RegisterBones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
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Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by dawnsfire Thu Apr 08, 2010 5:04 pm
Coming this weekend, a look back at both the Pilot and the Hundredth episode, how the Pilot stacks up in the light of 5 seasons and 99 more episodes, what has changed and how, plus our usual Inkslinger. Stay tuned!
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by DBCrazy Fri Apr 09, 2010 1:54 am
Hey hey hey! Sounds like a good one! 
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by THX1138 Sat Apr 10, 2010 2:39 pm
InkSlinger - Season 1, Episode 1
Spoilers? We don't need no stinkin' Spoilers!
Pilot - The one that started it all
Well the 100th Episode has come and gone and it certainly was something but that's not what this is about - as part of our retrospective on 100 episodes of Bones. Here I'll be doing a retro-review of the Pilot episode and looking at how it holds up with 99 episodes in front of it, and how our charactes have changed. For some of us this was our first glimpse of what has become one of the greatest shows on TV with one of the best casts around.
And now without further ado...
The Pilot
The Case
Unlike a normal InkSlinger I'm gonna assume that you all know Cleo Eller's case well enough for me to hit the high points and leave the details for discussions later.
The context of the case revolves around the discovery of human remains at the bottom of a water feature at Arlington National Cemetery. Booth convinces Brennan to take up the case...well, he agrees to her terms would be a better way of putting it - and working together with her interpid band of squints they embark on a journey that will give us one of the best shows on TV and establish what's become a standard for procedural dramedy in TV.
The victim is Cleo Eller, the daughter of Ted and Sharon Eller, and a Senate intern. Bennan and the Squints ID her remains, Booth and Brennan inform the family, which leads to the first of what will be many squabbles between them over how to handle notifications, talk to victims familes, suspects, a whole slew of people. While Booth works leads, Brennan and her team continue to turn over evidence. Despite some stumbles, such as Brennan harrassing a US Senator and assaulting his aide, and getting Booth pulled from the case, the two work together and eventually solve the case, taking down Senator Bethlehem's Aide, Ken Thompson...only for Booth to have to arrest Brennan for shooting an unarmed man without warning and while under the influence of alcohol. Again setting a standard that we'll see played out again and again in the history of the show - Brennan's relatives getting arrested by Booth.
The Characters
There was a lot of character interaction here, a lot to build on and a lot of development that begs dissection so let's begin:
Angela - Our first introduction to the effervescent and intriguing Angela and we see so many sides of her in the pilot - she's impulsive and confident, flashing her breasts at the ticket agent, she's sexually aggressive in her commentary on Booth, she's a warm hearted well meaning friend to Brennan and she's a party girl. She's also an accomplished forensic artist and a computer genius which seems almsot at odds with everything else, but then again it's part of her package. Looking at how she's aged over 5 seasons there's still some S1 Angela in S5, but she's changed as well. Less sweetness and light, more jaded and world weary. Of all the characters I think Angela's has seen the one who's evolution has been less than positive over time. Since walking away from Hodgins, she's just not been the same, one wonders what the future brings with her..
Hodgins - Jack is an angry, angry man. You forget just how hostile he was toward Booth early on, and his paranoia in dealing with the Government is so all encompassing it borders on a genuine psychologicial issue. Still he's a genius, three doctorates and all, and key to solving their first case. The one thing that strikes one in looking at Hodgins from the Pilot and Hodgins over time, is how he's mellowed. If Angela has become more jaded and cynical over time, Jack has become much less so. In fact the Jack of the Pilot is one I'd have voted as "Most likely to be arrested by Booth at some point in time."
Zack - The original squintern is so different from the barely functional person we see from S2 forward. Here he's geeky, but with a certain worldliness that is missing after the first season. His budding friendship with Hodgins, his ease around Angela, his obvious admiration of Brennan (sexual as well as professional) make the Zack of S1 in general, and the Pilot in particular, the character I most liked outside our leads, and the one who wore less well as time went on. Unlike many Z-fans, I wasn't sorry to see him leave after S3, though I bemoan the manner in which he left. Watching the Pilot I really grieve over the Zach who could have been.
Dr Goodman - Wow. I miss this man. As much as I love Cam, Goodman is still my favorite - why can't we get him back for Season 6? Goodman has an understanding of human nature, and of Brennan, that makes him an excellent administrator. He's a paternal figure, and the one person Brennan seems to be willing to listen to - a combination of her respect for the man as well as the fact that he's a substitute father figure.
Booth
Booth is the consumate cop, always putting his case and the victim's first. Though he presents as all charm and gut instinct, his intellect is obvious in his handling of suspects and even his own partner, his recall of the pertinent facts of the case is so complete that it can only come from true dedication to the cause of justice, and his fearlessness is shown in the lengths he'll go to for the victim - I mean going after a sitting senator is career suicide and Booth does it, not because he's goaded into it, but because it's the right thing to do. When push comes to shove, he might not be able to play politics like Furst or Santana, but Booth is the cop you'd want handling your case. Aside from that though he's a complex man, his past as a sniper and a US Army Ranger has obviously left it's mark on him and his temper is, as far as we know at this stage, a result of lingering post traumatic stress. What is most interesting though, is his interaction with Brennan - it's obvious he's attracted to her sexually, and yet he acts with barely constrained contempt. That and that alone should have tipped us off as to how bad things were between them when they last worked together, but what's most interesting is how the pilot ends with them alone together, and how we'll see that scene or others like it, played out again and again for the next five years.
Brennan
Brennan is brilliant, excitable, literal, passionate, aggressive, arrogant, and fearless. It's clear from the outset that her history with Booth, which we don't know about at this point, left her with a great deal of anger toward the man, and it's also clear that Booth, who's charming personality and good looks would undo a lesser woman, have met their match in her clinical manner and her aire of cold detachment. What also comes across is Brennan's vulnerability, her desire to connect to people the way Booth and Angela does, her frustration at not being able to do so. She can read the bones of a victim and tell you their life story, but she can't seem to make that same connection to the living. Her relationships seem to be temprorary, except for Angela, and yet in attaching herself to Booth she's embarking on a spur of the moment, long term gamble with a man she ostensibly dislikes. Her motivations are clear, she's driven to bring justice to the victims, that and that alone seems to be the single tie she has to Booth and yet the manner in which they mesh suggests that there's more to her desire to work these cases than just justice. Over the next five seasons as her character grows Brennan becomes at once the most complex and easiest character to understand, she also is the one who I've come to think of as the heart of the show, not because it's called "Bones" but because everyone, including Booth, is caught in her orbit.
Scene of Note
The opening scene of the show is one of the best openings for any pilot ever - Angela in the airport looking for Brennan. Not original you say? Sure, I'll give you that - up until she rips open her shirt to get the counter worker's attention. That folks, certainly got my attention, and when the radiantly beautiful Emily Deschanel showed up it was all over for the king.
Booth & Brennan at the firing range - the first real B&B moment, the sparks were flying, the heat was there, and we were all screaming "KISS HER!" Yep, good times.
Booth & Brennan at his offce, when he gives her the search warrant - we see, not for the first time, the very human side of Booth and how deeply he feels for each victim, and how seriously he takes every case.
Angela & Brennan in the hallway, as they discuss Brennan's inability to connect with the living. It's a scene that sets the tone for Brennan's interaction with Booth for the next five seasons and something we've come to accept as fic canon.
Quotable Quotes - The Flashback Edition
Booth: When the FBI gets stuck, we call in the squints.
Brennan: Squints?
Booth: You know, you squint at things.
Brennan: Oh, you mean people with high IQ's and basic reasoning skill?
Booth: Yeah.
Goodman: Dr. Brennan, are you playing me?
Brennan: You know I'm no good at that.
Goodman: Hmmm. Thus far. But you have a disturbingly steep learning curve.
Angela: Glug, glug, woohoo!
Brennan: Don't call me Bones.
Peter: While you were away I thought a lot about why we broke up.
Brennan: We fought all the time and don’t like each other anymore.
Peter: We fought because you were emotionally distant and cold but sexually speaking, I think you will agree..
Brennan: You didn’t come for your T.V. You timed this for a booty call. Okay, you’re leaving.
Peter: You’re intimacy issues are probably due to being orphaned so young.
Brennan: Ugh, I hate Psychology when you’re just horny.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The GOOD - The whole damn thing is good! The real question is what stands out from the rest? Well in my opinion the most memorable part of the whole episode is the big scene between Booth & Brennan at the firing range - it's hot, sexy, and just a little bit dangerous. Just like I like my Bones.
The BAD - Nothing, really, except I hate the way both Santana and Furst were used as drive-by characters.
The UGLY - Nothing, nada, Not A Thing. Except maybe Brennan's boots in that final scene...definitely a fashion don't with that skirt.
The case work was excellent, the chemistry was electrifying, the interaction between the partners set the stage for years to come. Overall watchability of this episode remains extremely high and is one of those I measure all future eps against:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
The Bones Pilot remains not just an exceptional pilot, but an example of what the show got right and the yard stick against which other episodes should be measured.
RM
Spoilers? We don't need no stinkin' Spoilers!
Pilot - The one that started it all
Well the 100th Episode has come and gone and it certainly was something but that's not what this is about - as part of our retrospective on 100 episodes of Bones. Here I'll be doing a retro-review of the Pilot episode and looking at how it holds up with 99 episodes in front of it, and how our charactes have changed. For some of us this was our first glimpse of what has become one of the greatest shows on TV with one of the best casts around.
And now without further ado...
The Pilot
The Case
Unlike a normal InkSlinger I'm gonna assume that you all know Cleo Eller's case well enough for me to hit the high points and leave the details for discussions later.
The context of the case revolves around the discovery of human remains at the bottom of a water feature at Arlington National Cemetery. Booth convinces Brennan to take up the case...well, he agrees to her terms would be a better way of putting it - and working together with her interpid band of squints they embark on a journey that will give us one of the best shows on TV and establish what's become a standard for procedural dramedy in TV.
The victim is Cleo Eller, the daughter of Ted and Sharon Eller, and a Senate intern. Bennan and the Squints ID her remains, Booth and Brennan inform the family, which leads to the first of what will be many squabbles between them over how to handle notifications, talk to victims familes, suspects, a whole slew of people. While Booth works leads, Brennan and her team continue to turn over evidence. Despite some stumbles, such as Brennan harrassing a US Senator and assaulting his aide, and getting Booth pulled from the case, the two work together and eventually solve the case, taking down Senator Bethlehem's Aide, Ken Thompson...only for Booth to have to arrest Brennan for shooting an unarmed man without warning and while under the influence of alcohol. Again setting a standard that we'll see played out again and again in the history of the show - Brennan's relatives getting arrested by Booth.
The Characters
There was a lot of character interaction here, a lot to build on and a lot of development that begs dissection so let's begin:
Angela - Our first introduction to the effervescent and intriguing Angela and we see so many sides of her in the pilot - she's impulsive and confident, flashing her breasts at the ticket agent, she's sexually aggressive in her commentary on Booth, she's a warm hearted well meaning friend to Brennan and she's a party girl. She's also an accomplished forensic artist and a computer genius which seems almsot at odds with everything else, but then again it's part of her package. Looking at how she's aged over 5 seasons there's still some S1 Angela in S5, but she's changed as well. Less sweetness and light, more jaded and world weary. Of all the characters I think Angela's has seen the one who's evolution has been less than positive over time. Since walking away from Hodgins, she's just not been the same, one wonders what the future brings with her..
Hodgins - Jack is an angry, angry man. You forget just how hostile he was toward Booth early on, and his paranoia in dealing with the Government is so all encompassing it borders on a genuine psychologicial issue. Still he's a genius, three doctorates and all, and key to solving their first case. The one thing that strikes one in looking at Hodgins from the Pilot and Hodgins over time, is how he's mellowed. If Angela has become more jaded and cynical over time, Jack has become much less so. In fact the Jack of the Pilot is one I'd have voted as "Most likely to be arrested by Booth at some point in time."
Zack - The original squintern is so different from the barely functional person we see from S2 forward. Here he's geeky, but with a certain worldliness that is missing after the first season. His budding friendship with Hodgins, his ease around Angela, his obvious admiration of Brennan (sexual as well as professional) make the Zack of S1 in general, and the Pilot in particular, the character I most liked outside our leads, and the one who wore less well as time went on. Unlike many Z-fans, I wasn't sorry to see him leave after S3, though I bemoan the manner in which he left. Watching the Pilot I really grieve over the Zach who could have been.
Dr Goodman - Wow. I miss this man. As much as I love Cam, Goodman is still my favorite - why can't we get him back for Season 6? Goodman has an understanding of human nature, and of Brennan, that makes him an excellent administrator. He's a paternal figure, and the one person Brennan seems to be willing to listen to - a combination of her respect for the man as well as the fact that he's a substitute father figure.
Booth
Booth is the consumate cop, always putting his case and the victim's first. Though he presents as all charm and gut instinct, his intellect is obvious in his handling of suspects and even his own partner, his recall of the pertinent facts of the case is so complete that it can only come from true dedication to the cause of justice, and his fearlessness is shown in the lengths he'll go to for the victim - I mean going after a sitting senator is career suicide and Booth does it, not because he's goaded into it, but because it's the right thing to do. When push comes to shove, he might not be able to play politics like Furst or Santana, but Booth is the cop you'd want handling your case. Aside from that though he's a complex man, his past as a sniper and a US Army Ranger has obviously left it's mark on him and his temper is, as far as we know at this stage, a result of lingering post traumatic stress. What is most interesting though, is his interaction with Brennan - it's obvious he's attracted to her sexually, and yet he acts with barely constrained contempt. That and that alone should have tipped us off as to how bad things were between them when they last worked together, but what's most interesting is how the pilot ends with them alone together, and how we'll see that scene or others like it, played out again and again for the next five years.
