Hello, and welcome to this week’s scene study, in which Brennan sort of lies, Booth sort of makes a move, and we all sort of wish we were this piece of pineapple.
Here’s a little history to get us started:
This episode is from season one, The Man in the Wall. In that episode, Angela insists that Brennan go out dancing with her on a Friday evening. Things get slightly heated when Brennan uses anthropology on a few women there. They are not amused, and an ensuing fight occurs, in which Brennan kicks a man into a wall. The wall crumbles, creating a cloud of meth and revealing a thoroughly modern millie mummy.
Brennan is desperate for Zack to arrive, so he can help examine the remains as NOT under the influence. Booth (who, let’s face it…is just flat out gorgeous the entire episode) has also arrived, mid-date with Tessa (who is not amused: I kinda think she’s the one Booth is talking about in the 100th, when he was seeing someone casually who didn’t like his hours: Do you agree?).
“Are you two high?” he asks Brennan.
What's with the buttons? He's at a crime scene; it's a look.
“Only by accident,” Angela answers. “So it doesn’t count.”
Brennan is pulling Booth toward the remains, but also wants to know why Booth brought Tessa along… “This doesn’t seem like such a great date,” she adds.
Tessa just says they were out when he got the call. B&B do their crime scene work (Well, mostly Booth…Brennan just postures, hahaha!). When Brennan asks Tessa if she wants to see the remarkable mummy, she declines. Angela comments that Tessa and Booth going out is terrific: the lawyer and the cop–very touching. Haha, Angela…so not touched.
Tessa says she’s going to get a cab, at which point Booth sees his evening ending with the MOST exciting part being a mummy and he chases after her. He apologizes, gives her money for the cab (which is kind of sweet, but probably not what she had in mind, haha), promises he’ll make it up to her and promises ice cream. They share a quick kiss, and she leaves, saying she’ll talk to him later.
Later in the episode, Booth is talking to Brennan about Costa Rica, saying he has some vacation time coming up and he is planning to go there. He wants to know if she’s been there. Meanwhile, she’s trying on a human hand for size.
Yeah, that is fascinating and kinda gross!
There are many, MANY other great scenes in this episode, and I completely recommend a re-watch. There’s one particularly cute moment when Brennan is in her office and Booth makes fun of rap music lyrics and then Brennan grabs her bag on the way to meet the FBI forensics team. “I’m getting facts!” she declares in her super-excited way!
There’s another great one in the SUV where Brennan calls Booth snippy and when he gets annoyed that she changed his programmed radio stations. Ha!
Later, Booth is at the lab and has Tessa bring him a clean shirt. Right there in the lab. Of course, Angela is ALL over that one, especially when she finds out that the two of them are going to Jamaica together.
Tessa extols the bed and breakfast; Booth is happy to be going snorkeling. “Ah,” Angela wheedles. “You two are so ready for the ‘Pre-shacking up test vacation’…”
Booth and Tessa visibly react to that and get nervous around one another. IF Tessa is the one Booth refers to in the 100th, then that means he’s been with her 13 months minus a week in addition to everything we have seen in season one to this point. Add a bit of time before the ‘100th’ stuff, and I think we’re looking at a good solid two years. Possible? But they are so not ready for the post-shacking up that would come as a result of the ‘pre-shacking up test vacay’, right?
At about four minutes before the end of the episode, Angela approaches Brennan on the lab platform (where Hodgins and Zack are doing an experiment that is hilarious. Watch it!) and tells her that, “I called Tessa, to tell her a couple of places she should check out in Jamaica. She’s not going.”
Brennan is surprised. “What happened?”
“Well, she said something came up at work,” Angela tells her. “But I know the truth…they got freaked out by stage six.”
“What’s stage six?” Brennan asks.
Angela outlines the stages of budding relationships, and Brennan disagrees; she’s an anthropologist–she knows the stages of everything. Angela is not convinced. She insists that Booth and Tessa got to stage five and they balked. Brennan bristles at that. “Not Booth. Booth did not balk.”
“Sweetie, it’s always the guy,” Angela argues.
“Booth is not a balker,” Brennan is firm. WOOOOOO! One of my all time favorite Brennan lines EVER! I love that.
Okay, so then it’s our scene.
