Two Pieces of Neodymium Caught in a Magnetic Field: Angela/Hodgins (Bones)
Title: Two Pieces of Neodymium Caught in a Magnetic Field
Author: christ_chexx_4u
Fandom: Bones
Pairing: Angela/Hodgins
Spoilers: Alot. Including the most recent episode.
Notes: Um, LATE. Because I was stuck in the studio all day yesterday - surprise, surprise. And, because my computer has declared itself incapable of uploading, no fun pictures. :( Sorry, guys.
THE FANDOM:
"Bones" premiered quietly, gained a small but rabid fanbase, and has continued on in the same manner. It's escaped the curse of being over-hyped - which is good, because it's really managed to stay true to the characters and the storylines, but it also kinda sucks because from a fandom standpoint, it's fairly insignificant. Very little advertising and a small fanbase also leads to potential low ratings, and I, personally, am always worried about its cancellation. Its biggest calling card is the fact that it stars David Boreanaz, formerly of "Buffy" and "Angel" fame. But those that watch faithfully from week-to-week know that the show is so much more than that.
The title of the show refers to both its main premise - forensic anthropology - and its main character - Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel). Brennan is partnered with FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (Boreanaz), and their back-and-forth, will-they-won't-they, Mulder-and-Scully-esque banter is at the very heart of the show. But another relationship has swooped in out of nowhere and captured the audience's attention.
THE CHARACTERS:
If there's one thing I love about "Bones", its that ALL of the characters are so unique, and never waver from how they've been previously established. This isn't to say, of course, that they don't grow, but they're always consistent and their characterization progresses logically.
Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) is Brennan's best friend. A born artist, she sometimes feels out-of-place in a lab full of scientists, but deals with it in the form of a witty comment and a roll of her eyes - Angela is nothing if not confident. A lot of this probably comes from her father, famous rocker ZZ Top. Though she can act a bit flighty, she is very intelligent - Angela designed a computer program that allows the team to use digital holograms to recreate crimes. (And, despite popular opinion, similar programs do indeed exist). Her job, as described by (former?) boss Dr. Goodman, is to "give the dead back their faces" - using her program and her artistic talent, she re-creates the victims' faces based on the indicators and clues given by their skulls.
Angela is without a doubt the most empathetic of the lab techs, also known as the "squints". Her characters helps to balance out all the geeky techno-babble we hear from the others. She focuses especially on Brennan, who has problems connecting with people outside of the lab. Angela has taken Brennan under her wing, and is always urging her to get out more, interact with people, and go after Booth. In her personal life, it leads her to jump from relationship to relationship, always looking for "the one" but often too scared to do anything about it once she finds it.
Dr. Jack Hodgins (TJ Thyne) comes from an extremely wealthy family, but he hides this fact from his friends - Angela only learned about his background by chance. Money is not important to Hodgins - science is. He's the "bug and slime guy" of the team, and delights in sharing particularly revolting facts with anyone who will listen. Like Angela, though Hodgins is incredibly intelligent, he doesn't fit the scientist stereotype. He is friendly and personable, a bit of a womanizer, and an avid conspiracy theorist.
Hodgins lives with fellow squint Zack (albeit on opposite ends of an enormous estate), and drives him to work every morning because Zack is scared of driving. It's a quiet friendship - at work, Hodgins will often tease him, but if a problem arises he is fiercely loyal. Their interaction adds a fascinating element to Hodgins' character, and one that caught Angela's attention.