Brennan
Brennan is brilliant, excitable, literal, passionate, aggressive, arrogant, and fearless. It's clear from the outset that her history with Booth, which we don't know about at this point, left her with a great deal of anger toward the man, and it's also clear that Booth, who's charming personality and good looks would undo a lesser woman, have met their match in her clinical manner and her aire of cold detachment. What also comes across is Brennan's vulnerability, her desire to connect to people the way Booth and Angela does, her frustration at not being able to do so. She can read the bones of a victim and tell you their life story, but she can't seem to make that same connection to the living. Her relationships seem to be temprorary, except for Angela, and yet in attaching herself to Booth she's embarking on a spur of the moment, long term gamble with a man she ostensibly dislikes. Her motivations are clear, she's driven to bring justice to the victims, that and that alone seems to be the single tie she has to Booth and yet the manner in which they mesh suggests that there's more to her desire to work these cases than just justice. Over the next five seasons as her character grows Brennan becomes at once the most complex and easiest character to understand, she also is the one who I've come to think of as the heart of the show, not because it's called "Bones" but because everyone, including Booth, is caught in her orbit.
Scene of Note
The opening scene of the show is one of the best openings for any pilot ever - Angela in the airport looking for Brennan. Not original you say? Sure, I'll give you that - up until she rips open her shirt to get the counter worker's attention. That folks, certainly got my attention, and when the radiantly beautiful Emily Deschanel showed up it was all over for the king.
Booth & Brennan at the firing range - the first real B&B moment, the sparks were flying, the heat was there, and we were all screaming "KISS HER!" Yep, good times.
Booth & Brennan at his offce, when he gives her the search warrant - we see, not for the first time, the very human side of Booth and how deeply he feels for each victim, and how seriously he takes every case.
Angela & Brennan in the hallway, as they discuss Brennan's inability to connect with the living. It's a scene that sets the tone for Brennan's interaction with Booth for the next five seasons and something we've come to accept as fic canon.
Quotable Quotes - The Flashback Edition
Booth: When the FBI gets stuck, we call in the squints.
Brennan: Squints?
Booth: You know, you squint at things.
Brennan: Oh, you mean people with high IQ's and basic reasoning skill?
Booth: Yeah.
Goodman: Dr. Brennan, are you playing me?
Brennan: You know I'm no good at that.
Goodman: Hmmm. Thus far. But you have a disturbingly steep learning curve.
Angela: Glug, glug, woohoo!
Brennan: Don't call me Bones.
Peter: While you were away I thought a lot about why we broke up.
Brennan: We fought all the time and don’t like each other anymore.
Peter: We fought because you were emotionally distant and cold but sexually speaking, I think you will agree..
Brennan: You didn’t come for your T.V. You timed this for a booty call. Okay, you’re leaving.
Peter: You’re intimacy issues are probably due to being orphaned so young.
Brennan: Ugh, I hate Psychology when you’re just horny.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The GOOD - The whole damn thing is good! The real question is what stands out from the rest? Well in my opinion the most memorable part of the whole episode is the big scene between Booth & Brennan at the firing range - it's hot, sexy, and just a little bit dangerous. Just like I like my Bones.
The BAD - Nothing, really, except I hate the way both Santana and Furst were used as drive-by characters.
The UGLY - Nothing, nada, Not A Thing. Except maybe Brennan's boots in that final scene...definitely a fashion don't with that skirt.
The case work was excellent, the chemistry was electrifying, the interaction between the partners set the stage for years to come. Overall watchability of this episode remains extremely high and is one of those I measure all future eps against:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
The Bones Pilot remains not just an exceptional pilot, but an example of what the show got right and the yard stick against which other episodes should be measured.
RM
THX1138- Therapist
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by DBCrazy Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:01 am
Thanks for taking us back to where our obsession began. It's a nice walk down memory lane. I've seen this episode probably a half dozen times, but I do need to go back and watch it again now that I've seen #100.
I remember when Angela flashed the counter guy, I was like, "Whoa! She's one to reckon with." Then without so much as a beat there was Brennan! I can't say that I was taken with Brennan right at the outset, but already on board with anything DB was doing. I have to admit that Seeley Booth was more than I could have hoped for though. And as far as the Pilot goes I was immediately taken with Goodman, and I want him back too, but not that I want Cam to disappear in his wake. Jack and Zack were interesting but I don't recall any real attachments right off. I do miss Cullen though, as I assume so many do, in that all these years later he still makes it into so many fics.
Thanks!
I remember when Angela flashed the counter guy, I was like, "Whoa! She's one to reckon with." Then without so much as a beat there was Brennan! I can't say that I was taken with Brennan right at the outset, but already on board with anything DB was doing.
I have to admit that Seeley Booth was more than I could have hoped for though. And as far as the Pilot goes I was immediately taken with Goodman, and I want him back too, but not that I want Cam to disappear in his wake. Jack and Zack were interesting but I don't recall any real attachments right off. I do miss Cullen though, as I assume so many do, in that all these years later he still makes it into so many fics.Thanks!
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by THX1138 Sun Apr 11, 2010 1:32 am
Thanks Sherry, I think it's interesting having watched the 100th episode to go back and really watch the Pilot again and realize how well HH has done, if not in continuity, in keeping to the general principles of the show that he established back then. The Pilot set the stage for the next five years, and though they may have drifted off course (Season 4) at times...badly off course (Double Death) at times...the show has remained essentially true to itself and we can still see those elements of the characters that drew is to them so long ago - though I want Brennan's costumers from S1/S2 back in charge, that and more pony tails - the woman has a great neck and as you all know the King is part vampire.
RM
RM
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by dawnsfire Wed Apr 14, 2010 10:47 am
The Parts in the Sum of the Whole
(aka #100)
(recklessly hands out fudge in apology for delay…RL hates me right now!)
That’s a cumbersome title…well suited to the morass of expectations, fears, anxieties, and other mixed feelings attached to this episode. Don’t mind saying I began to get a bad feeling when I found people over on FF.net as early as Wednesday night who were suddenly putting their B&B stories on hiatus--ones in which they were already in a relationship or were building one. (I should never go there on a Wed night!)
But I do like flashback, origins, and all the rest, so I decided to enjoy that part, no matter what happened in the present day. And I did! Probably paid too much attention to the backstory’s detail, in all honesty--how else do I end up with as many pages of notes as I did in only 2 viewings?
Brace yourselves--this is a long one! And even so, there’s no way I could discuss everything…
Case
Case? What case? Oh, right, there was a case, tucked into that far more interesting flashback, the whole Booth meets Brennan thing, the way things used to be, the casual comments that led into things as we know them…so I’ll run through all of it.
OK, the framework to the flashback and hence the case is our heroes going to confront Sweets about his book. While Booth assumes the main issue is the conclusion (interesting that Brennan’s not all that concerned, especially in the light of the end), hers is much more factual--Cleo Eller was not the first case they worked together. Of course, we, the viewers, knew that from comments made in the first season.
After the obligatory “shoot down the shrink” chit-chat, they drop that bombshell on him and then tell him all about the case of Gemma Arrington, 13 months minus a week before Cleo. (spelling from final credits)
Booth, a lowly FBI Agent, even one with Special tacked on, is handed a cold case from the New York coroner--one Camille Saroyan, who informs him that he should not only get a partner, but he should head over to the Jeffersonian for the best: Dr Temperance Brennan.
He resists, but not for long and finds her lecturing a class about cleaning bones and finding the “important” evidence, Booth being Booth, he questions that statement, reminding her that things such as poison and wounds are to be found in flesh. Brennan, being who she is, is more than willing to correct him. The real surprise is that there’s definite interest there…I’m sure he was expecting some dried up old stick (with a name like Temperance, who could blame him?), and she seems quite impressed with the fact that he’s from the FBI. This undercurrent of attraction tugs at them for most of the case.
Taking a chance as the gambler he still is, Booth sends over the remains to the Lab, asking them to ID the remains as a test. While this would infuriate her in later years, she sees the logic now. He is stunned by what information she can dig up for him--sketch, all the places she’s lived, that she’s a singer or winner or asthmatic, etc, etc,--a veritable torrent of data…except for her name. Well, he’s got that, so all is good. He’s convinced he knows who did it--a federal judge.
Gemma herself was missing a year before being found in a landfill, with a large jagged hole on each side of her skull. Further examination shows pre-mortem bone bruising, very evenly spaced, and a maple splinter. Her boyfriend had tried out for the major leagues, and a bat is briefly suspected, but they settle on a fall down stairs made of maple as the cause of the bruises, and the boyfriend is cleared. Eventually, they work out the cause of death and the holes was her head being smashed in the locking mechanism of a car--whatever car used to drive her from DC to NY.
Of course, things are not as they are even a year later at the Lab itself. Brennan and Zack work together for the most part, Hodgins is a surly so-and-so who only Brennan can quell, though Zack tries. He’s best known at this point as a botanist, as opposed to the “bug and slime” guy as he’s called in the Pilot, and rather cavalier about what is permitted on the platform (bowl of cereal). Angela is a freelance artist, to put it kindly, doing caricatures in the park (even though she’s had an exhibit or two); she and Brennan only met about a month before. Working a contemporary case shakes them all up; Brennan must refocus Zack’s attention, Hodgins is electrified by the thought of examining the victim’s clothing and Angela is on board because she’s going to get paid. But they are all fully involved from the get go.
Caroline, on the other hand, is not impressed with squints, Booth’s reasoning, Angela’s drawings (I have to say the flip book was kinda lame) and eventually tells Booth to fire them. He does, after a lot of Dutch courage (or Mexican, being that it was tequila), taking Brennan to a rather seedy-looking pool hall where his GA meetings are held. Or what he calls his meetings. They begin to move on their attraction--if they’re no longer working together, agent and consultant, they can have sex, right? There is a torrid kiss outside but we are led to believe that Brennan changed her mind and got into a cab alone. (I have my doubts)
Next morning, they are both hung over, and while the newly formed team at the Jeffersonian is bubbling over with enthusiasm and ideas, Brennan is surly and informs them they’ve been fired. But this is enough to keep them working together and Angela is offered a permanent place. Zack takes over the evidence and conclusions to the Hoover, not impressing an equally hung over Booth. But Booth shows the folder to Cam, who tells him it’s more than enough and backs him up to Caroline.
Caroline tells him to bring the squints back on board, but now the bloom is off the rose for Brennan. She’s snippy and harsh, but goes along anyway to examine the judge’s car. Long and short of it is that while almost everything else has been professionally cleaned and/or replaced, the actual locking mechanism for the trunk was not, and they find a stapes (ear bone), which DNA will prove to be Gemma’s. She had caught the judge snorting drugs and he had originally only wanted to stop her from telling; in the process, she had fallen down stairs, and when he carried her out his car truck, she had begun to stir. Panicked, he slammed the lid on her head, killing her.
Unfortunately for the shippers among us, this is where and when things start going really bad. They are reduced to calling each other names in front of everyone in the garage, and then Booth, in an attempt to soften her attitude in front of Gemma’s mother, manhandles her out of the room, which pushes her buttons. While we don’t know exactly what either said initially, it ends with her slapping Booth, announcing she hates him, and will never work with him again. A fearsome threat in academia, I’m sure, but Booth doesn’t really care (for now).
We come back to the here and now, where an absolutely befuddled Sweets is just staring at them. His book is toast--and I would swear it’s in revenge that he challenges them to break the stalemate, especially Booth as the gambler. In his office, they reject it, but it comes spilling out as soon as they’re outside. Out of the blue, Booth announces he wants to give them a try, wants to give it a chance. No line is mentioned, but, Brennan repeats his statement from that case about fraternization (note to self, look up all meaning of that word--is it always superior/subordinate?). He refuses to accept it and lays a kiss almost as hot as the earlier one on her. But, with tears streaming down her face, she tells him that while he might be a gambler, she’s a scientist and can’t change (a load of bull, you ask me), and won’t do it because she wants to protect him from her. He wants the long term, and she says she can’t give him what she wants…and so he makes the choice that has been discussed here before--if she won’t give it a try, then he has to try and move on. She agrees, though the look on her face--! But asks if they can remain partners. He agrees and they walk off together, arm in arm, heads resting together in such a way that any passing observer would thing they were together.
Characters
I will say right off the bat that I thought they got everyone’s S1 mannerisms and attitudes right. Costuming’s a little iffy, maybe--not a sign of Brennan’s chunky jewelry, very S5; not sure about Angela.
Brennan--We now know officially how many doctorates she has--I had wondered, having seen 3 in some places and 1 in others. Like Hodgins, she has 3, though I don’t know in what beyond forensic anthropology. And that she actually teaches besides the interns. The old abrasive Brennan is back, in full display during the car examination--but this was provoked, whereas originally it seemed to be her natural mode. She does seem much more…open until things fell apart, and I don‘t mean party girl, gregarious, extrovert, but more so than later. Which leads me to wonder--what exactly happened? Was it Booth? Did something else happen in the intervening months to close her down so badly? We don’t see enough of her interactions with the rest of world to truly judge.
