On with the show
Aug. 25th, 2011 07:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mistletoeToday we are looking at Agent Booth well out of his comfort zone. He gets by with the science geeks at the Jeffersonian because they tolerate each other. Besides, he can always threaten to shoot one of them. Booth's self confessed deficiencies in the enrichment side of Parker's education and his own perception of what Brennan and Hodgins are talking about most of the time mean that when he is surrounded by highly qualified professional scientists he feels a little out of his depth. How does he cope?
A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS
BRENNAN: There’s no single piece here bigger than the skull of an australopithecus.
BOOTH: Sports terms, Bones. Remember we talked about this.
BRENNAN: Oh um… (she demonstrates the size with her hands)
BOOTH: Ah, softball. Good, you’re getting better. Size of a softball.
BOOTH IN SEASON 4 - FBI agent v Brainiacs
Booth has his strengths, Brennan has hers. Booth bases his life and work on experience and television programmes; Brennan bases hers on facts and scientific knowledge. Usually they can complement each other and solve the crime.
In this instance, Booth has no experience to rely on so his only resources are Brennan and television. Plus a bit of native wit. Things do not get off to a promising start when the reason for the remains being in the state they are proves difficult to establish.
BOOTH: Stop. Okay, stop it. Dead guy. What about the dead guy?
CAM: It’s obvious. He was frostbitten while climbing Everest. Then struck by a meteor then dumped into a vacant lot in two garbage bags and eaten by crows.
BOOTH: (walking away) All right, obvious. It’s so obvious.
The meteor clue leads to the Collar Institute where Booth is immediately on the defensive, but ready to bluff his way out with his old stand-by: the wisecrack.
BEAUDETTE: Uh, no, Agent Booth. I’m doing research into generating power from earthquakes.
BOOTH: Groundbreaking.
BRENNAN: (laughing at the pun) That was a funny joke.
BEAUDETTE: (sarcastically) Yeah. One I’ve never ever heard before.
BOOTH: (to Brennan) Are these people here smarter than you?
However, a man can't survive on jokes alone and so he must also use his wits as well as his wit to come back with the cutting riposte.
BRENNAN: I was turned down for a fellowship here at the institute.
COLLAR: No, no. That is not true. Your anthropological research was rejected because it looked to the past, not the future. Ad etierno ad glorium ad posterus.
BRENNAN: (translating the Latin) To eternity, to glory, to the future.
BOOTH: Right. Then why say your motto in a dead, ancient language?
BRENNAN: Okay, Booth.
I would say that was a point to Booth in that round. As ever he is in protective mode towards Brennan and any slight that he perceives on her intelligence is to be countered. So in a way, Booth is not only trying to prove himself to Collar but also proving his partner is worthy to be there too. This is typical Booth activity, whatever the surroundings. It may not be cutting edge hard science that he is grasping, but he is able to recognise pretentiousness when he sees it and respond accordingly.
In the next encounter with the geeks he is able to show he has some intelligence because he is able to extrapolate from his own knowledge - even if it is Star Trek.
MILTON: My god, Dr. Sidman is dead?
BRENNAN: We have not yet made a positive identification.
BOOTH: When was the last time you saw her, Milton?
MILTON: Um, I suffer from a kind of chronological dyslexia which makes it very difficult for me to place discrete events accurately on a linear timeline.
BOOTH: Whoo. (to Brennan) This one’s all yours.
BRENNAN: What exactly are you working on?
MILTON: I’m endeavoring to find a way to transmit single celled organisms using common pond scum from one location to another.
BOOTH: Ever try a spoon?
MILTON: I’ve had some success vibrating two separate samples of single cell scum in complete symmetry on a quantum level.
BRENNAN: That’s very impressive. (to Booth) You wouldn’t understand, Booth.
BOOTH: Of course I do. Beam me up, Scotty.
MILTON: Very good. Yes, exactly.
Yes, and he has to overcome Brennan's condescension too. This is a side of Booth we rarely see. For once he is having to show that he has got the ability to think for himself at a higher level than the quick come back and actually show some inkling of what Milton is doing. I hope Brennan is impressed. Having got it right once can Booth do it again? First he asks an intelligent question to try to establish who would have motive for killing Dr Sidman who was editor in chief of the Collar Institute Journal. Not getting published would be an excellent motive. Of course, asking questions about motive is very much Booth's strength.
