After the members of the Jeffersonian team disbanded at the end of last Season, our Bones Season 6 opener gives us a glimpse of the new life they’ve each chosen.
Bones is grappling with Guerrillas and sorting out snakes in Maluku. Booth is back working for the Army in Afghanistan. Sweets is selling his soul behind a piano, while Hodgins and Angela are getting pregnant in Paris. Poor old Cam has been left behind in D.C. and has dropped her bundle. She is in a right pickle with the media and the head honchos who want her...head. Seems she been making mischief by waxing lyrical about brain damage in veterans and her inability to identify the remains of a small child is just the excuse the powers-that-be need to cut her loose.
But hold your horse honey, help is on the way. The clever and crafty Caroline does some people wrangling and gets the Scooby gang back together to help save Cam’s career, which they do in a jiffy! “How long’s a jiffy?” I hear you ask. One component of a shake.
Everyone's back and it's business as usual, except Booth has a souvenir in the form of War Correspondent, Hannah. The stage is set for Season 6.
It would seem this is going to be a season that makes one's heart soar and makes one's heart sore. Brennan may just come to the realisation that she does indeed have emotions, but will Booth be there to notice her evolution? Time will tell and remember... patience is a virtue.
So let’s grab our microscopes (I really wish I knew the name of a fancier piece of equipment right now) and scalpels and dissect the first Bones offering on our slab this Season.
So on to my “Five Stars and a Wish”:
Star One
Kick ass Bones is back baby! It was great to see Brennan out of high heels and wielding a shovel with lethal force as she fought off the Guerrillas.
Star Two
It’s official – Emily Deschanel is the best eye-actor in the business (two people agreeing clearly makes it unanimous). The fleeting look of hurt Brennan has after Booth tells her things are very serious with Hannah is heart crushing.
It’s official – Emily Deschanel is the best eye-actor in the business (two people agreeing clearly makes it unanimous). The fleeting look of hurt Brennan has after Booth tells her things are very serious with Hannah is heart crushing.
Star Three
They bicker here, they bicker there, Booth and Brennan bicker everywhere! It was so reassuring to have Booth and Bones fall immediately into their comfortable repartee. The simple discussion about being like a jungle cat or a flea led to two other fabulous moments. Firstly, there was the classic Brennan line when Booth says they have to talk about "this" and she replies, “The way my use of accurate similes makes you uncomfortable?” Then there was the look of love, pride and amusement when Booth tells Brennan he’ll take the bad guy down like a flea. Marvellous.
They bicker here, they bicker there, Booth and Brennan bicker everywhere! It was so reassuring to have Booth and Bones fall immediately into their comfortable repartee. The simple discussion about being like a jungle cat or a flea led to two other fabulous moments. Firstly, there was the classic Brennan line when Booth says they have to talk about "this" and she replies, “The way my use of accurate similes makes you uncomfortable?” Then there was the look of love, pride and amusement when Booth tells Brennan he’ll take the bad guy down like a flea. Marvellous.
Star Four
The centre must hold. So who’s the lynchpin? Bones thinks she is. Booth thinks he is. Angela and Hodgins are pretty sure it’s them. But we all now know the real lynchpin is Caroline. Give the woman a hug! “Why are you staring a Bones like that?" "What did you do?”
The centre must hold. So who’s the lynchpin? Bones thinks she is. Booth thinks he is. Angela and Hodgins are pretty sure it’s them. But we all now know the real lynchpin is Caroline. Give the woman a hug! “Why are you staring a Bones like that?" "What did you do?”
Star Five
Five stars clearly just aren’t enough. I was going to select the scene between Brennan and Angela in the Diner (due mainly to the way Angela says she’s a little bit in love with Booth) for the fifth star, but I think I’m going to go with Cam being angry with Brennan. It’s good to see real emotion and I think Bones needs a metaphoric slap up the back of the head every now and then. (See how I cheekily got them both in there anyway?!)