The scene begins with Booth sitting alone at the bar, bummed out and gorgeous. Special note: White Polo Shirt/Promising ‘possibilities’ Booth is just right up there with my all time favorite Booths of all time, okay? You’ve been warned.
We don’t have any evidence to why Brennan shows up to see Booth. It’s possible that the crime is solved, and they are meeting for a drink…there is enough evidence to show that is sort of their routine already. And she is wearing her same clothing, so it’s certainly the same day that she learns Tessa is not going on vacation with Booth. We don’t know for sure why she shows up to see Booth, but we DO in fact know that she already knows that Tessa is not going. I find that interesting.
“Getting yourself in the mood?” she asks him, noticing his fruity drink with the umbrella.
“Trying,” Booth admits.
“You know, this really isn’t going to be the type of vacation I was hoping for.” Booth explains.
“Oh?” Brennan asks. So I guess it’s not technically a lie- lie, BONES fans. What do you think?
“Tessa’s not going,” Booth tells her. He barely even looks at her, which is a sign to us (and maybe her), that he might not be completely forthcoming with all the ‘facts’. Especially when he adds, “Something came up at work”
“That’s too bad,” Brennan says…
Why do you think she is smiling there? I’d like to think it’s because Tessa is a thing of the past, but it’s probably more along the lines of Brennan realizing that Angela may have been right about the stages, but that SHE was right about Booth not balking. Thoughts from you?
She says “I’m sorry,” which is nice, acknowledging she knows he’s not happy with what happened. And then she offers some comfort in her eyes. “Hey, I like going on vacations by myself.”
And Booth then actually looks at her for the first time in the scene.
“Really,” he asks.
“Sure,” Brennan answers. “Nothing wrong with being alone.”
“No,” Booth sort of smiles. “I mean…you (really) like to go on vacation”
“Yeah,” Brennan insists. “I go places all the time.”
Booth goes through one of those series of “You’re unbelievable, Bones” looks on his face, in the span of about 10 seconds. I love those little expression series, because I love the resignation combined with desire. Since the day he met her, he’s been fighting his attraction to her (in my opinion), and all of the things that DO drive him crazy about her…he knows in his mind that they should make her LESS attractive to him. But they just don’t. He just gets more and more attracted to the entirety of her and her Bones-ness. Right?
“Do you ever, you know…just sit on the beach?” he smiles and asks. “Pretend there’s no such thing as skeletons?”
“Is that in any way fun?” Brennan counteracts. I think she’s joking, sort of. Or at least, she’s bantering, which is fun!
At least, Booth laughs, and it’s in a “I’m laughing with you” kind of way. He asks her, “When was the last time you got away,”
“Got away from what?” Brennan asks, and to be fair, Booth’s question was vague! 🙂
Booth sort of shakes his head, but I like that they have this conversation, especially so early in the series. At the time (not sure when season two was officially announced. I need to do some research!), it probably felt toward the middle of the season and potentially the series, but in the context of six seasons, it’s very early. And here we see that Booth and Brennan view their jobs differently. For Booth, what they do is rid the world of pain (sometimes by SPREADING the pain, but THAT’s a different episode 🙂 ), and sometimes he just needs to get away from it all and pretend that it doesn’t exist. He recognizes the pain and suffering in the world, and whether or not he feels a responsibility to appease his own guilt for his part in that pain and suffering is open to interpretation. And sometimes, he just needs a break from that responsibility.
Brennan, on the other hand, she has compartmentalized her work in such a way that it is mostly boiled down to facts and evidence, etc. This doesn’t make her ‘cold’ (not that anyone here calls her that!), but it’s a natural tendency to want to put B&B on opposite sides of the spectrum. Rational/Emotional, Brain/Heart, Empiricist/Humanist, etc, etc. And sure, there are some of those elements to B&B, but for the most part, the way they handle their work or relationships is similar in that they are both handling them. They are both on the same side of things (or ‘lines’, if we want to go there!). Okay, moving on, but the point is that they both recognize there is work to be done. For Booth, it’s internalized; he has a mission to solve a problem. For Brennan, it’s extermalized; she has a mission to identify causes to problems. For Booth, he feels the need to take that ‘mission’ off his shoulders every once in awhile. For Brennan, she can’t imagine that there would ever be a need to remove her mission, as it is an external thing. She hasn’t internalized.