The next suspect, Jennifer Keating also proves no match for Booth who is showing increasing understanding of how the place works.
BRENNAN: You specialize in cosmogenic isotope research?
BOOTH: Cosmogenic?
BRENNAN: It’s a new way of dating artifacts using 14-C isotopes.
JENNIFER: Through accelerated mass spectroscopy.
BOOTH: Oh. That’d make me cranky too.
BRENNAN: I can’t imagine that your project excited Diane Sidman.
BOOTH: Vini vidi vici. Look to the future. Carbon dating is all about the past.
JENNIFER: You’re right. There was no way she was going to publish me. This time next year I’ll be looking for post-graduate work.
Well, Booth is on a roll. This place may be making him cranky but he has hit the nail on the head twice with the research and with who had motive to kill Diane Sidman. This is an example of Booth being good at his job in spite of feeling out of his depth. 2-0 Booth. Still, it's not all plain sailing. There are missteps along the way, but I think a number of us might make the same assumption as Booth.
COLLAR: Diane was a member of the Large Hadron Collider team.
BOOTH: Isn’t that that thing in Europe that’s going to create a black hole and end the universe?
BRENNAN: There’s only a very small chance of that actually occurring.
COLLAR: And yet Diane received a number of death threats.
BRENNAN: Diane Sidman’s role was important to the Large Hadron Collider team?
COLLAR: The effort to find the Higgs Boson will be set back months.
BRENNAN: (very interested) The God particle?
BOOTH: What’s that?
COLLAR: Uh, theoretical particle which explains why matter has mass.
BOOTH: Mass and matter aren’t the same?
(Collar and Brennan look at each other as if Booth must be joking)
BOOTH: Oh come on. Don’t look at each other like that. I bet neither one of you know how to make your own beer.
BRENNAN: You realise you just said “Don’t look at each other” to a blind man?
I will take this to mean that Booth knows how to make his own beer. No doubt he had heard of the LHC on the news but hadn't looked much beyond the surface of the story. Anyway, Booth has established a whole host of people who might want Diane Sidman dead for a variety of reasons.
Back on solid ground outside the interrogation room, Booth expresses how he feels about the whole group at the Institute.
BOOTH: You know it’s a good thing they didn’t accept you at that place.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: It’s creepy. Everyone there is creepy.
BRENNAN: Well if you think they’re creepy then you must think that I’m creepy.
BOOTH: Well, you have a creepy mode, Bones.
I think by 'creepy', Booth means unnatural. There is no emotion in any of these people. Collar seems largely unmoved by the gruesome death of his fiancee; the grad students seem more concerned about the work than the death of their mentor. Beaudette is characterised by Sweets as a Highly self-aware, major league smarty-pants who admits to a sexual relationship with Sidman but denies being in love with her. Sweets again:
Well he said (using air quotes) “in love” very sarcastically like it was something that happened to (using air quotes) “lower primates.”
Booth never deals well with hyper rational behaviour, hence the creepy mode comment. Brennan soon demonstrates the rational creepy behaviour and Booth the "lower primate" reaction when it is established that Diane was dying from rapidly progressing leukaemia.
Wearing haz-mat suits they check out her lab for radioactivity, but none is to be found.
BRENNAN: There should still be some evidence of radioactivity.
TECH: There’s nothing radioactive in this room. (he shrugs and walks away)
(Brennan and Booth take off their masks. Booth sits in the chair)
BOOTH: God, I don’t know how you wear these things. (Brennan sees something on the chair. She walks to him) Hot suits.
BRENNAN: Whoa.
BOOTH: What?
(Breannan sees a spot on the chair. She matches it to where it would touch Booth’s spine. Booth has no idea what’s going on)
BOOTH: Ooh, right. There. (She leans him back in the chair) What are you doing, Bones?
BRENNAN: Well this stain here must have hit Diane Sidman almost exactly where the tumour formed.
BOOTH: (leaping out of the chair) You’re testing me on the cancer chair?
BRENNAN: What? You’re wearing a suit plus it’s not radioactive anymore. We’re going to need to take this chair.
