Tis the Season.... 2 that is

[mistletoe]

I don't think it has been above freezing today. The icicles have just started to drip now when the sun came round to the front of the house. So let's build a barbecue!

A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS

WYATT: So the FBI sent you to me, because you shot a clown?
BOOTH: Not a real clown!
WYATT: I suggest you cogitate on the underlying reasons you shot that clown while I make us some tea.
BOOTH: What? Cogitate? Tea?

SEASON 2 - Booth know thyself

Things have been simmering with Booth for some time, years probably, so when he pops he explodes, letting fly with his gun at the clown speaker on top of an ice cream truck. Plainly, however good a shot he is, things need to be sorted out and Booth enters the wonderful world of psychiatry. For all his espousal of psychology being a useful tool, getting a look at it first hand is a new experience. Through it we find out some things we did not know, some things we may not believe and some home truths about Booth's psyche. All of this is thanks to the work of Dr Wyatt; Gordon, Gordon Wyatt 'the shrink'.

Booth is nothing if not consistent, so he turns up at Wyatt's place expecting to turn on the charm and get his paper signed. Used to getting his way he is a little puzzled and frustrated when Wyatt offers tea and sympathy (of a sort) instead. These two men have nothing in common. Most of what Wyatt says is beyond Booth's frame of reference or comprehension. For one thing Wyatt is English, taller than Booth and completely unimpressed by Booth's tactics of 'Ask and ye shall receive'. Also, he talks about strange things that leave Booth baffled.
BOOTH: You are 'really' English.
WYATT: Oh, I don't know. I think I've assimilated quite well. Typical American house right down to the white picket fence, truck that's the, uh what is, the heartbeat of America. But tea, tea is uh, sacrosanct. Thank you very much.
BOOTH: Me, I'm a coffee drinker. Hey listen pal -
WYATT: You know, in an effort, to understand your culture better I've been trying to embrace this very American practice of preparing meat in the garden.
BOOTH: Barbecue.
WYATT: Hmm… it's a delightful word, isn't it? Barbecue. I think it's from the Caribbean, bar-ra-bi-cue, which means some sort of sacred fire pit. You know the Latin for hearth is focus? Isn't that revealing? It's quite literally the focal point of every household. The hearth - the heart. Uh? Interesting.
BOOTH: I told the ice cream guy I was sorry, all right? I… I… even bought him a new clown head! So just sign the paper!
WYATT: Hmm… I must apologize. I gotta go off and get some ingredients for my mortar. Uhm, why don't we reschedule?
BOOTH: We can't re-shh-edule. All right? I gotta get back to work!
WYATT: Well in that case, why not finish off preparing this area here? Could you do that? All the specifications are on the plans. You are fit for physical labour, euh? I mean, the clown didn't return fire, did it?
BOOTH: Oh well what if I said the plastic clown did fire back, eh?
WYATT: Brilliant. Now while I'm gone, what I want you to do is to consider what you were really aiming at. When you drew a bead on that unfortunate clown.

Nothing Booth says flusters Gordon Gordon at all and Booth doesn't know how to deal with it. He meets no success with his usual tactics of threat, charm and humour so what has he got left? Being a good boy. He does what he is told.

Booth's newest skill that we discover is DIY. He has expertly pegged out the site for the barbecue; set the strings and is able to check they are level. Having impressed Wyatt he hopes for a reward, but first he gives a little of himself. This is where some leeway is needed for us who are taking notice.
When Wyatt seems to be fishing for reasons that Booth would resent a father figure he is soon shot down:
WYATT: Ohhhh splendid! So's your father who taught you to read plans, was it?
BOOTH: Wrong tree doc! Dad and I were tight.

Yes, two references to his father so far and neither of them hint at any friction.

