Let's get on with it Agent Booth
Oct. 18th, 2011 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mistletoeThis is probably a mistake as my laptop is running very slowly for some reason and so my connection is iffy. Anyway, we must push on with Booth's background by looking at The Beaver in the Otter which provides surprisingly rich pickings for late Season 4.
BOOTH: Dishonorable discharge?
JARED: Court Martial convicted me of misuse of authority and theft of government property.
BOOTH: Ahh. No Booth has ever gotten a dishonorable discharge.
JARED: Uh yea. No Booth has ever had to save his brother from an insane kidnapper.
BOOTH: Sorry.
BOOTH IN SEASON 4 -Brothers
The case concerns a frat group prank that went wrong. This involves brothers, of a sort, which brings us to Jared and Seeley Booth who are brothers, of a sort. To begin with though, we get some further information about Booth's college days, of which Dr Brennan does not approve.
DEAN WARNER: I…I suspect that one of our less reflected frat house may have stolen these remains from the medical school.
SHERIFF TINA MILLINS: Beta, delta, sigma. We’ve got a missing cadaver reported yesterday.
BRENNAN: Would this, by any chance, be a fraternity of sociopaths?
Booth seems to understand the psyche of college boys, and Sweets tries to, but even he would be surprised by Booth's take on why they behave the way they do.
BRENNAN: They keep track of sexual conquest with stars on the wall?
SWEETS: It’s emotionally stunted
BOOTH: Guys, it’s a college fraternity.
BRENNAN: They seem like really terrible people.
BOOTH: They’re college kids, ok, it’s their job description to be bad, it’s what they do.
SWEETS: Yeah, but still, a community of young man mutually supporting bad decisions.
BOOTH: Look, these kids, they go out into the world, they’re alone, they have no supervision, they have to be bad just in order to figure out what it is, you know. Scientific fact, their frontal lobes are the size of raisins.
BRENNAN: No, that is not a scientific fact.
BOOTH: What they gotta do is build their frontal lobes, with exercise, ok and that comes from doing the wrong thing.
SWEETS: Ok, so your theory is, you gotta be bad to be good?
BOOTH: Exactly, facts of life, my friend,
This reading of the rite of passage in order to get to successful adulthood is very interesting when we look at the relationship that Booth has with his brother. In a sense, Jared has never gone out into the world and Booth doesn't see that the bad behaviour of his brother that so annoys him, may in fact be because he has never been allowed to grow emotionally.
JARED: I owed you for digging me out of crap my whole life.
BOOTH: You’re gonna need a job.
JARED: Well, I joined the navy when I was 17, so a job, that’s what civilians refer to as duty, right?
Booth agrees to get Jared a job. I saved your life, you find me a job, yeah that seems fair,
In Booth's world, that does seem fair and he's as good as his word.
JARED: Hey, what do you think?
BOOTH: Yeah, it’s nice, not really gonna be much good around here in the wintertime, that’s for sure
JARED: You’re always practical, huh, Seeley?
BOOTH: Listen, I got you a job interview.
JARED: Yeah?
BOOTH: Ya, an army buddy of mine up in Pittsburgh is looking for someone to head up its criminal intelligence unit.
JARED: You found me a job in less than 24 hours?
BOOTH: Just an interview. You want to use my car?
JARED: No
BOOTH: Jared, you can’t show up to a job interview on a bike!
JARED: Seeley, I’m not going to the interview.
BOOTH: Why?
JARED: ‘Cause I don’t want a job. I’m gonna take this thing and I’m going in a trip.
BOOTH: Oh, you’re going on a trip? Where?
JARED: I’ve always wanted to see India, without, y’know, spying on Pakistan.
BOOTH: Oh, ok, I see. So, you’re gonna somehow get this bike to India, ride it around. What if it breaks down? What are you gonna do for parts?
JARED: What am I gonna do for parts, if It breaks down in India… That’s all you have to say to me?
BOOTH: You know what? Just go to the interview (He hands Jared that paper)
JARED: Would you… (He grabs Booth’s arm) You forgot to tell me to get shots and not talk to strangers.
Booth leaves. Clearly, he is seeing Jared reverting to type, forever yanking Seeley's chain just because he can and Booth doesn't know how to deal with it. Clearly, Jared's frontal lobe is still the size of a raisin in his eyes, and in spite of what he said in Conman in the Meth Lab, Booth is still not willing to let Jared learn from his mistakes and become a good person. All Booth feels is anger and resentment. Sweets has another view.