BOOTH: No, no, no, no. You don’t just go around doing human testing on people, Bones. I got to go to the bathroom. (he turns and runs out)
Poor Booth. As a non-scientist he is exhibiting the natural reaction of a person to radiation and... acts irrationally. I suppose we have to count this one against him, though it is funny.
That more or less concludes Booth's encounter with the scientists, but he does have his usual insights when it comes to their emotional states. Having barged in on Jennifer and Milton in flagrante delicto Booth and Brennan have to withdraw to the corridor to wait for them to finish. Brennan is amused; Booth is philosophical.
BOOTH: You know, most people you bust in on having sex with a gun, you know, (he whistles) it kinda disrupts the mood.
BRENNAN: Perhaps they decided to start all over again from the beginning (she leans against the wall and slides down into a sitting position next to Booth. She laughs and Booth looks away, embarrassed) It’s just sex Booth.
BOOTH: It’s not that. Look, I’m not a prude.
BRENNAN: Well…you have what they would call hang ups.
BOOTH: (looks around to make sure no one is around.) You know that guy Landis?
BRENNAN: Yes.
BOOTH: He’s about to make a move on you.
BRENNAN: (she shakes her head) How do you know?
BOOTH: Because it is the rational and smart thing to do and he is all about that. I see how he looks at you.
BRENNAN: How he looks at me? He’s blind.
BOOTH: It’s too literal, Bones. His fiancée was just murdered and he’s already moving on.
BRENNAN: Well she’s gone. He has accepted it.
BOOTH: Look, good people. They leave marks on each other. The least we could do is let them fade away naturally, not you know, scrape them off, or paint over them with new marks.
BRENNAN: So you’re not a prude?
BOOTH: (laughs) Moi? Hey, I am a very fun and (he stands and does a little dance) very sexy guy. (Brennan laughs) That’s right.
BRENNAN: (standing) So you just think that if two people care about each other they leave metaphorical marks which should be allowed to fade naturally?
BOOTH: You heard me but you just didn’t understand me.
BRENNAN: Ya, I wonder that about you all the time.
When you look at it, this is a strangely surreal exchange which seems full of non sequiturs and blind alleys. What Booth says about marks seems to go completely over her head because she is still in the belief that what they are talking about is just sex. Booth finds it difficult to divorce sex from emotional involvement, which is why she always thinks he's a prude and he can't get across his metaphorical marks. Still impervious then.
Back to the crime. Without realising it, Booth names the culprit, admittedly without any proof beyond his gut feeling that his work was the nearest to the method of disposal, but nevertheless, he nailed it. He also gets unexpected praise from Brennan.
BOOTH: So it had to be Milton Alvaredo, right?
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: He’s the one who’s working on transporting matter through vibrations, right?
BRENNAN: (impressed) You understood that?
BOOTH: Hey… He kills Dr. Sidman, flash freezes her and then tries to transport her to outer space, the moon, whatever. And ends up with frozen chili con carne.
BRENNAN: I’m very impressed, Booth.
BOOTH: Yeah, well I’ve learned a lot from you. (looks away and then quietly says) And a lot from watching the Discovery Channel with Parker.
Without proof however, we are still no nearer the end and in fact all of the rest had motive too. So it's back to the Institute to find the proof. After a loud encounter with a high pressure chamber, Luminol does its work to reveal not blood, but pond scum. The scientists condemn themselves out of their own mouths and Milton is arrested. Booth is vindicated on all counts.
BOOTH: (showing pictures of the chamber to the suspects) Look at this, huh? We found blood in your resonance chamber. (to Collar) Obviously you can’t see that but it’s right there.
BRENNAN: (pointing to the first picture) That’s not blood. (pointing to the second picture) That’s not blood.
BOOTH: (behind his hand to Brennan only) Luminol means blood.
BRENNAN: (in a whisper) There’s no evidence of smearing.
SWEETS: If the murderer had seen blood he would have cleaned it up.
COLLAR: Luminol reacts with copper, iron, peroxides and cyanide.
BEAUDETTE: Which provides for a number of false positives: vegetables, fruit pulp…
MILTON: Cleaning agents, insecticides…
BRENNAN: Various glues, rust remover, ketchup, seaweed, sap, algae.