What about the other issue that Booth does seem to have trouble with: a stable relationship.
WYATT: No, it's just that earlier you said that you weren't used to drinking tea with men. Which suggests to me that you're usually pretty rigid with your assignment of gender roles.
BOOTH: What? No, no! My partner is a woman, kay? A woman who needs my help.
WYATT: But are you currently involved with anyone?
BOOTH: Just broke up with someone, okay? ME! And I ended it.
WYATT: And, euh, how long had you been involved with her? Or… him.
BOOTH: Her! Let's get that straight, okay? Her! Couple months this time.
WYATT: This time?
BOOTH: We got off… we'd gone out before. A few years ago, and euh, y'know, we, euh, I broke it up, and my ex wanted to give it another go.
WYATT: Complicated.
BOOTH: Ahhh, that's it! I shot the clown because I can't let go of the women in my life! Ah, thanks doc! Now I can go back to work, and you can sign the paper!
WYATT: Excellent theory, but quite wrong and you're out of time. Tomorrow, all right for you?

Interesting things here are Booth's identity of his partner as a woman who needs his help and his time with Cam as something that he ended after she wanted to give it another go. Already we can see how Booth is projecting his need to protect and his need to be in charge. Wyatt is throwing him for a loop by not allowing him to do that. He is setting the agenda and the timetable, not Booth and Booth has to fall in line if he wants to succeed.

Next step? Humility. Turning up on the doorstep at night, might knock Wyatt off his stride. Naturally it does not. Time for Booth to come clean.

BOOTH: All right, so maybe I am a little bit irritable.
WYATT: Why do you think that might be?
BOOTH: Don't they give you papers, and files, and reports? (Wyatt looks at Booth.) All right, me and my partner caught up to this serial killer named Howard Epps, and he died.
WYATT: And whose fault was that, yours or your partner's?
BOOTH: No, no, he jumped over that balcony maybe cause of her. Sometimes I think he had the right idea.
WYATT: And where were you when Mr. Epps fell?
BOOTH: Holding his arm.
WYATT: No, that was before he fell, surely.
BOOTH: What?
WYATT: Well, Mr. Epps was dangling from your arm before he fell at which point he was no longer dangling but falling. Attached to you, he was alive, no longer attached, dead.
BOOTH: I don't feel guilty about that. I mean Epps is a serial killer, tried to kill my partner and threatened my son. I was glad when he hit that pavement.
WYATT: Do you think about suicide, often?
BOOTH: Suicide? Me? (scoffs) No, no, never.
WYATT: And yet you sometimes feel that Howard Epps had the right idea about jumping off that balcony.
BOOTH: It was a joke. Okay? It was a joke.
WYATT: Yes, you do that a lot, don't you? Makes me feel such a bully for prying. (he gets up to go inside.) Well, we'll pick up on this next time.

So, Booth has never thought of suicide? Not what he tells us later. He doesn't feel guilty? Not what we know about Booth. He makes a joke of death? Not normally, but he does try to lighten other situations in that way. Wyatt has already noticed. Booth is no nearer getting his way.
WYATT: Solve crimes, raise a son, love women, leave women. Whatever you aim at, you hit.
BOOTH: That bad?
WYATT: By no means, no of course not, except -
BOOTH: Ohh, it's okay, here we go. Let me have it, Doc.
(Booth and Wyatt take a seat at a patio table.)
WYATT: Except it is indicative of a need to control your environment.
BOOTH: Again, I ask, is that bad?
WYATT: No, of course not, no! Except -
BOOTH: Except?!
WYATT: Except when you shoot a clown.
BOOTH: You know, you make it sound like it was walking around making balloon animals.
WYATT: For the most part, your rebellions are small.
BOOTH: Rebellions?
WYATT: The colorful socks, the funky belt buckle, they're a mechanism, quiet rebellions, a way of asserting your personal control over a homogenizing organization like the FBI. But shooting a clown is not a quiet rebellion. Shooting a clown is quite literally deafening.

