Booth's Past

Do you ever wonder what went on in Booth's past?
We have only ever seen glimpses of what his past has been like, it has never really been delved into with any great depth.

Has there ever been a mention of his mother? (Apart from the meatloaf)
Will his father make an appearance one day?
Will Pops make a return and reveal more about Booth?
What really went on in his tours OS while he was a Ranger?

I often wonder how much of this we will ever get to see, if it will be looked into more next season, or if they will always keep these things hidden to maintain a bit of mystery about Booth, or if these are things that will only be revealed to Brennan eventually.......

To learning more about Booth

Oh man , I'd really like them to deal with his Mother and Father on the show, I think it'd be an interesting storyline.

I want to learn more about Booth.

I've always been curious about the story of his mom. It seems to me, if Bones is the only one he ever told the meatloaf story to, there is some emotional baggage there!

definitely something to discover in the story of his mom. In my mind, his Mom died when he was young, that drove his Dad to drink, and he's so adamant about Brennan talking to her Mom at the cemetary that I bet if she played detective on Mother's Day and followed him, they would wind up in a cemetary...

crzy4bones wrote:definitely something to discover in the story of his mom. In my mind, his Mom died when he was young, that drove his Dad to drink, and he's so adamant about Brennan talking to her Mom at the cemetary that I bet if she played detective on Mother's Day and followed him, they would wind up in a cemetary...

Except Booth didn't grow up in the DC area so she'd have to follow him all the way back to Pittsburgh... :-)

I agree though, I'd love to see more about Booth... DB said in an interview maybe we'd see more of that next season... so let's all hope!

The only time I remember Booth's mother coming up in conversation was in S2, I think it was Judas on a Pole. He was at Brennan's place late after she found out her dad had killed someone and she asked about his parents. He said his dad was a barber and his mom a jingle writer.
I think I read somewhere that DB had wanted Dennis Franz to play his dad. Remember him from NYPD Blue, played Andy Sipowicz. I think that's who he mentioned.
I hope that's a road traveled next year. I think it would be very interesting to delve into his "white knight" background. We already know hers.

katharine wrote:The only time I remember Booth's mother coming up in conversation was in S2, I think it was Judas on a Pole. He was at Brennan's place late after she found out her dad had killed someone and she asked about his parents. He said his dad was a barber and his mom a jingle writer.
I think I read somewhere that DB had wanted Dennis Franz to play his dad. Remember him from NYPD Blue, played Andy Sipowicz. I think that's who he mentioned.
I hope that's a road traveled next year. I think it would be very interesting to delve into his "white knight" background. We already know hers.

She's mentioned briefly in A night at the Bones museum as well, Brennan tells Hacker that Booth's mom told him the hard boiled egg in her meatloaf was an eye ( doesn't sound like a very motherly thing to do....) but those are the only 2 pieces of concrete info that we have on her. Although we can infer that she was gone ( either dead or left) by the time Booth was a teen because Jared and him ended up living with their Grandpa. I'd really love them to explore this further.

Yeah, it would be awesome to get more into his past. You can totally see his whole "white knight" thing from having an abusive father and Booth protecting his brother... and I always got the feeling probably his mother too before she (died?? left??) I always figured died but it's never really said... leaves lots of room for some good stories though!

gordongordonfan wrote:Yeah, it would be awesome to get more into his past. You can totally see his whole "white knight" thing from having an abusive father and Booth protecting his brother... and I always got the feeling probably his mother too before she (died?? left??) I always figured died but it's never really said... leaves lots of room for some good stories though!

you know I rewatched 2 bodies in a lab recently, and knowing that Booth was abused kinda put an interesting spin on the scene where Brennan is looking at his xray's and listing his previous injuries, there's one bit where she says that he injured his ribs while shielding someone ( which at the time I think was meant to infer that it occured when he was in the Rangers) But now knowing that he was abused could have been sustained while shielding Jared from their dad.....