SWEETS: Is this luminol stuff every useful? (Brennan gives him a look) I’m just asking because…yes, it is. (Brennan nods) Fine, I’ll shut up. ( :D )
BRENNAN: Booth.
BOOTH: What?
BRENNAN: Luminol reacts with pond scum.
BOOTH: So? (Brennan glances at Milton) Right…Right. Pond scum Scotty. You’re our guy. You’re under arrest. Knew it all along. Let’s go. Come on. Up. (Collar stands and walks over to punch Milton. By accident he hits Booth) Ahh. God. Ow.
I have no idea why pond scum was in the resonating chamber, but there you have it. Booth continues with his success.
COLLAR: My apologies, Agent Booth. My echo locater must have malfunctioned. (Booth stands to cuff Milton. Collar turns and walks towards Brennan) This may not be the most apropos time, but…
BOOTH: Oh, here we go!
SWEETS: Here we go, what? (Booth motions towards Collar and Brennan)
COLLAR: I was wondering…could I have your phone number?
SWEETS: Wow.
BOOTH: Told ya.
SWEETS: Really?
BRENNAN: I have been considering how to respond if you asked and have decided upon, “No.” (Collar looks a little shocked)
BOOTH: Oh.
BEAUDETTE: (standing) I can go right?
BOOTH: (opening the door) Yup.
BEAUDETTE: Cause I have some actual save-the-world work to do. Dr. Collar. (Collar takes his hand and follows Beaudette out the door)
(Booth takes Milton and begins to lead him out. He moans in pain a little from being punched)
BRENNAN: You okay? (she holds his chin to inspect his face)
BOOTH: Yeah, I’m all right. You know you’re the only smart person I really like.
There was some attempt to make a buffoon of Booth in parts of this, but not the ones that mattered i.e. proving he is intelligent and following the protocols of solving a murder. In addition, his knowledge of people's emotional needs allowed him to predict how Collar would behave. He was perhaps surprised by Brennan's reaction to Collar's request for her telephone number.
So how did Booth do? In his own mind he was floundering, but to a non scientist I thought he did fine and more than held his own in the circumstances. He is, as ever self-deprecating about the whole affair.
BRENNAN: He gives her cancer, but she lives too long.
BOOTH: Wow. Then he kills her with a pencil and feeds her to crows so he doesn’t have to share a credit. Wow, that is cold.
BRENNAN: And creepy? (Booth looks at her)
BOOTH: I didn’t mean to call you creepy.
BRENNAN: You said I have a creepy mode.
BOOTH: I apologise. Okay, look, I wasn’t in my element.
BRENNAN: What? Every element is your element.
BOOTH: No, that is not true. Okay, listen. (he pauses) We just got to stop hanging out with geniuses because you’re going to figure out that I’m really stupid.
BRENNAN: What? Don’t worry about that. I figured out a long time ago how stupid you are.
BOOTH: (thinks about that for a sec) Hmmm.
BRENNAN: What I just said is true and yet it really sounded wrong. What I should say is I don’t care how stupid you are. (Booth doesn’t say anything) It’s not any better?
BOOTH: No. No. Not at all.
Finally, she gets it right
BRENNAN: ....But then there’s another quality which is the ability to use intelligence. That is what you have.
BOOTH: (he thinks about that and then smiles) Thanks, Bones.
I think there is no doubt that Booth used his intelligence in this case. This could have been an episode where Booth was the dumbass who couldn't think for himself and relied on Brennan and Sweets to get him through. That is not what happened. He was able to keep his end of the conversation up in the Institute; ask astute questions to establish motive and opportunity; figured out the most likely suspect; and know what Collar would do at the end. Booth did not get to be a Special Agent based solely on good looks, charm and an ability to shoot. He got there by using his brain (and a bit of his gut).
Th-th-th-that's all folks!
A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS
BRENNAN: There’s no single piece here bigger than the skull of an australopithecus.
BOOTH: Sports terms, Bones. Remember we talked about this.
BRENNAN: Oh um… (she demonstrates the size with her hands)
BOOTH: Ah, softball. Good, you’re getting better. Size of a softball.