I also don’t entirely buy that she and Angela only met a month before, but it does shed some interesting light on Brennan. While reserved, somewhat awkwardly straightforward (see the caricature scene), and deliberately not part of the modern world on so many levels (no current events after the Industrial Revolution), she is capable of great inter-personal jumps…maybe not emotionally, but how she connects to Angela, and the initial days with Booth shows she can act “normal.” In fact, this is probably the Brennan most of her dates see. It’s only as things progress that they see more and everything falls apart.
Her interest in the case is fueled as much by her intellectual curiosity as by her interest in Booth. This is new, it had real impact on the immediate world--a certain relevancy, if you will. And maybe, as is implied in the Pilot, she is thinking of her teenage self and missing people.
Booth--so many fun things in the flashback! The pool hall, the change of ties, the immediate interest in Brennan and innate honesty that makes him confess his flaws. The fact that he is still in the bullpen! I can’t be sure, but I don’t think he’s even wearing the brassy Ranger belt buckle here, either. Think of what Wyatt could have made of that, knowing what prompted him to wear these things in the first place! I’m not so sure his original statement about socio-economic whatevers still applies, at least not entirely.
But he is Booth, the real deal--the cop, with just a little less…something. The way he acted in the interrogation room was slightly different than we generally saw even in the beginning. This was supposed to be a glimpse of gambler Booth, and I can’t say it was all that noticeable, despite the money and Cam’s comments. There was his enjoyment in the pool hall--and I wonder how he justified it to himself at the time--and I just realized some of what seemed off. He was smiling! He was mostly light-humored, funny Booth, over the cop and the gambler.
The end scene--heart wrenching! To be more clinical, I would almost have to say it’s still miscommunication, and it falls on her more than him. He laid it out, out of the blue for her (so shocker for her), and there’s no denying the old attraction is still there, grown even, on both sides. But she doesn’t properly explain why she feels that way, why she must protect him. It killed her to say all that to him, and she’s developed enough to see what she’s doing to him and that makes it all the worse. That hope that they can still be partners is perhaps as much for him as it is for her.
And I can’t imagine how Booth feels. He lays it all out, willing to take the ultimate step, heck with the rules, with expectations--this is you and me, Bones, let’s try! And understanding her does not take the sting out of it. Telling her he was going to have to move on is his way of protecting himself, mending himself.
The thing is, Brennan has a limited window to change her mind, but I don’t know if she realizes it. And maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that she’ll get Booth’s building a wall of his own, but not that it’s not instantaneous. He has to work at it. With her steep learning curve, she builds them faster and has enough practice that it’s more like slamming a door. Booth has to reconstruct and add onto a wall built 6 years previous--and he’s going to have to remember to do it. I anticipate a lot of ups and downs--habit dictating they’re at ease with other, and then something will remind one of them, and everything will go wonky.
I know I’ve barely scraped the top of this, and we’ll be discussing what happened for months (depending on the finale).
*glares at finale plot bunny--go away, I don’t want to write you!*
Angela--Miss I want to go to Paris… I think she’s pretty close to what she was like in S1, grossed out by bodies, but making these jumps that lead down the right path (as in the protuberance). I actually got less of a sense of her personality here, but she’s already doing these wondrous things, even with out the Angelator--working with Zack to ID car type, etc. And the way she shot down Hodgins--very typical!
Hodgins--the rubber band! Very obvious the way he would pull it ‘way out before snapping it, and not how he actually did it in S1--but there’s a reason for that, I’m guessing, and her name is Angela. It’s over a year later before she sees it, in Boy in a Bush. He’s certainly interested in her from the get-go.
And he was nasty--unpleasant they said--in a way we haven’t seen except when he was reeling from the double loss of Zack and Angela in S4. Even sharper than he was in S1.
Zack--ah, dear Zack, how we’ve missed him! This, however, is not the Zack of the Pilot/S1 or even the Zack of S2 & 3 so much as a combination of the two. He was much more awkward, stiff, and out of touch (from the later episodes), but they kept his bossiness and parts of the attitude he sometimes displayed early on. Loved his bossy and dismissive attitude towards Hodgins.
Caroline--much as I love Caroline, she had no place in this episode. Outside of the obvious that she first met Brennan in New Orleans (Man in the Morgue), she was given lines that should have belonged to Cullen! (firing the Jeffersonian, the dangers of taking a squint into the field, etc) But she was her usual great self, some great lines--particularly liked the one about Booth’s pretty face! Wonder what she’s done for him--or even why she owes him a favor over a year later when she flies down to New Orleans. Something shifted in there
Cam--very much the way she was at the beginning and most of S2, when she wasn’t riding herd on the rest of them or trying to control Brennan. I wonder if part of the reason she came down so hard on Brennan had something to do with the brush-offs--though perhaps 2 years on might be pushing that a little. We also see how close she is to Booth, in terms of friendship at least. I doubt that she’s the woman he mentioned he was seeing casually, given that she was still (freshly?) NY coroner.
Went back and looked at the beginning of Titan on the Tracks--Brennan says she doesn’t know Cam--all right, believable (especially in light of her interaction with the fireman 2 minutes later), but you could interpret the look of Cam’s face as “I knew that was coming,” especially after the elevator run-in here. And Booth does think they knew each other…reasonable, given that Cam told him to go work with Brennan in the first place.
Sweets--his expressions as they tell him the story were priceless! I don’t understand how he doesn’t know about this case, though, if he has their files. Unless because it wasn’t an official partnership? But watching his mind be blown was hysterical! However…they may scoff at his conclusions, but we shippers all know he’s right on the money with them.
Random Impressions
Oddly enough, there were only three major inconsistencies.
--One, the thing we already knew about Caroline being there. Despite the attempted save of Caroline saying she doesn’t remember squints’ names/faces and Brennan’s known disinclination or whatever you want to call it to remember everyone else’s (see Titan on the Tracks), I can’t buy that neither of them remembers the other.
--Two, this case did not go exactly the way Booth described it to Cullen in the Pilot. To refresh your memory:
--Three, between Woman in the Garden and Stargazers, it seems as though the last time Brennan went to El Salvador was also when Angela wanted her to go to Italy with her, and was long before this case (2003?). I may be wrong, there is some ambiguity in the phrasing.
--and a minor quibble…Booth has too much familiarity with the team in the Pilot for only having met them once! But I’ll get into that during my look back at the Pilot.
I was surprised there was only one case before Cleo’s…I rather expected more than one, but not more than three. The way things are phrased in the Pilot seem to imply at least two…
Who do you think they’re seeing? Is Peter the physicist? (doubtful to me) Tessa? We can rule out Cam and Rebecca, I think.
OK, I generally avoid talking to people or reading reviews until I have this up, but due to the delay (and thanks, O King, for suggesting it--there really was too much to absorb!), I bounced across a couple and one of them said something I was wondering--how truthful were they, exactly, when talking to Sweets? Booth’s GA meeting, just for starts--first time I’ve heard of a meeting to help control gambling involving money changing hands over a pool game. And the biggie…did they or didn’t they? I was prepared to accept that scene of Brennan in the cab and Booth in the rain until he came back to the Lab to rehire her/them. Oh no, something else happened--she had been enjoying herself with the case, enjoying his company, and the way they told it, she made the decision to not sleep with him. I can’t see her being so snippy, even when hung over. I said it Thursday night that there was something else, and I will continue to say it until I am given official notice otherwise. Curse HH et al for fudging things!
This might be the real reason he’s uncomfortable mentioning sex around her, though. Upon a second look, I am not sure that he is just hung-over when Zack brings the evidence and file…it’s past wistful, it’s more like he lost his chance at something and knows it.
They’ve never had tequila again, have they…?
I really loved how the prospect of working modern cases fires the Jeffersonian team all up, and even when they apparently won’t be doing that anymore, they still manage to form a tight-knit group. I’d like the story of how Hodgins and Zack became friends and what led Hodgins to offer Zack a place to stay.
Both Cullen and Goodman should have been in this episode! Like I said, they gave Caroline lines very reminiscent of Cullen’s, and Goodman should have approved of Brennan hiring Angela, at the very least.
The dress Brennan was wearing in Sweets’ office looks a lot like the skirt she was wearing when Booth first met her.
A different interrogation room than even the one in S1.
Connecting Lines
Cam pushing Booth into taking on a partner, specifically Brennan, starting the whole show!
Constant contrast between cops and scientists--forensics vs. investigation. In the Pilot, Booth said it to Brennan, and here he says almost the same thing to Cam.
“Do you believe in fate?” is an echo of this: “You know, whatever happened to seeing someone across a crowded room? Eyes meeting? ‘That old black magic gets you in its spell’?” *smirk*
Brennan telling Hodgins and Zack to conduct an experiment…she has no idea of what she’s unleashing! (also first time of Zack as victim, and Brennan demonstrating on him or any other intern) And no wonder she tells Cam she encourages such things in S2.
Brennan’s comment about how true rebels and leaders will find ways to distinguish themselves leading to Booth’s red tie (and presumably the funky socks and eventually the buckle).
Caroline’s comment after seeing Angela’s flipbook that eventually turns into the old Angelator and the current Angelatron.
We now know how Brennan knew that Booth was a “degenerate gambler.”
Caroline’s office…if I’m not mistaken, that is Booth’s current office (his third?), judging by the color of the walls and the general floor plan.
Good
Loved the flashback!
Bad
They went so far to get the little details right, why not some of the bigger ones?
Ugly
The condition I was in afterwards! An absolute mess, I promise.
The fun of the flashback almost cancels out the pain of the end scene--top marks for me:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Hang around for my discussion of the Pilot in light of what we saw in #100…
(aka #100)
(recklessly hands out fudge in apology for delay…RL hates me right now!)
That’s a cumbersome title…well suited to the morass of expectations, fears, anxieties, and other mixed feelings attached to this episode. Don’t mind saying I began to get a bad feeling when I found people over on FF.net as early as Wednesday night who were suddenly putting their B&B stories on hiatus--ones in which they were already in a relationship or were building one. (I should never go there on a Wed night!)
But I do like flashback, origins, and all the rest, so I decided to enjoy that part, no matter what happened in the present day. And I did! Probably paid too much attention to the backstory’s detail, in all honesty--how else do I end up with as many pages of notes as I did in only 2 viewings?
Brace yourselves--this is a long one! And even so, there’s no way I could discuss everything…
Case
Case? What case? Oh, right, there was a case, tucked into that far more interesting flashback, the whole Booth meets Brennan thing, the way things used to be, the casual comments that led into things as we know them…so I’ll run through all of it.
OK, the framework to the flashback and hence the case is our heroes going to confront Sweets about his book. While Booth assumes the main issue is the conclusion (interesting that Brennan’s not all that concerned, especially in the light of the end), hers is much more factual--Cleo Eller was not the first case they worked together. Of course, we, the viewers, knew that from comments made in the first season.
After the obligatory “shoot down the shrink” chit-chat, they drop that bombshell on him and then tell him all about the case of Gemma Arrington, 13 months minus a week before Cleo. (spelling from final credits)
Booth, a lowly FBI Agent, even one with Special tacked on, is handed a cold case from the New York coroner--one Camille Saroyan, who informs him that he should not only get a partner, but he should head over to the Jeffersonian for the best: Dr Temperance Brennan.
He resists, but not for long and finds her lecturing a class about cleaning bones and finding the “important” evidence, Booth being Booth, he questions that statement, reminding her that things such as poison and wounds are to be found in flesh. Brennan, being who she is, is more than willing to correct him. The real surprise is that there’s definite interest there…I’m sure he was expecting some dried up old stick (with a name like Temperance, who could blame him?), and she seems quite impressed with the fact that he’s from the FBI. This undercurrent of attraction tugs at them for most of the case.
Taking a chance as the gambler he still is, Booth sends over the remains to the Lab, asking them to ID the remains as a test. While this would infuriate her in later years, she sees the logic now. He is stunned by what information she can dig up for him--sketch, all the places she’s lived, that she’s a singer or winner or asthmatic, etc, etc,--a veritable torrent of data…except for her name. Well, he’s got that, so all is good. He’s convinced he knows who did it--a federal judge.
Gemma herself was missing a year before being found in a landfill, with a large jagged hole on each side of her skull. Further examination shows pre-mortem bone bruising, very evenly spaced, and a maple splinter. Her boyfriend had tried out for the major leagues, and a bat is briefly suspected, but they settle on a fall down stairs made of maple as the cause of the bruises, and the boyfriend is cleared. Eventually, they work out the cause of death and the holes was her head being smashed in the locking mechanism of a car--whatever car used to drive her from DC to NY.
Of course, things are not as they are even a year later at the Lab itself. Brennan and Zack work together for the most part, Hodgins is a surly so-and-so who only Brennan can quell, though Zack tries. He’s best known at this point as a botanist, as opposed to the “bug and slime” guy as he’s called in the Pilot, and rather cavalier about what is permitted on the platform (bowl of cereal). Angela is a freelance artist, to put it kindly, doing caricatures in the park (even though she’s had an exhibit or two); she and Brennan only met about a month before. Working a contemporary case shakes them all up; Brennan must refocus Zack’s attention, Hodgins is electrified by the thought of examining the victim’s clothing and Angela is on board because she’s going to get paid. But they are all fully involved from the get go.