THE RELATIONSHIP:
Though there was casual flirtation here and there, the first time we truly got a hint of mutual attraction was at the very end of the first season. In the episode "The Man in the Morgue", Angela makes a joke about wanting a T-shirt from New Orleans that says "The Big Easy". "Oh we're all hoping for that...for you, I mean." Hodgins responds. And right then, there's this extremely awkward acknowledgement of the fact that there's something possibly going on below the surface there. Later in the episode, Zack notes that Hodgins tries to appear taller when in the presence of Brennan...or Angela. This sends Hodgins contemplating the idea of himself and Angela, while Zack looks on in amusement. Later still, Angela is very upset and worried about Brennan. She laments that Brennan shouldn't be running around, thinking she can protect herself, but Hodgins tells her (in an incredibly sweet manner) that Brennan wants to live by Angela's example. She wants a "big life", the way Angela lives - she wants to be spontaneous and fun and that's all because of Angela. The camera stays on Angela after Hodgins leaves the room, and she smiles to herself.
In the following episode, a similar scene plays out - Angela is upset over a young girl who inadvertently got cancer from a tainted bone graft. Hodgins gives her the idea to help the little girl achieve one of her goals - visiting the Louvre (Angela makes a digital re-creation). As for her other goal - "What do you have to say about love?" Angela asks. "It's overrated," Hodgins replies. Angela looks defeated. "Most of the time," he amends. Following this, we see them in disagreement over one of Hodgins' theories. He spends the rest of the episode making puppy-dog faces at Angela until they make up.
They begin the second season with more flirting, smiling teasing. But in episode 3, "The Boy in the Shroud", Hodgins kicks it up a notch, essentially admitting that he's already fallen in love with Angela. At the end of the episode, he gives her a rose. From here it turns into Hodgins pursuing Angela. She encourages him, but rarely goes out of her way to do so.
In episode 207, "The Girl With the Curl", Hodgins finally gets the balls to actually ask Angela out. Though she initially rebuffs him, scared of ruining their friendship, Cam convinces her to accept. She assures Angela that the date will be bad, there will be a few days of awkwardness, then everything will go back to normal. Angela finds Hodgins and lets him know that she's reconsidered, and that it's up to him to plan the date.
And plan the date he does. Earlier in the episode, Angela had been talking about the joys of childhood - particularly swinging on the swing-set. Hodgins proves himself to be the world's most perfect and adorable guy by bringing her to a park...with a swing-set. They swing, spin, and the night ends with a kiss. Absolutely the cutest, most romantic thing you have ever witnessed.
Immediately after the date, Angela freaks. She starts avoiding Hodgins. When he finally confronts her, she admits that their date in the park was the best date she had ever been on. But...she's scared. She's convinced that "what the great date tells us is that when it goes wrong..." "It'll go really, really wrong," Hodgins finishes. "What if it doesn't end that way?" he presses. "What if it doesn't go wrong?" But Angela is insistent. The scene is just heartbreaking, especially Hodgins' earnestness.
This only lasts one episode, however - 2x09 is "Aliens in a Spaceship", arguably the best episode of "Bones" to date. In it, Hodgins and Brennan are buried alive, leaving the team with just hours to figure out where they are. In the lab, Angela panics at seeing a large pool of Hodgins' blood. Knowing that he had made a big break in the case shortly before getting kidnapped, Cam looks through his notebook in hopes of finding a clue, but all she can make out is gibberish - he writes in some sort of code. Angela comes along, takes the book from her, and reads it off. Cam is astonished.
"Hodgins sends me a lot of notes."
In the car, Brennan takes inventory of their combined possessions and discovers that those include a $3,000/oz bottle of perfume. Before she's forced to perform emergency, unmedicated, unsanitary surgery on Hodgins (who was run over before being buried alive), he confesses:
"I'm nuts about Angela...over-the-moon, stupid-in-love with her. That's why I bought her that crazy-expensive perfume. Man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says...it says 'I love you'...Okay, I said it out loud."
The serial killer that buried Brennan and Hodgins - "The Gravedigger" - didn't count on the fact that they're both brilliant scientists. Not only do they come up with several ways to extend their 12-hour window, they also manage to figure out where they are by Hodgins analyzing the dirt they're surrounded by, and how to send a text message despite the batteries having been taken out. When Booth and the remaining squints get the message, they struggle to decipher it. Cam urges them to figure out who it's from and who it's to. They discern that it's from Hodgins, because Hodgins is "all about dirt." Who is it to, then? "Angela," Zack pipes up. "Hodgins is all about dirt and Angela." But it's numbers, which means it was directed towards Zack. "Hodgins would have written me a line of poetry or something," Angela mutters.
