“How about I drive for once”
“I cannot show up at a crime scene in that.”
“Why?”
“Because! It would detract from the gravity of my FBI presence.”
BONES: Season One
A Boy in a Bush
This episode starts out funny with Booth interrupting Brennan’s speech to ask if she based Andy Lister off of him (he thinks yes.). But it grows quickly serious. Oh, the humanity. Sometimes the dead bodies on this show are just hilariously gross, but not this one. This body of a six year old child is one of the most devastating in the 90 or so episodes we’ve had over 4+ years.
THE CASE:
The remains of a young boy are found in the back of a mall. Booth and Brennan must determine if the remains belong to a missing boy, Charlie. Once that is confirmed, they have to figure out who murdered him, and how. Particularly touching is the theme of family and foster parenting in this episode.
THE SQUINTS:
The B plot focuses on a required financial formal function that the whole team must attend:
Dr. Goodman: He’s the one who’s insisting that each member attend. Also, in one of the best moments ever, he assures Angela (in a deep African American tone) that she is a worthy member of the team with a good heart.
Angela: I like that she kind of hounds Hodgins into telling her why he won’t go to the banquet. I also like her semi crisis here. “I’m an artist. I used to draw naked guys. Now I draw dead guys.” I also like how Brennan makes her promise not to leave before talking to her.
Zack: Zack goes back and forth in this episode between sensitive, and well…insensitive.
Hodgins: Ah, I forgot there was a time when we didn’t know that Hodgins had money. I had totally, totally forgotten about Booth kind of bailing him out at the end.
BOOTH & BRENNAN:
I find very few things about the show BONES annoying, but every once in awhile we get a couple of that crop up. In this case, Brennan tells Zack that she was at WACO, helping identify bodies. I can only assume that was in 1993. Now, if Brennan was 31 in season four (I base this off of the fact that Booth says he is 35 in Season Three, Secret in the Soil, and in Season Four, Man in the Mud, Brennan tells April that there are five years difference between her and Booth, and that they aren’t blue fish.), that means she was born in 1977, and that makes her 16 in 1993. WTF? She was not identifying bodies with the FBI when she was 16 years old. Like I said, I don’t want to get in the habit of insisting that every detail is realistic, but…this detail is pretty ridiculous. The one good thing from that dialogue is when Zack asks her if she means he’ll get used to child remains, and she tells him that he’ll never get used to it. No one does.
I do like that Brennan confides in Booth that she is afraid that Angela will leave the Jeff. Booth is still kind of snarky about it.
Then later, they have a serious argument about the foster care system.
Booth later though is nobler. We find out about Jared for the first time, and Booth compares scars with Shawn Cook.
“If I can’t respect the law, I can at least respect you”
In that moment, Brennan is so…emotional! I think this episode is a lot about Booth learning a LOT more about both Brennan herself, and his opinions of the squints. I like that she asks if she can interview Shawn Cook, and good for Booth to let her. Of course, he’s in for it, because Brennan promises Shawn that he’ll figure out a way for him to stay with Margaret. But once she says it, Booth is all in. Thank you, Booth.
The end of this episode is special (but okay, just one more ‘detail’. Brennan was a foster child until her grandfather got her out. Is that still considered true? Are we all just kind of agreeing to forget she ever said that? Or is it possible that she and Booth have that in common? ARGH!).
But back to the ending. First, Booth tells Brennan he’s sorry. Then he laughs at her when she says her car was dinged up. She calls him mean, very factually.
And when she is dressed up, he can hardly take his eyes off of her. What I really love about this part is that he asks her how she knew he would keep her promise. It’s like he wants to know what she really thinks of him. It’s becoming very special between these two. I’m enjoying every moment of it.
And hey, your Booth of the Day!