That’s my take on it at least!
“Oh, Bones,” Booth chuckles.
“…Because what usually happens, to me…” he continues…
“…I think about not coming back,” Booth tells her, as he gets up to leave the bar.
“Seriously?” Brennan asks.
“Yep,” Booth answers and then covers up those amazing shoulders in that white polo shirt! Haha. But he continues, “You go with someone…”
And he pauses, and it’s like it’s really sinking in that not only is he going on this vacation alone, but he’s more than likely single again. Whatever issues he and Tessa had for the (if we’re going with it) two years they were together, those are over. He doesn’t have to make it up to her any more; he doesn’t have to account for his time or who he’s with or why he spends so much time at the lab or with Brennan or anything like that. He’s single.
“You joke about not going back to your real life…the two of you laugh.”
He walks away, and Brennan watches him as he says, “But when you’re alone…”
“…the world is full of possibilities.”
That is totally an offer from Booth, in my opinion. And I also feel that Brennan is aware of what he is offering. I think she also feels attracted to him, and knowing that he is single makes her more aware of the…wait for it… ‘possibility!’ of acting on that attraction!
He’s saying…come with me. Let’s get out of here and just see what happens. Let’s just forget about real life for a bit, and be together while we forget. Let’s explore the possibilities.
I love that, because for one thing, I think it means that while Booth does see the pain and suffering of the world, he doesn’t see his work with Brennan as part of his pain and suffering, you know? She represents (like Tessa maybe could have, but considering that when he was with her, he was still always drawn into cases and stuff) the fact that he could really get away and be away from it. I like that Brennan doesn’t go with him, for a couple of reasons. One, is that I love that it will then develop into the reality that Booth finds his ‘relaxation of his mission’ from Brennan, even when their ‘real life’ swirls all around them. The ‘salvation’ of him, basically, from that mission, is through her. It’s no surprise that once the end of the 100th occurs, and once their partnership begins to falter, that he literally picks up the mission again and goes back to the war zone.
I don’t want to expand too much on that here, as I don’t want to detract from the scene, but the point is that Booth thought maybe Brennan could be his chance to ‘get away’, but instead, she offers him a reason to come back. I love that.
He doesn’t need to physically get away from it all to actually ‘be away’ from it all. And he does come back.
And, from that moment on, Booth did not have a completely committed relationship with anyone until season six. (The more I think about Cam in season two, the more it doesn’t count: though they were committed to one another, it wasn’t the sort of relationship Booth was in with Tessa nor with Hannah, right?) Do you think Tessa balked at ‘stage six’ or at the lovely Temperance Brennan and the reality that Booth would never really be hers?
Do you think that Booth really was wanting Brennan to come with him? Do you think Brennan was aware of that? Did you even make it to the end of this essay, or are you still thinking about pineapple?
Let’s discuss!
Peace, Love & Bones,
S
Bones Theory 
March 27, 2011 at 10:11 am
Maybe when I get over the pineapple I’ll have something to say. Ha, ha, ha.
March 27, 2011 at 10:23 am
Haha I love this comment!
March 27, 2011 at 10:15 am
I have never thought, ever, that Booth might be offering Brennan a chance to go with him. But I really like the idea that he was! I like to think that Brennan really had a hard time making up her mind. Stay with skeletal corpses or follow those broad shoulders to Jamaica where a possibility (not really though) of forever waited? How about I go instead?! So although, I don’t know if Booth was really, seriously offering Brennan something, I really like the idea that he might.
March 27, 2011 at 10:20 am
When watching this episode you got the feeling that though Booth and Tessa were in a relationship, Tessa was insecure about it. When Angela spied on Tessa at the coffee shop, she found Tessa reading a book about unsolved FBI cases. By that time, Tessa had met Brennan and saw that the partner that Booth was spending so much time was Brennan. Brennan, who is smart and beautiful and whom Booth seems to be attracted to. The parnter that Booth is willing to interrupt a date for. The partner that needs him and will cause him to drag a date to a crime scene for (ha ha). Tessa is smart, she had to know that Booth was attracted to Tessa. Angelas’ little “stage” talk to Tessa and Booth was the wake up call for Tessa and the realization that the relationship could not move forward. Tessa knew that Booth had a mission in life with a partner he was fascinated with and was trouble for her.
