Hello all!
I know I’ve said it before that my first ep of Bones was Santa in the Slush (gray sweater represent!), and then I went back and rented season one and watched it immediately (and so on). There were a lot of episodes I liked a lot, but this one, The Man in the Fallout Shelter, made me actually cry actual tears. I had certainly enjoyed episodes before this one, but by the time the closing credits rolled on this one, I was hooked.
I’m trying not to compare The Finder with Bones, because I don’t think that’s necessarily fair. But I guess I’m not necessarily fair, haha, because I’ve still been thinking about it. The key to having a quirky main character (like Walter Sherman, and in some ways, Temperance Brennan) is that the audience also has to care about the character– we as viewers have to want to know more. Even if I didn’t always agree with everything Brennan said or did (or Booth or any other character), I almost always was left wanting more. Some of that is due to Emily Deschanel and her awesome acting– not to get fanficy on you, but there always seemed to be more lurking in those pretty blue eyes! I’ll say this…it will be interesting to see whether or not Walter Sherman has that “I want to know more” factor. To be fair, I suppose that means giving The Finder 10 or so episodes in order to hook me; I’m not sure if that will happen or not! The point of this post is that this is a great episode of Bones!
Here are five things/moments I love from this episode; feel free to add your own in the comments!
1. Zack’s robot that won’t follow directions
2. Shirtless Hodgins
3. The “ruining the true truth with facts” conversation
4. Brennan talks with Ivy Gillespie
5. Brennan joins Booth at Wong Foos
Okay, what did I forget? Make your favorite moments known in the comments! In the meantime, here is your B&B of the day. It’s actually not just B&B, because like I said, this was an episode where I really fell in love with the show.
Peace, Love & Bones,
~S
Bones Theory 
January 3, 2012 at 7:27 am
I love this episode. HH and company do an amazing job with their Christmas episodes. I sure hope we get one next season. With baby Bones. I can’t stand it. Just thinking about it sends my glucose soaring.
Anyway, my favorite moment is included above. I love “an eve in a day, a Christmas miracle” scene. I’m especially fond of sleeveless and high Booth. I also like those moments where Booth finds that one side-effect of the drugs is that the lab looks so different and pretty.
My 2nd fave is in there too: when Brennan talks to Ivy and her granddaughter. I still get teary eyed.
I also like the scene where Angela is going to kiss everyone — even Brennan in a non-lesbian way.
I love the scenes where we see daddy Booth with Parker for the first times.
I love the Chinese food scene where everyone admits to having some sort of faith in some sort of god in some circumstances. I especially love Zach’s “I’m a rational empiricist, but to my mom, I’m Lutheran.”
So, those are my top five moments from MitFS. There’s some overlap with yours, Sarah. And, I’m sure others will mention other scenes that make go “well maybe that should have been there.”
January 3, 2012 at 8:21 am
High Booth is just sooooo cute.
January 3, 2012 at 8:29 am
I love the Lutheran line too! Hilarious.
January 3, 2012 at 7:29 am
Forgot: also in the Chinese food scene they determine that Ivy must be black and that leads to the discussion of how difficult things would have been for a black woman and a white man in the 1950’s.
January 3, 2012 at 9:53 am
And Brennan’s comment about Booth having a child out of wedlock while being totally clueless that it’s wildly inappropriate. The looks on everyone else’s faces crack me up.
January 3, 2012 at 7:31 am
The Finder seems very much like a guys show to me. I’ll try it out, but if it doesn’t have any awesome female characters in it, then I will not be watching long.
I remember Brennan telling Angela about the christmas that her parents disappeared as the first time Brennan opened up and cried on the show. Am I right? And I like the scene at Wong Foo’s. Given that Booth didn’t tell anyone he had a son so far, it somehow seems significant and big that he has Brennan meet Parker. It’s like that you-opened-up-about-your-life-so-I’ll-give-you-a-glimps-of-mine thing that they had going on in the beginning.
January 3, 2012 at 8:20 am
My very favorite moment of that episode is not at all germane to the plot, but…Booth doing pull-ups. Guh.
And I love the conversation between B & B on the catwalk/balcony/upper level of the lab thingy about gifts and Christmas and asserting dominance that ends with Brennan walking away and Booth saying, “You know, you make it very hard for me to be nice to you.”
