In Which The Hilarity Doesn't Outweigh the Sad (But Nice Try, HH)

Season 6, Episode 3

The Maggots in the Meathead

I think Hart Hanson purposefully made this one the Jersey Shore episode and in reaction have Brennan be hilarious in it as a means of trying to offset how damn sad some of the scenes are.

Close, but no cigar, Hart Hanson. I repeatedly had to ask my friend to pick up my heart from the ground for me.

Before I get into that, though, some clarifications, notes, etc.:

-About this whole “regression” thing I keep talking about... I feel the need to point out, I only mean it in one certain aspect: in her belief in love. I think that in the rest of her progression as a character, she kept the same level she was before the time jump, and even still she's developing more (realizing her life is how she expected, being more considerate saying she was sorry for bringing up the Hannah thing in the diner...) And even in the aspect of her not believing in love anymore, I don't mean it as a full 180 to where she was right when she started working with Booth, because the fact that she admitted feelings for Booth kind of makes up for it. So, really, I see it as kind of like a 90 instead of a 180.

-I also want to reiterate that I think the regression is a form of her protecting herself from hurt. And she's done this so many times before: tricked herself into believing something she doesn't actually believe through twisted “logical”.

-I've decided that I'm not going to edit an episode's post past the Sunday after it aired (unless, for some reason, I haven't been able to post the post until then) unless absolutely necessary (i.e. anything that pertains solely to the episode at hand and not to their relationship as a whole).

-And having that new policy in place, an extra note about the last episode: her face right before Hannah comes into the Founding Fathers and Booth just stops their conversation... as with the other moments in this episode when she's watched them together, Brennan's realizing that she's not his shining pride and glory anymore. She's feeling like she's not, and that's something difficult for her to adjust to because, uh, he's kind of adored her and protected her and looked out for her like a spoiled puppy for the past five years.

So. This episode.

Nothing warms my heart like having the second scene of an episode be Hannah and Booth post-sex. And my “warms my heart”, I mean “makes me make grossed-out faces and 'boo' at the screen.”

Although, depending on future episodes, this could definitely imply something (i.e. we see them having sex all the time... they're implying most of what makes them work relies on sex). True, we have seen them do more than have sex, and true, it's much too early to determine, but it's definitely a direction I could see them going in.

As Brennan mentioned, Booth's and Hannah's moving in together was rather casual. And as he said, it's not like they haven't talked about it. There's not so much to read into the casualness of it, though (since we really don't know all that much about Booth and Hannah's relationship yet), but something can definitely be said of Brennan's mentioning that it's casual. Although there's really not too much to that, either, other than that it correlates to later on to her motivation for her whole “Booth will give himself to you completely” speech to Hannah.

“EUREKA! A GATHERING OF GUIDOS!”

I believe the world is a better place today than it was two days ago because of the existence of this line. And the existence of this line being said by Brennan.

See how she's all “Say hi for me!” when they're communicating through the phone, but she's all awkward with her when they're talking in person? Mmmmmhm.

“I find I avoid a lot of misunderstandings if I merely deal with facts.”

Oh, Bones. Your continued use of defense mechanisms (again, not in the Freudian sense, but defense from emotion to avoid getting hurt emotionally) makes me so sad.

Notice how her voice lowers when she says “...you and Booth”. Someone isn't entirely used to/ok with talking about them as a couple, whether she admits it to herself or not. She can say she's fine all she wants, she can genuinely want Booth to be happy all she wants, but in actuality, she is sad. She is sad that he is with someone else and not her, or at least, she is sad that she thinks she can't have with him what he has with Hannah. And that sadness comes out in little moments, when she lets her guard down for a second, like just then.

And then, the phone.

THE PHONE.

1. How she knows at all about the phone. 2. How she gets so excited about the phone.

3. How Hannah doesn't know about the phone.

4. And how Brennan always remembers every little thing Booth says, like how the phone should be big enough to knock someone out. All the specifics, all the things Booth loves about it...

As always, we have all the juicy implications behind these happenings:

1 She knows him. 2. She cares about him. (how excited she gets when first telling Hannah to buy it for him makes me wonder if maybe it's something Brennan had thought of doing herself for awhile, but hadn't had an opportunity or “rational reason” to do so.)

3 This is still a very new relationship. They have amazing sex, they've been through things together, Booth is happy, all that good stuff, yet... she doesn't know about his wanting of an old phone. Much of that just has to do with the fact that they haven't known each other for epically long or anything, but still.