The “If you break your sister’s heart, there will be pain” Booth
from
The Knight on the Grid: Season Three
Peace, Love & Bones,
~S
October 28, 2009 at 4:46 am
Ah, yeah. The timeline suffers most tragically sometimes. You’ll come across other time paradoxes as the eps progress…
The grandpa, thing, though HH himself addressed this summer. His tweet:”She did not age out of the system. She was rescued by her “grandfather”. But was he what he said he was?”
(hope that’s not too spoilery)
Sounds like this might come up this season- I’ve always thought it was a hanging chad, but I guess he didn’t forget, just didn’t get around to it yet.
Bush never fails to make me tear up at least once. My fave scene is Brennan’s “interrogation” because it’s heartbreaking, followed closely by Booth’s bailout both of Hodgins and Brennan(keeping her promise).
This goes in my top 5- though don’t ask me where 😛
October 28, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I find this to be one of the sadder episodes they have ever done but I do think that this was a very important step in the B&B relationship – both showing how much they want to know each other and how much they already do know.
The beginning is a classic too, I miss that dashing, slightly cocky Booth…
December 27, 2009 at 11:20 am
This was a really sad episode 😦 There were a lot of emotions swirling around in this one.
Zack’s resistance to wearing the thermal helmet always makes me giggle 🙂
I’d forgotten about Hodgins’ stress rubber band bracelet! I’d also forgotten that we didn’t always know Hodgins was part of the Cantilever group.
As for the time line discrepancies- they too drive me nutty!
I can’t wait until Angela’s bangs are a thing of the past!! I am not a fan!
February 11, 2010 at 4:47 am
i actually enjoy your own posting choice, very helpful,
don’t give up and keep writing as it just that is worth to read it.
impatient to look at more and more of your current content pieces, thanks 🙂
July 15, 2010 at 1:53 am
Ah, another episode I don’t re-watch very often, mostly because the victim and child abuse theme is so disturbing and sad. But it’s a good episode and kind of one of those bonding episode b/w BB.
The final scene is one of those where I really think Brennan looks most beautiful, I mean her skin looks perfect. I’m usually all about Booth and his hotness, but in this episode Brennan def stands out. And Booth agrees, obviously, lol!
December 27, 2010 at 3:45 am
i thought i was only imagining the grandfather rescue thing… how come this was not brought up again in the next five seasons? i sure hope they have something about this coming up in the next episodes. i want to see how B&B will interact having their grandfathers as their heroes
February 7, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Love this line from Booth – I’m in the FBI. We always figure it out.
The whole donor banquet thing! I forgot that there was a time when we didn’t know that Hodgins was one of *those* Hodgins. But who is Hodgins really?
Important moment – when Brennan teaches Zack how to metaphorically “put his heart in a box.” We learn how she is able to deal with the intense emotional aspect of her work.
You’re actually one of them, aren’t you?
One of who?
A squint. I mean, you look normal, and you act normal, but you’re actually one of them.
But who is Angela really? I love that in this episode, we learn who Angela and Hodgins really are.
There isn’t a lot of humor in this episode, and that’s ok. It’s a serious episode, and we learn some very important things about many of the characters. But we do get another great line from Booth – “What’s that in American?”
You are the best of us, Ms. Montenegro. You discern humanity in the wreck of a ruined human body. You give victims back their faces, their identities. You remind us all of why we’re here in the first place – because we treasure human life.
What happened?
Apparently, all Angela needed was to hear her job description in a deep, African-American tone.
Brennan is so, so pretty throughout this episode (Booth definitely notices at the end), and Booth laughing at Brennan and spinning in her doorway is always hot. Not to mention Booth keeping Hodgins’ secret is hot. And Booth keeping Brennan’s promise is also hot.
Everyone has seen this episode many times, myself included. I love this one because the story is so heart-crushing, but there’s a message about family and about choosing to love children who need love, and I love that. I love learning more about these characters. They are complex, but together, they make a great team. They teach one another, learn from one another, care for one another, trust one another.
The lyrics in the song at the end are fitting, as always – It’s all just a way that we cope with our lives.
April 17, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Loved this episode, they make a great team.