I started rewatching the seasons in order again last month when I was getting a family member hooked on the show so I'm watching them in order instead of my usual random "pick and choose" style LOL... But we're only mid way through season 2 cause we can't get together to watch it often, so I still go through the seasons on my own and watch my favorites as well... I feel like I'm watching all 5 seasons at one time! LOL

But that epi (TBitL) has always been one of my favorites so I've seen it quite a few times in the last few months and I've always thought the same thing... could be army buddy or could mean Jared... I kinda leaned toward Jared knowing what we "know now"...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that episode... (I have a real soft spot for "super hot protective / rescue Booth mode) :-)

treble21 wrote:

gordongordonfan wrote:Yeah, it would be awesome to get more into his past. You can totally see his whole "white knight" thing from having an abusive father and Booth protecting his brother... and I always got the feeling probably his mother too before she (died?? left??) I always figured died but it's never really said... leaves lots of room for some good stories though!

you know I rewatched 2 bodies in a lab recently, and knowing that Booth was abused kinda put an interesting spin on the scene where Brennan is looking at his xray's and listing his previous injuries, there's one bit where she says that he injured his ribs while shielding someone ( which at the time I think was meant to infer that it occured when he was in the Rangers) But now knowing that he was abused could have been sustained while shielding Jared from their dad.....

probably was while he was in the Rangers, he said to Brennan that a buddy of his lost his weapon and the same guy didn't make it. Ofc it can also have happened while he was already working for the FBI.

Which can also be an interesting story line, in the 100th episode he says in the flashback he doesn't work with a partner. Maybe same buddy that died was his partner before he started working with Brennan. (yes Bones writers im creating new openings for you )

In season 1, we also didn't know he was abused as a kid so I highly doubt that the writers put that in there for the future.

I've wondered if we'll see more of Booth's past too... Hmmm

treble21 wrote:

gordongordonfan wrote:Yeah, it would be awesome to get more into his past. You can totally see his whole "white knight" thing from having an abusive father and Booth protecting his brother... and I always got the feeling probably his mother too before she (died?? left??) I always figured died but it's never really said... leaves lots of room for some good stories though!

you know I rewatched 2 bodies in a lab recently, and knowing that Booth was abused kinda put an interesting spin on the scene where Brennan is looking at his xray's and listing his previous injuries, there's one bit where she says that he injured his ribs while shielding someone ( which at the time I think was meant to infer that it occured when he was in the Rangers) But now knowing that he was abused could have been sustained while shielding Jared from their dad.....

Great minds must think alike or we all watch toooooo much Bones. I thought about that when I watched it awhile back too. I didn't figure the foot injuries were from that, but the ribs, I thought that too.

Beliskner wrote:

treble21 wrote:

gordongordonfan wrote:Yeah, it would be awesome to get more into his past. You can totally see his whole "white knight" thing from having an abusive father and Booth protecting his brother... and I always got the feeling probably his mother too before she (died?? left??) I always figured died but it's never really said... leaves lots of room for some good stories though!

you know I rewatched 2 bodies in a lab recently, and knowing that Booth was abused kinda put an interesting spin on the scene where Brennan is looking at his xray's and listing his previous injuries, there's one bit where she says that he injured his ribs while shielding someone ( which at the time I think was meant to infer that it occured when he was in the Rangers) But now knowing that he was abused could have been sustained while shielding Jared from their dad.....

probably was while he was in the Rangers, he said to Brennan that a buddy of his lost his weapon and the same guy didn't make it. Ofc it can also have happened while he was already working for the FBI.

Which can also be an interesting story line, in the 100th episode he says in the flashback he doesn't work with a partner. Maybe same buddy that died was his partner before he started working with Brennan. (yes Bones writers im creating new openings for you )

In season 1, we also didn't know he was abused as a kid so I highly doubt that the writers put that in there for the future.

Oh I know that in Season 1 it was definitely meant to be about injuries sustained while in the army ( or you make a valid point it could be the FBI) I'm just saying that knowing what we know now, (that Booth's dad abused him) that scene could have different conotations

gordongordonfan wrote:

crzy4bones wrote:definitely something to discover in the story of his mom. In my mind, his Mom died when he was young, that drove his Dad to drink, and he's so adamant about Brennan talking to her Mom at the cemetary that I bet if she played detective on Mother's Day and followed him, they would wind up in a cemetary...