Indeed. The socks and belt buckle are referenced for the first time. Wyatt identifies them as Booth's little rebellions and they do have to be little because above all else Booth wants to belong. He wants to feel at home. His office has become a little sanctuary of what he holds dear in his life and to have that taken away from him would be devastating. A loud bang has drawn the attention of the upper echelons to Agent Booth, but rather than get rid of him they clearly identify him as a good agent and so try to help him. Now he has to come to terms with what was the real reason for his outburst at the clown. We are getting closer. As Booth goes through the therapy of building a barbecue from the ground up, he gets closer to completing the journey to understanding. Wyatt identified the barbecue as the hearth, the heart of the home. By encouraging Booth to build it, he has offered him a home, a palce when he can share the American dream with a father figure of his own.

As the barbecue is completed Wyatt pushes through to the final realisation that Booth needs.

WYATT: Your file shows you're a military sniper. How many people have you killed?
BOOTH: Lost count.
WYATT: Oh, you can remember a hundred and eighty bricks, but not how many lives you've taken?
BOOTH: Epps makes fifty.
WYATT: Fifty what?
BOOTH: Fifty kills.
WYATT: But Agent Booth you didn't kill Epps. You tried to save him, remember? Or perhaps I better put it as a question, did Howard Epps slip from your grasp or did you release him? (Booth flashbacks to Epps's death.) Oh come now man, it's a simple enough question. Was he indeed your fiftieth kill or did you just happen to be there when he died?
BOOTH: (flustered) I don't know.
WYATT: A man like you in control of every situation and you don't know?

 

BOOTH: (shaking his head) I don't know. I had him, and then I lost him, and then something happened in between. I don't know.
WYATT: I believe you, because for a man like you to admit that you don't know, to relinquish control. That could indeed argue a disruption in your self-view that was large enough to motivate you to shoot a clown. (Wyatt takes a seat to sign the papers.) You know, I think we've made marvelous progress. This is a place where we can certainly begin.
(Wyatt is about to sign the papers when he looks to Booth.)
WYATT: You know what, I've changed my mind. I would love you to cook those steaks. (he signs the release paper and hands it to Booth.)
BOOTH: I can do that.

So Booth has killed fifty, most of them when he was a sniper, all of them when he was in control, and that is the key point. With Epps, and his death, he had no control. That frustration, that not knowing whether he was to blame has, as Wyatt said disrupted his self view to such a degree that he has lost control of himself. The appearance of Booth at the end of the episode is in stark contrast to the cocky agent who turned up at Wyatt's door full of anger.

But he has been shown that he has control of some things and he knows what he can do.

Booth needs to change his approach to regain control and he has exposed the kind of man he is deep down for the first time. The Booth we had been seeing was in control, alive to clues, capable of solving crimes, saving others. Yet he was unable to control his own impulses, unable to see the clues, unable to solve his own mystery, unable to save himself. For the first time he has had to accept help from another.

I've noticed Booth doesn't seem to have any male friends whom he can talk to about problems or personal issues. We've met a couple of army buddies, one of whom he still keeps in contact with casually, but there is no one at the Bureau with whom he seems to bond. The closest would be Hodgins at the Lab, but that is hardly a meeting of minds or shared interests. By being forced to go outside of his comfort zone, Booth finally has someone who would not see him as a failed alpha male if he admits that he has vulnerabilities. Wyatt has no axe to grind, just a job to do. His current job is helping Booth to find himself again and his methods mean that Booth is willing to let him.

More on Booth's new BFF next time.

Here! Newcastle United have just sacked their manager. I have no liking for that club, but this is shoddy and typical of the owner. Chris Hughton got them promoted as champions of the Championship back into the Premier League. They are currently 11th and as you know thrashed us 5 - 1. They've had a poor run away and with key players missing lost 3 - 1 at West Bromwich yesterday. But they are no worse than anyone else. 19 days before Christmas and you lose your job. Merry Xmas to you Mike Ashley (git)