SWEETS: Well, like most over-achievers, he displays a slight Oedipal neurosis. Will you share with me why you are so agitated?
BOOTH: You know what? My brother Jared is ruining his life
SWEETS: Oh! He’s drinking again?
BOOTH: No, I’m pretty sure he was dried out before his Court Martial.
SWEETS: Then why the recent urge to self-destruct?
BOOTH: I set up a perfectly great job interview for him, but instead he decides he just wants to travel across India on his motorcycle. Yeah, that’s right, talk about a narcissistic dependence on stupidity!
SWEETS: Uh huh, you or him?
BOOTH: This is exactly why I don’t talk to you about this kind of things.
SWEETS: ‘K, I’m gonna suggest that you’re jealous of your brother’s decision
BOOTH: I don’t want to go to India.
SWEETS: You feel trapped here by the responsible nature of your job, your interpersonal relations.
BOOTH: What?
SWEETS: Whereas Jared is completely free.
SWEETS: Yeah, what you’re not free to do is control your brother’s life.
BOOTH: Control Jared? Good luck with that one!
SWEETS: It’s not for a lack of trying. Of course, you could always get a motorbike and go with him.
BOOTH: A motorbike? A motorbike is used for people who deliver pizzas in Amsterdam. Yup. India is large and vast (Sweets gets in the elevator) Right! I’m getting an American motorcycle!
For once, Sweets may have put his finger on the truth here, but Booth is not willing to accept that he may be right. He does seem to be jealous of Jared's irresponsible attitude compared to his own responsibilities such as his job and his relationships. Jared has neither of these tying him down. Also, when it comes to personal things such as his brother or Parker, Booth does tend to over-react and he does so here. He forgets that Jared is not him and, all signs to the contrary, is an adult who has held a very responsible position the loss of which he had no control over.
So what does Booth do? He gives it one last shot at persuading Jared that this is a bad idea.
BOOTH: You know, the roads suck in India, when they’re dry and…and they turn into rivers when the monsoons come. I tell you what, trucks don’t even give way to anyone.
JARED: Will you give the lifeguard thing a rest, Seeley, all right?
BOOTH: State department had advised that there’s a heighten security concern for anyone travelling alone in India.
JARED: Then come with me. I mean that way, now you can watch over me every minute.
BOOTH: You know what? Everywhere you’ve gone, you’ve always had the full might of the United States government behind you
JARED: Yeah, I know. You were a frontline guy, a fire eater and I was just a rear echelon wimp.
BOOTH: I never said that
JARED: If you’re so worried, come along and I’ll have the full might of Seeley Booth behind me.
BOOTH: Seriously? I didn’t think you were serious.
JARED:I wasn’t when I said it…but now I am. Yeah,I’m serious.
BOOTH: You want me to come to India with you.
(Jared nods)
JARED: Ball’s in your court, brother. (He leaves)
Yes the gauntlet has been thrown down and Booth has to put his money where his mouth is. Booth is all about family, and doing the right thing. Can he figure out what that is? If he doesn't believe Sweets was right, who else does he trust?
BOOTH: …Jared wants me to go to India with him.
BRENNAN: Indiana?
BOOTH: India! OK, Taj Mahal, cows, tigers, cobras, Slumdog Millionaire.
BRENNAN: yes…I know. Are you going?
BOOTH: We don’t like each other.
BRENNAN: So…not going?
BOOTH: I mean, he’s my brother, so I love him.
BRENNAN: I’m confused, you are going?
BOOTH: I mean, Jared should not go to India alone, he’ll get in all kinds of trouble.
BRENNAN: You said he’s never been alone.
BOOTH: Exactly, you know what? He’ll get eaten alive
BRENNAN: If you go with him, then he won’t be alone, you won’t let him be bad and his frontal lobe will always be the size of a raisin, that’s what you said. Makes no scientific sense.
BOOTH: Yeah, I said that…got it (He nods)
Yes, condemned out of his own mouth and now he knows what he must do. It sometimes takes Booth a long time to accept that, in his personal life at least, he is not omnipotent. He must see that he cannot protect his loved ones all the time if they are to grow. This must be caused by his own lack of support when he was a child and he has been over compensating ever since. The White Knight Syndrome that Sweets refers to much later is deeply ingrained. Now he is trying to let go.
BOOTH: Ok
JARED: You’re not coming, are you?
BOOTH: You really wanted me to?
JARED: Does it matter?
BOOTH: You know, I was going to. I really was, but uh, I think you should go alone.
JARED: You think it’s a good idea for me to go to India.
