Bones brennan dating two guys

This episode is a great example of why I don’t like reading sides. I knew about the Brennan dating two guys story as early as May, and immediately hated it. Over the summer I reinforced this idea through further debates over the topic.

But, when it came to actually seeing the episode: I loved it.

I wouldn’t put The Man in the Outhouse as a top favorite episode, but I would definitely rate it as a great episode of Bones. I think the plot was perfect for Brennan, even if I disagree with her reasoning, and I think it was a fun well-executed show.

However, that said, I do have one general beef with this episode, and it actually has nothing to do with the episode itself.

Written vs Aired order.

Grr, grumble, grr.

This episode proved again to my why that difference annoys me so much. I know this episode was written and show before Yanks in the U.K. But I cannot accept that as “fine” when I see Angela and Hodgins traipsing around like they didn’t just end their long relationship and wedding plans recently. No, they weren’t love dovey, but they acted just like they did any past episode where their relationship wasn’t the focus of the week. Could they not have cut in just one awkward scene where they run into each other? Instead, we see Angela smiling at him in her office, during a discussion, like everything is fine.

Continuity errors like that take me completely out of the flow of the story.

But, I’ve been of that opinion for some time now, and I can’t focus on that, at least for the episode-specific review.

Case

I’m still not sure what I think about this case. The beginning really made me roll my eyes. It felt silly. I like light Bones, but I don’t like silly Bones.

I live in the South. I have even had the misfortune of having to use an outhouse on a hot day when visiting someone deep in the hills who had no electricity or running water. It’s not pleasant.

But it’s also not at all common. Why was there an outhouse next to an industrial looking building next to a moderately traveled road. I live in Tennessee, and you wouldn’t even find that here.

From there, it did improve. There were plenty of suspect changes and you didn’t know who did it until the end, but it also didn’t make you go “Ohhhhh, that guy did it!” It actually made me think something more like, “That guy we saw at the beginning, for like…no time at all?” It was a bit of a lackluster reveal.

But it made a great backdrop to Brennan’s story here. And I might be a little more forgiving when it comes to a character story like this one. Or not…

I like it when the bodies are icky in a cool way. The Player Under Pressure corpse is icky that sticks with you. This just reminded me of potty jokes that little boys find funny. Maybe it’s just because I’m pregnant, but I really had to look away at some parts and I just found myself wishing they would get past the poo and talk about other aspects of the science. But noooo, they had to keep cracking about it, showing it, talking about it.

I want “cool” and “wow” science back. I’m mostly here for the characters, but I need cool science to back up the characters and keep us firmly on the opposite side of the line from pure soap operas. I hope we see cool science return again this season.

Daisy Wick
This episode did bring us the first ‘new’ rotating replacement for Zack, Daisy Wick, who definitely made an impression. While I’m pretty strongly on the side of let’s-not-see-her-again-because-she’s-so-darned-annoying, I think she brought a great dynamic for a one-episode arc. She was smart, pushy, goofy, prissy, and a perky, which is definitely something the lab never sees. She made a great contrast between the established personalities. And she made me laugh.

They teased Brennan vs Daisy well before finally having them meet. And it was perfect Brennan. But tenacious Daisy wouldn’t give up. It’s hard not to admire her pluck, at least a little. But Brennan’s take on her rang true.

Daisy: We’re two of a kind. You’re like a hero to me.
Brennan: Hero worship exposes a lack of independent intellectual examination.

Daisy: She’s so smart!

It went right over her perky little pony tail.

Hodgins, Angela, and Cam (3 support stooges)
Other than my beef about Hodgela and their lack of discomfort thanks to episode order issues…I can’t find much to say about these three. This episode was very much a Brennan and Booth story. Hodgins was sedate and smug. He was a good foil for Daisy in that respect, but it was different Hodgins than we usually see. He was subtly funny, instead of his normal direct style.

He really didn’t have nearly enough of his typical funny lines.

• Stop making that face.
• Drumroll…Optional.

Angela did get to pull out her skills, which I always love. Her picture analysis was a very important part of the case. And Cam had a couple of one-liners like:

• You did everything but hire a sky writer.
• You might want to keep a little mystery about yourself.

But her biggest scenes involved dressing down Daisy for going around her and the Angela/Cam scene that bothers me, in some respects.