Meanwhile, back in the car, Brennan and Hodgins are giving one last, possibly fatal, attempt at escape. Hodgins hands Brennan a sheet of paper and they begin writing goodbye letters, just in case. We can only assume that Hodgins' was addressed to Angela, but unfortunately these notes have never been mentioned again.
The squints decode the message, and rush to the burial site - just as Hodgins and Brennan attempt to blow their way out of the car. Seeing the puff of dirt and smoke, Booth, Zack, and Angela go running, and start digging frantically for their friends. Brennan is pulled out first, then Hodgins. Angela smiles down at him, brushes the dirt from his face, strokes his hair, then kisses him.
The cap to the episode shows Hodgins working late at the lab. Angela approaches him, saying that she tried to visit him in the hospital - she even holds up a teddy bear that she bought him as a gift. But Hodgins left the hospital AMA - he's bumbling, nervous, and won't look Angela in the eye when he speaks - a clear sign that something is wrong. "I can't sleep," he finally admits. "I'm afraid...that if I close my eyes, when I open them I'm gonna be back in that car, buried, running out of air." "Okay," Angela says, nodding. "Then, you should come home with me. When you wake up...I'll be there." Hodgins is grateful, though he tries to blow it off with a joke about paying for the crutches that he stole from the hospital. When the weak laughter dies down, Angela reaches out and strokes his face. He leans into the touch.
From that point, we've seen Angela and Hodgins continue to grow closer. They have funny teasing scenes, they have sweet tender scenes...if you like a little snark and a lot of cuteness, Angela/Hodgins is the pairing for you.
BUT WHY THEM?
To me, what makes Angela and Hodgins so appealing is that everything about their relationship is so natural. I'm not sure about anyone else, but for me I hadn't really ever considered them as a couple until "Man in the Morgue"...ok, maybe there was a small hint in the wristband-snapping scene, but it was so long until they brought it up again that I thought maybe I was just imagining things. But when you go back and think about it, they really make sense. They have such similar personalities that they just seem to fit perfectly. Their progression from friends to lovers has been set at a fairly normal pace with very little drama, which makes it a great parallel to the ever-dysfunctional Booth and Brennan.
I know that a break-up is inevitable at this point - relationships can never last on television. But I'm still holding out hope. As far as I'm concerned, Angela and Hodgins are a perfect match, and are absolutely adorable. I think one of the greatest examples of just how deep their bond has gotten is from the most recent episode, in which the team discovers that Hodgins compromised evidence to protect a former girlfriend. In most TV shows, you would expect this to spark a fight. And while Angela does appear angry for a little while, by the end of the episode we see them looking at old photo albums together, cuddling on the couch. Yes, Hodgins was in the wrong legally and professionally. But I really like that Angela is mature enough not to go the route of assuming that this equals cheating, simply because an ex is involved. I cannot stress enough just how much I love this show, because I feel that all of the on-screen relationships, be they friendships or romantic, are equally as strong as this one.
RESOURCES:
Sadly, Bones is a tiny, tiny, TINY fandom. I personally am not involved very heavily in any fandom, simply because I can't handle needless drama and wank, but what I've been told is that on message boards and the TwoP boards, there is a huge number of fans who absolutely despise the Angela/Hodgins relationship. I'm quite baffled by this...I don't understand what's not to like. If anyone reading is among the dissenters, PLEASE - I would love a legitimate answer as to what you have against the couple.
There is an LJ group dedicated to the couple: angelahodgins. You can find some fics there - I have looked, and have been unable to find any anywhere else. If you search YouTube, you can also find a few music videos for the pairing. But that's unfortunately all that I'm aware of.
