Happy St Patrick's Day
Cold here. I'm watching the Cheltenham Festival this week which is National Hunt's horse racing highlight and very close to the hearts of the Irish who come over in droves. They had a really successful day yesterday winning 6 of the 7 races. I tipped two winners on Tuesday, but only the one yesterday when there were a lot of big priced winners.
Let's get most of Season 3 finished. I'll leave the last two episodes until later because I want to look at a specific thing about Booth that got me quite annoyed when I did my rewatch.
A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS
BOOTH IN SEASON 3 - Altruism That is right, people. I am a constant surprise.
Few bits and pieces first that crop up in Baby in the Bough and Man in the Mud.
In the latter, Sweets gets himself involved by interfering in the partnership because he thinks they need to share more beyond their work. Booth is resistant, particularly when the 'therapy' turns out to be an evening of ceramics with Sweets and his girlfriend. However, he rises above it and proves to be an adept sculptor. This unexpected artisitc skill was last seen in Season 1 when he made the origami for Goodman.
In the end, it is Sweets who loses his partner and Booth and Brennan who take him out to something Booth is good at: bowling.
Unsurprisingly, Booth turns out to be a dab hand with baby care in Baby in the Bough and that made me wonder how involved he was with Parker's early days. He knows how to change a diaper and does all the gushy stuff that parents do. I found Brennan's voice particularly strident when she talked to Andy as if shouting would make him understand and although Booth did the goofy face and baby talk stuff it was cute.
He also revealed some aspirations that are clearly beyond his financial means. This was prompted by Brennan revealing she had a 7 figure advance and didn't know what to do with it. Booth's money goes on food and rent, but his dreams are simple.
BOOTH:You know, I don’t wanna sound insensitive here, but I’m telling you: real estate? It’s gotta be a steal. I mean, you could build yourself a beautiful house on the river. I could come out and fish. You could put in one of those media rooms. You know, I saw a one hundred and three inch flat-screen TV-
BRENNAN: I don’t need another residence, Booth.
BOOTH: Just, you know, tryin’ to give you a little financial advice.
Simple desires really, but not what Brennan wants. Her altruism, does not extend to an individual like Booth.
By the end of the episode, when she has paid for a bridge and given Carol Grant a job, Booth is still dreaming, only his dream has become more refined.
BOOTH: Wow. That is going to cost a fortune.
BRENNAN: Well, to you it’s a fortune, but with my advance, and selling the movie rights-
BOOTH: Yeah, I get it. You know, I thought you said that towns lived and died liked organisms, that sometimes we should just let them go.
BRENNAN: Sometimes it takes one thing, like a bridge, for a town to start recovering. Back on the scenic route the gas stations could reopen, restaurants, maybe a bed and breakfast for people wanting to stay in the area.
BOOTH: Wow. Listen to you. Good for you. (He hands her the documents and sits back.) You know, it’s a, it’s a shame.
BRENNAN: What?
BOOTH: No kids: who’s going to be proud of you?
BRENNAN: I don’t do it for that.
BOOTH: Yeah, okay. I know. I know. You know, with next year’s book, you should uh, you should get that second home in that town you saved. I mean, it only makes sense, right? Because every year, you know, plasmas, they go down, they get cheaper and cheaper-it happens all the time.
BRENNAN: Forget it.
BOOTH: What? I’m just saying. Andy’s going to miss his Auntie Bones. He’s going to want to see you. We could all go fishing, come back home, plop ourselves in front of that one hundred and three inch plasma screen of *heaven* and *football* and you can make the *five layer* dip.
BRENNAN: Seven layer dip.
BOOTH: Even better! Seven layers! Perfect! You can talk to Andy: hello Andy, little baby, little baby baby Andy- .
Nothing wrong with a little dreaming, but Booth gets shot down in flames. Brennan is not interested in Booth's fantasy life, which could be a reality for her in a week. What is striking is Booth doesn't resent her success, or her attitude to his dreams. She doesn't want what he wants; she doesn't even know why he wants those things, which are unimportant to her.
