In Which Wyatt Counsels Hope and Patience

Season 5, Episode 7

The Dwarf in the Dirt

A couple notes first: 1) Thanks to all who wished me well when I was sick - I'm much better now :) 
2) Please know that I DO reply to comments (if someone asks a question, or I feel so inclined as to respond to something), so check back to the post you commented on after a day or two if you wish to see if I responded/what my response was. If you have a comment you wish to make more directly, my email for this blog is humanoid24601@gmail.com. 
3) I WILL have all of the posts, up til the season five finale, up by Wednesday afternoon! And I will also be continuing my analysis of the episodes as the new season starts. For the new season, I'll probably have posts up by the Friday or Saturday after each episode airs, Sunday at the latest. Some days I might have it up that Thursday night or Friday morning, if there's no scene I need to watch again to think about it more or to transcribe a certain quote.

GORDON WYATT: I believe you didn’t publish it because you’re afraid of how Brennan and Booth would react to its conclusion.

SWEETS: My book concludes that Brennan and Booth are in love with each other.

GORDON WYATT: It’s a scrummy conundrum, isn’t it?

SWEETS: I believe that as a reaction to the childhood traumas of abuse and abandonment, Dr Brennan utilizes her intellect to armor herself from intense levels of emotion, like love.

GORDON WYATT: And Booth?

SWEETS: Well, subconsciously, he’s sensitive to her vulnerability. He knows that acting upon his feelings for her would amount to a kind of assault.

GORDON WYATT: I couldn’t agree with you more.

SWEETS: So Booth not shooting straight is simply, what, a manifestation of his phallic frustration?

GORDON WYATT: Yeah, he quite literally can’t bring his weapon to bear.

Annnnd Sweets gets an A+. And the Gordon Gordon Seal of Approval, which is really more important than any grade.

BRENNAN: (uncomfortable) So Sweets told you about the hands and the feet?

GORDON WYATT: Mmm, we’re consulting. Patient confidentiality is being maintained, and I won’t tell Booth that you’ve been ratting him out to the FBI behind his back.

BRENNAN: Ratting out is an accurate phrase, but somehow it doesn’t seem true.

GORDON WYATT: You’ve come quite a long distance since we last met, if you can now see a distinction between accuracy and the truth.

BRENNAN: I’m trying to help Booth. I can be objective about his brain and he can’t.

GORDON WYATT: Sometimes you have to help people against their wishes.

BRENNAN: I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do to help him. (She suddenly seems to realize what she’s said.) Can we listen, please?

She loves Booth. The way she says “I can't think of anything I wouldn't do to help him”... there is no doubt about it. Whether she recognizes it as being in love or not, or whether she'll even allow herself to recognize it as being in love or not, is an entirely different story.

GORDON WYATT: (He uncorks a bottle.) But not as a result of brain damage. When you were in a coma, you got a glimpse of another world.

BOOTH: Right, and how does that help me aim my gun?

(They sit down.)

GORDON WYATT: Temperance Brennan. You’re in love with her. (Booth looks up in surprise.) You’re building a world around her, a family.

BOOTH: (He pauses, looking torn.) We’re not compatible. She sees the world one way, I see it the other way.

GORDON WYATT: No of course, it’s absolutely ludicrous the idea of you together, but the heart chooses what it chooses, doesn’t it? We don’t really have any say in the matter.

BOOTH: (insistently) She doesn’t love me. I would know if she loved me.

GORDON WYATT: May I counsel patience on this front. Hope and patience.

See, here's the deal. It's not a matter that she doesn't love you, Booth. She does. But she doesn't know it. And she can't really handle it right now. And when Gordon Gordon suggests hope and patience, that is precisely what you need. Because he sees that she is making progress (“You’ve come quite a long distance since we last met”). He sees that she does, in fact, love you, from how she says “I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t do to help him.” He also sees that she is currently not able to deal with the reality of being in love with someone, from how uncomfortable she gets after she says that, and also from his general knowledge of her.

I mean, she's still trying to learn how to crack jokes non-awkwardly! Social and emotional development generally go hand-in-hand when it's someone who has a low level of skills in both departments to start with. Whether she can't even recognize that she's in love, or she can but it terrifies her to no end, is unclear and debatable. But the fact remains is that she's not able to deal with it yet.

Unfortunately, Booth is the gambler, and he could only be patient for so long.

But, more on that about nine episodes from now.