Caroline, on the other hand, is not impressed with squints, Booth’s reasoning, Angela’s drawings (I have to say the flip book was kinda lame) and eventually tells Booth to fire them. He does, after a lot of Dutch courage (or Mexican, being that it was tequila), taking Brennan to a rather seedy-looking pool hall where his GA meetings are held. Or what he calls his meetings. They begin to move on their attraction--if they’re no longer working together, agent and consultant, they can have sex, right? There is a torrid kiss outside but we are led to believe that Brennan changed her mind and got into a cab alone. (I have my doubts)
Next morning, they are both hung over, and while the newly formed team at the Jeffersonian is bubbling over with enthusiasm and ideas, Brennan is surly and informs them they’ve been fired. But this is enough to keep them working together and Angela is offered a permanent place. Zack takes over the evidence and conclusions to the Hoover, not impressing an equally hung over Booth. But Booth shows the folder to Cam, who tells him it’s more than enough and backs him up to Caroline.
Caroline tells him to bring the squints back on board, but now the bloom is off the rose for Brennan. She’s snippy and harsh, but goes along anyway to examine the judge’s car. Long and short of it is that while almost everything else has been professionally cleaned and/or replaced, the actual locking mechanism for the trunk was not, and they find a stapes (ear bone), which DNA will prove to be Gemma’s. She had caught the judge snorting drugs and he had originally only wanted to stop her from telling; in the process, she had fallen down stairs, and when he carried her out his car truck, she had begun to stir. Panicked, he slammed the lid on her head, killing her.
Unfortunately for the shippers among us, this is where and when things start going really bad. They are reduced to calling each other names in front of everyone in the garage, and then Booth, in an attempt to soften her attitude in front of Gemma’s mother, manhandles her out of the room, which pushes her buttons. While we don’t know exactly what either said initially, it ends with her slapping Booth, announcing she hates him, and will never work with him again. A fearsome threat in academia, I’m sure, but Booth doesn’t really care (for now).
We come back to the here and now, where an absolutely befuddled Sweets is just staring at them. His book is toast--and I would swear it’s in revenge that he challenges them to break the stalemate, especially Booth as the gambler. In his office, they reject it, but it comes spilling out as soon as they’re outside. Out of the blue, Booth announces he wants to give them a try, wants to give it a chance. No line is mentioned, but, Brennan repeats his statement from that case about fraternization (note to self, look up all meaning of that word--is it always superior/subordinate?). He refuses to accept it and lays a kiss almost as hot as the earlier one on her. But, with tears streaming down her face, she tells him that while he might be a gambler, she’s a scientist and can’t change (a load of bull, you ask me), and won’t do it because she wants to protect him from her. He wants the long term, and she says she can’t give him what she wants…and so he makes the choice that has been discussed here before--if she won’t give it a try, then he has to try and move on. She agrees, though the look on her face--! But asks if they can remain partners. He agrees and they walk off together, arm in arm, heads resting together in such a way that any passing observer would thing they were together.
Characters
I will say right off the bat that I thought they got everyone’s S1 mannerisms and attitudes right. Costuming’s a little iffy, maybe--not a sign of Brennan’s chunky jewelry, very S5; not sure about Angela.
Brennan--We now know officially how many doctorates she has--I had wondered, having seen 3 in some places and 1 in others. Like Hodgins, she has 3, though I don’t know in what beyond forensic anthropology. And that she actually teaches besides the interns. The old abrasive Brennan is back, in full display during the car examination--but this was provoked, whereas originally it seemed to be her natural mode. She does seem much more…open until things fell apart, and I don‘t mean party girl, gregarious, extrovert, but more so than later. Which leads me to wonder--what exactly happened? Was it Booth? Did something else happen in the intervening months to close her down so badly? We don’t see enough of her interactions with the rest of world to truly judge.
I also don’t entirely buy that she and Angela only met a month before, but it does shed some interesting light on Brennan. While reserved, somewhat awkwardly straightforward (see the caricature scene), and deliberately not part of the modern world on so many levels (no current events after the Industrial Revolution), she is capable of great inter-personal jumps…maybe not emotionally, but how she connects to Angela, and the initial days with Booth shows she can act “normal.” In fact, this is probably the Brennan most of her dates see. It’s only as things progress that they see more and everything falls apart.
Her interest in the case is fueled as much by her intellectual curiosity as by her interest in Booth. This is new, it had real impact on the immediate world--a certain relevancy, if you will. And maybe, as is implied in the Pilot, she is thinking of her teenage self and missing people.
Booth--so many fun things in the flashback! The pool hall, the change of ties, the immediate interest in Brennan and innate honesty that makes him confess his flaws. The fact that he is still in the bullpen! I can’t be sure, but I don’t think he’s even wearing the brassy Ranger belt buckle here, either. Think of what Wyatt could have made of that, knowing what prompted him to wear these things in the first place! I’m not so sure his original statement about socio-economic whatevers still applies, at least not entirely.
But he is Booth, the real deal--the cop, with just a little less…something. The way he acted in the interrogation room was slightly different than we generally saw even in the beginning. This was supposed to be a glimpse of gambler Booth, and I can’t say it was all that noticeable, despite the money and Cam’s comments. There was his enjoyment in the pool hall--and I wonder how he justified it to himself at the time--and I just realized some of what seemed off. He was smiling! He was mostly light-humored, funny Booth, over the cop and the gambler.
The end scene--heart wrenching! To be more clinical, I would almost have to say it’s still miscommunication, and it falls on her more than him. He laid it out, out of the blue for her (so shocker for her), and there’s no denying the old attraction is still there, grown even, on both sides. But she doesn’t properly explain why she feels that way, why she must protect him. It killed her to say all that to him, and she’s developed enough to see what she’s doing to him and that makes it all the worse. That hope that they can still be partners is perhaps as much for him as it is for her.
And I can’t imagine how Booth feels. He lays it all out, willing to take the ultimate step, heck with the rules, with expectations--this is you and me, Bones, let’s try! And understanding her does not take the sting out of it. Telling her he was going to have to move on is his way of protecting himself, mending himself.
The thing is, Brennan has a limited window to change her mind, but I don’t know if she realizes it. And maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that she’ll get Booth’s building a wall of his own, but not that it’s not instantaneous. He has to work at it. With her steep learning curve, she builds them faster and has enough practice that it’s more like slamming a door. Booth has to reconstruct and add onto a wall built 6 years previous--and he’s going to have to remember to do it. I anticipate a lot of ups and downs--habit dictating they’re at ease with other, and then something will remind one of them, and everything will go wonky.
I know I’ve barely scraped the top of this, and we’ll be discussing what happened for months (depending on the finale).
*glares at finale plot bunny--go away, I don’t want to write you!*
Angela--Miss I want to go to Paris… I think she’s pretty close to what she was like in S1, grossed out by bodies, but making these jumps that lead down the right path (as in the protuberance). I actually got less of a sense of her personality here, but she’s already doing these wondrous things, even with out the Angelator--working with Zack to ID car type, etc. And the way she shot down Hodgins--very typical!
Hodgins--the rubber band! Very obvious the way he would pull it ‘way out before snapping it, and not how he actually did it in S1--but there’s a reason for that, I’m guessing, and her name is Angela. It’s over a year later before she sees it, in Boy in a Bush. He’s certainly interested in her from the get-go.
And he was nasty--unpleasant they said--in a way we haven’t seen except when he was reeling from the double loss of Zack and Angela in S4. Even sharper than he was in S1.
Zack--ah, dear Zack, how we’ve missed him! This, however, is not the Zack of the Pilot/S1 or even the Zack of S2 & 3 so much as a combination of the two. He was much more awkward, stiff, and out of touch (from the later episodes), but they kept his bossiness and parts of the attitude he sometimes displayed early on. Loved his bossy and dismissive attitude towards Hodgins.
Caroline--much as I love Caroline, she had no place in this episode. Outside of the obvious that she first met Brennan in New Orleans (Man in the Morgue), she was given lines that should have belonged to Cullen! (firing the Jeffersonian, the dangers of taking a squint into the field, etc) But she was her usual great self, some great lines--particularly liked the one about Booth’s pretty face! Wonder what she’s done for him--or even why she owes him a favor over a year later when she flies down to New Orleans. Something shifted in there
Cam--very much the way she was at the beginning and most of S2, when she wasn’t riding herd on the rest of them or trying to control Brennan. I wonder if part of the reason she came down so hard on Brennan had something to do with the brush-offs--though perhaps 2 years on might be pushing that a little. We also see how close she is to Booth, in terms of friendship at least. I doubt that she’s the woman he mentioned he was seeing casually, given that she was still (freshly?) NY coroner.
Went back and looked at the beginning of Titan on the Tracks--Brennan says she doesn’t know Cam--all right, believable (especially in light of her interaction with the fireman 2 minutes later), but you could interpret the look of Cam’s face as “I knew that was coming,” especially after the elevator run-in here. And Booth does think they knew each other…reasonable, given that Cam told him to go work with Brennan in the first place.
Sweets--his expressions as they tell him the story were priceless! I don’t understand how he doesn’t know about this case, though, if he has their files. Unless because it wasn’t an official partnership? But watching his mind be blown was hysterical! However…they may scoff at his conclusions, but we shippers all know he’s right on the money with them.
Random Impressions
Oddly enough, there were only three major inconsistencies.
--One, the thing we already knew about Caroline being there. Despite the attempted save of Caroline saying she doesn’t remember squints’ names/faces and Brennan’s known disinclination or whatever you want to call it to remember everyone else’s (see Titan on the Tracks), I can’t buy that neither of them remembers the other.
--Two, this case did not go exactly the way Booth described it to Cullen in the Pilot. To refresh your memory:
Brennan had the actual body, no x-rays! And Booth was the one focused on who the murderer was, trying to make the facts fit. Brennan offered nothing about murderer’s height, etc, as she has other times.Director: I thought you said she wouldn’t work with you anymore?
Booth: Well the last case we worked she provided a description of the murder weapon and the murderer but I didn’t give her much credence.
Director: Why not?
Booth: Because she did it by looking at the victim’s autopsy x-rays.
--Three, between Woman in the Garden and Stargazers, it seems as though the last time Brennan went to El Salvador was also when Angela wanted her to go to Italy with her, and was long before this case (2003?). I may be wrong, there is some ambiguity in the phrasing.
--and a minor quibble…Booth has too much familiarity with the team in the Pilot for only having met them once! But I’ll get into that during my look back at the Pilot.
I was surprised there was only one case before Cleo’s…I rather expected more than one, but not more than three. The way things are phrased in the Pilot seem to imply at least two…
Who do you think they’re seeing? Is Peter the physicist? (doubtful to me) Tessa? We can rule out Cam and Rebecca, I think.
OK, I generally avoid talking to people or reading reviews until I have this up, but due to the delay (and thanks, O King, for suggesting it--there really was too much to absorb!), I bounced across a couple and one of them said something I was wondering--how truthful were they, exactly, when talking to Sweets? Booth’s GA meeting, just for starts--first time I’ve heard of a meeting to help control gambling involving money changing hands over a pool game.
And the biggie…did they or didn’t they? I was prepared to accept that scene of Brennan in the cab and Booth in the rain until he came back to the Lab to rehire her/them. Oh no, something else happened--she had been enjoying herself with the case, enjoying his company, and the way they told it, she made the decision to not sleep with him. I can’t see her being so snippy, even when hung over. I said it Thursday night that there was something else, and I will continue to say it until I am given official notice otherwise. Curse HH et al for fudging things!This might be the real reason he’s uncomfortable mentioning sex around her, though. Upon a second look, I am not sure that he is just hung-over when Zack brings the evidence and file…it’s past wistful, it’s more like he lost his chance at something and knows it.
They’ve never had tequila again, have they…?
I really loved how the prospect of working modern cases fires the Jeffersonian team all up, and even when they apparently won’t be doing that anymore, they still manage to form a tight-knit group. I’d like the story of how Hodgins and Zack became friends and what led Hodgins to offer Zack a place to stay.
Both Cullen and Goodman should have been in this episode! Like I said, they gave Caroline lines very reminiscent of Cullen’s, and Goodman should have approved of Brennan hiring Angela, at the very least.
The dress Brennan was wearing in Sweets’ office looks a lot like the skirt she was wearing when Booth first met her.
A different interrogation room than even the one in S1.
Connecting Lines
Cam pushing Booth into taking on a partner, specifically Brennan, starting the whole show!
Constant contrast between cops and scientists--forensics vs. investigation. In the Pilot, Booth said it to Brennan, and here he says almost the same thing to Cam.
“Do you believe in fate?” is an echo of this: “You know, whatever happened to seeing someone across a crowded room? Eyes meeting? ‘That old black magic gets you in its spell’?” *smirk*
Brennan telling Hodgins and Zack to conduct an experiment…she has no idea of what she’s unleashing! (also first time of Zack as victim, and Brennan demonstrating on him or any other intern) And no wonder she tells Cam she encourages such things in S2.
Brennan’s comment about how true rebels and leaders will find ways to distinguish themselves leading to Booth’s red tie (and presumably the funky socks and eventually the buckle).
Caroline’s comment after seeing Angela’s flipbook that eventually turns into the old Angelator and the current Angelatron.
We now know how Brennan knew that Booth was a “degenerate gambler.”
Caroline’s office…if I’m not mistaken, that is Booth’s current office (his third?), judging by the color of the walls and the general floor plan.
Good
Loved the flashback!
Bad
They went so far to get the little details right, why not some of the bigger ones?
Ugly
The condition I was in afterwards! An absolute mess, I promise.