Five stars clearly just aren’t enough. I was going to select the scene between Brennan and Angela in the Diner (due mainly to the way Angela says she’s a little bit in love with Booth) for the fifth star, but I think I’m going to go with Cam being angry with Brennan. It’s good to see real emotion and I think Bones needs a metaphoric slap up the back of the head every now and then. (See how I cheekily got them both in there anyway?!)
The Wish
While I’m tempted to say my wish is for Sweets and Daisy to be killed by the rumoured sniper killer (Hanna Barbera would be proud of those two cartoon characters), I won’t. After all, there’d be no final scene in Mayhem on the Cross without Sweets.
My wish is this – that Booth begins to look, really look, at Brennan again. Without sustained eye contact Booth will miss most of what Brennan is “saying”.
I’m going to abuse my own system here for a moment and prattle on a little about Booth. Skip over this section if your ears are prone to bleeding or if your eyes tear up at the sight of tripe.
While Brennan’s character continues to creep forward, it would seem Booth has regressed somewhat. Completely understandable. He laid it all out there and was shot down. So he’s moving on. His demeanour and interactions with Brennan, while on the surface appear unaffected, are definitely more guarded. He’s not allowing himself to look at her. He’s put his (metaphoric) walls back up. He’s a lot more like the cocky bugger we saw in Season 1, and we all know (hope beyond hope) it’s just a flimsy facade to protect himself. We know she rejected him and broke his heart. We know she left him. We know he said he had to move on and apparently he did. My gripe is that by moving on he shows something of a lack of understanding of Brennan. Yes, he may have loved her for years, but she didn’t know that until he sprung it on her that night by the steps (mmm, steps, beware of steps). Isn’t the story that she can’t read social signs and signals? How was she to know that Booth had these feelings? He’d not told her until that point. If he truly knows her, wouldn’t he know that it would take her time to assimilate this new knowledge into her existing schema of the world? But oh no! He just gives up after one crack! Not cool dude. Could he not understand that she was scared? After all she’d lost everyone else she cared about. It was a risk. Turns out she lost him too. He didn’t wait. He found someone else to love. How will that affect Brennan’s psyche?
So I hear you ask, “Where is the evidence of the return to this so called Cocky Booth?” Allow me to illustrate the point. No, that’ll take too long. Allow me to sum up the events that led me to this conclusion. There are three major moments.
Moment One – The Reunion
As their eyes met across one of the many vast concrete expanse of Washington’s “Steps Precinct”, it was plain for all to see, they were delighted to be reunited under a moonlit sky. Her pace quickened as she moved towards him, eager to be in his embrace. She pressed herself to his chest and felt his strong arms wrap around her. He then gave her a quick “How ya doin’ old chap?” pat on the back and immediately released her. What the?! Back up the battleship captain! That’s not besotted Booth!
Moment Two – The Missing Link
Now I may well have read this scene wrong, but I choose to take it this way as it supports my current argument! After Caroline receives Booth’s assurances that he’s staying, Booth tells her that Bones will most likely return to Indonesia to find her missing link to humanity. Caroline quips that they’d all like her to find that (meaning Brennan’s missing link to humanity). Booth furthers the joke by pulling out his mobile phone picture of Hannah (seriously, who looks like that in any mobile picture?!) and commenting that there’s no missing link there. Harsh Booth. Harsh my man.
Moment Three – The Advice
I found Booth’s advice to Sweets to move on a little callous. The sentiment and the delivery.
Don’t mistake me here, I’m not complaining. I love this turn of events and have every faith that Booth and Brennan belong together and will eventually be together. His pulling away is, I imagine, just what we are supposed to be seeing. They want us to believe Booth has moved on. But has he? I think we will see him begin to “see” her again rather soon. He will notice the twinge of jealousy, he will see the look of longing, he will seek out the signs of affection that are all hidden in a look.