BOOTH: Yeah, I do, alone. Our whole lives, as kids, I was always standing behind you. Or you had the Navy stand behind you, but this time, y’know, I think you should stand alone. You don’t need your big brother.
JARED: So, come as a friend.
BOOTH: We both know, I’m not your friend. I’m your big brother.
JARED: Yup(They clink bottles)
BOOTH: All right, right, so, got you something.
(Booth puts a medallion on the counter)
JARED: It’s Grandpa’s St-Christopher’s medallion.
BOOTH: Noo, no. It’s a new one. I got you that.
JARED: Seeley, it looks like the one Grandpa gave you.
BOOTH: Nooo, Grandpa gave me mine when I was shipped out to the Rangers. This one, I’m giving to you. Patron Saint of Travellers. It kept me safe in Somalia; let’s hope it does the same for you in India. Wear it around your neck.
JARED:I don’t know man, am I alone if I take a Saint with me?
BOOTH: You’re not alone (Booth smiles)
JARED:Thanks
(Jared gets up to leave)
BOOTH: Hey! Don’t forget your jacket!
Mother hen to the last, but he has managed to let go and be honest about his feelings towards his brother. He is his big brother, not his friend and as such he has to let his brother loose to make some mistakes. At least he feels he has given something of himself to Jared in that he got him his own saint to look after him and remind him of Booth. He doesn't pass on the one he got from their grandfather; that was to keep Seeley safe and clearly, he is superstitious enough not to give that protection away. Also, Somalia? I checked. That would be Mogadishu 1993 when the 75th Rangers were caught in the Black Hawk down mess. 19 died. That's some serious fighting Booth.
In the end, he tries to be bad, for Brennan's sake, by doing the old 'dine and dash'. True to form, he slips the money on the bar when she isn't looking. This was a revealing episode from Booth's standpoint where his job and his personal relationships ended up in conflict. In trying to balance the two he ends up having to choose which one he really wants. The family he has, isn't it what he wants: he doesn't like his brother and hasn't seen his father since he was a child. One compensation is to work on the reconciliation between Brennan and her own brother and father. In this he has been successful. The best he can manage in his own life is to relinquish whatever hold he has over his brother; in effect to throw him out of the nest just as Brennan was by her older brother. Of course, Booth is doing this when he and his brother are adults, but the truth still holds: that in order to fly the baby bird must be set free.
Two episodes left!
A BOOTH FOR ALL SEASONS
BOOTH: Dishonorable discharge?
JARED: Court Martial convicted me of misuse of authority and theft of government property.
BOOTH: Ahh. No Booth has ever gotten a dishonorable discharge.
JARED: Uh yea. No Booth has ever had to save his brother from an insane kidnapper.
BOOTH: Sorry.
BOOTH IN SEASON 4 -Brothers
The case concerns a frat group prank that went wrong. This involves brothers, of a sort, which brings us to Jared and Seeley Booth who are brothers, of a sort. To begin with though, we get some further information about Booth's college days, of which Dr Brennan does not approve.
DEAN WARNER: I…I suspect that one of our less reflected frat house may have stolen these remains from the medical school.
SHERIFF TINA MILLINS: Beta, delta, sigma. We’ve got a missing cadaver reported yesterday.
BRENNAN: Would this, by any chance, be a fraternity of sociopaths?
Booth seems to understand the psyche of college boys, and Sweets tries to, but even he would be surprised by Booth's take on why they behave the way they do.
BRENNAN: They keep track of sexual conquest with stars on the wall?
SWEETS: It’s emotionally stunted
BOOTH: Guys, it’s a college fraternity.
BRENNAN: They seem like really terrible people.
BOOTH: They’re college kids, ok, it’s their job description to be bad, it’s what they do.
SWEETS: Yeah, but still, a community of young man mutually supporting bad decisions.
BOOTH: Look, these kids, they go out into the world, they’re alone, they have no supervision, they have to be bad just in order to figure out what it is, you know. Scientific fact, their frontal lobes are the size of raisins.
BRENNAN: No, that is not a scientific fact.
BOOTH: What they gotta do is build their frontal lobes, with exercise, ok and that comes from doing the wrong thing.
SWEETS: Ok, so your theory is, you gotta be bad to be good?
BOOTH: Exactly, facts of life, my friend,
This reading of the rite of passage in order to get to successful adulthood is very interesting when we look at the relationship that Booth has with his brother. In a sense, Jared has never gone out into the world and Booth doesn't see that the bad behaviour of his brother that so annoys him, may in fact be because he has never been allowed to grow emotionally.