Except Booth didn't grow up in the DC area so she'd have to follow him all the way back to Pittsburgh... :-)

I agree though, I'd love to see more about Booth... DB said in an interview maybe we'd see more of that next season... so let's all hope!

That's only 2-3 hours away...going to assume Pops is still in that same general area too.

dawnsfire wrote:Here's what we know...

The line about his mother writing jingles and his father being a barber & ex-fighter pilot is in Woman in Limbo (S1). The only other time his mother has been mentioned is in reference to the meatloaf. Even Pops didn't talk about her. (I joked in my Inkslinger once that Booth's a Disney hero--he has no female relations!) Con Man established the father was abusive, alcoholic, etc, and, later we find out that Pops booted him out of the house and took the boys.

They veered around a bit, but he grew up in the Philadelphia area.

He has at least one childhood scar--on his right side that he claims came from playing soldier with Jared...I take liberty to question that, given what we now know. While the bulk of the breaks and scars mentioned in Two Bodies are probably from his military career & time as a POW, that certainly doesn't mean some didn't come from his father. Hmmm...

Wow, all these things that we think might have different meanings now.... That will be really interesting if they visit this in S6. Don't want to much of it though, not interested in the "dark side" of Bones (the show). The answers would be nice but not drawn over too many episodes. I like the cheery, jovial Bones. But it would be great to have them use that to help draw out Brennan's compassionate maternal side for him. She's got one, just hidden down deep.
I'll keep my dark sides of DB to Buffy and Angel DVDs

I didn't think those injuries that they talked about in TBitL were from protecting Jared. The way the chest injuries she talked about sounded more like he was protecting someone from a blast (thats the way I interpreted it anyway)

I think it will be interesting to find out more about Booth. I hope that Pops makes a come back. I think he would be a catalyst for Booth revealing more of himself.

But DB can play emotional characters so well, I would love to see them give it a try on Bones.

Scene that gets met everytime is when he as Angel wants to commit suicide.

Now with a lot more experience in acting, we could be in for a lot of good emotional scenes

You know, I also kinda thought maybe the buddy he was protecting was the soldier he named Parker for later? (Like we see in Hero in the Hold.) Of course I'm sure Booth's character would have intervened to save or help quite often so could be someone else... I see what people mean about probably not Jared though since the type of injuries, but that some of his other injuries might be related (like the childhood scar etc....)

After watching "Two Bodies" so many time after we learned about Booth's past, my mind has started thinking Jared but I can totally see that might be a stretch... but he's always so darned protective of Jared, even as a grown up, that your head wants to "go there" doesn't it?! LOL As far as the writers not knowing ahead that they were going to create an abusive past for Booth, not sure on this one. I think on that particular angle, the writers just may have had an inkling of that already and would have known it would come out eventually. (Just like the writers always knew that Booth and Brenann had a "past" of some kind that eventually came out in the 100th)

*sigh* Too many options!

Beliskner wrote:But DB can play emotional characters so well, I would love to see them give it a try on Bones.

Scene that gets met everytime is when he as Angel wants to commit suicide.

Now with a lot more experience in acting, we could be in for a lot of good emotional scenes

Not to get off the Bones talk, but I watched that episode of Buffy last night - "Amends". The lack of lust in Bones has really gotten me back to watching Buffy for my DB fix. "I will remember", S1 of Angel is great for that too.
Sorry, Bones fans, had to ponder about old DB for a second.

I REALLY wanna know about Booth's past. I assume his mother is dead because he's the type of guy who'd visit his mum/go to see her at Christmas etc, and he doesn't do any of those things.

I'd love to see his dad come back into his life and see how he deals with that, I mean David would be amazing given that storyline. I'm surprised that in 5 years the writers haven't gone into it at all, when we've learned so much about Brennan's parents.

Maybe they want to keep Booth somewhat of a mystery... (you know, how he says to Brennan there are some things she really doesn't want to know, and she says 'ok'- but in other words that I can't recall without rewatching)... Plus it gives the writers more to explore in future seasons and I know HH is always thinking about keeping the "idea pool" deep.

I want to see more on Booth's past, but I do want them to leave some to the imagination... I don't want him "stripped bare", so to speak. (And you know in what way I mean that! LOL)