Brennan: I don’t understand why Booth has an issue with me seeing two men.
Cam: Guys like to think they’re the only ones who should sleep with more than one person.
Angela: They like to be in control. Doesn’t take a lot to throw the little darlings off their game.
Cam: Oh, yeah. And then you end up in bed, holding them, while they say “I don’t know what’s wrong. This has never happened before.”
Brennan: He should be happy that I found a way to satisfy myself. It just happens to require two men.
Angela: I’ve done that. I miss college.

What bothers me isn’t that they’re being catty about men. No matter what, both sexes have discussions deriding the other side. It could involve chores, listening ability, talking, or sex. I think what I mind involves Booth. Early in season 1, Brennan assumes he sleeps around. Now Cam, who should know better than any of them about his fidelity in a relationship, is basically doing the same thing. Poor guy really can’t get a break.

Sweets
Sweets really is getting some screen-time love so far this season, for better or worse.

Why is he there, in the beginning of the episode? Doesn’t he have other FBI duties and patients? Do profilers really jump in that fast on a single death, unrelated to others? I just have a hard time buying him being in the lab there, like that. He does need to establish his worth, and god forbid we see any more bleepin serial killers anytime soon (with the exception of the Gravedigger), but that just seems thin to me. I do remember that they made a deal for profiling on demand, but do they really need him to jump in at every case?

That’s not to say it wasn’t funny.

• These suits are so cool. I am a robot.
• Do we need to take lessons in toilet training issues?
• Whoever did this did not get enough therapy.

His sneeze made my stomach turn a bit (yeah, yeah, pregnant) but I loved Hodgins smirky “Bless you.”

After that scene, I found him just plainly…adorable! Booth didn’t push him down, but he still found ways to make himself uncomfortable, like telling Brennan she’s hot, which surprised all three of them.

I really enjoyed this different dynamic with Booth. They had fun together. They played off each other very well. It seems that while Brennan may distrust Sweets post-Pain in the Heart, that Booth might trust him more. Either way, the interplay was funny.

Booth:…that guy is gay.
Brennan: He is not gay.
Booth: Please. Double cheeck kiss, tight Italian suit…
Sweets: Coldplay.
Booth: Never married.
Sweets: Coldplay.

Booth: She has issues.
Brennan: I do not have issues.
Booth: Case in point – Deep Sea Welder and A Botanist.
Sweets: What? Do they go into a bar?
Booth: No. Brennan’s two boyfriends.
Sweets: Oh, right. Let me guess. That one’s the Botanist?
Booth: (laughing) Yeah.
Sweets: (laughing)

He is definitely very attuned to Booth and Brennan and their own dynamic here. He tries to jump in at the elevator but Booth rebuffs him. He perks up again in the diner when Booth says he’s looking out for her, and his grin at the end when Booth all but declares himself is cheek-pinchingly adorable. His cute call to Daisy to ask her out just tops it all off, even better. He’s winning me over with his boyishness, step by step.

Brennan/Booth
These two are very intertwined in this episode, character arc wise, but it does start with Brennan.

We finally see the much talked about episode of Brennan dating two guys and, like I said above, I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.

This plot perfectly showcases Brennan. It showed that she will try to use logic to justify anything. It showed that she doesn’t know herself as well as she thinks she does (and arguably as well as Booth might). It showed that she can be completely lacking in focus and bring the personal into work, while at the same time telling Daisy “I don’t fraternize at work.” And it showed how hard her explorations can be on others.

Morality aside, her actions are frankly selfish, as seen when the guys meet. From her stand point, or at least what she’s professing, monogamy is silly. But she’s not as sure of that as she claims, or she’d have an open, upfront, double-relationship a la Tilda Swinton. The fact that she doesn’t tell each about the other shows the tenuous nature of her commitment to this path and one could assume one of two things. Either:

• She’s just selfish. She buys the lifestyle and it doesn’t matter to her what the other parties think.
• She’s making excuses. This manner of living a shielding mechanism that’s adopted under the guys of anthropological reasoning, but not practically thought through.

I think in many ways, at least by society’s rules, Brennan is selfish. She decides what’s correct and she believes that people who don’t fall in line behind that are either not smart enough to get it, or too bogged down in societal morality to see the truth.