I agree that the smile that Brennan gave in the Bar when Booth said that Tessa wasn’t going with him on vacation was that she had been proven right. Booth was not a balker and Tessa was not going on vacation with Booth was Tessas’ fault not Booths. I liked this scene very much. Brennan was already showing loyalty for Booth. Even though there was no love between them at this time, there was like and Brenna liked how Booth was handled things. If someone was showing a lack or fortitude, then Brennan knew it was Tessa, not Booth. She liked that she already knew Booth well enough that she could count on being right about him.
I think Booth may have been testing the waters with Brennan when he sort of asked her to come with him on vacation. I think he was trying to see what Brennan thought about him. A partner? a friend? something else? He knew that Tessa and he were over so why not see what the woman you are so fascinated with thinks about you? Go on vacation? I might not come back if you don’t come with me. Brennan laughs. That is his answer. She doesn’t think of him as a sexual partner; but, she smiles at him and the expression on her face tells him “I know you and you will be back”. He sees that and knows it. He understands that she likes him now. They are friendly if not true friends at this point. They have come along way from when she told him that she hated him. This gives him hope for something else.
March 27, 2011 at 10:22 am
I’ll have to re-watch this episode! And yes, Booth is absolutely gorgeous. Never thought of it that way, that Booth was asking Bones to go with him. Maybe he was. I hope he was. I’m glad she didn’t go.
March 27, 2011 at 10:24 am
Gosh I wish I could edit: I meant “Tessa is smart, she had to know that Booth was attracted to Brennan”.
March 27, 2011 at 10:48 am
Oh I have *always* thought Booth was hinting at inviting her to come with him. From the minute he turns to look at her and ask, in surprise, if she ever goes on vacation.
It’s the same look he gives her when he asks her to stay for another drink in Man on Death Row and she sends him home to Tessa.
I think his “oh Bones” is saying “oh Bones, you don’t even know that I’m totally hitting on you, which just makes you all the more adorable.”
But I think she does know, and she knew it in Man on Death Row and she knows it is not a good idea because he’s not a balker, and she is (at this stage) when it comes to personal relationships.
I swear, odd seasons are all about Booth pursuing Brennan and even seasons are all about Brennan pursuing Booth. I hope by season seven they are “even” and can pursue each other simultaneously.
I’ve said before that the writers never really know until late in the season if any one season will be their last, so they have to put enough in each season to make it plausible that B&B would get together in the end (should any season finale end up being a series finale) but not so blatant that they can’t extend things into the next season, should there be a next season.
March 27, 2011 at 11:23 am
First, you’ve been rocking the comments this week. Thanks for sharing your insights! Second, I love this idea: “I swear, odd seasons are all about Booth pursuing Brennan and even seasons are all about Brennan pursuing Booth. I hope by season seven they are “even” and can pursue each other simultaneously.” I’ll keep this in mind as I re-watch episodes. (Glad to find you ff.net contributions … can’t wait to read them!!)
@Lenora, 🙂 I knew what you meant despite the typo. Appreciate your comments as well.
Seels, I’ve been too busy in RL to comment much this week but kudos to you for such thought provoking discussions this week. Loving it! It makes the breaks go so much faster when I have your blog to look forward to every morning.
(I’ll second @ceeray3’s comments below as well … especially the screenshots 🙂
March 27, 2011 at 10:51 am
Mmm! Pineapple! One of the things I absolutely love about these scene studies you do is you always pick up on some things I missed and bring a new light to the episode…new insight. Thank you for that. (and the screenshots, especially of Booth’s expressions, are always a plus!!) I like going into the past with…maybe not 20/20 vision, but at least 20/50!!
March 27, 2011 at 10:56 am
Tessa never appeared content or confident in her relationship with Booth. His work and the time he spent with it may have been an issue. I always thought that seeing him at work and having Angela bring up where they both were at in their relationship, was a wake up call for her. I do think that it was Tessa who probably figured out she was never going to get more out of Booth, accept what she already had. He wasn’t going to change. His work would probably be more important than her. It didn’t seem all that solid of a relationship. Booth wasn’t all that it ended. I don’t think Brennan had anything to do with the break up.