The fun of the flashback almost cancels out the pain of the end scene--top marks for me:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Hang around for my discussion of the Pilot in light of what we saw in #100…
dawnsfire- Head of Forensics
- Number of posts : 2086
Age : 52
Location : Chicago, IL
Say What You Want : "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." Marilyn Monroe
Avatar is "Queen of the Night" by Wendy Pini
Registration date : 2009-05-21 -
Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by THX1138 Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:13 pm
InkSlinger - Season 1, Episode 1
Spoilers? We don't need no stinkin' Spoilers!
The Parts in the Sum of the Whole
Well the 100th Episode really was something, in fact it was almost everything it was hyped to be which is saying something. First I want to say that with a few notable exceptions I thought David Boreanaz' directing was excellent - on part with the best I've seen on an episode. I wonder if that's because as a fan of relationship angst this episode was perfect for him? Make no Bones about it, this was an angsty piece and anyone looking for rainbows at the end would have better luck finding a pony at the bottom of a pile of horseshit. So get your shovels out Pollyannas, it's time to start digging.
And now without further ado...
The 100th Episode
Present Day Pt1 - Sweets is getting ready to release his book and asks Brennan and Booth to comment on it and provide feedback. They proceed to explain that it's fine, but the premise is false - Cleo Eller was NOT their first case together, Jemma Arrington was. Stunned Sweets asks them to tell him about the case so he can determine if his book has any merit, what follows is one of the BEST flashback episodes I've ever seen.
The Case
The death of a promising young singer, Jemma Arrington, becomes Booth's concern when he gets a call from the Victim's Mother, Jocelyn Arrington, asking him to look in to her daughter's murder. The murder is a cross jurisdictional nightmare but Booth contacts the chief coroner of the City of New York, Camille Saroyan, and Cam agrees to release the body to the FBI, going so far as to recommend Dr Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institute to work the case because of her expertise with human remains. Booth takes her up on that, and meeting Brennan starts what will become one of the most productive, thrilling, and angst ridden partnerships in history. Brennan and her crack team of squints - including her assistance Zack Addy, Dr Jack Hodgins, and later artist Angela Montenegro, are able to give Booth the age, race, occupation, and probably murder weapon from the x-rays and remains. Impressed with both the results and Brennan's beauty, Booth takes her on as a "parter" and explains that he knows who the victim is, even has an idea who the perpetrator was, he just needs her team to get him the evidence but Brennan, being Brennan, will only promise to give him evidence, and to follow it wherever it leads.
With Brennan's team behind him, Booth begins running down leads until only sitting Federal Judge Myles Hasty remains as a viable candidate. While looking for more clues, Booth and Brennan run into the Judge who, true to his arrogant nature, gets in Brennan's face, leading to Brennan's punching the judge out. Caroline Julian, horrified at what Brennan did, insists that Booth fire her. Booth takes Caroline's advice, takes Brennan out to get drunk on tequila, and then fires her explaining that she punched out a federal judge. Brennan, quick to realize that the lack of a working relationship means they can sleep together. The pair head out into the rain to catch a cab back to someone's apartment and stip to kiss before Brennan puts and end to their plans. She won't sleep with him because of the tequila, but the morning after realizing what happened between them, something shifts between the two. The flirtation turns to bickering, the bickering to arguing, the arguing to hate. Although Brennan and the squints give Booth the evidence to nail Hasty, any chance he had with Brennan is gone.
Present Day Pt2 - Stunned by the revelation of their first case, Sweets argues that the two missed their moment six years ago and have been punishing themselves and everyone else since. Turning to Booth he implores the gambler in him to take that chance, to tell Brennan he loves her so they could bridge the gap and fix what's been broken between them for the last six years. Booth does take that chance, but Brennan surprisingly refuses to reciprocate, claiming she wants to protect his heart from her, she tells him no but asks if they can't still be partners? Sad, defeated, heartbroken, Booth agrees and the two walk off, arm in arm, as if their worlds haven't been changed forever.
The Characters
There was a lot of character interaction here, a lot to build on and a lot of development that begs dissection so let's begin:
Angela - Wow. So now we know how long they've been best friends, just over six years. Amazing as that is, what's even more amazing is that Angela, Brennan's best friend, the woman we all just assumed knew Brennan for ages (I think most of us thought they'd met in College) has only known her for a month more than Booth. Yes, there's a 13 month gap in there where Booth + Brennan didn't talk, but still that's not much of a time lag. Given Brennan's reticence to open up and share, that means Angela really invested herself in the best-friend role to get as far inside her walls as she did in the time allowed. We see little by way of technical expertise from the character, she's an artist after all, but she does speculate on the murder weapon pointing Zack and Angela in the right direction (foreshadowing her critical input on future episodes) and there is the hint from Caroline as to what will come - getting computers to "jazz up" her stick figure drawings. As for the look of Angela, let me just say Michaela did an outstanding job reviving her younger, more effusive, less jaded and world weary self. I really miss that Angela - can we get her back please?
Hodgins - You know in the pilot Hodgins came across as an angry paranoid conspiricist, turns out that was him on a GOOD day. Yeesh. The man was a bundle of anger, nerves, and hostility all wrapped up in a nasty, furry little package. Interesting how his contempt for Zack and his barely concealed disdain for Brennan morph over the year between the Arrington and the Eller cases. Also interesting to see that his attraction to Angela was instant - Hodgins as horndog hitting on the artist from word go was amusing...and more than a little creepy. More intriguing was his overt animosity to Zack, something only hinted at in the Pilot and so diminished as the first season went on that they two became best friends at the end. Technically Hodgins is the "Jack if all trades" of the Jeffersonian, with three degrees and some mad science skills, and we see his skills on display when he discovers the traces of Maple splinters that lead to the murder location, as well as desiging the experiment to disprove the baseball bat as the murder weapon.
Cam - Same old Cam, beautiful, intelligent, sharp, and capable of handling Seeley Booth as well as any woman can. Cam is the one who gets the partners together, the one who pushes Caroline to accept the Jeffersonian's evidence, and ultimately the one responsible for much of what transpires between them. Who knew?
Caroline - While I love the character I've got mixed feelings about her appearance here - Caroline isn't dumb and despite the comment that "she doesn't remember squints" her interaction with Brennan was intensive enough that it's unthinkable that Booth would have to "introduce" them again in New Orleans, or that Brennan wouldn't remember her, given the dismissive way Caroline treated her - if Brennan's good at one thing, it's holding grudges. Other than that there's the anacrhonistic part of her having an office in the Hoover building - AUSA's don't have offices in the Hoover Building but in the RFK Building, so Booth wouldn't have wanted her office. Also, AUSA's don't hire and fire FBI contractors, in fact if she wanted to she'd have to go through Cullen.
Booth
The Booth of 6 years ago was a gambler, a risk taker, a player, and a hard driving cop - well on the road to self destruction. His manner of "dealing" with his gambling was to win more than he lost. His son, Parker, would have been barely three at the time and the Booth we know in S1, the concerned father who doted on his son, was not what we saw - I'd posit that the reason being Booth was in the throws of his addiction, and at that point in an addicts life everything other than the addiction becomes secondary. Oddly enough I believe it was losing out on a chance with Brennan that helped Booth kick his habbit - and no, I don't by that crap about him "working on it", he was a full blown gambling addict until after that case ended.
Watching Booth & Brennan fight and argue, the way she turned on him, the way he seemed to know exactly what to say to hurt her the most "I'm not your dad!", was incredibly emotionally raw. DB was amazing in this episode, so intense that the only other time I've seen him this focused this year was Bond in the Boot, and before that, Conman in the Meth Lab. The end scene where he takes the gamble and fails, was incredibly painful. Booth put his heart out there, and when he was rejected, you could see him crumbling - he'd finally let defeat claim him, he's got nothing left to give her, and he won't be making any proclamations of love again folks, Booth's done. When he said "I've got to move on." That was him telling Brennan "I'm out, game over" because he won't be trying to convince her anymore. I predict that if they do get together, ever, it will be Brennan who bridges that gap, because Booth won't make the same mistake twice.
Brennan
Beautiful, Brilliant, Tempestuous, Volatile, and more than a little damaged, our Temperance is a thing of beauty and Emily plays a younger her amazingly well, in fact she's really the only one of the entire cast who pulls off the 'six years younger' transformation. We get to see a Brennan we haven't really seen since the Pilot - smart and funny, in a quirky way, open and honest to a fault, utterly lacking in pretense, at once tought and strong yet always vulnerable and sensitive. Meeting Booth and working a recent criminal case opens up an entirely new world to Brennan, one she finds intriguing and exciting, and yet it's one she's unprepared for. She's used to handling ancient remains, so she fails to use gloves at first. She's accustomed to dump sites hundreds of years old or older, so crime scene integrity is new to her. She's used to working with the dead, so being around live victim's families puts her outside her comfort zone. Brennan is a study in contrasts and yet one meeting, one case, with Booth transforms her and makes her into the premier forensics scientist in the nation.
Yet it's the personal side of Brennan that intrigues us most, she is aggressive with Booth, but when he tells her that he thinks what they have could be the start of something more, she balks. Later she handles their "break-up" badly, and a lot of their lost year is due, in part, to her hurt feelings and Booth's own razor sharp tongue. Yet when we see her six years on, we see a woman who, despite her immense growth, is still a frightened child - she's not protecting Booth from her "closed heart", she's protecting herself from losing him - she all but begs him to stay on as her partner, their friendship and partnership she believes will last, but she's no faith in the ephemeral nature of love, or her ability to hang onto it. It'll take pain, a lot of pain in fact, for her to realize that she either takes that risk with him or lets him go forever.
Scene of Note
Their First meeting - There were sparks flying between them from the get go but what stands out here is not the appreciative looks Booth gave Brennan, but the obvious once over Brennan gave Booth. She was clearly interested in him from the very first.
Booth "Firing" Brennan - Wow, if I ever get fired can it be using the "Booth Method"? I'd really like my boss to take me out, get me drunk, and then make a pass at me. Wait. Scratch that. I want Emily Deschanel to do that.
Booth & Brennan blowout - Intense, and they'd known each other less than a week but instinctively knew which buttons to push, went immediately for the jugular, and it's no wonder that they didn't talk for a year afterwards AND that it was Booth who made the overtures. He'd no doubt read her file, realized her folks went missing at some point, so he knew how hard she took his "not your dad" comment, but you could tell from the first few episodes that the hurt lingered with him - she was willing to forgive him over time, but he held onto that slight that he was stupid and he would, since it struck at the very core of his being, his greatest insecurity that he's a fraud and it's laid out there by her so easily. Huge, important, impressive, and devestating.
End In The Beginning Moments:
Honestly too many to count (which I'm sure was the point) so I'll just hit the highlights:
Quotable Quotes - The Wayback Edition (Extended)
Brennan: That's your interpretation. We recognize your right to interpret.
Sweets: You do?
Brennan: That's your right as a psychologist to get everything wrong.
Brennan: If we don't work together anymore we can have sex
Booth: I'll call a cab
Zack: You can take the clothing and leave.
Hodgins: Yeah, you can take that femur and shove it...
Brennan: Dr Hodgins.
Booth: You're a cold fish!
Brennan: You're a superstitious moron!
Booth: Get a soul!
Brennan: Get a brain!
Hodgins: The bat is so honed and close grained it cannot be broken on the soft tissues of a human being. We can try striking his head.
Zack: What?!
Brennan: Unnecessary.
Brennan: Is this bad?
Booth: I've been wanting to do that for years. You are. SO. HOT.
Sweets: You kissed?
Booth: Yes.
Brennan: There was tongue contact.
Zack: It was immensely stupid of you to fire us.
Booth: Sorry but did you just call me stupid?
Zack: I can only conclude are immensely stupid.
Brennan: Oh please, do you really think the best and brightest go into law enforcement? No the best and brightest go to the Jeffersonian.
Sweets: It's...it's like you two missed your moment, and then you punished each other for it. And you know who pays the price? Me.
Brennan: Let go of me!
Booth: I will if you would just...(slap) OW! What the hell?!
Brennan: You are a bully! You grabbed my arm just like the judge. You use your gun and your badge to intimdate people.
Booth: Really? The way you use your brain to make the people around you feel stupid?
Brennan: You are stupid man! I hate you!
Booth: (mocking) Oh you hate me. What are you? Ten years old? I'm not your dad!
Brennan: (hissing) I will never work with you again!
Booth: Who asked you?!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The GOOD - The fight scene between Booth & Brennan as they're talking to the victim's mother. Emily and David were really firing on all cylinders here and, as I discussed with my Queen - what, all y'all think we don't talk?
Anway, as I discussed with my Queen I think DB told Em to just go for it with that slap - it was too real not to be real. The emotion, the delivery, like the observation room scene in Conman or the Barn scene in Woman in Limbo, this wasn't acting, it just was.
The BAD - The lack of Goodman. Yeah I know they say they couldn't get him but he was still sorely missed.
The UGLY - Sorry, I know a lot of you out there go "But every show has continuity issues" but there were a few whoppers here, to wit, Booth's gambling issue? If Brennan already knew about it (He TOLD her about it explicitly) and she's got a brain the size of a planet, then why does he feel the need to tell her again in Woman in the Sand? Oh, and Caroline Julian who has a mind like a steel trap doesn't remember Brennan despite the obvious impression she made on her, and Brennan has no recollection of her either? That's just crappy writing on HH's part and it creates continuity problems galore. Other shows have issues, but few treat continuity like a 2-bit whore that can be silenced with a $20 tip.