4. The way she goes on and on, listing all the things he has ever said about the phone... it's like when she get really excited about something scientific or anthropological. She has remembered every little thing he has said about old phones. Despite the fact that his reasons for loving them and wanting them aren't “scientific” or “rational”, she remembers them. That right there is one of the biggest signs of love, because it goes on a whole deeper level than just “romance”. She cares enough about him to remember all these little minute, unscientific details.

“And lucky for me, he has a partner who knows him so well.”

“We have become very close... by necessity.”

Look at that pause, the hesitation Bones takes before responding. She looks at Hannah, struck speechless, almost, looks away, and only THEN does she reply back “we have become very close... by necessity.” She had to think of a way to respond that doesn't give much away, and even after she did, she felt the need to further tread lightly, by adding the “by necessity” part. Which reveals an interesting possibility – maybe she feels that her (Bones) and Booth only ended up having these feelings for each other because they were partners, because they were working together in this high-stakes field, and maybe she feels that that somehow de-legitimizes (not a word, whatever) their feelings. And, yes, it's definitely more than likely that their feelings for each other only came to blossom because they were working together (if there weren't any murders, they wouldn't even get coffee; if there weren't any MORE murders, they'd get coffee, that's what they are, coffee OH GOD I LOVE THAT SCENE), but that doesn't somehow invalidate their feelings for each other. But I'm thinking Brennan might think it does.

“I want you to be sure about this... Booth will give himself to you completely, and it would be very painful for him if you aren't as serious about the relationship as he is.”

8:19 PM, Pacific Standard Time. That's when I was flat-lining, because my heart had been torn out of me and thrown across the room.

Oh, Bones. Oh, you poor confused Bones. You don't think you can love him when in actuality you love him so much.

And we go back to what was first established in 5.16: more than anything, she wants him to be happy, even if it means she can't be with him, even if it means she can't have what she wants. That's why she turned him down then, and that's why she's giving this little speech to Hannah now.

And again, this reveals a little more we can speculate on about Brennan. She knows he will give himself to her completely, because she knows he was willing to give himself completely to her. But, she didn't think she could love him in the way he loved her, and she knew then and knows now that if she wasn't as serious about it as him, he'd get crushed. At the beginning of season 5, Sweets and Cam were telling Booth to be careful, because if he confessed his feeling to Brennan and he wasn't sure, he'd break her. But it was a double-edged sword; she needed to be careful, too (or so she thought), because it goes the same vice-versa; if SHE wasn't sure, she'd break HIM. And so she needs to be sure Hannah can be what she thinks she can't be.

“You're a good friend, Temperance. Seeley's very lucky.”

Ok. Ok now. Now I'm starting to see a speculation that's been discussed a bit as something that might be actuality. Hannah is intuitive as hell. TPTB at Bones have shoved that fact in our faces for the two episodes she's been here, much of it in this scene, how she notes how Bones knows him so well, how she's 'a good friend', etc. When the existence of Hannah was first revealed this summer, a lot of people started to speculate that she would eventually act as a catalyst of sorts for the Booth/Brennan relationship, eventually leaving her relationship with Booth and telling either him, Bones, or both of them that they are in love. I definitely saw this as a possibility at the time, but it was pure conjecture, considering we hadn't even met Hannah yet. However, from what we've seen thus far, I could DEFINITELY see this as a way of setting up for that type of thing to happen in the future, establishing now that she's very intuitive and able to pick up on things.

Maybe not. But, maybe.

But enough about Hannah, back to Bones. More specifically, her reaction to Hannah being all “Seeley's very lucky” and also just the whole conversation in general: the look on her face. How she's kind of half-smiling but her eyes are so sad. She's just had it confirmed that Hannah is serious about Booth. She's just been told something that contradicts what she's been shoving down her own throat for so long; that she's not good enough, not open-hearted enough, not caring enough for Booth; Hannah's just told her that Seeley's lucky to have her be a part of his life.

She's happy that Booth is happy, but sad and confused for herself.

THAT MAKES TWO OF US, BONES.

:'(

(random note: I realize now, after rewatching this scene for the purpose of this blog, I would have been fucked if I was doing this blog back in season five and had to watch the last scene of 5.16 again the day after it aired. OH GOD I DON'T EVEN WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT.)

I am very upset that he is not wearing wacky ties. And I'm taking it to imply something. Well, not really “imply something” as much as reinforce something that's already been said: “things change” (damnit.)

(of course, that's not to say things don't ever change back.)

“What kind of guy does that if he isn't sure?”

Hello there, someone is working extremely hard to make his case.

Someone is overcompensating in both words AND actions, now.