Author: christ_chexx_4u
Fandom: Bones
Pairing: Angela/Hodgins
Spoilers: Alot. Including the most recent episode.
Notes: Um, LATE. Because I was stuck in the studio all day yesterday - surprise, surprise. And, because my computer has declared itself incapable of uploading, no fun pictures. :( Sorry, guys.
THE FANDOM:
"Bones" premiered quietly, gained a small but rabid fanbase, and has continued on in the same manner. It's escaped the curse of being over-hyped - which is good, because it's really managed to stay true to the characters and the storylines, but it also kinda sucks because from a fandom standpoint, it's fairly insignificant. Very little advertising and a small fanbase also leads to potential low ratings, and I, personally, am always worried about its cancellation. Its biggest calling card is the fact that it stars David Boreanaz, formerly of "Buffy" and "Angel" fame. But those that watch faithfully from week-to-week know that the show is so much more than that.
The title of the show refers to both its main premise - forensic anthropology - and its main character - Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel). Brennan is partnered with FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (Boreanaz), and their back-and-forth, will-they-won't-they, Mulder-and-Scully-esque banter is at the very heart of the show. But another relationship has swooped in out of nowhere and captured the audience's attention.
THE CHARACTERS:
If there's one thing I love about "Bones", its that ALL of the characters are so unique, and never waver from how they've been previously established. This isn't to say, of course, that they don't grow, but they're always consistent and their characterization progresses logically.
Angela Montenegro (Michaela Conlin) is Brennan's best friend. A born artist, she sometimes feels out-of-place in a lab full of scientists, but deals with it in the form of a witty comment and a roll of her eyes - Angela is nothing if not confident. A lot of this probably comes from her father, famous rocker ZZ Top. Though she can act a bit flighty, she is very intelligent - Angela designed a computer program that allows the team to use digital holograms to recreate crimes. (And, despite popular opinion, similar programs do indeed exist). Her job, as described by (former?) boss Dr. Goodman, is to "give the dead back their faces" - using her program and her artistic talent, she re-creates the victims' faces based on the indicators and clues given by their skulls.
Angela is without a doubt the most empathetic of the lab techs, also known as the "squints". Her characters helps to balance out all the geeky techno-babble we hear from the others. She focuses especially on Brennan, who has problems connecting with people outside of the lab. Angela has taken Brennan under her wing, and is always urging her to get out more, interact with people, and go after Booth. In her personal life, it leads her to jump from relationship to relationship, always looking for "the one" but often too scared to do anything about it once she finds it.
Dr. Jack Hodgins (TJ Thyne) comes from an extremely wealthy family, but he hides this fact from his friends - Angela only learned about his background by chance. Money is not important to Hodgins - science is. He's the "bug and slime guy" of the team, and delights in sharing particularly revolting facts with anyone who will listen. Like Angela, though Hodgins is incredibly intelligent, he doesn't fit the scientist stereotype. He is friendly and personable, a bit of a womanizer, and an avid conspiracy theorist.
Hodgins lives with fellow squint Zack (albeit on opposite ends of an enormous estate), and drives him to work every morning because Zack is scared of driving. It's a quiet friendship - at work, Hodgins will often tease him, but if a problem arises he is fiercely loyal. Their interaction adds a fascinating element to Hodgins' character, and one that caught Angela's attention.
THE RELATIONSHIP:
Though there was casual flirtation here and there, the first time we truly got a hint of mutual attraction was at the very end of the first season. In the episode "The Man in the Morgue", Angela makes a joke about wanting a T-shirt from New Orleans that says "The Big Easy". "Oh we're all hoping for that...for you, I mean." Hodgins responds. And right then, there's this extremely awkward acknowledgement of the fact that there's something possibly going on below the surface there. Later in the episode, Zack notes that Hodgins tries to appear taller when in the presence of Brennan...or Angela. This sends Hodgins contemplating the idea of himself and Angela, while Zack looks on in amusement. Later still, Angela is very upset and worried about Brennan. She laments that Brennan shouldn't be running around, thinking she can protect herself, but Hodgins tells her (in an incredibly sweet manner) that Brennan wants to live by Angela's example. She wants a "big life", the way Angela lives - she wants to be spontaneous and fun and that's all because of Angela. The camera stays on Angela after Hodgins leaves the room, and she smiles to herself.