So by the end of the adventure with Andy, Booth has had a little moment of pleasure where he could dream about a family, the family that he has found, sharing his reward, except there is no reward. Brennan says she hasn't done what she did for someone to be proud of her. However, she hasn't been truly altruistic either. It's close to the meaning of altruism as selfless concern for the welfare of others. Still, what has she actually sacrificed? She has more money than she needs so although financially she is giving selflessly she is giving nothing of herself emotionally or that she could not afford. Of course Brennan has little time for emotions and this is best exemplified by The Verdict in the Story. But there is a dry run in The Santa in the Slush where we see yet more of Booth's willingness to put the well being of others before his own.
Booth normally enjoys the Christmas season, but not this year;
BOOTH: I'm thinking about driving the truck right off the bridge. Oh, I'm being melodramatic and self pitying.
BRENNAN: You love Christmas.
BOOTH: I love it - you know - when I have Parker. But this year he's going skiing in Vermont with Rebecca and Captain Fantastic.
So who does he think about? Brennan and her family. He arranges for Caroline to get a trailer in the jail; kisses Brennan; teaches her about lying to kids; thinks up a story to get Russ to appear innocent; gets her a tree. All of these things he does knowing his own Christmas is going to be ruined without Parker. By chance, he is able to have Parker for Christmas, so at least he does get something but he was willing to manage without while Brennan was resistant to family fun throughout. At least they both end up getting a Christmas with family.
In Verdict in the Story however, Brennan asks considerably more of Booth's altruism than a kiss and a tree. This is the most annoying use of Booth's loyalty to date and the most selfish act by Brennan. By the end of the episode, Booth has been complicit in allowing a known murderer and accessory to murder to go free. It's all right though because it is Brennan's father. It is another sacrifice he is willing to make for her sake and she knew he would do it. That is what I find annoying and a real piece of double standards. Yes she used the legal system to help her, but in the previous episode she said this:
BRENNAN: Don't get mad; I'm just saying that, I just like it better when we catch 'em, and they go to jail.
BOOTH: Yeah, well, sometimes it can get messy, Bones, but the point is, it gets done.
BRENNAN: This one started out in a bit of mud and ended in a bit of mud.
There is nothing but mud in the case of her own father and none of it sticks. Booth is just trying to do the right thing as ever, but in this case, he is forced to do the wrong thing because Brennan makes him. Booth also knows why.
BOOTH: Right. Okay. Listen up, people. Bones, she believes in the system. She finds out that Angela is not going to testify, she’s not going to like it. Okay? She’d want all of us to do our jobs.
In addition:
BOOTH: Angela refuses to testify.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: Probably because she’s your best friend…
BRENNAN: Well, you’re my friend and you don’t mind.
BOOTH: I mind. We all mind. Except for Zack.
BRENNAN: Well, in that case, Zack is the only one thinking clearly. I had to give Hodgins permission. I don’t know what’s wrong with everyone.
BOOTH: It’s not what’s wrong, Bones. It’s what’s right.
Right and wrong. That is the crux of what happens and the journey for Brennan is punctuated by such insights from Booth.
BOOTH: How ya doing there, Bones?
BRENNAN: When it looked like my father might go free I got.. (she pauses to take it all in) This is very confusing for me.
BOOTH: You liked the idea of him beating the murder charge.
BRENNAN: Yes. But he did it. We both know my father did it.
BOOTH: Bones, wanting your father to come home instead of going to prison, that's- that's okay.
BRENNAN: But what I do - what we do is put murderers like him away.
BOOTH: Okay. You're not Dr. Brennan today. You're Temperance.
BRENNAN: I don't know what that means.
BOOTH: The scientist part of you got sidelined, temporarily.
BRENNAN: I still don't know what that means.
BOOTH: Bones, just, take the brain, okay, put it in neutral. All right? Take the heart - pop it into overdrive.
(Booth imitates a car engine revving and pretends to drive. Brennan laughs.)
BRENNAN: Sometimes I think you're from another planet.
(Booth stops 'driving' and sits back up, across from her.)
BRENNAN: And sometimes I think you're really very nice.