But, I don’t think that’s the main motivation for this action. I do think she’s shielding herself, and we see a hint of that in the end when she admits the sting of rejection still hurts.

She loudly professes that “I don not make excuses. Only people who are ashamed make excuses.” But at the same time she’s trying as hard as she can to get away from Booth and his pointed feelers. And that’s something that continues throughout the episode. Booth has her firmly on the run as she tries hard not to examine her choices at all.

She tries to find allies in the people they run into (read, murder suspects) to shore up her position, but it never works.

Brennan: See, Booth? This is a woman enlightened enough not to expect a monogamous relationship. … Perhaps she’s not so enlightened.

Brennan: Just because someone seeks an alternative sexual outlet, it doesn’t mean that they’re a coward.

And she tries to make excuses, even after professing that she doesn’t do that.

Brennan: Perhaps he wasn’t fully satisfied in a long-term relationship.
Booth: Bones…
Brennan: What? It’s understandable. Needs change.

At the end, after deciding in favor of monogamy, she still won’t give Booth any slack or admit in the slightest she might have listened to him.

Booth’s take on it all was pretty mature and reminded me of his statement to Sweets in Pain: Don’t you know by now that you can’t rush her? Poor guy has to repeat that to himself daily, I’m sure. It can’t be easy to deal with stuff like this but he does it with style and humor.

I assumed, wrongly, (stupid sides), that he would have a problem with her going after anyone, but especially two guys. I thought we might see some hurt, definitely some jealousy, but he took it all in stride. I do believe he knows her better than she does, in many ways, and could easily fill all three important roles for her: intellectual, physical, and emotional. He never worried that this would last. They argued about the morality but he was never worried that either of these guys would take her away. He firmly believes that any relationship that doesn’t encompass all aspects of a person cannot last and therefore knew at the start this wouldn’t be anything to worry about. This was no Sully. And, in the end, he was proven right.

The end scene with the two of them and Sweets was fantastic.

Sweets: Is it typical for you two to discuss your love lives?
Booth: Well, I mean, only when she has naked men in her apartment.
Brennan: That’s not true. I’m very open about my relationships. As opposed to you.
Booth: Okay, what’s that supposed to mean?
Brennan: Well, you’re very secretive. As if discussing your sex life would somehow be offensive to me. I assume you are sexually active.
Booth: I do fine.
Sweets: Does it seem that your partnership provides a surrogate relationships, making it more difficult to form other bonds?
Brennan: A surrogate relationship wouldn’t necessarily be such a bad thing because then I could avoid the sting of rejections. Which, however fleeting, is still uncomfortable.
Booth: Right.
Brennan nods.
Booth: Look. I’m sorry. You know, if Mark and Jason don’t know how llucky they are…they don’t deserve you, in the first place.
Brennan: All (or my?) relationships are temporary.
Booth: That’s not true, Bones. You’re wrong. There is someone for everyone. Someone you’re meant to spend the rest of your life with. Alright? You just have to be open enough tos ee it. That’s all.
She stares at him and Sweets grins like he’s about to jump out of his skin.
Booth: Come on. I’ll buy you dinner. It could be fun. In a strictly conversational setting.
Sweets: Surrogate relationship.
Booth: Surrogate nothing. It’s a meal. With drinks. Strictly conversational.
Sweets: I could come too.
Brennan: Actually, our partnership does make it difficult to form other bonds, no offense.
Sweets: Our session isn’t over yet.
Booth: How about Chinese?
Sweets: I love Chinese. Love it.
Brennan: I feel more like Thai.
Booth: Thai? But I got coupons to Hop Li.
Brennan: You’re going to take me out for a discount meal?

I don’t know what Booth’s bold-faced, but slightly short of complete, declaration means for them. Sweets saw it, we saw it, but Brennan just stared at him. I think between telling her that she just needed to “be open enough to see it” and his quick retort “surrogate nothing” that he was fairly clear.

I think he’s been clear on Brennan for a long time, but afraid to take the jump. I still don’t think she’s clear when it comes to him though. She resists every hint that she has truly bonded to him. She can jump on ‘surrogate relationship’ but gets angry when any true bond is mentioned (like in Pain when Sweets tries to highlight it) or at any notion that Booth can influence her. I do hope we see strides with her this season, or Booth attempting a move, anything!