Their first case together and the work was solid, their interactions fresh, and even if David looked like death on a cracker in their first flashback scene it was a really good episode:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Continuity was mediocre at best with a few really bad breaches that just beg for a decent writer's touch:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Overall watchability? Take two VV&T's to dull the pain by the ham handed manner in which continuity is treated and enjoy the ride:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
This was a really, really good episode - I'm not willing to call it great, I've enough issues to hold me back from that, but this is what a 100th episode should be at least, and it's a damn site better than the S4 finale was at any rate.
RM
yeah, I'm late - really really late. Well I don't do fudge (I do but it's royal fudge, no commoners, sorry) so all y'all just have to lump it.
Spoilers? We don't need no stinkin' Spoilers!
The Parts in the Sum of the Whole
Well the 100th Episode really was something, in fact it was almost everything it was hyped to be which is saying something. First I want to say that with a few notable exceptions I thought David Boreanaz' directing was excellent - on part with the best I've seen on an episode. I wonder if that's because as a fan of relationship angst this episode was perfect for him? Make no Bones about it, this was an angsty piece and anyone looking for rainbows at the end would have better luck finding a pony at the bottom of a pile of horseshit. So get your shovels out Pollyannas, it's time to start digging.
And now without further ado...
The 100th Episode
Present Day Pt1 - Sweets is getting ready to release his book and asks Brennan and Booth to comment on it and provide feedback. They proceed to explain that it's fine, but the premise is false - Cleo Eller was NOT their first case together, Jemma Arrington was. Stunned Sweets asks them to tell him about the case so he can determine if his book has any merit, what follows is one of the BEST flashback episodes I've ever seen.
The Case
The death of a promising young singer, Jemma Arrington, becomes Booth's concern when he gets a call from the Victim's Mother, Jocelyn Arrington, asking him to look in to her daughter's murder. The murder is a cross jurisdictional nightmare but Booth contacts the chief coroner of the City of New York, Camille Saroyan, and Cam agrees to release the body to the FBI, going so far as to recommend Dr Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institute to work the case because of her expertise with human remains. Booth takes her up on that, and meeting Brennan starts what will become one of the most productive, thrilling, and angst ridden partnerships in history. Brennan and her crack team of squints - including her assistance Zack Addy, Dr Jack Hodgins, and later artist Angela Montenegro, are able to give Booth the age, race, occupation, and probably murder weapon from the x-rays and remains. Impressed with both the results and Brennan's beauty, Booth takes her on as a "parter" and explains that he knows who the victim is, even has an idea who the perpetrator was, he just needs her team to get him the evidence but Brennan, being Brennan, will only promise to give him evidence, and to follow it wherever it leads.
With Brennan's team behind him, Booth begins running down leads until only sitting Federal Judge Myles Hasty remains as a viable candidate. While looking for more clues, Booth and Brennan run into the Judge who, true to his arrogant nature, gets in Brennan's face, leading to Brennan's punching the judge out. Caroline Julian, horrified at what Brennan did, insists that Booth fire her. Booth takes Caroline's advice, takes Brennan out to get drunk on tequila, and then fires her explaining that she punched out a federal judge. Brennan, quick to realize that the lack of a working relationship means they can sleep together. The pair head out into the rain to catch a cab back to someone's apartment and stip to kiss before Brennan puts and end to their plans. She won't sleep with him because of the tequila, but the morning after realizing what happened between them, something shifts between the two. The flirtation turns to bickering, the bickering to arguing, the arguing to hate. Although Brennan and the squints give Booth the evidence to nail Hasty, any chance he had with Brennan is gone.
Present Day Pt2 - Stunned by the revelation of their first case, Sweets argues that the two missed their moment six years ago and have been punishing themselves and everyone else since. Turning to Booth he implores the gambler in him to take that chance, to tell Brennan he loves her so they could bridge the gap and fix what's been broken between them for the last six years. Booth does take that chance, but Brennan surprisingly refuses to reciprocate, claiming she wants to protect his heart from her, she tells him no but asks if they can't still be partners? Sad, defeated, heartbroken, Booth agrees and the two walk off, arm in arm, as if their worlds haven't been changed forever.
The Characters
There was a lot of character interaction here, a lot to build on and a lot of development that begs dissection so let's begin:
Angela - Wow. So now we know how long they've been best friends, just over six years. Amazing as that is, what's even more amazing is that Angela, Brennan's best friend, the woman we all just assumed knew Brennan for ages (I think most of us thought they'd met in College) has only known her for a month more than Booth. Yes, there's a 13 month gap in there where Booth + Brennan didn't talk, but still that's not much of a time lag. Given Brennan's reticence to open up and share, that means Angela really invested herself in the best-friend role to get as far inside her walls as she did in the time allowed. We see little by way of technical expertise from the character, she's an artist after all, but she does speculate on the murder weapon pointing Zack and Angela in the right direction (foreshadowing her critical input on future episodes) and there is the hint from Caroline as to what will come - getting computers to "jazz up" her stick figure drawings. As for the look of Angela, let me just say Michaela did an outstanding job reviving her younger, more effusive, less jaded and world weary self. I really miss that Angela - can we get her back please?
Hodgins - You know in the pilot Hodgins came across as an angry paranoid conspiricist, turns out that was him on a GOOD day. Yeesh. The man was a bundle of anger, nerves, and hostility all wrapped up in a nasty, furry little package. Interesting how his contempt for Zack and his barely concealed disdain for Brennan morph over the year between the Arrington and the Eller cases. Also interesting to see that his attraction to Angela was instant - Hodgins as horndog hitting on the artist from word go was amusing...and more than a little creepy. More intriguing was his overt animosity to Zack, something only hinted at in the Pilot and so diminished as the first season went on that they two became best friends at the end. Technically Hodgins is the "Jack if all trades" of the Jeffersonian, with three degrees and some mad science skills, and we see his skills on display when he discovers the traces of Maple splinters that lead to the murder location, as well as desiging the experiment to disprove the baseball bat as the murder weapon.
Cam - Same old Cam, beautiful, intelligent, sharp, and capable of handling Seeley Booth as well as any woman can. Cam is the one who gets the partners together, the one who pushes Caroline to accept the Jeffersonian's evidence, and ultimately the one responsible for much of what transpires between them. Who knew?
Caroline - While I love the character I've got mixed feelings about her appearance here - Caroline isn't dumb and despite the comment that "she doesn't remember squints" her interaction with Brennan was intensive enough that it's unthinkable that Booth would have to "introduce" them again in New Orleans, or that Brennan wouldn't remember her, given the dismissive way Caroline treated her - if Brennan's good at one thing, it's holding grudges. Other than that there's the anacrhonistic part of her having an office in the Hoover building - AUSA's don't have offices in the Hoover Building but in the RFK Building, so Booth wouldn't have wanted her office. Also, AUSA's don't hire and fire FBI contractors, in fact if she wanted to she'd have to go through Cullen.
Booth
The Booth of 6 years ago was a gambler, a risk taker, a player, and a hard driving cop - well on the road to self destruction. His manner of "dealing" with his gambling was to win more than he lost. His son, Parker, would have been barely three at the time and the Booth we know in S1, the concerned father who doted on his son, was not what we saw - I'd posit that the reason being Booth was in the throws of his addiction, and at that point in an addicts life everything other than the addiction becomes secondary. Oddly enough I believe it was losing out on a chance with Brennan that helped Booth kick his habbit - and no, I don't by that crap about him "working on it", he was a full blown gambling addict until after that case ended.
Watching Booth & Brennan fight and argue, the way she turned on him, the way he seemed to know exactly what to say to hurt her the most "I'm not your dad!", was incredibly emotionally raw. DB was amazing in this episode, so intense that the only other time I've seen him this focused this year was Bond in the Boot, and before that, Conman in the Meth Lab. The end scene where he takes the gamble and fails, was incredibly painful. Booth put his heart out there, and when he was rejected, you could see him crumbling - he'd finally let defeat claim him, he's got nothing left to give her, and he won't be making any proclamations of love again folks, Booth's done. When he said "I've got to move on." That was him telling Brennan "I'm out, game over" because he won't be trying to convince her anymore. I predict that if they do get together, ever, it will be Brennan who bridges that gap, because Booth won't make the same mistake twice.
Brennan
Beautiful, Brilliant, Tempestuous, Volatile, and more than a little damaged, our Temperance is a thing of beauty and Emily plays a younger her amazingly well, in fact she's really the only one of the entire cast who pulls off the 'six years younger' transformation. We get to see a Brennan we haven't really seen since the Pilot - smart and funny, in a quirky way, open and honest to a fault, utterly lacking in pretense, at once tought and strong yet always vulnerable and sensitive. Meeting Booth and working a recent criminal case opens up an entirely new world to Brennan, one she finds intriguing and exciting, and yet it's one she's unprepared for. She's used to handling ancient remains, so she fails to use gloves at first. She's accustomed to dump sites hundreds of years old or older, so crime scene integrity is new to her. She's used to working with the dead, so being around live victim's families puts her outside her comfort zone. Brennan is a study in contrasts and yet one meeting, one case, with Booth transforms her and makes her into the premier forensics scientist in the nation.
Yet it's the personal side of Brennan that intrigues us most, she is aggressive with Booth, but when he tells her that he thinks what they have could be the start of something more, she balks. Later she handles their "break-up" badly, and a lot of their lost year is due, in part, to her hurt feelings and Booth's own razor sharp tongue. Yet when we see her six years on, we see a woman who, despite her immense growth, is still a frightened child - she's not protecting Booth from her "closed heart", she's protecting herself from losing him - she all but begs him to stay on as her partner, their friendship and partnership she believes will last, but she's no faith in the ephemeral nature of love, or her ability to hang onto it. It'll take pain, a lot of pain in fact, for her to realize that she either takes that risk with him or lets him go forever.
Scene of Note
Their First meeting - There were sparks flying between them from the get go but what stands out here is not the appreciative looks Booth gave Brennan, but the obvious once over Brennan gave Booth. She was clearly interested in him from the very first.
Booth "Firing" Brennan - Wow, if I ever get fired can it be using the "Booth Method"? I'd really like my boss to take me out, get me drunk, and then make a pass at me. Wait. Scratch that. I want Emily Deschanel to do that.
Booth & Brennan blowout - Intense, and they'd known each other less than a week but instinctively knew which buttons to push, went immediately for the jugular, and it's no wonder that they didn't talk for a year afterwards AND that it was Booth who made the overtures. He'd no doubt read her file, realized her folks went missing at some point, so he knew how hard she took his "not your dad" comment, but you could tell from the first few episodes that the hurt lingered with him - she was willing to forgive him over time, but he held onto that slight that he was stupid and he would, since it struck at the very core of his being, his greatest insecurity that he's a fraud and it's laid out there by her so easily. Huge, important, impressive, and devestating.
End In The Beginning Moments:
Honestly too many to count (which I'm sure was the point) so I'll just hit the highlights:
- Hodgin's snapping the rubberband, first seen in The Boy in the Bush.
- Booth's whacky ties - a trademark of his for every episode except HitF
- BRats in the subway tunnel having stripped the remains are a throwback to the rats in The Woman in the Tunnel.
- Brennan mentioning the Physicist (Peter) whom she'd date after ending her partnership with Booth as seen in The Pilot.
- Brennan and Booth having an arguement over her manner in dealing with the mother of the victim - a running theme for most of the first and second season.
- Booth's Gambling problem is explicitly addressed here, alluded too in later episodes and then again brought out into the open in S2's The Woman in the Sand.
- Booth's relationship with Caroline, first alluded to in The Body in the Morgue.
- Zack's dismissive nature toward Booth and his calling him "Immensely Stupid" prefaces Zack's not letting Booth's calls get through to Brennan (as remarked in the Pilot).
Quotable Quotes - The Wayback Edition (Extended)
Brennan: That's your interpretation. We recognize your right to interpret.
Sweets: You do?
Brennan: That's your right as a psychologist to get everything wrong.
Brennan: If we don't work together anymore we can have sex
Booth: I'll call a cab
Zack: You can take the clothing and leave.
Hodgins: Yeah, you can take that femur and shove it...
Brennan: Dr Hodgins.
Booth: You're a cold fish!
Brennan: You're a superstitious moron!
Booth: Get a soul!
Brennan: Get a brain!
Hodgins: The bat is so honed and close grained it cannot be broken on the soft tissues of a human being. We can try striking his head.
Zack: What?!
Brennan: Unnecessary.
Brennan: Is this bad?
Booth: I've been wanting to do that for years. You are. SO. HOT.
Sweets: You kissed?
Booth: Yes.
Brennan: There was tongue contact.
Zack: It was immensely stupid of you to fire us.
Booth: Sorry but did you just call me stupid?
Zack: I can only conclude are immensely stupid.
Brennan: Oh please, do you really think the best and brightest go into law enforcement? No the best and brightest go to the Jeffersonian.
Sweets: It's...it's like you two missed your moment, and then you punished each other for it. And you know who pays the price? Me.
Brennan: Let go of me!
Booth: I will if you would just...(slap) OW! What the hell?!
Brennan: You are a bully! You grabbed my arm just like the judge. You use your gun and your badge to intimdate people.
Booth: Really? The way you use your brain to make the people around you feel stupid?
Brennan: You are stupid man! I hate you!