January 3, 2012 at 8:37 am
CJM –
You just made my day: Booth doing pull-ups. ;-Q….
January 3, 2012 at 10:17 am
I want to see that catwalk again! Heck, I want to see Booth back at the Jeffersonian with the squints again someday as well…I guess getting all the actors’ schedules to line up that way is a nightmare now. The end scene where Brennan opens her gift from her parents always has me in tears. Always. “To Our Temperance”….sniff. I also loved the story and how Brennan was able to give Ivy the coin back and some closure. I feel that moments like that are missing now with the cases. It was very touching. I also loved loopey Booth, Jesus is a zomibe, Booth doing pull-ups – yummy- and, of course, the first introduction to Daddy Booth where Brennan meets Parker. Aw. I think it is very telling in retrospect how Booth let Brennan meet Parker and invited her to Wong Foos. B&B are both very private people so letting each other in was a big thing.
January 4, 2012 at 12:13 am
My husband would just roll his eyes at me for my Bones obsession, but I read somewhere that the reason they never film on the catwalk anymore is that it was just too noisy when the actors were in motion. They did have Brennan standing on it in The Doctor in the Photo, but she was standing in one spot.
January 3, 2012 at 8:39 am
I remember reading an interview with HH a few months ago where he said that the suits (I don’t know if it was the network or the studio) fought HH on airing this episode, that they thought it was too early in the series to do such an intimate character heavy episode. I’m so glad that HH won this battle, because I think “The Man in the Fallout Shelter” came at the perfect time. I was sold on the show before this episode, but I definitely felt invested in all of the characters after watching it. Even my husband, who is just a casual watcher of Bones, says that this is one of his favorite episodes of the whole series.
January 3, 2012 at 8:41 am
I love Tori Amos’ “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” playing over the scene where the families come and stand outside the doors of the lab and lean against the lab. It’s become my favorite sad holiday song. Brennan watching Parker and Booth. Heartcrushing.
January 3, 2012 at 10:37 am
It’s just a perfect version of the song. It’s my favorite Christmas song — I think because there is that note of sadness. When Judy Garland sings it in “Meet Me in St. Louis,” it’s because they think they’ll be leaving St. Louis to go to NYC and will miss family friends in future Christmases. So, it really is meant to be a melancholy song.
I love Ella Fitzgerald, but her version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is way too bouncy and happy. There’s no irony to the merry. I will half to get TA’s version.
January 3, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Right – that song was written during World War II, so the lyrics were especially poignant for families and troops so far from home at Christmas.
January 3, 2012 at 9:35 pm
natalie –
just checked both iTunes and amazon neither has this version of the song. Any idea where to find it?
thanks
January 3, 2012 at 8:44 am
My favorite scene in this is Booth & Brennan’s Christmas eve conversation. The look on her face when he’s got his finger pointed right . . . there. I just want her to bite it, just once. I keep watching, but, alas. It ever happens.
And Hodgins shirtless? My my my….look what’s been hiding under that lab coat. Hubba Hubba. (See, Booth, chest hair is good!)
January 3, 2012 at 9:54 am
I love when he jumps up from behind whatever-the-heck that thing is with his tie wrapped around his head. Ta-da!
January 3, 2012 at 10:10 am
For the longest time, I thought that was a red tie, too, but after watching it repeatedly (I know, I have a rough life!), it’s actually Angela’s elf hat.
January 3, 2012 at 10:29 am
I adore that moment when he jumps up too. He’s so silly and boyish.
MJ, I thought it was a tie for the longest time too, but eventually realized that it was the hat.
January 3, 2012 at 11:05 am
Interesting. I’ve never looked all that closely, I just assumed it was his tie. I’ll have to check that out.
January 3, 2012 at 11:50 am
It was definitely the elf hat.
January 3, 2012 at 12:58 pm
Can’t believe I never noticed it was the elf hat! Just assumed it was a headband, like maybe he was doing some kind of Rambo-thang (hey-he was still a little wasted, right?)
I guess my attention is always (uh-hem) elsewhere in that particular scene.