Brennan is all about her work. It is her passion. Booth telling her that sometimes people need to just get away from work and that they often feel like not returning to their regular lives, was a foreign thought to her. Booth makes Brennan think outside her norm. This intrigues her. I see Brennan being more into Booth and Booth being less into Brennan, at this moment. I never thought he was asking her to go with him. He just coudn’t imagine what a Brennan on vavation would be like. That got him thinking also. Brennan is seeking Booth out at the end of this episode and he is leaving her at the end of it, but he turns back to look at her before he leaves. That says something to me.
March 27, 2011 at 11:28 am
I just did some checking and Bones got picked up for a second season in late March.
Since I’ve been here I have heard the idea that Booth is asking Brennan to come with him on vacation and I find the thought really… icky, is the word that first comes to mind. I don’t buy that Booth fell in love with Brennan at first sight and yet continued his relationship with Tessa despite that. Booth is not that kind of guy, and while he didn’t seem heartbroken at the end of the relationship, he is still an honorable guy, and an honorable guy does not ask another woman to come to a vacation with him hours after his previous long term relationship has ended. I just find the whole thought completely out of character. But then again, I’m only a borderline shipper and don’t really ‘ship them this early.
March 27, 2011 at 11:46 am
True, he is an honorable guy, but he was “sort of” dating someone in the 100th flashback, when he totally hit on Brennan and was more than happy to take her home after her tequila-fueled proposition. Even honorable guys have moments of weakness. I don’t think it was love at first sight either, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t always had a spark and physical attraction.
The scene could definitely go either way, and it’s a testament to how awesome yet subtle DB and ED are that so many of their scenes together could be interpreted in multiple ways. I love these scene studies because the screen caps really show those fleeting expressions. I never even noticed Brennan’s little smile until I saw that picture up there.
March 27, 2011 at 12:07 pm
The only thing I have to say is: I agree! I loved everything about this post. From the pineapple (which I will never see the same way ever again) to the insight, to the awesome screenshots, it was all amazing.
March 27, 2011 at 12:21 pm
I think Booth is still figuring her out at this point and doesn’t want to let on just how much he is fascinated by her and attracted to her. He is only musing what a vacation with her would be like and not actually inviting her. He knows it is too early. But she is flirting a little and is fascinated by him and attracted to him. The fact that she tracked him down is evidence that she cares about his hurt from the Tessa situation. She isn’t lying here — just didn’t see the need to tell him that she and Angela had been talking about them.
March 27, 2011 at 1:00 pm
This is such a great B&B moment! I’ve always found this episode kind of inconsistent–great scenes are separated by stretches of filler–but I love this scene. Bones does its final scenes better than just about every show.
That being said, I’ve gotta say that I’ve never found the white polo particularly Boothy. After this episode, he never really dresses like that on his time off. His drinks are also never this fruity! Not that I mind, of course: he looks gorgeous, and I think the slightly un-Boothy look is a testament to the fact that he’s (a) going on vacation and (b) that he was planning to go on vacation with a woman he couldn’t be himself around.
I, too, have always thought Booth was issuing an invitation to Brennan, and I agree that she totally knows what he’s implying. For a woman who “stinks at non-verbal communication,” she always knows how to read Booth. I love that she doesn’t go. It’s a classic example of Brennan being Brennan, keeping people at a bit of a distance, turning Booth down because he’s not a balker and she doesn’t want that kind of commitment. But I LOVE what you said, Seels, about how she gives him a reason to come back. And she knows he will come back. And he does come back. I just love them. They’re amazing.
As great as the pineapple is, I’m still stuck on the look he gives her when she says she goes places all the time. Those screencaps are–WOW. DB can say so much with his face. It’s perfect.
March 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Hmmm…I’ve always thought Booth was issuing a very subtle invitation to Brennan in this scene. I’m not sure he really thought much about what he was doing and why (i.e. was it more the attraction or the fear of being alone speaking?), and sometimes I think he was only being half-serious, but I definitely thought he was offering. Of course my perception may be somewhat colored by the fact that this is one of the few episodes that I’m pretty sure I actually missed the first time around and therefore saw for the “first time” over the summer. Five seasons colors your perspective a bit.