Booth: (mocking) Oh you hate me. What are you? Ten years old? I'm not your dad!
Brennan: (hissing) I will never work with you again!
Booth: Who asked you?!
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The GOOD - The fight scene between Booth & Brennan as they're talking to the victim's mother. Emily and David were really firing on all cylinders here and, as I discussed with my Queen - what, all y'all think we don't talk?
Anway, as I discussed with my Queen I think DB told Em to just go for it with that slap - it was too real not to be real. The emotion, the delivery, like the observation room scene in Conman or the Barn scene in Woman in Limbo, this wasn't acting, it just was.The BAD - The lack of Goodman. Yeah I know they say they couldn't get him but he was still sorely missed.
The UGLY - Sorry, I know a lot of you out there go "But every show has continuity issues" but there were a few whoppers here, to wit, Booth's gambling issue? If Brennan already knew about it (He TOLD her about it explicitly) and she's got a brain the size of a planet, then why does he feel the need to tell her again in Woman in the Sand? Oh, and Caroline Julian who has a mind like a steel trap doesn't remember Brennan despite the obvious impression she made on her, and Brennan has no recollection of her either? That's just crappy writing on HH's part and it creates continuity problems galore. Other shows have issues, but few treat continuity like a 2-bit whore that can be silenced with a $20 tip.
Their first case together and the work was solid, their interactions fresh, and even if David looked like death on a cracker in their first flashback scene it was a really good episode:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Continuity was mediocre at best with a few really bad breaches that just beg for a decent writer's touch:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
Overall watchability? Take two VV&T's to dull the pain by the ham handed manner in which continuity is treated and enjoy the ride:
[Only admins are allowed to see this image]
This was a really, really good episode - I'm not willing to call it great, I've enough issues to hold me back from that, but this is what a 100th episode should be at least, and it's a damn site better than the S4 finale was at any rate.
RMyeah, I'm late - really really late. Well I don't do fudge (I do but it's royal fudge, no commoners, sorry) so all y'all just have to lump it.
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by treble21 Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:30 pm
Rob- I completely respect your points about continuity ( it didn't really bother me, but I can totally see why it would annoy others) the only question I have is does Booth tell Brennan about his gambling problem in The Woman in the Sand? I haven't seen that episode in a loooong time but wasn't it her that said to him that he's a "degenerate gambler" and then she smacks his hand when he tries to play keno?
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by THX1138 Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:47 pm
Thanks Treb, and yes, Booth does indeed tell her about his gambling problem then and she acts all surprised even though she already knows about it. Again, that bugs me too - it's little things like that that bug the hell out of me.treble21 wrote:Rob- I completely respect your points about continuity ( it didn't really bother me, but I can totally see why it would annoy others) the only question I have is does Booth tell Brennan about his gambling problem in The Woman in the Sand? I haven't seen that episode in a loooong time but wasn't it her that said to him that he's a "degenerate gambler" and then she smacks his hand when he tries to play keno?
RM
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by dawnsfire Wed Apr 14, 2010 1:17 pm
Pilot Retrospective
This is not an Inkslinger in the usual sense…no discussion of case, good bad or ugly, or even a rating. This is more of a discussion on how things have changed now that we know the rough shape of what happened before, with emphasis on certain scenes.
Airport: Brennan’s funky jewelry is in place now. She’s also making a habit of assaulting gov’t types--federal judges, FBI Agents, Homeland Security, senator aide de camps…
Car: “That’s the best you can do?” Obviously her opinion of his intelligence has not risen any in the past year…I always thought it was fairly clever, myself. All the sniping begins to make sense now as well, although they’ve gotten more civil at least, and not just shouting juvenile insults.
Zack: “Agent Booth, you remember my assistant, Zack Addy?” “Oh yeah.” And his tone says very clearly what he remembers…it’s not just the stonewalling.
Cemetery: Brennan has heard the term Squint before, in Caroline’s office. Granted, she didn’t ask for an explanation then and maybe it didn’t sink in. And note how close they stand next to each other on the boat. A little closer than necessary, not to mention how he lowers his voice and leans in a little when he tells her it’s like pornography--she’ll know it when she sees it. Interesting example.
Goodman/working with the FBI: I have to wonder now, if they continued to work with the FBI, if not with Booth. Brennan’s complaints sounds as though they’ve done a bit of (undervalued) work for them, there’s the fact that she has a badge allowing access to their cafeteria, and the team has a higher familiarity with more contemporary bodies as well by then--see Brennan scolding Zack for using terms like crispy critter and soaker. (not to mention the lecture she gives in Boy in a Bush about FBI/Jeffersonian interactions). This might hearken back to the original notion of Brennan dealing with a rotating cast of FBI Agents, rather than just one Seeley Booth.
Book: I’ve been trying to work out a timeline for the book. It seems unlikely she had started it before the first case, which means it was written, submitted, and published over the next 13 months. My theory is that would have been accepted just before she left and hit the shelves while she was gone, since at the end of this case, she’s on the NYT best seller list and moving fast.
That all said, we can see everyone’s speculations on the book’s RL analogues starts right off the bat; under my tentative timeline, this is the first time anyone besides Angela has had a chance to ask Brennan about it. And yes, I think Angela is more familiar with it than the others, especially given what was said during Bones on the Blue Line. Zack verges on the creepy here, attempting a knowing look (just had to say…).
Skull reassembly: only worth mentioning because she’s still not wearing gloves. (which I never paid attention to until now!)
Cullen’s office (1st time): it seems as though Cullen has the basic facts, but wasn’t there to witness any of it. As noted in my Inkslinger, there either was another case that Booth got past her, or HH et al completely forgot the details given.
Peter: he sounds like a psychologist, which would be an interesting thought and, if true, would add to her general distaste for that discipline. For some reason, I cannot see him as the physicist, but stranger things have happened. In any case, their relationship would have lasted less than a year (10-11 months at absolute most, assuming an immediate start).
Angelator, part 1: Angela’s come a long way from the simple artist dying to get back to Paris. She’s a freaking computer genius or near-genius. And this comes out of Caroline’s comment about a big computer with bells and whistles. The patent pending part tells us it’s still pretty new, another fact I never paid much attention to.
Blackmail: after seeing Booth go after Judge Hasty in their first case, it should be no surprise that she thinks he’s going to go after all their suspects like that.
And how the other three are having lunch together shows how they’ve become a group, a team.
Ellers’ house: Booth is trying to maintain distance from her when he giver her that speech (not that he’s wrong) about giving something of yourself first.
Brennan-Angela chat: major step for her to even think that Booth might be right.
Outside Cullen’s office: “You’re a heart person. I’m a brain person” So much for cold fish and superstitious moron. And the part about him vouching for her--she knows under the previous circumstances, he’d had every right to leave her hanging out to dry.
Angelator, part 2: note the poker chip--not in evidence during the flashback. And there he goes, attempting to maintain distance and control. The way Brennan shuts down here--it’s the professional version of putting herself out there and getting slapped down. As though she thought he had changed, was changing, and now here we are, back at Square One--and it’s not worth my time to try it again.
This is where Booth is the outsider, with almost no chance of getting in. When they worked together briefly before, they were all outsiders of a sort, trying to find a place. The Jeffersonian people managed to click together and become a functional team. Booth is a true catalyst, causing change, but remaining unaffected by it (if only briefly).
Gun range: the big scene! They’re now pushing each other’s physical buttons, and that smug smirk on Brennan’s face tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing. I maintain the emotion there is fuelled by the remembrance of a torrid night nearly 13 months previous.
Booth’s office: huge, huge, huge olive branch here, and perhaps when things start to turn around. He’s the first one to call them partners, even if she immediately questions it.
Thompson’s house: outside of her agonizing over motive and psychology, this is so them that I almost passed it over. But interesting how quickly they fall into working roles…and Booth’s first rescue.
Funeral: this is the last time they don’t stand next to each other in a line-up. And the resumption (as it turns out) of the banter and a certain ease together--and the true beginnings of their friendship!
All through out the Pilot, there are suggestions that Booth has had more recent interaction with the Jeffersonian crew. He knows everyone, for example, and we never see him introduced to Hodgins, plus the comment about Zack having no discretion is not something I would think comes out of Zack having called him stupid. But he’s never been in Angela’s office before, so any interaction was probably at a distance. Also consider that he calls her Bones--I’m not sure that type of nickname would stick after nearly 13 months of disuse.
As much as he wants to stay aloof from her, I’m catching signs he can’t, really. His basic concern outside Cullen’s office, noting Oliver’s switch in fascinations, etc. Not all because Cullen told him to keep a watch on her.
Brennan’s handful of sympathy moments now take on a little something more. We know why she wants to stay mad, so her brief moments otherwise (first scene with the Angelator, or in Cullen’s office) seem more of a break in her walls than previously. But when he gets too close, she pulls away--her fear of getting hurt is deeper than her interest in him or the job. And if anyone knows “once burned, twice shy” than her, I’ll be amazed.
They’re both still interested in each other, if reluctantly--and I wonder when they actually read each other’s files?
Hodgins is not quite as abrasive as he was during the very first case, though his distrust of “the Man” is wildly apparent, and he is willing to take pot shots at Booth, both in person and behind his back. I would venture to suggest that Booth’s behavior during that first case contributes to his conspiracy mode, and if there were subsequent agents who were also idiots, there would have been nothing to contradict that. But in any case, Brennan (and the others) is quite familiar with it.
Angela serves as translator and facilitator between Brennan and the rest of the world, so somewhere in that 13 months she took that role on, not to mention trying to get Brennan out of the lab altogether. She’s a little more accustomed to dead bodies by now, and less freaked out by basic human remains. Her art is no longer the main thing; important, yes, and certainly on display, but it’s not the first thing she talks about.
Zack’s characterization is the one major thing off. He started out in the Pilot as a somewhat naïve, somewhat out of touch young man, but one with some guts and a little attitude--by S2, he had morphed into the more withdrawn, gawky, really out of touch idiot savant wunderkind--which is mostly how he was depicted in the flashback, despite his butting heads with Hodgins. I rather liked the original Zack and feel as though the gumption was worn out of him by everyone picking on him. But either way, he has a gift for asking the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Other than a small handful of things, I think the transition is pretty smooth between flashback and the Pilot. Which is pretty remarkable, all things considered!
This is not an Inkslinger in the usual sense…no discussion of case, good bad or ugly, or even a rating. This is more of a discussion on how things have changed now that we know the rough shape of what happened before, with emphasis on certain scenes.
Airport: Brennan’s funky jewelry is in place now. She’s also making a habit of assaulting gov’t types--federal judges, FBI Agents, Homeland Security, senator aide de camps…
Car: “That’s the best you can do?” Obviously her opinion of his intelligence has not risen any in the past year…I always thought it was fairly clever, myself. All the sniping begins to make sense now as well, although they’ve gotten more civil at least, and not just shouting juvenile insults.
Zack: “Agent Booth, you remember my assistant, Zack Addy?” “Oh yeah.” And his tone says very clearly what he remembers…it’s not just the stonewalling.
Cemetery: Brennan has heard the term Squint before, in Caroline’s office. Granted, she didn’t ask for an explanation then and maybe it didn’t sink in. And note how close they stand next to each other on the boat. A little closer than necessary, not to mention how he lowers his voice and leans in a little when he tells her it’s like pornography--she’ll know it when she sees it. Interesting example.
Goodman/working with the FBI: I have to wonder now, if they continued to work with the FBI, if not with Booth. Brennan’s complaints sounds as though they’ve done a bit of (undervalued) work for them, there’s the fact that she has a badge allowing access to their cafeteria, and the team has a higher familiarity with more contemporary bodies as well by then--see Brennan scolding Zack for using terms like crispy critter and soaker. (not to mention the lecture she gives in Boy in a Bush about FBI/Jeffersonian interactions). This might hearken back to the original notion of Brennan dealing with a rotating cast of FBI Agents, rather than just one Seeley Booth.
Book: I’ve been trying to work out a timeline for the book. It seems unlikely she had started it before the first case, which means it was written, submitted, and published over the next 13 months. My theory is that would have been accepted just before she left and hit the shelves while she was gone, since at the end of this case, she’s on the NYT best seller list and moving fast.
That all said, we can see everyone’s speculations on the book’s RL analogues starts right off the bat; under my tentative timeline, this is the first time anyone besides Angela has had a chance to ask Brennan about it. And yes, I think Angela is more familiar with it than the others, especially given what was said during Bones on the Blue Line. Zack verges on the creepy here, attempting a knowing look (just had to say…).
Skull reassembly: only worth mentioning because she’s still not wearing gloves. (which I never paid attention to until now!)
Cullen’s office (1st time): it seems as though Cullen has the basic facts, but wasn’t there to witness any of it. As noted in my Inkslinger, there either was another case that Booth got past her, or HH et al completely forgot the details given.
Peter: he sounds like a psychologist, which would be an interesting thought and, if true, would add to her general distaste for that discipline. For some reason, I cannot see him as the physicist, but stranger things have happened. In any case, their relationship would have lasted less than a year (10-11 months at absolute most, assuming an immediate start).
Angelator, part 1: Angela’s come a long way from the simple artist dying to get back to Paris. She’s a freaking computer genius or near-genius. And this comes out of Caroline’s comment about a big computer with bells and whistles. The patent pending part tells us it’s still pretty new, another fact I never paid much attention to.
Blackmail: after seeing Booth go after Judge Hasty in their first case, it should be no surprise that she thinks he’s going to go after all their suspects like that.