BOOTH IN SEASON 4 - FBI agent v Brainiacs
Booth has his strengths, Brennan has hers. Booth bases his life and work on experience and television programmes; Brennan bases hers on facts and scientific knowledge. Usually they can complement each other and solve the crime.
In this instance, Booth has no experience to rely on so his only resources are Brennan and television. Plus a bit of native wit. Things do not get off to a promising start when the reason for the remains being in the state they are proves difficult to establish.
CAM: It’s obvious. He was frostbitten while climbing Everest. Then struck by a meteor then dumped into a vacant lot in two garbage bags and eaten by crows.
BOOTH: (walking away) All right, obvious. It’s so obvious.
The meteor clue leads to the Collar Institute where Booth is immediately on the defensive, but ready to bluff his way out with his old stand-by: the wisecrack.
BEAUDETTE: Uh, no, Agent Booth. I’m doing research into generating power from earthquakes.
BOOTH: Groundbreaking.
BRENNAN: (laughing at the pun) That was a funny joke.
BEAUDETTE: (sarcastically) Yeah. One I’ve never ever heard before.
BOOTH: (to Brennan) Are these people here smarter than you?
However, a man can't survive on jokes alone and so he must also use his wits as well as his wit to come back with the cutting riposte.
BRENNAN: I was turned down for a fellowship here at the institute.
COLLAR: No, no. That is not true. Your anthropological research was rejected because it looked to the past, not the future. Ad etierno ad glorium ad posterus.
BRENNAN: (translating the Latin) To eternity, to glory, to the future.
BOOTH: Right. Then why say your motto in a dead, ancient language?
BRENNAN: Okay, Booth.
I would say that was a point to Booth in that round. As ever he is in protective mode towards Brennan and any slight that he perceives on her intelligence is to be countered. So in a way, Booth is not only trying to prove himself to Collar but also proving his partner is worthy to be there too. This is typical Booth activity, whatever the surroundings. It may not be cutting edge hard science that he is grasping, but he is able to recognise pretentiousness when he sees it and respond accordingly.
In the next encounter with the geeks he is able to show he has some intelligence because he is able to extrapolate from his own knowledge - even if it is Star Trek.
MILTON: My god, Dr. Sidman is dead?
BRENNAN: We have not yet made a positive identification.
BOOTH: When was the last time you saw her, Milton?
MILTON: Um, I suffer from a kind of chronological dyslexia which makes it very difficult for me to place discrete events accurately on a linear timeline.
BOOTH: Whoo. (to Brennan) This one’s all yours.
BRENNAN: What exactly are you working on?
MILTON: I’m endeavoring to find a way to transmit single celled organisms using common pond scum from one location to another.
BOOTH: Ever try a spoon?
MILTON: I’ve had some success vibrating two separate samples of single cell scum in complete symmetry on a quantum level.
BRENNAN: That’s very impressive. (to Booth) You wouldn’t understand, Booth.
BOOTH: Of course I do. Beam me up, Scotty.
MILTON: Very good. Yes, exactly.
Yes, and he has to overcome Brennan's condescension too. This is a side of Booth we rarely see. For once he is having to show that he has got the ability to think for himself at a higher level than the quick come back and actually show some inkling of what Milton is doing. I hope Brennan is impressed. Having got it right once can Booth do it again? First he asks an intelligent question to try to establish who would have motive for killing Dr Sidman who was editor in chief of the Collar Institute Journal. Not getting published would be an excellent motive. Of course, asking questions about motive is very much Booth's strength.
The next suspect, Jennifer Keating also proves no match for Booth who is showing increasing understanding of how the place works.
BRENNAN: You specialize in cosmogenic isotope research?
BOOTH: Cosmogenic?
BRENNAN: It’s a new way of dating artifacts using 14-C isotopes.
JENNIFER: Through accelerated mass spectroscopy.
BOOTH: Oh. That’d make me cranky too.
BRENNAN: I can’t imagine that your project excited Diane Sidman.
BOOTH: Vini vidi vici. Look to the future. Carbon dating is all about the past.
JENNIFER: You’re right. There was no way she was going to publish me. This time next year I’ll be looking for post-graduate work.
