Sides for season 5

bones_spoilers at LJ is awesome for sides! Genevieve keeps up on them pretty well!

Just read the new ones....DOnt tell me VNM is getting fired!!!

Like B & B talking about booth obviously reading forensic anthropology for dummies....or imbeciles as brennan calls it!

I love VNM and all, but is it possible that they're kind of winding down the rotating interns thing? I hope they won't remove them all by firing them or something and that eventually she'll just make a decision for her official intern, but still.

This is the continuity issue (well, one of them) with this show; in one episode, Brennan's telling Booth he's a good guy and how smart he is and all that, but in the next she's flaunting how ridiculously smart she is and how he pales in comparison.

MoonlightGardenias wrote:I love VNM and all, but is it possible that they're kind of winding down the rotating interns thing? I hope they won't remove them all by firing them or something and that eventually she'll just make a decision for her official intern, but still.

This is the continuity issue (well, one of them) with this show; in one episode, Brennan's telling Booth he's a good guy and how smart he is and all that, but in the next she's flaunting how ridiculously smart she is and how he pales in comparison.

Exactly, which is why it was so gratifying for Angela to tell her point blank that Booth only pretends to be dumb so she can be the smart one, and again when Gordon Wyatt pointed out him pretending to be dumb to get people to underestimate him. And that's what he does, especially from season two forward. If you watch season one carefully you'll note that when it came to strictly esoteric stuff or complex scientific terms Booth only ever asked for a plain English explanation, but he was as quick, and often quicker, to connect the dots between two pieces of seemingly incongruous data - see Woman in the Car - in fact he was often faster than Brennan, she of the three degrees and disturbingly high learning curve.

From season two onward that changed somewhat, fostering the myth that he's not intelligent when he clearly is. I think Booth, while admittedly not a genius, is at least gifted intellectually but he's more accustomed to letting the world see him as the frat boy, the dumb jock, the lunkhead cop. In normal day-to-day life it gives him an edge, but in working with the squints he's learned to play it up so he can actually manipulate them into doing his bidding - how many times have we seen him get Hodgins or Brennan or even Cam to do what he wanted by playing dumb or asking stupid questions that force them down a path he wants them to walk and to arrive at a conclusion he's already determined. Booth knows you can lead a squint to calculus but you can't make them compute, but ask them to explain it and they'll do your homework for you.

That said I think Booth is getting tired of playing dumb, and the Forensic Anthropology for Dummies book would probably surprise Brennan in it's ability to provide a concise breakdown of her job including a basic understanding of the terminology, etc. I wonder what she'd say if Booth ever actually too an Anthro 101 class and memorized the bones of the body?


RM

That's interesting too. It bothers me sometimes though that the way she's written, Brennan is so blunt that she comes off as offensive to him. We've seen her grow so much and evolve as a character, but we always have those moments where I kind of question that.

As far as Booth is concerned, you have to know the man is smart. I mean, he's an FBI Agent, so obviously he has to have a degree and some kind of experience. He's the street smarts and Brennan's the book smarts though, but sometimes it's like they try and hit us over the head with that.

MoonlightGardenias wrote:That's interesting too. It bothers me sometimes though that the way she's written, Brennan is so blunt that she comes off as offensive to him. We've seen her grow so much and evolve as a character, but we always have those moments where I kind of question that.

As far as Booth is concerned, you have to know the man is smart. I mean, he's an FBI Agent, so obviously he has to have a degree and some kind of experience. He's the street smarts and Brennan's the book smarts though, but sometimes it's like they try and hit us over the head with that.

i dont think he neccesarily has to have a degree. i thought he once said that he joined the army straight out of high school?

buti still definitely thinks hes smart...

i_heart_bones wrote:

MoonlightGardenias wrote:That's interesting too. It bothers me sometimes though that the way she's written, Brennan is so blunt that she comes off as offensive to him. We've seen her grow so much and evolve as a character, but we always have those moments where I kind of question that.

As far as Booth is concerned, you have to know the man is smart. I mean, he's an FBI Agent, so obviously he has to have a degree and some kind of experience. He's the street smarts and Brennan's the book smarts though, but sometimes it's like they try and hit us over the head with that.

i dont think he neccesarily has to have a degree. i thought he once said that he joined the army straight out of high school?