And how the other three are having lunch together shows how they’ve become a group, a team.
Ellers’ house: Booth is trying to maintain distance from her when he giver her that speech (not that he’s wrong) about giving something of yourself first.
Brennan-Angela chat: major step for her to even think that Booth might be right.
Outside Cullen’s office: “You’re a heart person. I’m a brain person” So much for cold fish and superstitious moron. And the part about him vouching for her--she knows under the previous circumstances, he’d had every right to leave her hanging out to dry.
Angelator, part 2: note the poker chip--not in evidence during the flashback. And there he goes, attempting to maintain distance and control. The way Brennan shuts down here--it’s the professional version of putting herself out there and getting slapped down. As though she thought he had changed, was changing, and now here we are, back at Square One--and it’s not worth my time to try it again.
This is where Booth is the outsider, with almost no chance of getting in. When they worked together briefly before, they were all outsiders of a sort, trying to find a place. The Jeffersonian people managed to click together and become a functional team. Booth is a true catalyst, causing change, but remaining unaffected by it (if only briefly).
Gun range: the big scene! They’re now pushing each other’s physical buttons, and that smug smirk on Brennan’s face tells me she knows exactly what she’s doing. I maintain the emotion there is fuelled by the remembrance of a torrid night nearly 13 months previous.
Booth’s office: huge, huge, huge olive branch here, and perhaps when things start to turn around. He’s the first one to call them partners, even if she immediately questions it.
Thompson’s house: outside of her agonizing over motive and psychology, this is so them that I almost passed it over. But interesting how quickly they fall into working roles…and Booth’s first rescue.
Funeral: this is the last time they don’t stand next to each other in a line-up. And the resumption (as it turns out) of the banter and a certain ease together--and the true beginnings of their friendship!
*****************
All through out the Pilot, there are suggestions that Booth has had more recent interaction with the Jeffersonian crew. He knows everyone, for example, and we never see him introduced to Hodgins, plus the comment about Zack having no discretion is not something I would think comes out of Zack having called him stupid. But he’s never been in Angela’s office before, so any interaction was probably at a distance. Also consider that he calls her Bones--I’m not sure that type of nickname would stick after nearly 13 months of disuse.
As much as he wants to stay aloof from her, I’m catching signs he can’t, really. His basic concern outside Cullen’s office, noting Oliver’s switch in fascinations, etc. Not all because Cullen told him to keep a watch on her.
Brennan’s handful of sympathy moments now take on a little something more. We know why she wants to stay mad, so her brief moments otherwise (first scene with the Angelator, or in Cullen’s office) seem more of a break in her walls than previously. But when he gets too close, she pulls away--her fear of getting hurt is deeper than her interest in him or the job. And if anyone knows “once burned, twice shy” than her, I’ll be amazed.
They’re both still interested in each other, if reluctantly--and I wonder when they actually read each other’s files?
Hodgins is not quite as abrasive as he was during the very first case, though his distrust of “the Man” is wildly apparent, and he is willing to take pot shots at Booth, both in person and behind his back. I would venture to suggest that Booth’s behavior during that first case contributes to his conspiracy mode, and if there were subsequent agents who were also idiots, there would have been nothing to contradict that. But in any case, Brennan (and the others) is quite familiar with it.
Angela serves as translator and facilitator between Brennan and the rest of the world, so somewhere in that 13 months she took that role on, not to mention trying to get Brennan out of the lab altogether. She’s a little more accustomed to dead bodies by now, and less freaked out by basic human remains. Her art is no longer the main thing; important, yes, and certainly on display, but it’s not the first thing she talks about.
Zack’s characterization is the one major thing off. He started out in the Pilot as a somewhat naïve, somewhat out of touch young man, but one with some guts and a little attitude--by S2, he had morphed into the more withdrawn, gawky, really out of touch idiot savant wunderkind--which is mostly how he was depicted in the flashback, despite his butting heads with Hodgins. I rather liked the original Zack and feel as though the gumption was worn out of him by everyone picking on him. But either way, he has a gift for asking the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Other than a small handful of things, I think the transition is pretty smooth between flashback and the Pilot. Which is pretty remarkable, all things considered!
dawnsfire- Head of Forensics
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by dawnsfire Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:09 pm
I beg to differ about him telling her about his gambling problem in Woman in the Sand. He didn't. They walked into the casino, Booth froze, and Brennan turned to look at him--cue shock, omg, you're a degenerate gambler! She already knew--there's been a lot of discussion of how she knew or when he told her, because it never happened on the show until last week.THX1138 wrote:Thanks Treb, and yes, Booth does indeed tell her about his gambling problem then and she acts all surprised even though she already knows about it. Again, that bugs me too - it's little things like that that bug the hell out of me.treble21 wrote:Rob- I completely respect your points about continuity ( it didn't really bother me, but I can totally see why it would annoy others) the only question I have is does Booth tell Brennan about his gambling problem in The Woman in the Sand? I haven't seen that episode in a loooong time but wasn't it her that said to him that he's a "degenerate gambler" and then she smacks his hand when he tries to play keno?
dawnsfire- Head of Forensics
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Age : 52
Location : Chicago, IL
Say What You Want : "I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best." Marilyn Monroe
Avatar is "Queen of the Night" by Wendy Pini
Registration date : 2009-05-21 -
Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by THX1138 Wed Apr 14, 2010 2:31 pm
dawnsfire wrote:I beg to differ about him telling her about his gambling problem in Woman in the Sand. He didn't. They walked into the casino, Booth froze, and Brennan turned to look at him--cue shock, omg, you're a degenerate gambler! She already knew--there's been a lot of discussion of how she knew or when he told her, because it never happened on the show until last week.THX1138 wrote:Thanks Treb, and yes, Booth does indeed tell her about his gambling problem then and she acts all surprised even though she already knows about it. Again, that bugs me too - it's little things like that that bug the hell out of me.treble21 wrote:Rob- I completely respect your points about continuity ( it didn't really bother me, but I can totally see why it would annoy others) the only question I have is does Booth tell Brennan about his gambling problem in The Woman in the Sand? I haven't seen that episode in a loooong time but wasn't it her that said to him that he's a "degenerate gambler" and then she smacks his hand when he tries to play keno?
We stand corrected, our Queen is, as always, right. I just checked the video myself - Brenann totally called him on it, she DID remember. RM
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Re: Bones: from 1 to 100, a special Inkslingers retrospective
by Thnx4theGum Sun Apr 18, 2010 1:14 pm
Ok, I made a note to comment over here so I will. Because here's the thing. We're almost 2 weeks out from this thing and I'm still dumbfounded. I mean, I wake up every morning and I have to remind myself that DANG they went THERE and did that.
Gonna be honest that my very first reaction after the thing was over was a good cry. Uh huh, that's why I watch these things first on Wednesdays- alone- because I was a mess but as there was no one to make me feel embarrassed for being all but 30 and crying over a TV show I did and it felt good.
Around 4 in the morning(I closed my eyes that night but couldn't call it sleep even if I wanted to) I finally realized what I was reacting to. Why such an ending left me with a stronger sense of hope for these 2 characters than I've ever had. There's a whole real life history that goes along with it but the long and short of it is I GET where HH is going w/this b/c I've been there and done that and 10 yrs later we're even stronger for it.
Also, the holding pattern that I've been watching these two hover in, on, and around the past 5 years? Gone.
And really? This is the way it needed to happen. Booth NEEDED to be the man and step up and say "I'm THAT guy." (Also, thank you HH for not touching the ILYs, what Booth said there was far more powerful than in Harbingers) It showed that he was coma dream or no and he was ready to own it.
Then they went the extra mile and kept Brennan in character. If she had melted into his arms and gone all Daisy on us I might just have left(ok, I lie, but I wouldn't have been happy). But what struck me the most was that she KNEW too. She KNEW that Booth KNEW! And ED played it like she had just been ruing the day that Booth would bring it back into the light b/c back whenever she realized it, she also decided that she COULDN'T accept. And she practiced that scientist speech and she coached herself into thinking she couldn't give him the kind of love he wanted; that she was protecting him.
So Booth accepted her reply, with some of the most heartcrushing acting I've every seen and was honest enough to tell her he was going to move on. YAY Booth! Not that Brennan is bad for him or ANYTHING like that but dang it the man deserves to go after happiness. The clue that we get that he's never gonna find it in anyone but her comes when she(ok, really, the acting was just at another level in 100- they brought their A+ games) looked like her world was going to collapse if he didn't let their partnership remain- and he sucked his crushed heart up and accepted her terms.
I also liked that she started to walk away from him and he caught up to her, then she reached out to him and he laid his head down on hers. It was a hauntingly beautiful way to end and it shows just how MUCH these two care for each other. She gives up her happiness however fleeting to let him seek out a love like he's looking for and he agrees to still work day in and day out with a woman he loves(and that kind doesn't just fade) because he knows she needs him to.
And here's the great thing: This whole things opens up the door for Brennan to OWN her love for him in whatever terms she finally defines it in. B/c Booth's not coming back to her. He played his hand and he's out. Once she figures out what being "just partners" with Booth really means I think she'll discover just how far across his line they'd strayed and man, once she GETS just how capable of loving him long term she is.... well, THAT will be even more emotional, folks.
Bring it on, Hart Hanson, bring it on.
Oh, and all that past stuff? I just ate it up. It was great. Loved seeing the young lust that they shared and how deeply the barbs they threw have impacted them both throughout the years. No wonder she's convinced she's a cold fish. No wonder he thinks himself stupid. I really REALLY loved that they've taken season 5 to show just how much BOOTH has benefited from Brennan as well b/c I was getting sick of people saying that he was the saintly one who carried her. For love to be worth it for them they both need to NEED each other and they've proven that they both do.
This ep went right back to B&B roots, proving that they ARE the center and once that center holds for good. Well. It's gonna be SOLID!
In the meantime, it also gave us 99 other eps to go back and see through a totally different perspective. Kudos, cast, crew, and writers. And congrats.
Gonna be honest that my very first reaction after the thing was over was a good cry. Uh huh, that's why I watch these things first on Wednesdays- alone- because I was a mess but as there was no one to make me feel embarrassed for being all but 30 and crying over a TV show I did and it felt good.
Around 4 in the morning(I closed my eyes that night but couldn't call it sleep even if I wanted to) I finally realized what I was reacting to. Why such an ending left me with a stronger sense of hope for these 2 characters than I've ever had. There's a whole real life history that goes along with it but the long and short of it is I GET where HH is going w/this b/c I've been there and done that and 10 yrs later we're even stronger for it.
Also, the holding pattern that I've been watching these two hover in, on, and around the past 5 years? Gone.
And really? This is the way it needed to happen. Booth NEEDED to be the man and step up and say "I'm THAT guy." (Also, thank you HH for not touching the ILYs, what Booth said there was far more powerful than in Harbingers) It showed that he was coma dream or no and he was ready to own it.
Then they went the extra mile and kept Brennan in character. If she had melted into his arms and gone all Daisy on us I might just have left(ok, I lie, but I wouldn't have been happy). But what struck me the most was that she KNEW too. She KNEW that Booth KNEW! And ED played it like she had just been ruing the day that Booth would bring it back into the light b/c back whenever she realized it, she also decided that she COULDN'T accept. And she practiced that scientist speech and she coached herself into thinking she couldn't give him the kind of love he wanted; that she was protecting him.
So Booth accepted her reply, with some of the most heartcrushing acting I've every seen and was honest enough to tell her he was going to move on. YAY Booth! Not that Brennan is bad for him or ANYTHING like that but dang it the man deserves to go after happiness. The clue that we get that he's never gonna find it in anyone but her comes when she(ok, really, the acting was just at another level in 100- they brought their A+ games) looked like her world was going to collapse if he didn't let their partnership remain- and he sucked his crushed heart up and accepted her terms.
I also liked that she started to walk away from him and he caught up to her, then she reached out to him and he laid his head down on hers. It was a hauntingly beautiful way to end and it shows just how MUCH these two care for each other. She gives up her happiness however fleeting to let him seek out a love like he's looking for and he agrees to still work day in and day out with a woman he loves(and that kind doesn't just fade) because he knows she needs him to.
And here's the great thing: This whole things opens up the door for Brennan to OWN her love for him in whatever terms she finally defines it in. B/c Booth's not coming back to her. He played his hand and he's out. Once she figures out what being "just partners" with Booth really means I think she'll discover just how far across his line they'd strayed and man, once she GETS just how capable of loving him long term she is.... well, THAT will be even more emotional, folks.
Bring it on, Hart Hanson, bring it on.
Oh, and all that past stuff? I just ate it up. It was great. Loved seeing the young lust that they shared and how deeply the barbs they threw have impacted them both throughout the years. No wonder she's convinced she's a cold fish. No wonder he thinks himself stupid. I really REALLY loved that they've taken season 5 to show just how much BOOTH has benefited from Brennan as well b/c I was getting sick of people saying that he was the saintly one who carried her. For love to be worth it for them they both need to NEED each other and they've proven that they both do.
This ep went right back to B&B roots, proving that they ARE the center and once that center holds for good. Well. It's gonna be SOLID!
In the meantime, it also gave us 99 other eps to go back and see through a totally different perspective. Kudos, cast, crew, and writers. And congrats.
Thnx4theGum- Forensic Artist
- Number of posts : 168
Age : 43
Registration date : 2009-09-24
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