Well, Booth is on a roll. This place may be making him cranky but he has hit the nail on the head twice with the research and with who had motive to kill Diane Sidman. This is an example of Booth being good at his job in spite of feeling out of his depth. 2-0 Booth. Still, it's not all plain sailing. There are missteps along the way, but I think a number of us might make the same assumption as Booth.
COLLAR: Diane was a member of the Large Hadron Collider team.
BOOTH: Isn’t that that thing in Europe that’s going to create a black hole and end the universe?
BRENNAN: There’s only a very small chance of that actually occurring.
COLLAR: And yet Diane received a number of death threats.
BRENNAN: Diane Sidman’s role was important to the Large Hadron Collider team?
COLLAR: The effort to find the Higgs Boson will be set back months.
BRENNAN: (very interested) The God particle?
BOOTH: What’s that?
COLLAR: Uh, theoretical particle which explains why matter has mass.
BOOTH: Mass and matter aren’t the same?
(Collar and Brennan look at each other as if Booth must be joking)
BOOTH: Oh come on. Don’t look at each other like that. I bet neither one of you know how to make your own beer.
BRENNAN: You realise you just said “Don’t look at each other” to a blind man?
I will take this to mean that Booth knows how to make his own beer. No doubt he had heard of the LHC on the news but hadn't looked much beyond the surface of the story. Anyway, Booth has established a whole host of people who might want Diane Sidman dead for a variety of reasons.
Back on solid ground outside the interrogation room, Booth expresses how he feels about the whole group at the Institute.
BOOTH: You know it’s a good thing they didn’t accept you at that place.
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: It’s creepy. Everyone there is creepy.
BRENNAN: Well if you think they’re creepy then you must think that I’m creepy.
BOOTH: Well, you have a creepy mode, Bones.
I think by 'creepy', Booth means unnatural. There is no emotion in any of these people. Collar seems largely unmoved by the gruesome death of his fiancee; the grad students seem more concerned about the work than the death of their mentor. Beaudette is characterised by Sweets as a Highly self-aware, major league smarty-pants who admits to a sexual relationship with Sidman but denies being in love with her. Sweets again:
Well he said (using air quotes) “in love” very sarcastically like it was something that happened to (using air quotes) “lower primates.”
Booth never deals well with hyper rational behaviour, hence the creepy mode comment. Brennan soon demonstrates the rational creepy behaviour and Booth the "lower primate" reaction when it is established that Diane was dying from rapidly progressing leukaemia.
Wearing haz-mat suits they check out her lab for radioactivity, but none is to be found.
BRENNAN: There should still be some evidence of radioactivity.
TECH: There’s nothing radioactive in this room. (he shrugs and walks away)
(Brennan and Booth take off their masks. Booth sits in the chair)
BOOTH: God, I don’t know how you wear these things. (Brennan sees something on the chair. She walks to him) Hot suits.
BRENNAN: Whoa.
BOOTH: What?
(Breannan sees a spot on the chair. She matches it to where it would touch Booth’s spine. Booth has no idea what’s going on)
BOOTH: Ooh, right. There. (She leans him back in the chair) What are you doing, Bones?
BRENNAN: Well this stain here must have hit Diane Sidman almost exactly where the tumour formed.
BOOTH: (leaping out of the chair) You’re testing me on the cancer chair?
BRENNAN: What? You’re wearing a suit plus it’s not radioactive anymore. We’re going to need to take this chair.
BOOTH: No, no, no, no. You don’t just go around doing human testing on people, Bones. I got to go to the bathroom. (he turns and runs out)
Poor Booth. As a non-scientist he is exhibiting the natural reaction of a person to radiation and... acts irrationally. I suppose we have to count this one against him, though it is funny.
That more or less concludes Booth's encounter with the scientists, but he does have his usual insights when it comes to their emotional states. Having barged in on Jennifer and Milton in flagrante delicto Booth and Brennan have to withdraw to the corridor to wait for them to finish. Brennan is amused; Booth is philosophical.
BOOTH: You know, most people you bust in on having sex with a gun, you know, (he whistles) it kinda disrupts the mood.
BRENNAN: Perhaps they decided to start all over again from the beginning (she leans against the wall and slides down into a sitting position next to Booth. She laughs and Booth looks away, embarrassed) It’s just sex Booth.