In the following episode, a similar scene plays out - Angela is upset over a young girl who inadvertently got cancer from a tainted bone graft. Hodgins gives her the idea to help the little girl achieve one of her goals - visiting the Louvre (Angela makes a digital re-creation). As for her other goal - "What do you have to say about love?" Angela asks. "It's overrated," Hodgins replies. Angela looks defeated. "Most of the time," he amends. Following this, we see them in disagreement over one of Hodgins' theories. He spends the rest of the episode making puppy-dog faces at Angela until they make up.
They begin the second season with more flirting, smiling teasing. But in episode 3, "The Boy in the Shroud", Hodgins kicks it up a notch, essentially admitting that he's already fallen in love with Angela. At the end of the episode, he gives her a rose. From here it turns into Hodgins pursuing Angela. She encourages him, but rarely goes out of her way to do so.
In episode 207, "The Girl With the Curl", Hodgins finally gets the balls to actually ask Angela out. Though she initially rebuffs him, scared of ruining their friendship, Cam convinces her to accept. She assures Angela that the date will be bad, there will be a few days of awkwardness, then everything will go back to normal. Angela finds Hodgins and lets him know that she's reconsidered, and that it's up to him to plan the date.
And plan the date he does. Earlier in the episode, Angela had been talking about the joys of childhood - particularly swinging on the swing-set. Hodgins proves himself to be the world's most perfect and adorable guy by bringing her to a park...with a swing-set. They swing, spin, and the night ends with a kiss. Absolutely the cutest, most romantic thing you have ever witnessed.
Immediately after the date, Angela freaks. She starts avoiding Hodgins. When he finally confronts her, she admits that their date in the park was the best date she had ever been on. But...she's scared. She's convinced that "what the great date tells us is that when it goes wrong..." "It'll go really, really wrong," Hodgins finishes. "What if it doesn't end that way?" he presses. "What if it doesn't go wrong?" But Angela is insistent. The scene is just heartbreaking, especially Hodgins' earnestness.
This only lasts one episode, however - 2x09 is "Aliens in a Spaceship", arguably the best episode of "Bones" to date. In it, Hodgins and Brennan are buried alive, leaving the team with just hours to figure out where they are. In the lab, Angela panics at seeing a large pool of Hodgins' blood. Knowing that he had made a big break in the case shortly before getting kidnapped, Cam looks through his notebook in hopes of finding a clue, but all she can make out is gibberish - he writes in some sort of code. Angela comes along, takes the book from her, and reads it off. Cam is astonished.
"Hodgins sends me a lot of notes."
In the car, Brennan takes inventory of their combined possessions and discovers that those include a $3,000/oz bottle of perfume. Before she's forced to perform emergency, unmedicated, unsanitary surgery on Hodgins (who was run over before being buried alive), he confesses:
"I'm nuts about Angela...over-the-moon, stupid-in-love with her. That's why I bought her that crazy-expensive perfume. Man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says...it says 'I love you'...Okay, I said it out loud."
The serial killer that buried Brennan and Hodgins - "The Gravedigger" - didn't count on the fact that they're both brilliant scientists. Not only do they come up with several ways to extend their 12-hour window, they also manage to figure out where they are by Hodgins analyzing the dirt they're surrounded by, and how to send a text message despite the batteries having been taken out. When Booth and the remaining squints get the message, they struggle to decipher it. Cam urges them to figure out who it's from and who it's to. They discern that it's from Hodgins, because Hodgins is "all about dirt." Who is it to, then? "Angela," Zack pipes up. "Hodgins is all about dirt and Angela." But it's numbers, which means it was directed towards Zack. "Hodgins would have written me a line of poetry or something," Angela mutters.