Yes, he has seen that dilemma she has of brain over heart, but he, of all people, is arguing by using semantics. However compartmentalised she claims to be, no one could resist the feeling of relief that her father could be released. Of course, the murder weapon being found in her apartment with no room for it being any other, does make the case stronger, but it also allows the reasonable doubt that the defence needs to be successful.
Putting aside the facts which would disallow Brennan as a suspect, what does she ask Booth to do? Nothing but support a story, again by using semantics.
BRENNAN: If the truth can't be proven, is it still the truth?
BOOTH: You invited me to breakfast to talk philosophy?
BRENNAN: A theory isn't even really a theory until it's challenged. It's just simply a hypothesis. I don't believe that a man should die based upon a hypothesis, do you?
BOOTH: If you have a question, just ask it.
BRENNAN: I have a way to lodge reasonable doubt in the jury.
BOOTH: We can't talk about this.
BRENNAN: Please? You're the person I talk to about things like this.
BOOTH: No perjury involved. Just an interpretation of existing facts.
BRENNAN: An alternate story.
BOOTH: You don't know that he did it, you know, your old man.
BRENNAN: Well, we both know he did it.
BOOTH: No, not the way that you define “know”. You know, with proof and all that.
BRENNAN: It's going to be enough for the jury.
BOOTH: Juries are a human factor in a trial, all right? You never know what they'll do.
BRENNAN: You think it's all right for me to take advantage of that?
BOOTH: Brain and heart, Bones. Brain and heart.
Booth is the romantic, in the sense of romance that is a fanciful tale, idealistic and removed from reality. He sees this as allowing the heart to rule the head. Brennan uses that against him. He also is a stickler for the truth when it matters and she uses that too. In a way she has asked for his permission, but he is the one who has to tell the absolute truth without any room for interpretation, or, apparently, cross examination.
BARRON: Dr. Brennan could have burned the body hours later when you were safe at home.
JUDGE HADDOES: The witness will answer the question.
BOOTH: (to Brennan) That's a lot of heart, Bones.
BARRON: Your Honour-
JUDGE HADDOES: Answer the question please, Agent Booth.
BOOTH: Could Bones have killed Kirby? Temperance Brennan - I've worked with this woman. I've stood over death with her, I've faced down death with her. And Sweets, he's brilliant, he is, but he's wrong. She could not have done this.
BARRON: I didn't ask you your opinion of Dr. Brennan's character. I asked you, did she have time?
(Booth looks to Brennan and knows that she needs him to tell the truth. )
BOOTH: Yes. She had time.
How dare she? Yes it's the romantic outcome in that against all the odds her father is found not guilty. The argument is simplistic; the facts do not bear out the events if they had bothered to consider that Brennan did not return to the rooftop after the initial trip to find the first body, not Kirby's, and therefore could not carry the seminary particulates there. That's the logic of it. Nor would the copper pipe serve any purpose being left on the rooftop other than to throw suspicion on her father and therefore away from herself. Why did Max use the misericorde when he had the copper pipe? I still don't know why she wasn't arrested. If it is all about reasonable doubt I suppose that is the reason, but no further investigation is called for.
I maintain that she was lucky Booth was so committed to proof. In any other case he would do all he could to make sure the guilty party was exposed as in The Man in the Mud. Brennan's father is a special case, and much has been made of Booth's sympathies with Max as a man if not his methods, but I still don't think it sits easy with him that Max got away with it on a technicality; that he got the reward for abandoning his family, for taking the law into his own hands; for charming his way out of two brutal murders and ordering the murder of MacVicar in prison. Brennan accepts Booth's hug and I suppose there is implicit gratitude there, but nothing is said openly by way of thanks. The victims were all corrupt or murderers themselves, but is it right that their killer gets away with it thanks to semantics? What is right and wrong? That debate is being revisited in the current season with the Jake Broadsky story: another man who has his personal agenda for punishing the guilty in a manner which he thinks they deserve. This time it is Booth's history that is being challenged and him having to make the call on how to respond. His altruism here is such that he does not even resent the way he has been manipulated to serve the justice system in a way I am sure he finds abhorrent. I guess he is in love.
