Following The Laws of Physics to Break Them?

Hey fellow Bones fans! Happy Bones Day! I am beyond honored to be allowed to post my random thoughts here at Bones Theory, and I just wanted to say thanks to Sarah for allowing me to hang with the fantastic essayists here. So, without further adieu…

Do B&B Have To Literally Follow The Laws of Physics In Order to Break Them? 

Newton’s first law of motion (physics) states, basically, that an object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it, and an object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it. So what does this mean in relation to Booth and Brennan’s relationship? Well, let’s start with the first part of the first law:

An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.

I think we can all agree that before the 100^th, Booth and Brennan were definitely an object at rest. They were not “going somewhere”, they were stagnant in their relationship, and it seemed as though Brennan was (at the time) perfectly happy to stay that way. Booth obviously was not satisfied, but whether he was aware that she wasn’t ready or was just too scared to try and move them, we don’t know for sure. Either way, together they were like the golf ball that teeters maddeningly at the edge of the hole, not quite close enough to the edge to tip in but so close that you have to waste a stroke to get it there. So what force acted as the catalyst? Was it Sweets, goading Booth into throwing his cards on the table in the most important hand of his gambling career? I have to say that, without the young psychologist giving Booth that push, he might never have asked Brennan to give them a chance, and it’s entirely possible that they would have hung onto the edge of that 18^th hole forever. Sweets’ challenge to Booth set them in motion, for better or for worse. Does that make Sweets responsible for what happened after? Some might disagree, but I say no. Booth is and always will be responsible for his own actions, as is Brennan. Yes, Sweets was their ‘unbalanced force’, but he was not the reason they were at rest in the first place. That is entirely on Booth and Brennan.

So how does the second part of Newton’s law come in?

An object that is in motion will not change its velocity unless an unbalanced force acts upon it.

After Booth and Brennan came back from their respective trips, they were in motion, so to speak. Were they moving away from each other? I believe they were. Yes, they remained friends and worked as well together as they ever had, but they didn’t have the same report they had pre-100^th. Was it the distance (literal) that caused the distance (figuratively) or was it the drastic change in their interpersonal dynamic known as Hannah?

I believe that Brennan came to some realizations while she was in Indonesia. No, not that she was in love with Booth…I think she already knew that. I believe that she came to see how much Booth meant to her life. Not just on a daily basis, but as a whole. Brennan realized how she had allowed Booth to permeate every facet of her existence, and his loss was palpable. And when they reunited and she was introduced to the reality of Hannah…that Booth had moved on and was not going to be able to be everything to her that he was before they left each other…it softened her in very subtle ways. We all saw the looks, however you choose to interpret them, and they showed just how much Brennan was heading towards the epiphany we witnessed in Doctor in the Photo. I fervently believe that had Booth come back without Hannah, Brennan’s confession in the SUV might not have happened that way. Being presented with Booth’s efforts to distance himself from everything Brennan had represented to him, and transferring that to Hannah instead, was a physically painful blow to Brennan that I don’t believe she anticipated. She prides herself on her compartmentalization, but the irony of that situation is that Booth was the reason she couldn’t distance herself from her feelings for him. He had made her strong, no longer so impervious…and yet he was the sole reason she needed to be both. And when Dr. Lauren Eames death and the realities of her life penetrated Brennan’s shell, her weakness brought on by Booth’s seemingly successful attempt to move on from her allowed that realization to take place.

I’ve said before elsewhere that the reason Booth continued on with Hannah had a lot to do with Brennan’s confession. He needed to prove that he had a very good reason to turn down this woman who meant the world to him, and to escalate things with Hannah, to the point of a marriage proposal, was his way of doing that. “See, I didn’t turn Bones down for nothing. I am in love with Hannah, I didn’t make a mistake.” But I also believe that Booth had to continue on with Hannah, propose, and get hurt again…in order to see what Brennan had seen from him since almost the beginning. That Brennan isn’t going anywhere either. Even after he gives her what is essentially an ultimatum (Forget anything between you and me ever happening, just be my partner and friend), she stays. Because, as he discovered when she asked the exact same thing of him (Can we still work together?), when you love someone, you do whatever you can to make them happy. Even if the reality of living with that choice day-to-day hurts you more than anything you’ve ever experienced. They both finally saw what a rare relationship they had with the other. So in the end, Hannah was necessary to, in essence, slam into Booth and Brennan and change their velocity.

However you view Sweets’ and Hannah’s role in the matter, Booth and Brennan were in need of those unbalanced forces. Yes, they ended up leaving each other for opposite sides of the world and yes, Booth met Hannah during that separation, but the simple fact of the matter is that if none of that had happened, Booth and Brennan might still be circling around each other, denying their attraction for the safety of their current relationship. Booth and Brennan are a perfect example that maybe sometimes; you have to follow the laws of physics to eventually break them.

So, what do you think? Did Booth and Brennan need a nudge in the right direction or would they have gotten there all on their own? Share your theories!