Now, with this, you need to take what I say with a grain of salt. Well actually, you need to take everything I say with a grain of salt, but especially this, because this is some very murky, speculative territory here, where many possibilities are all equally possible. I do not think he is actively, consciously trying to overcompensate and “hide things”, nor do I think it's all just one big lie and he's really not happy with Hannah at all and he's just pretending. I do truly believe he is happy with her. To what degree he is happy, or whether or not he's truly “in love” with her is not something I'm willing to even speculate on as of now, because we simply don't have enough evidence, and there as so many equally believable possibilities. However, I am willing to infer that Booth is, on a subconscious or maybe even unconscious level, overcompensating in both what he says about his and Hannah's relationship and in his actions relating to it in order to supress certain feelings about Brennan. He can be as happy as he wants, but love doesn't just go away. Seven months and a new love might seem like more than enough to make it go away, but with something as intense as they had... I highly doubt it. But Booth can't deal with that, he can't both be happy and have these feelings for Brennan sticking in the back of his mind. So he overcompensates in order to force himself to believe those feelings aren't there.

It's interesting how Sweets mentioned that Booth's and Hannah's relationship was formed in a hyper-adrenilized environment; one could say the same of Bones and Booth, especially if you notice that many of their main developments happened either during or after particularly adrenalized events. But, their relationship has also been through not so hyper times.

Just something to mull over.

Not now, though, because we have the slightest-of-slight things to strengthen our poor little fangirl and fanboy hearts just a tiny bit: Protective!Booth. How he does not hesitate for a microsecond before getting up in his face and going “Did you just shove my partner?” Nobody touches his Bones. Nope.

Oh god, and her holding his coat and his gun for him... (here comes a FANGIRL MOMENT)... SHUT. UP. THAT IS JUST TOO CUTE. And it's all so natural, too; she's finally become accustomed to just letting him be the big alpha male when he gets into that mode, and she holds the jacket and gun.

The whole “I thought you were just being polite” “I don't really do that” is further establishing how Hannah is this sort of weird Booth-Brennan hybrid. She's intuitive, lie Booth, but she's also the type that “doesn't really do” politeness, like Brennan. Which is confusing to us as viewers, because it makes it that much more difficult to try and decide how this whole relationship is going to go, because we've never dealt with it before.

TPTB are sneaky little ones.

As much of the interwebs have already pointed out, Booth's reaction, the inflection of his words, etc., to Angela being pregnant is eerily similar to how he reacted to Brennan being pregnant in his coma dream. Whether this is just a way to connect more of the show to said dream, an actual meaningful happenstance, or just David Boreanez choosing to have Booth react to both pregnancies the same way, is another thing to mull over.

And then, we have more things that resulted in my heart being thrown from my body across the room for the second time this episode. Namely, the huge grin Brennan gets on her face when Booth gets the phone, and then the “kickster” of both of them saying “you're welcome”.

You hear that squishy-sounding thud? Yeah, that's my heart being thrown on the floor.

She re-realizes, as she continually does, that things have changed. She's not his little gem anymore. And this time she's re-reminded of it in quite a painful way; saying “you're welcome”, realizing the “thank you” wasn't to her, and then watching them share a sweet little kiss. And he doesn't even acknowledge it when Hannah says that it was Bones' idea.

OH, BONES. :(

But then he redeems himself a little bit. Because when she goes to leaves, he follows her into the hall. And they exchange the whole “see you tomorrow” “yeah, see you tomorrow” exchange, but the words are meaningless. They're just words being said to give him an excuse to go after her, to give them an excuse to have a moment. And then, we see it. Then we see the slightest hint of the trademark “Booth loves Bones” look on Booth's face. It's not as intense as it typically is, and it doesn't last as long, but despite all this overcompensating, it's slips through just the tiniest bit.

It's still there.

And they don't just leave it at that. Even when she goes to the door, she looks at him again, and he's stayed looking at her this whole time. And that moment, they have a taste of what they used to be. For the first time since Hannah's been there, maybe even since their first hug after they were back, they have a taste of it. It's not exactly what it was before, and not to its full level either, but they get a little bit of it. They get a taste.

And then, I cry like a big baby.

I said before that I thought this season was going to be super angsty. I've decided to take that back. I don't think there will be that much angst, because angst require dealing with feelings, which Booth is definitely not allowing himself to do, and Brennan is... Brennan. Brennan's dealing with things at certain levels, but definitely not on any level that would result in angst, at least not yet.

No, I think most of this season will (at least, unless/until they start confronting their feelings) just be plain said in regards to B&B, I think, especially if this episode is any indicator.

Break out the tissues and chocolate, kiddos, if you haven't already. We're just getting started.