Season 6, Episode 20
The Pinocchio in the Planter
An episode revolving around truth and lies on this show is basically destined to be… well, to be something. And this episode definitely was.
The beginning of the lie discussion, in the diner – he says he has never lied to her (which, even before Sweets responded, I was thinking “hahaha BULLSHIT!”). Of course he has lied to her. And she has to him, too, although she won’t admit it.
Brennan is incredibly adamant about how people shouldn’t lie, despite the fact that she herself has definitely done it on multiple accounts. It makes sense, though – knowing the way Brennan thinks, she probably doesn’t have the same hard-and-fast rule when it comes to lying by omission, which is most of what she’s done in regards to lying.
Second, she’s always been less aware of her feelings for him than he has been in his feelings for her (yes, that is a matter of opinion, but read on), so she probably doesn’t realize she’s lied (by omission) as much to him as he has to her because she wasn’t aware she was lying. And this adds to the opinion that it is Booth that Gordon Gordon is talking about in when he’s saying that one of them is very aware of their attraction and struggles with it daily in “Mayhem on a Cross”. Booth is the one who says “well, if people didn’t have feelings, but they do.” Booth is the proponent for telling white lies because he’s done it for so damn long with her. She hasn’t because she wasn’t aware of it for a long time, therefor it’s not a lie, because it’s not really lying if you don’t know it’s a lie.
And then, that marvelous last scene (one of the better ones in awhile):
“I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Lying to spare my feelings?”
“Maybe it’s to spare my feelings.”
Once we know what he is specifically indicating, applying it to the whole non-specific is a lot easier.
But first, there’s Brennan asking if she’s really abrasive. Here, we have an arguable point – it’s quite possible that she is asking Booth simply because she wants to know what he thinks of her, what he thinks of her abrasiveness. However, because of the way that moment was played, I’m keener to go with the idea that she really is asking him if she is abrasive, that she was lying to Wendell when she said she was well aware that she is. Yes, she obviously knows is abrasive to some extent before it is ever even brought up, but I think Wendell bringing it up makes her question just how abrasive she is, that perhaps she is more abrasive than she actually thinks herself to be. When she asks Booth about it, it’s not in the simple “I’m not really asking you I just want to know what you think of me” way – she is really asking him.
“I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you just how much it meant to me.”
“Why is it so difficult to tell me something I already know?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
Alright, now bringing the “spare my feelings” dialogue from earlier and connecting it to this. Why would he not tell her just how much it meant to him? To “spare his feelings”. Or, in other words, to spare himself from being open and vulnerable to her again. After what happened in the 100th episode, it would make sense that it would be extremely difficult for him to open himself up completely to her – he doesn’t want to get hurt again. But, he has told her, now – he’s getting less protective again. Things are changing.
(also, less importantly because it is less able to be backed-up, I also kind of see that whole exchange as a very indirect apology on Booth’s part for how he treated her that night. He could have chosen from several lies, I’m willing to bet, but he chose that one partly because, I think, he realizes how mean he was that night, and he wants her to know that it really did mean a lot to him that she stayed with him, despite how angry he was. Now, this comes from no more than maybe the vibe I got from one or two line readings, so I don’t declare it to be likely or even probable, but it’s just an idea I’m throwing out there.)
“Some things are better left unsaid.”
“To the things that we don’t say.”
“To the things that we don’t say.”
Well, they have a LOT to toast to, then.
I think the lying to spare my feelings things was also in relation to Hannah. Booth was lying about moving on with Hannah to spare himself from his feelings for Brennan. In the aftermath I think Booth had acknowledged to himself the extent of denial he was in. That relationship was never real.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why Booth would feel it difficult to open up after the 100th-- she never rejected him. She rejected herself as not good enough for him. I think that's probably why I am a little less sympathetic to Booth because I think he chose to take things personal that weren't personal instead of reacting with maturity. I personally think Booth sabotages himself because he thinks he isn't good enough anyways. HH said Booth always chose women who say no-- since he reads people well enough he knows they will say no and when they do he takes it as confirmation that it was him.
I thought Booth was out of line in DitM-- he really owed her a proper apology. He knew she was hurt by his relationship-- and the proposal would've felt like a slap in the face to her. Not only because he proposed but that he didn't tell her and once again she had to hear something difficult from Hannah. Yet she came to support him anyways and bears the brunt of his rant with grace and fortitude when for so many months he was the one having a good time while she was miserable. How he thought he had the right to be angry with her I have no idea. By the time they hit DitM-- he had hurt her just as badly as she had hurt him, yet she didn't go move on.