JARED: I owed you for digging me out of crap my whole life.
BOOTH: You’re gonna need a job.
JARED: Well, I joined the navy when I was 17, so a job, that’s what civilians refer to as duty, right?
Booth agrees to get Jared a job. I saved your life, you find me a job, yeah that seems fair,
In Booth's world, that does seem fair and he's as good as his word.
JARED: Hey, what do you think?
BOOTH: Yeah, it’s nice, not really gonna be much good around here in the wintertime, that’s for sure
JARED: You’re always practical, huh, Seeley?
BOOTH: Listen, I got you a job interview.
JARED: Yeah?
BOOTH: Ya, an army buddy of mine up in Pittsburgh is looking for someone to head up its criminal intelligence unit.
JARED: You found me a job in less than 24 hours?
BOOTH: Just an interview. You want to use my car?
JARED: No
BOOTH: Jared, you can’t show up to a job interview on a bike!
JARED: Seeley, I’m not going to the interview.
BOOTH: Why?
JARED: ‘Cause I don’t want a job. I’m gonna take this thing and I’m going in a trip.
BOOTH: Oh, you’re going on a trip? Where?
JARED: I’ve always wanted to see India, without, y’know, spying on Pakistan.
BOOTH: Oh, ok, I see. So, you’re gonna somehow get this bike to India, ride it around. What if it breaks down? What are you gonna do for parts?
JARED: What am I gonna do for parts, if It breaks down in India… That’s all you have to say to me?
BOOTH: You know what? Just go to the interview (He hands Jared that paper)
JARED: Would you… (He grabs Booth’s arm) You forgot to tell me to get shots and not talk to strangers.
Booth leaves. Clearly, he is seeing Jared reverting to type, forever yanking Seeley's chain just because he can and Booth doesn't know how to deal with it. Clearly, Jared's frontal lobe is still the size of a raisin in his eyes, and in spite of what he said in Conman in the Meth Lab, Booth is still not willing to let Jared learn from his mistakes and become a good person. All Booth feels is anger and resentment. Sweets has another view.
SWEETS: Well, like most over-achievers, he displays a slight Oedipal neurosis. Will you share with me why you are so agitated?
BOOTH: You know what? My brother Jared is ruining his life
SWEETS: Oh! He’s drinking again?
BOOTH: No, I’m pretty sure he was dried out before his Court Martial.
SWEETS: Then why the recent urge to self-destruct?
BOOTH: I set up a perfectly great job interview for him, but instead he decides he just wants to travel across India on his motorcycle. Yeah, that’s right, talk about a narcissistic dependence on stupidity!
SWEETS: Uh huh, you or him?
BOOTH: This is exactly why I don’t talk to you about this kind of things.
SWEETS: ‘K, I’m gonna suggest that you’re jealous of your brother’s decision
BOOTH: I don’t want to go to India.
SWEETS: You feel trapped here by the responsible nature of your job, your interpersonal relations.
BOOTH: What?
SWEETS: Whereas Jared is completely free.
SWEETS: Yeah, what you’re not free to do is control your brother’s life.
BOOTH: Control Jared? Good luck with that one!
SWEETS: It’s not for a lack of trying. Of course, you could always get a motorbike and go with him.
BOOTH: A motorbike? A motorbike is used for people who deliver pizzas in Amsterdam. Yup. India is large and vast (Sweets gets in the elevator) Right! I’m getting an American motorcycle!
For once, Sweets may have put his finger on the truth here, but Booth is not willing to accept that he may be right. He does seem to be jealous of Jared's irresponsible attitude compared to his own responsibilities such as his job and his relationships. Jared has neither of these tying him down. Also, when it comes to personal things such as his brother or Parker, Booth does tend to over-react and he does so here. He forgets that Jared is not him and, all signs to the contrary, is an adult who has held a very responsible position the loss of which he had no control over.
So what does Booth do? He gives it one last shot at persuading Jared that this is a bad idea.
BOOTH: You know, the roads suck in India, when they’re dry and…and they turn into rivers when the monsoons come. I tell you what, trucks don’t even give way to anyone.
JARED: Will you give the lifeguard thing a rest, Seeley, all right?
BOOTH: State department had advised that there’s a heighten security concern for anyone travelling alone in India.
JARED: Then come with me. I mean that way, now you can watch over me every minute.
BOOTH: You know what? Everywhere you’ve gone, you’ve always had the full might of the United States government behind you
JARED: Yeah, I know. You were a frontline guy, a fire eater and I was just a rear echelon wimp.