Booth's only reward is his partner's happiness and in true romantic hero fashion he walks off into the sunset, alone.
Only two episodes left to look at in the season.
Let's get most of Season 3 finished. I'll leave the last two episodes until later because I want to look at a specific thing about Booth that got me quite annoyed when I did my rewatch.
A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS
BOOTH IN SEASON 3 - Altruism That is right, people. I am a constant surprise.
Few bits and pieces first that crop up in Baby in the Bough and Man in the Mud.
In the latter, Sweets gets himself involved by interfering in the partnership because he thinks they need to share more beyond their work. Booth is resistant, particularly when the 'therapy' turns out to be an evening of ceramics with Sweets and his girlfriend. However, he rises above it and proves to be an adept sculptor. This unexpected artisitc skill was last seen in Season 1 when he made the origami for Goodman.
In the end, it is Sweets who loses his partner and Booth and Brennan who take him out to something Booth is good at: bowling.
Unsurprisingly, Booth turns out to be a dab hand with baby care in Baby in the Bough and that made me wonder how involved he was with Parker's early days. He knows how to change a diaper and does all the gushy stuff that parents do. I found Brennan's voice particularly strident when she talked to Andy as if shouting would make him understand and although Booth did the goofy face and baby talk stuff it was cute.
He also revealed some aspirations that are clearly beyond his financial means. This was prompted by Brennan revealing she had a 7 figure advance and didn't know what to do with it. Booth's money goes on food and rent, but his dreams are simple.
BOOTH:You know, I don’t wanna sound insensitive here, but I’m telling you: real estate? It’s gotta be a steal. I mean, you could build yourself a beautiful house on the river. I could come out and fish. You could put in one of those media rooms. You know, I saw a one hundred and three inch flat-screen TV-
BRENNAN: I don’t need another residence, Booth.
BOOTH: Just, you know, tryin’ to give you a little financial advice.
Simple desires really, but not what Brennan wants. Her altruism, does not extend to an individual like Booth.
By the end of the episode, when she has paid for a bridge and given Carol Grant a job, Booth is still dreaming, only his dream has become more refined.
BOOTH: Wow. That is going to cost a fortune.
BRENNAN: Well, to you it’s a fortune, but with my advance, and selling the movie rights-
BOOTH: Yeah, I get it. You know, I thought you said that towns lived and died liked organisms, that sometimes we should just let them go.
BRENNAN: Sometimes it takes one thing, like a bridge, for a town to start recovering. Back on the scenic route the gas stations could reopen, restaurants, maybe a bed and breakfast for people wanting to stay in the area.
BOOTH: Wow. Listen to you. Good for you. (He hands her the documents and sits back.) You know, it’s a, it’s a shame.
BRENNAN: What?
BOOTH: No kids: who’s going to be proud of you?
BRENNAN: I don’t do it for that.
BOOTH: Yeah, okay. I know. I know. You know, with next year’s book, you should uh, you should get that second home in that town you saved. I mean, it only makes sense, right? Because every year, you know, plasmas, they go down, they get cheaper and cheaper-it happens all the time.
BRENNAN: Forget it.
BOOTH: What? I’m just saying. Andy’s going to miss his Auntie Bones. He’s going to want to see you. We could all go fishing, come back home, plop ourselves in front of that one hundred and three inch plasma screen of *heaven* and *football* and you can make the *five layer* dip.
BRENNAN: Seven layer dip.
BOOTH: Even better! Seven layers! Perfect! You can talk to Andy: hello Andy, little baby, little baby baby Andy- .
Nothing wrong with a little dreaming, but Booth gets shot down in flames. Brennan is not interested in Booth's fantasy life, which could be a reality for her in a week. What is striking is Booth doesn't resent her success, or her attitude to his dreams. She doesn't want what he wants; she doesn't even know why he wants those things, which are unimportant to her.