On a not quite-related-note, I tend to think that Angela “caused” (perhaps unintentionally, perhaps not) the break-up between Booth and Tessa with her whole stages spiel. I’m sure it would have happened eventually anyway, but the entire way it went down points right back to that speech. It’s clearly WHY Tessa balked, but the question is, would she have still balked when she did if Angela had never mentioned “pre-shacking up vacations” and all that jazz? Was that Angela’s subtle way of taking care of the competition for Brennan?
Great scene study as usual Sarah. I’m not normally a big fan of fresh pineapple…but I think I could make an exception this time. 🙂
March 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm
I am in total agreement that Booth was kind of hinting at Brennan going with him. I’m not sure that it is intended to be an invitation, but the looks between them spoke volumes about the possibilities of a shared vacation.
I also think that the looks on Booth’s face had a little to do with wondering what, exactly, it would take to get Temperance Brennan to go on a real vacation, and what she would be like if she just kicked back and let her hair down. And that he’s thinking that he would really enjoy watching the process. I think that even this early on, she fascinated him as much as she exasperated and frustrated him. Of course, now we have the hindsight of knowing what their pre-pilot history is, so there is even more depth to the looks, but even if we didn’t know that they had already shared that smoking hot kiss in the rain, I think the looks convey the same meaning from Booth.
I also get the sense that Brennan is, maybe for the first time, wondering just what a “real” vacation would really be like. And I think she’s wondering what it would feel free enough to be someplace and just not want to go back home.
Also – I think this scene is reminiscent of the gun or the table debate. Do you want to be the pineapple or the drink? Because really, the way he looks enjoying that drink is almost as good as the way he looks eating the pineapple chunk. It’s so good, it’s probably illegal in some places. (And, of course, my answer to the pineapple or drink question is “yes, please”. 😉 )
Oh, and they really need to give us another polo shirt. Or more of that nice, tight, FBI t-shirt. Or more shirtless Booth. Really, I’m not picky. I’ll be happy with any of the options. 😉
March 27, 2011 at 4:13 pm
I concur, Jade. On the shirt, the shirtless, the pineapple, the drink. As you said, “Yes, please.” I will take them all. ;-D
March 27, 2011 at 2:54 pm
Ahhh…that’s such a lucky piece of pineapple…hmmm.
You do have a way, Seels, of finding those little details that conjur up all sorts of tantalizing images and thoughts! Keep up the good work…more, more, more…please!
What I love about Bones are scenes just like this… full of potential possibilities…hinted at yet unspoken…that let the viewer come to their own conclusions. It’s all in our individual perceptions…we see what we want to see…believe what we want to believe. There’s no right or wrong, because many times…probably 99% of the time…no further explanation or reference is made to a scene that defines it. We’re left to our own twisted devices…LOL!
I love that Brennan knows Booth would not be the one to balk. She already knows an awful lot about Booth…doesn’t she? She studies him more thoroughly than she does a set of bones…ha ha. Who wouldn’t? This is me volunteering to help her out!
Booth is bummed that Tessa backed out on their vacation (and their relationship)…but he’d really rather not go alone. He starts hinting that Brennan should come away with him…she’s tempted…but she’s not ready for that. Which brings me to your comment, Seels, about Brennan not seeing the need to get away, but instead, offering Booth a reason to come back…her. I had forgotten that tid bit of their conversation (haven’t seen this ep in quite a while). That point is not lost on Booth…and I think this is one of those defining moments when Booth realizes that she’s definitely THE reason to return.
Plus…it’s one of those times, for me, when I felt they could catch fire…the looks, the eyes…they’re both feeling that attraction…but Booth leaves alone. Are we supposed to be left feeling slightly cheated? Yeah…I think so…the first of many times…ha!
March 27, 2011 at 3:28 pm
I always thought there was an undercurrent in this scene along the lines you suggest – with them both contemplating in a fantasy way what it would be like to go together. It makes even more sense in a revisionist post 100th episode world.
They both look gorgeous in this episode, Booth in particular. I guess they ultimately thought polo shirts were too preppy but I struggle to see how Bones could resist him in this scene. Just yum!