January 3, 2012 at 8:51 am
This is the first Season 1 episode that for me had everything in it . 1. Backstory-you’d be hard-pressed to find an ep with more information about almost every character. We learn of the awful circumstances surrounding the disappearance of Brennan’s parents; about Booth’s son and the very rocky relationship he has with his ex; Angela’s famous dad; and Zach is a Lutheran! 2. Angela’s tree is pretty. 3. There’s a feeling of real comraderie in the lab, first with the gift exhange and later at dinner. 4. Lots of eye-candy (specifically, as in wife-beater and towel) 5. It’s both incredibly sad and uplifting. 6. A victim and family you really grew to care about. Okay, so maybe all the items on my list don’t have equal weight, but a girl’s gotta have options-besides, those biceps and Hodgins in a towel deserved their own line!
I’ve written about it before, so I won’t go into details, but I love the give and take that occurs between Booth and Brennan. There’s tension over the meaning of the holiday-he bugs her about it, not realizing what’s really behind her mood. She finds out about Booth’s son and is annoyed by the fact he wouldn’t have told her about it. She gets in a little dig about illegitimacy, not seeing what a truly upsetting topic this is for him. Then there’s the parade of friends and relatives, with no one for Brennan; her confession, overheard by Booth, about her parents, and then her heartfelt sadness on his behalf that he can’t be with his son tonight. At the end he invites her to the diner, effectively opening up his secret little family to her, and makes her feel special about what she did for Ivy. The kicker? She finds the strength to open up her parents’ present. The whole darn thing was perfect. My favorite line: “Nothing brings people together like a Christmas lung-fungus.” And who knew Booth could do origami?
P.S. It’s no secret that I love the Christmas ones and like Angelena, I can’t wait for a possible X-mas-with-baby. I can see it now; bickering over what presents may be age and gender appropriate; whether or not to go to Christmas Mass; whether to wrap or not. There better be a season 8!
January 3, 2012 at 9:53 am
I also did not watch Bones until late in Season 3, then went back and watched S1 and this was the one that hooked me. My two favourite scenes are the montage scene where we see everyone’s Christmas visitors and the scene with Brennan opening her present from her parents.
January 3, 2012 at 9:59 am
I think you have said it all mariu100. Just a wonderful Bones episode. Great writing, great acting, great character interaction on all fronts. The scene that brings tears to my eyes every time is when Brennan finally has the courage to open the Christmas gifts from her parents. Just heart crushing. I’m praying we get a great Christmas episode in season 8. There are just so many ways the writers could go…..
January 3, 2012 at 10:10 am
I adore this episode. Some of my random observations:
* Angela: “Friends don’t let friends photocopy their butts at company Christmas parties.” However, Brennan is saved by the “Booth”, when he comes in with a body for her to examine. (Did Booth somehow instinctively know she needed rescuing from Christmas merriment?)
* Booth’s leaves the party early (and even leaves a tipsy, potential make-out partner in Angela) to help Brennan in the lab…hmm….
* Angela tries to get the squints out of the lab by offering mistletoe kisses, even to Brennan “…in a festive, non-lesbian manner.” (Guess the writers hadn’t set Angela’s story at this point yet either!)
* Wow. The writers need to find ways to make him shirtless more often. More shower scenes please! Wait, was that weird?
* Stoned Booth having a religious conversation with Brennan…the beginning of many such discussions together.
* Talking about the case, Angela and Goodman reveal to Booth why Brennan has a problem with Christmas. All are in agreement that it explains a lot. (Which is a really great tie in to the case…that the woman whose fiancé disappeared never knew what happened to him, and at that point, Brennan did not know why her parents disappeared either)
* Goodman spills the beans to everyone that Booth has a son, which he had neglected to mention. (Booth and Bones, nine episodes into the show, have already established that they like to keep people out and internalize their own pain. They are both very adept at putting up barriers.)
* Sweet montage of the family visits. Zack’s family made me want to cry. (Is it too late to rewrite the end of Season 3? Yes? Ok, moving on…)
* Brennan opens up to Angela and gives details about her parents disappearing and what happened with Russ. The part about Russ trying to make Christmas for his sister, but she ends up thinking the parents are back only to be crushed again was so sad! (I want to hug both Brennan and Russ at this point and tell ‘em it’ll be OK!) Brennan relents on her anti-Christmas stance and tells Angela her tree is lovely.
* Brennan furiously searches for Ivy, hoping to give this family closure, even though she doesn’t have any. She even tells Booth she’s sorry he doesn’t get Christmas with Parker. Though, she is not present when the team opens their gifts, and I greatly notice her absence. As you look around at the team’s happy faces, Brennan’s is noticeably missing from the group.