BOOTH: I never said that
JARED: If you’re so worried, come along and I’ll have the full might of Seeley Booth behind me.
BOOTH: Seriously? I didn’t think you were serious.
JARED:I wasn’t when I said it…but now I am. Yeah,I’m serious.
BOOTH: You want me to come to India with you.
(Jared nods)
JARED: Ball’s in your court, brother. (He leaves)
Yes the gauntlet has been thrown down and Booth has to put his money where his mouth is. Booth is all about family, and doing the right thing. Can he figure out what that is? If he doesn't believe Sweets was right, who else does he trust?
BOOTH: …Jared wants me to go to India with him.
BRENNAN: Indiana?
BOOTH: India! OK, Taj Mahal, cows, tigers, cobras, Slumdog Millionaire.
BRENNAN: yes…I know. Are you going?
BOOTH: We don’t like each other.
BRENNAN: So…not going?
BOOTH: I mean, he’s my brother, so I love him.
BRENNAN: I’m confused, you are going?
BOOTH: I mean, Jared should not go to India alone, he’ll get in all kinds of trouble.
BRENNAN: You said he’s never been alone.
BOOTH: Exactly, you know what? He’ll get eaten alive
BRENNAN: If you go with him, then he won’t be alone, you won’t let him be bad and his frontal lobe will always be the size of a raisin, that’s what you said. Makes no scientific sense.
BOOTH: Yeah, I said that…got it (He nods)
Yes, condemned out of his own mouth and now he knows what he must do. It sometimes takes Booth a long time to accept that, in his personal life at least, he is not omnipotent. He must see that he cannot protect his loved ones all the time if they are to grow. This must be caused by his own lack of support when he was a child and he has been over compensating ever since. The White Knight Syndrome that Sweets refers to much later is deeply ingrained. Now he is trying to let go.
BOOTH: Ok
JARED: You’re not coming, are you?
BOOTH: You really wanted me to?
JARED: Does it matter?
BOOTH: You know, I was going to. I really was, but uh, I think you should go alone.
JARED: You think it’s a good idea for me to go to India.
BOOTH: Yeah, I do, alone. Our whole lives, as kids, I was always standing behind you. Or you had the Navy stand behind you, but this time, y’know, I think you should stand alone. You don’t need your big brother.
JARED: So, come as a friend.
BOOTH: We both know, I’m not your friend. I’m your big brother.
JARED: Yup(They clink bottles)
BOOTH: All right, right, so, got you something.
(Booth puts a medallion on the counter)
JARED: It’s Grandpa’s St-Christopher’s medallion.
BOOTH: Noo, no. It’s a new one. I got you that.
JARED: Seeley, it looks like the one Grandpa gave you.
BOOTH: Nooo, Grandpa gave me mine when I was shipped out to the Rangers. This one, I’m giving to you. Patron Saint of Travellers. It kept me safe in Somalia; let’s hope it does the same for you in India. Wear it around your neck.
JARED:I don’t know man, am I alone if I take a Saint with me?
BOOTH: You’re not alone (Booth smiles)
JARED:Thanks
(Jared gets up to leave)
BOOTH: Hey! Don’t forget your jacket!
Mother hen to the last, but he has managed to let go and be honest about his feelings towards his brother. He is his big brother, not his friend and as such he has to let his brother loose to make some mistakes. At least he feels he has given something of himself to Jared in that he got him his own saint to look after him and remind him of Booth. He doesn't pass on the one he got from their grandfather; that was to keep Seeley safe and clearly, he is superstitious enough not to give that protection away. Also, Somalia? I checked. That would be Mogadishu 1993 when the 75th Rangers were caught in the Black Hawk down mess. 19 died. That's some serious fighting Booth.
In the end, he tries to be bad, for Brennan's sake, by doing the old 'dine and dash'. True to form, he slips the money on the bar when she isn't looking. This was a revealing episode from Booth's standpoint where his job and his personal relationships ended up in conflict. In trying to balance the two he ends up having to choose which one he really wants. The family he has, isn't it what he wants: he doesn't like his brother and hasn't seen his father since he was a child. One compensation is to work on the reconciliation between Brennan and her own brother and father. In this he has been successful. The best he can manage in his own life is to relinquish whatever hold he has over his brother; in effect to throw him out of the nest just as Brennan was by her older brother. Of course, Booth is doing this when he and his brother are adults, but the truth still holds: that in order to fly the baby bird must be set free.
Two episodes left!