So all in all, Episode One was a bit like putting on your favourite, well-loved pair of shoes only to find there’s a bit of bark in the bottom, making you slightly uncomfortable. Rest assured, however, in the knowledge that if you put the time in, you can get rid of that dastardly bit of bark and all will once again be right with the world.
While I’m tempted to say my wish is for Sweets and Daisy to be killed by the rumoured sniper killer (Hanna Barbera would be proud of those two cartoon characters), I won’t. After all, there’d be no final scene in Mayhem on the Cross without Sweets.
My wish is this – that Booth begins to look, really look, at Brennan again. Without sustained eye contact Booth will miss most of what Brennan is “saying”.
I’m going to abuse my own system here for a moment and prattle on a little about Booth. Skip over this section if your ears are prone to bleeding or if your eyes tear up at the sight of tripe.While Brennan’s character continues to creep forward, it would seem Booth has regressed somewhat. Completely understandable. He laid it all out there and was shot down. So he’s moving on. His demeanour and interactions with Brennan, while on the surface appear unaffected, are definitely more guarded. He’s not allowing himself to look at her. He’s put his (metaphoric) walls back up. He’s a lot more like the cocky bugger we saw in Season 1, and we all know (hope beyond hope) it’s just a flimsy facade to protect himself. We know she rejected him and broke his heart. We know she left him. We know he said he had to move on and apparently he did. My gripe is that by moving on he shows something of a lack of understanding of Brennan. Yes, he may have loved her for years, but she didn’t know that until he sprung it on her that night by the steps (mmm, steps, beware of steps). Isn’t the story that she can’t read social signs and signals? How was she to know that Booth had these feelings? He’d not told her until that point. If he truly knows her, wouldn’t he know that it would take her time to assimilate this new knowledge into her existing schema of the world? But oh no! He just gives up after one crack! Not cool dude. Could he not understand that she was scared? After all she’d lost everyone else she cared about. It was a risk. Turns out she lost him too. He didn’t wait. He found someone else to love. How will that affect Brennan’s psyche?
So I hear you ask, “Where is the evidence of the return to this so called Cocky Booth?” Allow me to illustrate the point. No, that’ll take too long. Allow me to sum up the events that led me to this conclusion. There are three major moments.
Moment One – The Reunion
As their eyes met across one of the many vast concrete expanse of Washington’s “Steps Precinct”, it was plain for all to see, they were delighted to be reunited under a moonlit sky. Her pace quickened as she moved towards him, eager to be in his embrace. She pressed herself to his chest and felt his strong arms wrap around her. He then gave her a quick “How ya doin’ old chap?” pat on the back and immediately released her. What the?! Back up the battleship captain! That’s not besotted Booth!
Moment Two – The Missing Link
Now I may well have read this scene wrong, but I choose to take it this way as it supports my current argument! After Caroline receives Booth’s assurances that he’s staying, Booth tells her that Bones will most likely return to Indonesia to find her missing link to humanity. Caroline quips that they’d all like her to find that (meaning Brennan’s missing link to humanity). Booth furthers the joke by pulling out his mobile phone picture of Hannah (seriously, who looks like that in any mobile picture?!) and commenting that there’s no missing link there. Harsh Booth. Harsh my man.
Moment Three – The Advice
I found Booth’s advice to Sweets to move on a little callous. The sentiment and the delivery.
Don’t mistake me here, I’m not complaining. I love this turn of events and have every faith that Booth and Brennan belong together and will eventually be together. His pulling away is, I imagine, just what we are supposed to be seeing. They want us to believe Booth has moved on. But has he? I think we will see him begin to “see” her again rather soon. He will notice the twinge of jealousy, he will see the look of longing, he will seek out the signs of affection that are all hidden in a look.
So all in all, Episode One was a bit like putting on your favourite, well-loved pair of shoes only to find there’s a bit of bark in the bottom, making you slightly uncomfortable. Rest assured, however, in the knowledge that if you put the time in, you can get rid of that dastardly bit of bark and all will once again be right with the world.
Squee!
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