Meanwhile, back in the car, Brennan and Hodgins are giving one last, possibly fatal, attempt at escape. Hodgins hands Brennan a sheet of paper and they begin writing goodbye letters, just in case. We can only assume that Hodgins' was addressed to Angela, but unfortunately these notes have never been mentioned again.
The squints decode the message, and rush to the burial site - just as Hodgins and Brennan attempt to blow their way out of the car. Seeing the puff of dirt and smoke, Booth, Zack, and Angela go running, and start digging frantically for their friends. Brennan is pulled out first, then Hodgins. Angela smiles down at him, brushes the dirt from his face, strokes his hair, then kisses him.
The cap to the episode shows Hodgins working late at the lab. Angela approaches him, saying that she tried to visit him in the hospital - she even holds up a teddy bear that she bought him as a gift. But Hodgins left the hospital AMA - he's bumbling, nervous, and won't look Angela in the eye when he speaks - a clear sign that something is wrong. "I can't sleep," he finally admits. "I'm afraid...that if I close my eyes, when I open them I'm gonna be back in that car, buried, running out of air." "Okay," Angela says, nodding. "Then, you should come home with me. When you wake up...I'll be there." Hodgins is grateful, though he tries to blow it off with a joke about paying for the crutches that he stole from the hospital. When the weak laughter dies down, Angela reaches out and strokes his face. He leans into the touch.
From that point, we've seen Angela and Hodgins continue to grow closer. They have funny teasing scenes, they have sweet tender scenes...if you like a little snark and a lot of cuteness, Angela/Hodgins is the pairing for you.
BUT WHY THEM?
To me, what makes Angela and Hodgins so appealing is that everything about their relationship is so natural. I'm not sure about anyone else, but for me I hadn't really ever considered them as a couple until "Man in the Morgue"...ok, maybe there was a small hint in the wristband-snapping scene, but it was so long until they brought it up again that I thought maybe I was just imagining things. But when you go back and think about it, they really make sense. They have such similar personalities that they just seem to fit perfectly. Their progression from friends to lovers has been set at a fairly normal pace with very little drama, which makes it a great parallel to the ever-dysfunctional Booth and Brennan.
I know that a break-up is inevitable at this point - relationships can never last on television. But I'm still holding out hope. As far as I'm concerned, Angela and Hodgins are a perfect match, and are absolutely adorable. I think one of the greatest examples of just how deep their bond has gotten is from the most recent episode, in which the team discovers that Hodgins compromised evidence to protect a former girlfriend. In most TV shows, you would expect this to spark a fight. And while Angela does appear angry for a little while, by the end of the episode we see them looking at old photo albums together, cuddling on the couch. Yes, Hodgins was in the wrong legally and professionally. But I really like that Angela is mature enough not to go the route of assuming that this equals cheating, simply because an ex is involved. I cannot stress enough just how much I love this show, because I feel that all of the on-screen relationships, be they friendships or romantic, are equally as strong as this one.
RESOURCES:
Sadly, Bones is a tiny, tiny, TINY fandom. I personally am not involved very heavily in any fandom, simply because I can't handle needless drama and wank, but what I've been told is that on message boards and the TwoP boards, there is a huge number of fans who absolutely despise the Angela/Hodgins relationship. I'm quite baffled by this...I don't understand what's not to like. If anyone reading is among the dissenters, PLEASE - I would love a legitimate answer as to what you have against the couple.
There is an LJ group dedicated to the couple: angelahodgins. You can find some fics there - I have looked, and have been unable to find any anywhere else. If you search YouTube, you can also find a few music videos for the pairing. But that's unfortunately all that I'm aware of.