Spoiler Chat ~ 5x08 The Foot in the Foreclosure ~

THX1138 wrote:

SnoopGirl wrote:

DBCrazy wrote:I may as well get this out of my system, since it's a nag of mine that just never seems to go away.

Remember the comments that Booth made early on that made him sound like his homelife was pretty much ideal growing up. I can't remember quotes or anything, but the big obvious one was when he was telling about his father being the barber and his mom writing jingles. There was no reason for him to be covering for his home life. Why did it seem so normal, and then now we see it was not the storybook norm?

Is this a continuity problem? Did the writers just decide that he needed to have a "juicy" past too?

I am going to say continuity problem, what a surprise The mystery of his mother needs to be addressed as well. It just doesn't make sense that Pops raised Booth and NO mention of his mother.

Okay, I probably shouldn't even be in here since I don't want to get into a habit of watching or learning about the show before I do a review but I couldn't help myself, it's Pops! I mean, this is huge! So anyway now that I'm here...

Look, you all know what a continuity freak I am right? I preach it like a Pentecostal minister, it' one of the three things I think the show, any show really, has to have to be successful. That said, in my opinion this is NOT a continuity issue, it's a character issue. "How?" you might ask yourself, "How can you possible say that with a straight face my King?" Well I'll tell you, Booth lied. Yep, I know, shocker right? Not so much really. Growing up Booth's mother ran out on his family, his father was an abusive alcoholic. Young Seeley Booth spent his childhood dodging questions from curious strangers and his father's angry fists. Like any kid from an abusive family he had a story, a story that was part truth and part fantasy, it was a story he knew by heart and one that told the truth without telling the whole truth. You have to listen to what Booth isn't saying when he's talking to Brennan about family: "My Dad, he uh, he drove Thuds and Phantoms in Vietnam, those are fighter jets. After that he was a barber and moved to Philadelphia (where he used to drink too much and beat on my mom, my brother, and me). My mom, she wrote jingles for a local advertising agency (until she left us)."

The real question is why did Booth lie to Brennan? My theory? Booth lied to her because at that point in time he just didn't know her well enough to tell her the whole truth, besides which it wasn't what she needed to hear from him. Yes, from one standpoint the argument could be made that Brennan would have benefited from knowing his family was just as screwed up (arguably more screwed up) than hers, but there are times when commiseration is warranted, and times when you slap on a smile and pretend the world isn't a stinking pile a crap. Telling Brennan the whole truth would, in the long term, have been the thing to destroy the notion of family for her. This is S1 Brennan after all, and Booth's just beginning to make progress in tearing down those walls of hers. The last thing he wants to do is give her a reason to reinforce them. So what she needed wasn't the whole truth, it was a lifeline to cling to, something that gave her hope, that told her if only she'd had the perfect homelife she'd have been more like Booth, more in touch with the world, her feelings, more open to love. Would it have made Brennan happier to know the whole truth then? Yes, in the short term, but in the long term not so much. Remember one of the gifts Booth has given her since S1 is a renewed faith in, and a fuller appreciation for, the concept of family. Telling her about his past then would have ruined that, or at the very least left it cheapened and tarnished. By giving her the mercy of a lie he gave Brennan something to cling to, the hope that her surrogate family wouldn't betray her the way her biological family had.

That's my theory at least, make of it what you will.

RM