So by the end of the adventure with Andy, Booth has had a little moment of pleasure where he could dream about a family, the family that he has found, sharing his reward, except there is no reward. Brennan says she hasn't done what she did for someone to be proud of her. However, she hasn't been truly altruistic either. It's close to the meaning of altruism as selfless concern for the welfare of others. Still, what has she actually sacrificed? She has more money than she needs so although financially she is giving selflessly she is giving nothing of herself emotionally or that she could not afford. Of course Brennan has little time for emotions and this is best exemplified by The Verdict in the Story. But there is a dry run in The Santa in the Slush where we see yet more of Booth's willingness to put the well being of others before his own.
Booth normally enjoys the Christmas season, but not this year;
BOOTH: I'm thinking about driving the truck right off the bridge. Oh, I'm being melodramatic and self pitying.
BRENNAN: You love Christmas.
BOOTH: I love it - you know - when I have Parker. But this year he's going skiing in Vermont with Rebecca and Captain Fantastic.
So who does he think about? Brennan and her family. He arranges for Caroline to get a trailer in the jail; kisses Brennan; teaches her about lying to kids; thinks up a story to get Russ to appear innocent; gets her a tree. All of these things he does knowing his own Christmas is going to be ruined without Parker. By chance, he is able to have Parker for Christmas, so at least he does get something but he was willing to manage without while Brennan was resistant to family fun throughout. At least they both end up getting a Christmas with family.
In Verdict in the Story however, Brennan asks considerably more of Booth's altruism than a kiss and a tree. This is the most annoying use of Booth's loyalty to date and the most selfish act by Brennan. By the end of the episode, Booth has been complicit in allowing a known murderer and accessory to murder to go free. It's all right though because it is Brennan's father. It is another sacrifice he is willing to make for her sake and she knew he would do it. That is what I find annoying and a real piece of double standards. Yes she used the legal system to help her, but in the previous episode she said this:
BRENNAN: Don't get mad; I'm just saying that, I just like it better when we catch 'em, and they go to jail.
BOOTH: Yeah, well, sometimes it can get messy, Bones, but the point is, it gets done.
BRENNAN: This one started out in a bit of mud and ended in a bit of mud.
There is nothing but mud in the case of her own father and none of it sticks. Booth is just trying to do the right thing as ever, but in this case, he is forced to do the wrong thing because Brennan makes him. Booth also knows why.
BOOTH: Right. Okay. Listen up, people. Bones, she believes in the system. She finds out that Angela is not going to testify, she’s not going to like it. Okay? She’d want all of us to do our jobs.
In addition:
BOOTH: Angela refuses to testify.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: Probably because she’s your best friend…
BRENNAN: Well, you’re my friend and you don’t mind.
BOOTH: I mind. We all mind. Except for Zack.
BRENNAN: Well, in that case, Zack is the only one thinking clearly. I had to give Hodgins permission. I don’t know what’s wrong with everyone.
BOOTH: It’s not what’s wrong, Bones. It’s what’s right.
Right and wrong. That is the crux of what happens and the journey for Brennan is punctuated by such insights from Booth.
BOOTH: How ya doing there, Bones?
BRENNAN: When it looked like my father might go free I got.. (she pauses to take it all in) This is very confusing for me.
BOOTH: You liked the idea of him beating the murder charge.
BRENNAN: Yes. But he did it. We both know my father did it.
BOOTH: Bones, wanting your father to come home instead of going to prison, that's- that's okay.
BRENNAN: But what I do - what we do is put murderers like him away.
BOOTH: Okay. You're not Dr. Brennan today. You're Temperance.
BRENNAN: I don't know what that means.
BOOTH: The scientist part of you got sidelined, temporarily.
BRENNAN: I still don't know what that means.
BOOTH: Bones, just, take the brain, okay, put it in neutral. All right? Take the heart - pop it into overdrive.
(Booth imitates a car engine revving and pretends to drive. Brennan laughs.)
BRENNAN: Sometimes I think you're from another planet.
(Booth stops 'driving' and sits back up, across from her.)
BRENNAN: And sometimes I think you're really very nice.
Yes, he has seen that dilemma she has of brain over heart, but he, of all people, is arguing by using semantics. However compartmentalised she claims to be, no one could resist the feeling of relief that her father could be released. Of course, the murder weapon being found in her apartment with no room for it being any other, does make the case stronger, but it also allows the reasonable doubt that the defence needs to be successful.