BOOTH: It’s not that. Look, I’m not a prude.
BRENNAN: Well…you have what they would call hang ups.
BOOTH: (looks around to make sure no one is around.) You know that guy Landis?
BRENNAN: Yes.
BOOTH: He’s about to make a move on you.
BRENNAN: (she shakes her head) How do you know?
BOOTH: Because it is the rational and smart thing to do and he is all about that. I see how he looks at you.
BRENNAN: How he looks at me? He’s blind.
BOOTH: It’s too literal, Bones. His fiancée was just murdered and he’s already moving on.
BRENNAN: Well she’s gone. He has accepted it.
BOOTH: Look, good people. They leave marks on each other. The least we could do is let them fade away naturally, not you know, scrape them off, or paint over them with new marks.
BRENNAN: So you’re not a prude?
BOOTH: (laughs) Moi? Hey, I am a very fun and (he stands and does a little dance) very sexy guy. (Brennan laughs) That’s right.
BRENNAN: (standing) So you just think that if two people care about each other they leave metaphorical marks which should be allowed to fade naturally?
BOOTH: You heard me but you just didn’t understand me.
BRENNAN: Ya, I wonder that about you all the time.
When you look at it, this is a strangely surreal exchange which seems full of non sequiturs and blind alleys. What Booth says about marks seems to go completely over her head because she is still in the belief that what they are talking about is just sex. Booth finds it difficult to divorce sex from emotional involvement, which is why she always thinks he's a prude and he can't get across his metaphorical marks. Still impervious then.
Back to the crime. Without realising it, Booth names the culprit, admittedly without any proof beyond his gut feeling that his work was the nearest to the method of disposal, but nevertheless, he nailed it. He also gets unexpected praise from Brennan.
BOOTH: So it had to be Milton Alvaredo, right?
BRENNAN: Why?
BOOTH: He’s the one who’s working on transporting matter through vibrations, right?
BRENNAN: (impressed) You understood that?
BOOTH: Hey… He kills Dr. Sidman, flash freezes her and then tries to transport her to outer space, the moon, whatever. And ends up with frozen chili con carne.
BRENNAN: I’m very impressed, Booth.
BOOTH: Yeah, well I’ve learned a lot from you. (looks away and then quietly says) And a lot from watching the Discovery Channel with Parker.
Without proof however, we are still no nearer the end and in fact all of the rest had motive too. So it's back to the Institute to find the proof. After a loud encounter with a high pressure chamber, Luminol does its work to reveal not blood, but pond scum. The scientists condemn themselves out of their own mouths and Milton is arrested. Booth is vindicated on all counts.
BOOTH: (showing pictures of the chamber to the suspects) Look at this, huh? We found blood in your resonance chamber. (to Collar) Obviously you can’t see that but it’s right there.
BRENNAN: (pointing to the first picture) That’s not blood. (pointing to the second picture) That’s not blood.
BOOTH: (behind his hand to Brennan only) Luminol means blood.
BRENNAN: (in a whisper) There’s no evidence of smearing.
SWEETS: If the murderer had seen blood he would have cleaned it up.
COLLAR: Luminol reacts with copper, iron, peroxides and cyanide.
BEAUDETTE: Which provides for a number of false positives: vegetables, fruit pulp…
MILTON: Cleaning agents, insecticides…
BRENNAN: Various glues, rust remover, ketchup, seaweed, sap, algae.
SWEETS: Is this luminol stuff every useful? (Brennan gives him a look) I’m just asking because…yes, it is. (Brennan nods) Fine, I’ll shut up. ( :D )
BRENNAN: Booth.
BOOTH: What?
BRENNAN: Luminol reacts with pond scum.
BOOTH: So? (Brennan glances at Milton) Right…Right. Pond scum Scotty. You’re our guy. You’re under arrest. Knew it all along. Let’s go. Come on. Up. (Collar stands and walks over to punch Milton. By accident he hits Booth) Ahh. God. Ow.
I have no idea why pond scum was in the resonating chamber, but there you have it. Booth continues with his success.
