Hello, and Happy Tuesday!
This isn’t exactly a ‘new’ topic, but it is one I’ve been thinking about lately, and since last night’s BONES ep featured Sweets more, I thought it would be a good time to discuss.
I was thinking about it a few weeks ago because, as you know, I hate Daisy with a fiery passion. I was just trying to figure out why Sweets is with her, and it sort of reminded me of friends I have who are with people who are not good for them. What does that have to do with B&B? I’m getting there. 🙂
Sweets had a rough beginning to life/childhood, but then, as Dr. Wyatt deduces in season four, he was adopted by good people who took care of him. But they passed away right around the time he started working for the FBI, and that’s where we get the idea that Sweets imprinted himself onto B&B ‘like a baby duck’—wanting what we all want, Dr. Wyatt said— a family.
I think Sweets was probably ‘least likely to get in trouble’ when he was in high school, college and graduate school (and getting his doctorate). I think he’s almost 30 years old (fact checkers—keep me honest. That is about right, yeah?) and finally rebelling a little, for the first time in his life. Neither Booth nor Brennan like Daisy that much, and she often steers him in the wrong direction (cheating on a test, having sex in Brennan’s office, etc.). Not saying Sweets is completely innocent to those things–it takes two and all of that. But I think he’s trying to rebel a little, and he’s using B&B to rebel against.
They don’t always see it (and/or care), so it doesn’t always work.
Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think? Does Sweets use B&B as parental type units and is he rebelling against them?
Thoughts?
Bones Theory 
October 2, 2012 at 7:34 am
Interesting question, Sarah. I don’t know that I’d call it “rebelling”, but more “coming into his own”. All the misfits in the land are finding places to belong. Hodgins and Angela, and B&B are settled, committed couples with babies. Sweets is growing up and stretching his wings, and searching for his own place to really belong. Maybe that’s with Daisy, maybe not. But he has to find that place for himself. They are all growing up, our babies 🙂
October 2, 2012 at 7:44 am
I’m not sure I would say Sweets is rebelling against B&B. I think Sweets sees what he wants to be in life and what he wants to be is Booth. Sweets practices his marksmanship all of the time trying to emulate Booth. Sweets has taken on more field agent duties. Booth’s love interest is the top Anthropologist in the country so Sweets’ love interest is her intern, a Anthropologist in the making. Of course, Sweets is very very Booth light; but, Booth is his hero and that’s who he wants to be when he grows up.
I just hope he grows up soon and sees that Daisy is holding him back from maturing into the man he wants to be.
October 2, 2012 at 7:49 am
(email)
October 2, 2012 at 7:50 am
Forgot to check my boxes darn it.
By the way, I wish they would quit giving those little food related sound bites like last night. I’d rather not know that I probably eat 9 to 10 cockroach eggs every day.
October 2, 2012 at 8:05 am
Perhaps we need to have an official “Daisy: Pros and Cons” post one of these days 🙂 Kind like a scene study that we’ve done, but really a character study. Going back through all of the Daisy eps and see where people’s dislike/like of her comes from. Could be fun…or terrible? 🙂
October 2, 2012 at 8:18 am
That sounds like an interesting idea. Daisy just gets on my nerves because she’s so self centered she treats everyone around her like actors in her play. Carla Gallo must have to put up with a lot hate mail because she plays Daisy so intensely. Daisy reminds me of the chihuahua who thinks she’s leader of the pack.
October 2, 2012 at 8:28 am
Really? I never got that impression of Daisy. I always saw her as a Brennan-lite, as Sweets is a Booth-lite. There is a scene (I’m blanking on the episode) where B&B are on the upper level of the lab looking down at Swaisy being romantic, and talking about how it would never work or something. Sweets is the heart, Daisy is the brain. Daisy has put career over relationships and look what it has done. Sweets goes with the heart and sometimes it doesn’t work well either. But I see them as adorable dorks together. To get myself back on today’s topic, I think Sweets making it work with Daisy would be a continuation of his Booth-lite path. I mean, this new chick is another blond Hannah! Sorry for using the H-word. I don’t know if that was a deliberate choice by TPTB, but it just hit me that she’s the blond homewrecker 🙂 hahaha (I don’t hate Hannah, btw).
