before. She knows, but she forgot.



I love how she directs the second half of her speech, the part that's actually about him, directly to him. I can't even... this is one of those that you just have to watch. And even throughout the speech, he stays very solid, very closed-off in his facial expressions and reactions. Even when something that did hurt him is being acknowledged, he stays in his shut-down mode.



BRENNAN: What you’re doing for your brother, isn’t fair.
BOOTH: Come on Bones, don’t get me mad… at you, after that great speech right. Not after I got you shot.
BRENNAN: You didn’t get me shot, I got me shot.



And I love this, how, post-angst and post-problem, they're both all apologetic, with the whole “I got you shot”, “no, I got me shot” issue. They both hated being in an angsty situation like that with each other.



BRENNAN: Okay? You gonna come back in for cake?
BOOTH: Bones, I just need some time.
BRENNAN: Do you need time and space?
BOOTH: (Smiling) Just some time.
(Brennan sits next to Booth. She holds up the plate and they each take a fork and a forkful of cake.)
BOOTH: My dad drank.
(He takes a bite of cake).



This is such a nice, sweet little scene and way for them to kind of end their angst, it kills me. In a good way. Them eating the cake, Bones with her one arm. It's so much better than if they had ended with a hug or any kind of physical thing, really. They're just with each other, eating cake. That's all they need to comfort each other.



I love this episode in the way you might love having a really good, long sob-fest. It's nice afterward, when everything is done with, to have gotten all of that out, but damn, it sucks when it's going on. Watching true angst with B&B is wonderful and awful at the same time – wonderful, because the fact that there's angst at all means there are deep feelings being dealt with, and awful, because it's Booth and Bones. Perfectly meant-to-be, complementary, opposites-attract, might-as-well-be-in-a-relationship-with-how-they-act Booth and Bones. We don't want them to have problems, we just want them to be cute and happy. Of course, cute and happy all the time does not an interesting show make.



This episode marks our first taste of B&B angst. We really don't get any again until late season five. And I'm fairly certain we can expect quite a bit of it in season six, except it won't just be one episode in the season. It'll be difficult – as I said, we're so used to them being on the happy track, being there for each other when they're hurting because they're never hurting because of the other person. It'll be a transition. And I'm looking forward to it like one looks forward to said sob-fests discussed earlier – knowing I'm going to hate the fuck out of it when it's going on, but hoping, trusting, that in the end, it'll be worth it.