* Brennan goes back to the lab to finally open a Christmas gift from her parents. (Andd….at this point I’m bawling again. I hurt for the teenage Brennan who suddenly finds herself an orphan, at Christmas, and for the pain she endured up to the present.)
* Have to say, I don’t miss Goodman at all. I can’t pinpoint what it is about him, nothing I dislike necessarily…maybe he was too calm and happy in his personal life to work there? Cam has plenty of issues, so she fits right in in The Island of Misfit Toys…maybe that’s it!
January 3, 2012 at 10:14 am
Ahhh yes….my favorite scenes from this episode, as mentioned previously, are Booth doing pull ups, and Brennan opening up her parents gift with “Have yourself a merry little Christmas ” playing in the background. Whaaa!
January 3, 2012 at 10:44 am
Ok, I love Booth with his arms folded across his chest and his pants on the floor while he gets his shot. The Christmas underwear and socks crack me up everytime I see them.
I’m with CJsMom, loved Booth doing the pull ups and a wasted Booth is so so cute.
This is my favorite episode. It had everything. Happiness, silliness, sadness, loneliness, a wrong that is finally righted, family and friendship. I so do love this show and this episode exemplified that.
January 3, 2012 at 11:25 am
Love this ep – a lot of what I love has been mentioned already, but…
1. Booth doing pull ups, hmmm merry Christmas me 🙂
2. ‘Have yourself a merry little Christmas’ is my favourite Christmas song specifically because of this episode
3. The beauty of Booth seeing Parker through the glass
4. The heartbreak of Brennan not having any family visit
5. The amazing smile on Booth’s face as he pumps Zach’s arm to within an inch of its life in thanks for the Robot present. Seriously, Booth has never smiled like that since.
January 3, 2012 at 1:25 pm
So many wonderful parts to this ep – it’s really a gem.
I gotta mention that robot, just because this makes me laugh every time: Hodgins commands “Stop!” and of course the robot does just the opposite and whirrrs into action. Hilarious – as is Zach’s exasperation and Hodgins’ little chortle of glee.
January 3, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Another great Booth moment? When he jumps up behind Brennan before the “ruining the true truth” conversation and is babbling about Christmas Eve Day being a Christmas miracle. I giggle every freaking time.
And how about Goodman? I loved him in this, talking about Careful Lionel and his daughters. I don’t know, I liked that Goodman was so calm and in place. He was good for the dynamic of the show at the beginning because he was that “wise and goodly” older guy who even had a little sway over Brennan. No one has had her attention or respect like that again, certainly not Cam. I liked Goodman. I’d still like to know the reason he left…character wise, of course.
January 3, 2012 at 4:07 pm
Katherine, I remember reading somewhere that the writers had a problem giving Goodman something to do in the context of the storyline. That is why his character went on a permanent sabbatical. By bringing Cam in, they could talk about the “fleshy parts” of the victim and not just the bones. I’d like to know why Cullen was dropped from the show as Booth’s boss. I think he added a lot to the show. I’ll never forget that episode where Brennan is able to determine the cause of Cullen’s daughter’s cancer. A real tear jerker.
January 3, 2012 at 4:17 pm
I read somewhere that they wanted to remove that ‘older & wiser’ father figure from Brennan’s life so that she gravitated towards Booth more as a source of learning. And we have definitely seen lots of Booth ‘teaching’ Brennan moments since.
January 3, 2012 at 4:26 pm
I’m with you Sarah, this is the episode that just completely made me fall in love with these people. It is just perfect. I cry everytime i watch it (yes, I have seen it more than once…), both when all the families come to the window, and the ending.
I just love this side of Brennan. She may not believe in all the Christmas stuff, but she knows what she needs to do for Ivy Gillespie.
January 3, 2012 at 5:21 pm
This hasn’t been mentioned yet but I really like it when they are assigning the Secret Santa and Hodgins, Zack, and Goodman are being really super squinty about it and Angela and Booth share this eye roll and he’s like, “why don’t we just write names and pick them out.”
Goodman was all like, “Oh. Yeah.” hahah!
January 3, 2012 at 9:38 pm
I was going to note that moment too, but other stuff won out.
January 3, 2012 at 10:23 pm
I love that moment! Zack wants to build a random number generator or something and Hodgins wants to make a code and Goodman wants to match people up by common interests… it’s just so, so funny.