Putting aside the facts which would disallow Brennan as a suspect, what does she ask Booth to do? Nothing but support a story, again by using semantics.
BRENNAN: If the truth can't be proven, is it still the truth?
BOOTH: You invited me to breakfast to talk philosophy?
BRENNAN: A theory isn't even really a theory until it's challenged. It's just simply a hypothesis. I don't believe that a man should die based upon a hypothesis, do you?
BOOTH: If you have a question, just ask it.
BRENNAN: I have a way to lodge reasonable doubt in the jury.
BOOTH: We can't talk about this.
BRENNAN: Please? You're the person I talk to about things like this.
BOOTH: No perjury involved. Just an interpretation of existing facts.
BRENNAN: An alternate story.
BOOTH: You don't know that he did it, you know, your old man.
BRENNAN: Well, we both know he did it.
BOOTH: No, not the way that you define “know”. You know, with proof and all that.
BRENNAN: It's going to be enough for the jury.
BOOTH: Juries are a human factor in a trial, all right? You never know what they'll do.
BRENNAN: You think it's all right for me to take advantage of that?
BOOTH: Brain and heart, Bones. Brain and heart.
Booth is the romantic, in the sense of romance that is a fanciful tale, idealistic and removed from reality. He sees this as allowing the heart to rule the head. Brennan uses that against him. He also is a stickler for the truth when it matters and she uses that too. In a way she has asked for his permission, but he is the one who has to tell the absolute truth without any room for interpretation, or, apparently, cross examination.
BARRON: Dr. Brennan could have burned the body hours later when you were safe at home.
JUDGE HADDOES: The witness will answer the question.
BOOTH: (to Brennan) That's a lot of heart, Bones.
BARRON: Your Honour-
JUDGE HADDOES: Answer the question please, Agent Booth.
BOOTH: Could Bones have killed Kirby? Temperance Brennan - I've worked with this woman. I've stood over death with her, I've faced down death with her. And Sweets, he's brilliant, he is, but he's wrong. She could not have done this.
BARRON: I didn't ask you your opinion of Dr. Brennan's character. I asked you, did she have time?
(Booth looks to Brennan and knows that she needs him to tell the truth. )
BOOTH: Yes. She had time.
How dare she? Yes it's the romantic outcome in that against all the odds her father is found not guilty. The argument is simplistic; the facts do not bear out the events if they had bothered to consider that Brennan did not return to the rooftop after the initial trip to find the first body, not Kirby's, and therefore could not carry the seminary particulates there. That's the logic of it. Nor would the copper pipe serve any purpose being left on the rooftop other than to throw suspicion on her father and therefore away from herself. Why did Max use the misericorde when he had the copper pipe? I still don't know why she wasn't arrested. If it is all about reasonable doubt I suppose that is the reason, but no further investigation is called for.
I maintain that she was lucky Booth was so committed to proof. In any other case he would do all he could to make sure the guilty party was exposed as in The Man in the Mud. Brennan's father is a special case, and much has been made of Booth's sympathies with Max as a man if not his methods, but I still don't think it sits easy with him that Max got away with it on a technicality; that he got the reward for abandoning his family, for taking the law into his own hands; for charming his way out of two brutal murders and ordering the murder of MacVicar in prison. Brennan accepts Booth's hug and I suppose there is implicit gratitude there, but nothing is said openly by way of thanks. The victims were all corrupt or murderers themselves, but is it right that their killer gets away with it thanks to semantics? What is right and wrong? That debate is being revisited in the current season with the Jake Broadsky story: another man who has his personal agenda for punishing the guilty in a manner which he thinks they deserve. This time it is Booth's history that is being challenged and him having to make the call on how to respond. His altruism here is such that he does not even resent the way he has been manipulated to serve the justice system in a way I am sure he finds abhorrent. I guess he is in love.
Booth's only reward is his partner's happiness and in true romantic hero fashion he walks off into the sunset, alone.
Only two episodes left to look at in the season.