COLLAR: My apologies, Agent Booth. My echo locater must have malfunctioned. (Booth stands to cuff Milton. Collar turns and walks towards Brennan) This may not be the most apropos time, but…
BOOTH: Oh, here we go!
SWEETS: Here we go, what? (Booth motions towards Collar and Brennan)
COLLAR: I was wondering…could I have your phone number?
SWEETS: Wow.
BOOTH: Told ya.
SWEETS: Really?
BRENNAN: I have been considering how to respond if you asked and have decided upon, “No.” (Collar looks a little shocked)
BOOTH: Oh.
BEAUDETTE: (standing) I can go right?
BOOTH: (opening the door) Yup.
BEAUDETTE: Cause I have some actual save-the-world work to do. Dr. Collar. (Collar takes his hand and follows Beaudette out the door)
(Booth takes Milton and begins to lead him out. He moans in pain a little from being punched)
BOOTH: Yeah, I’m all right. You know you’re the only smart person I really like.
There was some attempt to make a buffoon of Booth in parts of this, but not the ones that mattered i.e. proving he is intelligent and following the protocols of solving a murder. In addition, his knowledge of people's emotional needs allowed him to predict how Collar would behave. He was perhaps surprised by Brennan's reaction to Collar's request for her telephone number.
So how did Booth do? In his own mind he was floundering, but to a non scientist I thought he did fine and more than held his own in the circumstances. He is, as ever self-deprecating about the whole affair.
BRENNAN: He gives her cancer, but she lives too long.
BOOTH: Wow. Then he kills her with a pencil and feeds her to crows so he doesn’t have to share a credit. Wow, that is cold.
BRENNAN: And creepy? (Booth looks at her)
BOOTH: I didn’t mean to call you creepy.
BRENNAN: You said I have a creepy mode.
BOOTH: I apologise. Okay, look, I wasn’t in my element.
BRENNAN: What? Every element is your element.
BOOTH: No, that is not true. Okay, listen. (he pauses) We just got to stop hanging out with geniuses because you’re going to figure out that I’m really stupid.
BRENNAN: What? Don’t worry about that. I figured out a long time ago how stupid you are.
BRENNAN: What I just said is true and yet it really sounded wrong. What I should say is I don’t care how stupid you are. (Booth doesn’t say anything) It’s not any better?
BOOTH: No. No. Not at all.
Finally, she gets it right
BRENNAN: ....But then there’s another quality which is the ability to use intelligence. That is what you have.
BOOTH: (he thinks about that and then smiles) Thanks, Bones.
I think there is no doubt that Booth used his intelligence in this case. This could have been an episode where Booth was the dumbass who couldn't think for himself and relied on Brennan and Sweets to get him through. That is not what happened. He was able to keep his end of the conversation up in the Institute; ask astute questions to establish motive and opportunity; figured out the most likely suspect; and know what Collar would do at the end. Booth did not get to be a Special Agent based solely on good looks, charm and an ability to shoot. He got there by using his brain (and a bit of his gut).
Th-th-th-that's all folks!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-25 07:44 pm (UTC)Season 4 Booth is a whole different fish from Season 6 Booth when the writers were in a 'let's be cruel to Brennan' mood for quite a few episodes. I think his Boothy-ness disappeared for most of the Season along with his belt buckle and sense of humour. He seemed to hate himself and everybody else.
Back then, how Brennan saw him mattered and he still felt he could hold his own when confronted with difficult situations. But, as you say, he was always honest with her and he did feel stupid when the brainiacs acted so superior.
The Collar Institute, like most places they use as a setting in the show, is an exaggerated milieu. Caricature is a failing they often have.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-08-25 07:56 pm (UTC)Season 4 Booth is a whole different fish from Season 6 Booth when the writers were in a 'let's be cruel to Brennan' mood for quite a few episodes. I think his Boothy-ness disappeared for most of the Season along with his belt buckle and sense of humour. He seemed to hate himself and everybody else.
Agreed - although to me, most of it only really became an issue once Hannah was out of the picture, which I always found pretty interesting. He told Brennan during the elevator episode that he wasn't angry with her, but I still think that was one of the lies he didn't want to admit during the Pinocchio case ;)
Caricature is a failing they often have.
Very true, although it wasn't yet on the cringe-worthy side for me during this episode.