March 27, 2011 at 4:19 pm
I would not be able to resist Booth in any capacity, in any episode. Perhaps that is why we are so frustrated with the progress of their relationship…are we jealous of Brennan’s self-control or annoyed that it has deprived us of years worth of Shirtless!Booth
March 27, 2011 at 5:22 pm
My heart skipped a beat the first time I watched this! I totally picked up the come on vacation with me vibe. And although I knew she wouldn’t, I marveled at what possibly held her back. Cuz beach, rum and Booth sounds PERFECT to me! 😉 Still does. 😀
March 27, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Oh my god, that screen-shot of Booth and the pineapple is priceless!
I def remember watching this episode and catching the vibe. You know, the-let’s-just-get-out-of-here together-and-see-what-happens vibe. It’s kinda the same vibe as in Man on Death row when Booth asks Brennan to stay for another drink. Not that Booth would cheat, but I think Tessa or no Tessa, he’s been fascinated and attracted to Brennan from day one. The word I like to use is compelled. She compels him in so many ways and he’s always trying to deal with that. I think it’s why he went all out on the Hannah relationship and maybe created some distance between them.
I will never be able to buy the argument that Booth loved Hannah in the same way or even close to how he loves Brennan. I certainly agree that he tried to be the perfect boyfriend and he certainly try to tell himself he was over Brennan but there were a lot of instances– from the way he looked with that red bow in his hand to the way he got defensive with Sweets on many occasions all the way to that proposal that simply made me feel like he’s trying, he’s trying so hard but I’m not buying it. And I guess it could be the shipper in me talking but I believe that Booth over-compensated big time and I think that was done on purpose. I could go on talking about this forever, but I’ll stop here.
All that to say that Brennan, whatever IT is about her, compels Booth in a way that no one can compete with. Period. And no matter what has happened in the show, I still see that, which I guess is one of the reasons I’m still watching!
March 27, 2011 at 10:48 pm
I so agree with you that Brennan has compelled him from day one, and often unwittingly, which is the best part about it. Wanting B&B together I guess put me at a natural bias against Hannah, but I honestly saw nothing there for a deep, meaningful relationship; it was all good times, she was always away, and never any arguing. I like your point about over-compensating, because I could definitely see that. That is why I think he’s mad, not because he loved Hannah so much. He was invested and faithful, and the relationship was beneficial in many ways, for sure, but he couldn’t make things turn out how he wanted just by playing the part well. I don’t really believe in fate, but I guess it exists on the show, because after so much has happened Booth is still excited about a “possibility” of a relationship with Brennan.
I love that these scenes are so open to interpretation. I can find traces of an invitation – they might conclude that it really wasn’t wise (because it really wasn’t) but that doesn’t mean there couldn’t have been some wishful thinking. I love Brennan’s line about Booth not balking, too. It’s crazy to know that they were aware of each other’s interest.
March 28, 2011 at 6:05 pm
FINALLY!
Yesterday: Too much Bones downloading = regression to dial-up speed = couldn’t look at pineapple
😦 = very cranky Linda
Today: at work with high speed Net access + a little sneak onto BT = one fully downloaded pineapple shot = One very happy Linda 🙂
Believe me, it was getting to me all day that I couldn’t see that picture…
March 30, 2011 at 6:06 am
I haven’t read the rest but…sort of wish we were that bit of pineapple?? There’s no sort of lady! LOL
Now back to read the actual post 😀
March 30, 2011 at 6:23 am
I was doing so well until you mentioned the pineapple again!! Damn you S! 😉
OK ok….i’m here. I’m not thinking about Booths lips around the pineapple…i’m not i’m not i’m not. Oh hell…i so AM!
Right…anyway. I adore this scene…i love a lot of the diner/founding fathers/wong foo scenes in S1. There’s always something else going on below the surface that is so…..rawr!!!! (FYI- i am SO with you on the white polo shirt. Damn damn and damn!). It reminds me of the scene in ‘The Man in the SUV’…the mood, the look to the scene…and the undercurrents running through it.
(Totally off point BUT…Booth says he has never cheated on a woman. Am i the only one who thinks that in S1, if Brennan had given him the go ahead, he would have cheated on Tessa in a heartbeat? Even if you disagree he was close….right?!).