All that to say, I’ve always had a soft spot for Daisy and Sweets as B&B-lite, and I want those crazy kids to make it!
October 2, 2012 at 8:33 am
Wow I never even thought about the new agent last night being a version of Hannah. That’s an interesting idea.
October 2, 2012 at 9:12 am
I think it’s a season for rebelling or at least questioning the status quo. Sweets has always struck me as Booth-lite, almost a little brother trying to step into Booth’s shoes but always trailing him in the shadows. Daisy seems to be a reclamation project of sorts, a person he can shrink and bed. We know that he’s “advised her” (Museum) and tried to re-channel her annoyances into less annoying avenues. While I think Booth has played the same role in Brennan’s life, I don’t think it has always been to “reclaim” her or change her as it is to help her fit into the real world a bit better.
Does Sweets see B&B as parental units? I think he looks to Booth for advice, but he and Brennan have a prickly relationship– they kind of snip and snipe at each other, but Brennan’s trip to see him in Divorce says she respects him, respects his knowledge. If he had some kind of crisis, I see Sweets going to Booth for help. Parental? No. I think it’s more of a sibling kind of relationship given the kind of give and take Booth and Sweets seem to have.
I don’t really see him rebelling as much as questioning his choices. He’s comfortable with Daisy and he might be questioning that relationship especially given the interest the blonde shows in him. (Why are blondes the default here?)
October 2, 2012 at 10:04 am
I agree with most of what’s been said above. I especially agree with the point the Sweets desperately wants to be like Booth and be respected and trusted by him. Similarly, I think that he really admires Brennan and would like her respect and trust.
I don’t really think it was rebellion. In fact, his actions last night were at Booth’s direction. I think it was more about proving to Booth — and the blond — that he can do the job, that he’s not just a shrink.
BTW, we will probably never know, but I’d love to know whether they were deliberately looking for a blond actress to mirror H****h? Did they only call for blonds to audition? For that matter, I wonder if they set out with the idea that H****h would be blond or did they just decide that they happened to like the blond actress best?
I am also curious to know, but am sure we never will, whether this new agent and her interest in Sweets is in response to all the Daisy hate. I don’t hate her, but she is so-o-o annoying and, like Sweets, has caused trouble between B&B, so I wouldn’t be unhappy if she were replaced.
October 2, 2012 at 10:15 am
Yeah, Angelena, I don’t know if it is necessarily “because” they are blond or if its just a coincidence. I think perhaps Hannah was blond just to help differentiate from Brennan. Therefore, the new agent was blond to differentiate from the brown-haired Daisy. Maybe that’s the extent of it. Regardless of hair color, I just got a Hannah vibe from the new girl, merely because she’s an interloper into the Sweets/Daisy relationship. Can Daisy be annoying? You bet. So can Brennan at times. But I think Daisy has good intentions and means well, so I forgive her more annoying traits. I think she really loves Sweets and wants to emulate her mentor, Brennan. I try to understand the underlying emotions and motivations of the characters. Why is Daisy the way she is? Why is Sweets the way he is? What made them be the people they are today? When Booth called them the Island of Misfit Toys…I got it. I have empathy for these characters.
October 2, 2012 at 10:19 am
In my opinion, Sweets and Daisy’s relationship is not healthy. They don’t seem to have a lot in common, bring out the worst in each other and they seemed to be based mostly on sex.
As for why they’re messing with them, there are two things we should consider. They can’t mess up with B&B or H&A, those are two very solid couples. Also, Sweets has been with Daisy since season 4 and they probably just need to move that story along somewhere, either get them married or break them up or at least shake them up and face the music. Things have to change. Every time we see Sweets and Daisy, their storylines are about having sex in inappropriate places, that is not a mature relationship.
October 2, 2012 at 10:24 am
I always thought the phrase the land of misfit toys described almost the entire cast of Bones. Almost everyone seems to have had trauma in their life or are very eccentric and don’t fit in to normal society with ease.