Actually it's established in The Player Under Pressure that he went to Penn State on a basketball scholarship and it's implied that he joined the Army because his shoulder 'crapped out' on him and he lost his full ride.

In any event the FBI requires all SAs to have at least a bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university, no exceptions. SAC's have no additional requirement that I know of beyond the mandatory professional skills development courses, but given the competition for SAC slots among SAs you can bet no one is getting that job without a Masters or a shit load of equivalent relevant professional experience. I checked the FBI website and the first six SACs who's bios I looked at either had masters degrees or 18+ years with the Bureau. Give how fast Booth has risen through the ranks of the FBI to become the SAC of Major Crimes for DC he's got to have a Master's degree.

RM

wow thats some dedicated research there!

I actually had a discussion with a friend about this, his whole history and all, because if you think about it all it doesn't completely add up. I mean, the guy graduates from high school, has time to get a degree (at least a bachelor's, maybe even and most likely a master's), AND have that whole time as a super secret sniper as an Army Ranger, PLUS rank up enough experience at the FBI to become SAC of Major Crimes...but only be...he had his birthday this season, so like 36? Yeah.

I don't care. I love him anyway.

mr non-continuity rears his head again! oh well i couldnt care less.

That's when you kind of just smile and look past it, I mean you know they change things for TV and all that stuff. It's okay I guess.

i_heart_bones wrote:wow thats some dedicated research there!

Guilty as charged. Before I write a fic I build what I call a character bible for the main character. It combines canon information with what I can glean from the RW and what makes sense. So I'm almost positive Booth has a masters and that Brennan's three degrees are in Physical Anthropology, Forensic Anthropology, and Paleopathology. I'm not a stickler for realism, but I like accuracy and consistency.

MoonlightGardenias wrote:I actually had a discussion with a friend about this, his whole history and all, because if you think about it all it doesn't completely add up. I mean, the guy graduates from high school, has time to get a degree (at least a bachelor's, maybe even and most likely a master's), AND have that whole time as a super secret sniper as an Army Ranger, PLUS rank up enough experience at the FBI to become SAC of Major Crimes...but only be...he had his birthday this season, so like 36? Yeah.

I don't care. I love him anyway.

Well Booth made Master Sergeant in just under six years, so he had to spend almost two-thirds of his time overseas in forward areas or on black bag operations. Given what we know of his duties (going to Guatemala to shoot someone through the heart from 1500 feet?) a lot of his work was off the books, that means an even faster promotion track than average. Also Penn has a correspondence program that is designed for people like Booth who would have started as instate attendee's and then moved out of state (or gone in the army), Labsquint did a real nice job researching this for one of their stories. Given his military cred, his leadership skills, a four year degree and the likelihood that he cruised through Quantico his going from Rook to SA to SAC is highly doable. Remember, his protestations to the contrary about Brennan working too much, Booth is as much a workaholic as she is in many respects - before Brennan the two constants in his life have been his son, Parker, and his job.

I've always figured Booth left the army with one semester to go, finished up at Penn or matriculated. and joined the FBI. Workaholic new father Booth started grad school (probably Georgetown) and I'm guessing finished his masters degree sometime in the first year of his partnership with Brennan (notice how much nicer his office got in S2? Plus he started referring to himself as Special Agent in Charge). The timeline is tight, but not totally unreasonable if he's smarter than he lets on and works like a dog - which I think he is a go in both categories. Now Brennan, there's the wunderkind. Three doctorates before she's 30?

RM

notice how much nicer his office got in S2?

I was watching the pilot just yesterday and did notice that he seemed to be stuck back in a corner somewhere. I kinda liked that old place, at least to watch from. I'd rather work in Booth's office he has now.

You know what's interesting? The fact that his office looks much nicer, and yet he seems to have taken a step down as far as apartments go. His one they showed back in S1 looked a lot bigger and..nicer? I don't know. I mean, I'm not dissing Boothykins. I would go there anyway. I dun care. Just saying. I know the FBI doesn't pay a whole lot but still.

Oh and also I'm kind of waiting for Brennan to buy that big house and the plasma screen TV so Booth can be over there all the time. Because, you know, it's understandable. No need to ask.