Season 4 Brennan
Jun. 30th, 2010 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mistletoeGosh, no football today so it's back to Season 4 and the development of Brennan's character. This is the start of a run of three episodes that I find particularly challenging to watch again because they lack appeal in the cases and the characters are cliched. So, through gritted teeth I give you Brennan in The Passenger in the Oven.
First, it's worth pointing out that this episode followed on immediately from Brennan discovering that shiny baubles do not a good man make. Yet here we are on our way to China with Brennan safely ensconced in First Class and Booth squashed between two old ladies in Coach.
Yes,Booth isn't in need of the shiny baubles, but Brennan is. When he shows up in First Class it becomes apparent that Brennan has paid for her own ticket but left Booth to use the FBI funded 2nd class on a 13 hour flight, during which he has not slept. When the stewardess tells him to go back where he belongs, Brennan does not leap to his defence, but smugly waxes lyrical about her true passion of examining 40,000 year old skeletons. Booth is hurt. Once he has left she dismissed him from her thoughts and went back to sleep. Booth however, is cross. So annoyed that he risks the wrath of Ms McNutt and returns to at least get some sleep in comfort. At least Brennan betrays her slightly nefarious side like she did in The Skull in the Sculpture and asks if she will be an accessory to a crime if she lets him stay. However, the point becomes moot when the body is discovered.
After that she remains oblivious to the stewardess being in shock, Booth's exhaustion and any sympathy for the victim by being the cold rational scientist from now on. So she speaks to Kate as if she is mentally challenged; she sends Booth hither and thither to get the Heath Robinson items she needs to solve the puzzle; she never shows empathy towards Elizabeth Jones. The steps she has made so far are ignored. She understands nothing at all about speaking to ordinary people when she asks them to examine their neighbour's phalanges; she is uncomfortable when asked to describe the flesh as 'pinkish' and it is left to Booth to do so and add 'gross-ish' and like an overdone turkey to help Cam establish time of death. In fact, Brennan does little other than take pictures and make a cast of the injury.
She can't even help Booth with his fantasy:
Though sipping champagne while in charge of a minor seems to be acceptable.
This was very much a procedural episode and a sloppy one at that with dubious science, extremely good surface to air communications that were operating right up to the landing when the signals could have interfered with onboard telemmetry and the key computer game conveniently on display for Brennan to see.
There was no development in Brennan. Indeed she seemed to regress, so it was appropriate that the only interesting dialogue referred to the Pilot episode. Brennan correctly remembers that it was she who insisted on Booth taking her out into the field in the first place. So why can she apparently remember nothing that she has learned while out there?
Next time we have the similarly annoying Brennan in The Bone That Blew where she displayed very irritating traits with regard to her father.
First, it's worth pointing out that this episode followed on immediately from Brennan discovering that shiny baubles do not a good man make. Yet here we are on our way to China with Brennan safely ensconced in First Class and Booth squashed between two old ladies in Coach.
Yes,Booth isn't in need of the shiny baubles, but Brennan is. When he shows up in First Class it becomes apparent that Brennan has paid for her own ticket but left Booth to use the FBI funded 2nd class on a 13 hour flight, during which he has not slept. When the stewardess tells him to go back where he belongs, Brennan does not leap to his defence, but smugly waxes lyrical about her true passion of examining 40,000 year old skeletons. Booth is hurt. Once he has left she dismissed him from her thoughts and went back to sleep. Booth however, is cross. So annoyed that he risks the wrath of Ms McNutt and returns to at least get some sleep in comfort. At least Brennan betrays her slightly nefarious side like she did in The Skull in the Sculpture and asks if she will be an accessory to a crime if she lets him stay. However, the point becomes moot when the body is discovered.
After that she remains oblivious to the stewardess being in shock, Booth's exhaustion and any sympathy for the victim by being the cold rational scientist from now on. So she speaks to Kate as if she is mentally challenged; she sends Booth hither and thither to get the Heath Robinson items she needs to solve the puzzle; she never shows empathy towards Elizabeth Jones. The steps she has made so far are ignored. She understands nothing at all about speaking to ordinary people when she asks them to examine their neighbour's phalanges; she is uncomfortable when asked to describe the flesh as 'pinkish' and it is left to Booth to do so and add 'gross-ish' and like an overdone turkey to help Cam establish time of death. In fact, Brennan does little other than take pictures and make a cast of the injury.
She can't even help Booth with his fantasy:
Though sipping champagne while in charge of a minor seems to be acceptable.
This was very much a procedural episode and a sloppy one at that with dubious science, extremely good surface to air communications that were operating right up to the landing when the signals could have interfered with onboard telemmetry and the key computer game conveniently on display for Brennan to see.
There was no development in Brennan. Indeed she seemed to regress, so it was appropriate that the only interesting dialogue referred to the Pilot episode. Brennan correctly remembers that it was she who insisted on Booth taking her out into the field in the first place. So why can she apparently remember nothing that she has learned while out there?
Next time we have the similarly annoying Brennan in The Bone That Blew where she displayed very irritating traits with regard to her father.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-30 08:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-30 09:24 pm (UTC)S4 Brennan is not my favorite.
No, she has to become less loveable yet if I remember correctly. ;-)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-30 11:42 pm (UTC)That said, I loved Passenger in the Oven because:
1. I adore "stuck in one location" mysteries - like this past season's "stuck in the lab-not JFK" episode.
2. I love watching Booth try to make a pass - explicitly so - at Brennan, and her complete failure to see it because she's so compartmentalized.
3. I love the whole McGyver-ness of the episode.
4. I adore the old lady mystery fan and Caroline's "you can always tell a damn lawyer".
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-01 11:49 am (UTC)1. Stuck in the one location has worked very well in a variety of shows and this show is no exception. Both stuck in the lab episodes worked better for me because they united the team better than this one. The team was at one remove here so it was more in the field with a sat-link that they have done several times and I have never enjoyed them.
2. The pass did go completely over her head, but I would say through ignorance on her part rather than compartmentalisation. That always annoys me because of the complete lack of pop culture knowledge she is given. Damn you writers! She has seen The Mummy and Clara Bow but not The Maltese Falcon?
3. McGyver did it with more charm. *g*
4. The old ladies needed closure. Or at least an autograph.
Yes, to the writers failing in this Season with Bones. She was unlikeable in a number of episodes - including this one. Booth must really love her to accept the way she treats him. He is forever having to run interference. Good job he is a people person.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-12 08:32 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-12 01:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-12 03:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-07-12 04:14 pm (UTC)I was more positive than I thought because I was looking at the impact on Booth and Brennan building up to the finale rather than the episode as a conclusion to The Gravedigger arc. At least it wasn't as badly fumbled as the Gormogon debacle (about which I will say more in the rewatch post on Thursday).