October 2, 2012 at 10:32 am
Yes, that’s what I think too, Lenora. That’s why I forgive Sweets and Daisy for a lot of their crap 🙂 They are all a bit of “misfits” and don’t quite fit in. They are all “baby duck”ish 🙂
October 2, 2012 at 10:33 am
What crap has Daisy been through exactly? We don’t know anything about her upbringing. Judging by what Wendell has said before, she comes from a well off family to boot.
October 2, 2012 at 11:08 am
Mar, you are right, we don’t know much about Daisy. I guess I refer mostly to Sweets when I speak of trauma. But just because you grow up “well-off”, doesn’t mean you can’t face pain, loss, grief, abuse, etc. Daisy could have faced many things, like Brennan, that put her on the super-focused career path she appears to have chosen.
October 2, 2012 at 11:11 am
Look at Hodgins. He grew up rich as Midas and he is far from normal. I love Hodgins so I mean no disrespect by the way.
October 2, 2012 at 11:51 am
Could have, would have…we just don’t know. We have all faced some sort of painful, stressful situation but until I’m told otherwise, I choose to think Daisy is annoying by nature.
October 2, 2012 at 10:16 am
Yes, Sweets is almost 30. In season 3 he was 22 so now he should be 27 or close to. I don’t think Sweets is rebelling either. He is growing up *finally* and as another poster mentioned Booth is his hero and he wants to be like him. The big, tough guy that people admire and look up to. As intelligent as he may be, I think he’s looking for a change. He’s always been a brain, now he wants to show that he’s more than that. He’ll never be Booth, but he can be a better Sweets.
I don’t think this agent being blonde was any big plot or a reflection that in emulating Booth, he threw a blonde into the mix like Hannah. I liked Olivia much more than I ever did Hannah.
I hope Sweets and Daisy do break up. They are not good for each other, and I don’t think things have ever really been right between them since she broke their engagement and went off to Maluku.
I hope HH is setting up his attraction to Olivia to be the downfall of Sweets & Daisy. I think they bring out the worst in each other. I much prefer her scenes with Hodgins or Booth.
I’m not a huge Sweets fan, but last night I thought he was used well. It was just a nice, light episode in what is setting up to be a darker season.
October 2, 2012 at 11:08 am
With Booth and Brennan we’ve always gotten a good look at both of them growing, adjusting, changing together. We’re kind of seeing that change with Sweets, but the problem here is that Daisy is used so sparringly that we’re never going to get that same dynamic between Sweets and Daisy or Sweets and anybody else who isn’t a regular, nor should we necessarily. In a way, Daisy is good because she isn’t there all that much. I’m not sure I want yet another deep relationship on Bones, mirroring what B/B and Hodgela already have. Takes away some of the specialness about these couplings for me, unless you happen to be a huge Sweets fan (which I’m not-don’t dislike him, just don’t want him to be that main.)
Maybe they can have Sweets grow in other ways by facing other challenges that aren’t relationship based. Again though, I really don’t want it to become the Bones, Booth and Sweets show, at the expense of the other characters. I’m just hoping last night was about giving JFD his due because he’s sort of been an aside lately, and not a looming trend. I know HH loves JFD, and I’m a little worried; I’ve always felt that Booth should interact with Cam and Hodigns more, and rely less on Sweets.
October 2, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Mariu100, I totally agree. I don’t want a Bones, Booth and Sweets show, either. I like it when Booth interacts with Angela, or even Hodgins occasionally, to solve a case. Lately it’s been a little heavy on the Sweets (by “lately” I mean ALL of Season 7 up ’til now). I agree with Caprigirl, I think this was a nice light episode to help us get through the darkness that is coming.
On a different note, I loved Brennan’s facial expressions when she was in Booth’s office as she realized how much Booth wanted in on the action and his thinly veiled attempt to enjoy desk work.
October 4, 2012 at 1:36 am
I don’t think Sweets is trying to rebel. He’s trying to be Booth, like others have said. He is Booth lite lite – double lite to me. He’s in the way, way too much and in places he doesn’t belong. I think his and Daisy’s relationship isn’t healthy either. Sweets has become as annoying as Daisy to me. Their relationship horrifically reminds me of Booth and Burley. Sorry, but I really hated her.