I also love the camera angles in this episode. Overhead, while they are lying down to sleep, the shot that opens with Booth/Brennan/Goodman’s dangling feet over the catwalk…
January 3, 2012 at 7:25 pm
This episode is one of my all time favorite Bones episodes. Whenever asked for a list of favorites this one will always be one there. Others might change based on my mood or what else as happened in the series, but this is a constant. One of the things I love about it is that we see them all starting to come together as more than just aquaintainces, co-workers. It’s one of those steps (I think a major step) to them becoming that different kind of family.
Over the Christmas holiday I of course watched the 3 Bones Christmas episodes. My DVD was skipping at one point and so that scene is very fresh in my mind because I had to keep back up and moving slowly to get the scene to show. It’s the scene where Angela was showing Brennan the holo-Christmas tree, then says something like you think it’s silly don’t you. Brennan replies that she thinks it’s lovely (they are walking back to Brennan’s office at this point) and Brennan goes on the tell her the story of that Christmas right after her parents disappeared, when Russ found the gifts and tried to make Christmas for his little sister. Booth walks up and hears what she is saying. He lets her tell her story before interrupting. It’s a story with punch. Something that give quite a bit of insight into Brennan.
Oh and also this episode not only introduces Parker, but it introduces Billy Gibbons as Angela’s father…she’s says something along the lines of you might recognize my father, I don’t want to hear it.
January 3, 2012 at 9:35 pm
Happy New Year! Okay, so I am totally new to this “actually replying/posting to a blog” thing. I just started watching Bones in April 2011 and was instantly hooked. My sister and my roommate kept telling me that I would like it, but I just didn’t listen…until I was out at my brother and sis-in-law’s house helping with their newborn and I was “trapped” while they watched season 4 eps on Netflix. Uh-oh, my slightly (ha!) obsessive tendencies kicked into overdrive. I have watched every ep at least 4 times since then (including buying all the dvd’s and signing up for Hulu for the express purpose of catching up before the last couple eps of last season). Anyways, I was in the middle of season five on another viewing binge, when Sarah had this idea, so I stopped and decided to start all over and follow. (Plus, I get to watch on the new big screen, not my little 13″ old school tv – it’s AMAZING all the details I am seeing this time!) This is one of those episodes that is burned into my brain and I just love everything about it. Here are a few of my top fave moments:
– Angela’s elf shoes – just the fact that they are there, even the next morning!
– Firefly shout-out (sorry, another obsession)
– Zack’s robot
– “If this is fatal, I will shoot you.” mixed with Booth’s overall frustration at “Santa” being in charge.
– Stoned Booth
– Pull-Ups followed by the overly-squinty debate about how to pick names for secret Santa. Cracks me up everytime.
– Zack’s “Be kind, Rewind”
– Christmas Eve Chinese Dinner
– The family visitation montage (introducing Billy Gibbons and Parker) to that hauntingly beautiful rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”
– Origami-making Booth. (Gives new meaning/insight to clay horse-making Booth)
– Ivy Gillespie getting her closure
– Brennan showing up at Wong Foo’s. I love that Booth was side-eyeing her, like he knew she would show up…and he wasn’t surprised when she did.
– Santa hat wearing Sid
– Booth telling Parker to say Merry Christmas to Brennan and that he stared and waved at her as Booth was leaving. (Interesting early connection maybe?)
– That final heart-crushing scene…and I have always wondered what that gift was from all those years ago. Hhhmmm
I look forward to discussing “Vintage Bones” more over the next few months!
January 3, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Booth being good at origami and, later, making a clay horse is probably a mystery we will never learn more about but it sure is fun to wonder about it! Remember, Brennan was sure he had worked with clay before. Hey, he also made a nice father’s day card too! Seems Seeley has an artistic side to him. I like to imagine his mother, who was a jingle writer, instilled some art/culture in her young son. Maybe she encouraged an appreciation for the arts. Hey, it’s fun to think about.
January 4, 2012 at 5:28 am
I just love all the ‘I read somewhere’ comments that everyone interjects with. We really are a wide spread in our Bones sources & gossip, aren’t we? Some might even say obsessed…
January 4, 2012 at 10:19 am
Obsessed?? Now whatever would give one that idea?? 🙂
January 4, 2012 at 10:39 am
Totally obsessed…..