Back on point…as to Booth and his ‘The world is full of possibilities’ i don’t think he was inviting Brennan to go with him. I think his plan was to go on his own…i just think he was revealing a little of himself before he went. And yes i know we’d have preferred him to reveal himself in a slightly different way but you can’t have everything 😉
(One final thing. Booths line in this is a line i can get behind 100%! Seriuously….i had this scene running round and round my head when i was in NYC. Unfortunately i did come back…but the thought was there!)
March 30, 2011 at 9:16 am
What a coincidence, I’ve been eating a lot of pineapple these days… :p
As for the scene, I’m so glad you decided to do a study about it! I always wondered if the “come to Jamaica with me” vibe I was picking was only my imagination, lol. To be honest, I hadn’t picked up on it the first time I’d watched the episode (probably I didn’t expect something as “bold” so early). But this was one of the episodes that I watched once for a first time and then the second time I watched it was many many months later, when I had a different perspective; and there, as the episode was coming to its end, I see this and I suddenly go “OH.EM.GEE!!!”, press rewind to make sure I wasn’t imagining things…
I definitely think he is inviting her. And from Brennan’s little smile, I definitely think she understands it; and chooses to tell him she’ll be there when he gets back.
By the way, since I saw quite a few people mention it on the comments above, it might be interesting to do a scene study about the moment from “The Man in the SUV” when Booth asks Brennan if she was another drink and she kind of sends him off to Tessa… I always thought this moment was quite signifiant, but after rewatching the episode last summer, after the 100th had aired, I had a similar OMG moment like the one I mentioned before. All the subtext there… If you think of the two of them drinking tequila and getting carried away and “unprofessional”(one could say) and all that we know in the 100th(which is in the past, in their timeline) and then this moment, where she knows he’s in a relationship with another woman and still he asks her to stay for drinks… Am I reading to much into this? Am I the only one seeing parallels here? The apprehensive look she gives him when she reminds him he shuld be getting home speaks of so much, I think. And I’m not necessarily saying that even as far back as episode 2 HH had it all planned in his mind; but it adds up so neatly. Kind of like Booth’s line in 1×15 Two Bodies in the Lab “You see someone across a crowded room, eyes meeting, that old black magic getts you in its spell…” adds up so surprisingly with that scene in the 100th where Booth gawks at Brennan lecturing at a class full of students…
April 1, 2011 at 4:40 pm
I have been reading Bones Theory for a while now, and though I’ve never had anything sensible to contribute to the discussion I have enjoyed reading it immensely. So thank you so much to everyone writing articles and commenting!
With this one I had to say special thanks, because although I always find the scene studies enlightening (and inspiring as to which episodes I should rewatch next), this scene has always been one of my “I don’t know what that means”-moments. I don’t usually feel like I understand all the scenes in Bones or anything, but this one I had quite some trouble to grasp. I just wasn’t sure of what I thought Booth were saying. After reading this the scene makes more sense to me, and I could definitely see Booth defying their rules and subtly offering Brennan to come with him (specially considering what almost happened with them in their first case).
So a big thank you for making sense of this scene for me, and for the loveliness that is Bones Theory in general! 🙂
April 25, 2015 at 5:57 pm
I cried when I read this. I’m not exactly sure why. I think it’s because I just re-lived it- all of it- in that one flash, in that one flashback. See the thing is, and I realised this only later, with the benefit of hindsight- Booth’s never really had a committed relationship with anyone, because he’s never committed himself to anyone. He couldn’t, after he met Bones. Even in the sixth, when he asks her to marry him, he’s pretty much asking her to say no- he knows she’ll say no, he knows she doesn’t want to get married, and he’s telling her that’s not enough, that she’s not enough, that she’s never going to be enough. That he’d never settle for anything less, anything else- unless it’s Bones. He’s never ‘revealed’ himself to anyone. He doesn’t give everything. Not with Rebecca, Tessa, Cam, any of the others. He’s never fully given himself to anyone except for Brennan. It’s not that women don’t want what he has to offer, it’s that they want everything he has to offer. But it’s not his to offer. It belongs to Bones. He belongs with Bones. It’s impossible not to know that. It isn’t that these women- incomprehensibly- don’t want Booth. They want it all. We all do. They want his lion heart. And I’m sure Booth thinks he even wants to give it to them. But he can’t. After all, the heart chooses what it chooses, doesn’t it? And we don’t really have any say in the matter.