Have Booth & Brennan Missed Their Moment?

Hi, I'm new to this forum and I just can't resist to put in my 2 cents.

I don't think they missed any moment at all. They always have those little moments which make their connection really special. I don't think "THE ONE MOMENT" that we are looking forward will be very significant if it is forced on the characters, whether they are ready or not.
After all, we can take the horse to the river but we can't force it to drink. The refreshing water will only be beneficial to the horse if he has a need for it.

And speaking of horses, my favorite moment was in the episode "Death in the Saddle" where Booth was talking to Brennan about connections and I can see in Brennan's apt face a reverence of some kind. Like there was a revelation that has finally reached her uber rational brain which she can't rationalize. To me that was a MAJOR MOMENT!

Well Brennan would say that nothing in the universe happens only once, and with Booth, I'd say he's one of those "While we live, there's hope" types so no, I don't think they've missed their moment. I do, though, think that they very well could miss it if they both don't get their heads out of their collective asses.

Booth went to Afghanistan heart broken but hopeful of coming back in a year and finding Brennan more open to a relationship. However when he got no contact from her for months at a time he gave up on ever having anything but their partnership when he went back so he fell into bed with the first attractive woman to give him a second look - Hannah. Now that he's back and he's finding those old familiar feelings starting to stir he's throwing himself into his relationship with Hannah, hoping - I believe - to convince himself that he's in love with her even though his heart isn't really in it.

Brennan, for her part, left for Maluku because she was overwhelmed by emotions she couldn't identify or understand. She rejected Booth because she was afraid she'd hurt him, and more importantly that if she let herself fall in love with him that he would somehow hurt her. Instead she found she'd already hurt him badly, worse than that she found that her feelings for him were deeper and more complex that she'd admitted to herself. The gravedigger case didn't dredge up uncomfortable memories of her own kidnapping as much as it did her feelings of helplessness when Booth was taken. That pushed her to her emotional breaking point and she fled to Maluku in hopes of putting emotional space between them and in an effort to figure out what she was feeling. Seven months of self enforced silence clarified things to the point that she now knows she loves Booth, worse she knows she hurt him badly and has the potential to hurt him even more. She sees Hannah as both a blessing and a curse. A curse in that she's Brennan's just punishment for rejecting Booth, and a blessing because Brennan is more than willing to sacrifice her own happiness for Booth's - and not for purely altruistic reasons either.

You see Brennan is still afraid of letting herself love Booth the way he wants her to, because she's still afraid of hurting him or, more importantly, getting hurt herself. Hannah solves that problem for both of them by being what she things Booth needs - an open, intelligent, and adventuresome woman who can love him completely. As long as Hannah is around Brennan doesn't have to risk her heart, and as long as she makes Booth happy Brennan won't feel guilty about having hurt him. Once Hannah is gone, however, Brennan's carefully constructed world of lies and self-delusion will crash down around her and she'll be forced to act on her feelings for Booth or give him up completely. I'm hoping for the former.

RM

THX1138 wrote:Well Brennan would say that nothing in the universe happens only once, and with Booth, I'd say he's one of those "While we live, there's hope" types so no, I don't think they've missed their moment. I do, though, think that they very well could miss it if they both don't get their heads out of their collective asses.

Booth went to Afghanistan heart broken but hopeful of coming back in a year and finding Brennan more open to a relationship. However when he got no contact from her for months at a time he gave up on ever having anything but their partnership when he went back so he fell into bed with the first attractive woman to give him a second look - Hannah. Now that he's back and he's finding those old familiar feelings starting to stir he's throwing himself into his relationship with Hannah, hoping - I believe - to convince himself that he's in love with her even though his heart isn't really in it.

Brennan, for her part, left for Maluku because she was overwhelmed by emotions she couldn't identify or understand. She rejected Booth because she was afraid she'd hurt him, and more importantly that if she let herself fall in love with him that he would somehow hurt her. Instead she found she'd already hurt him badly, worse than that she found that her feelings for him were deeper and more complex that she'd admitted to herself. The gravedigger case didn't dredge up uncomfortable memories of her own kidnapping as much as it did her feelings of helplessness when Booth was taken. That pushed her to her emotional breaking point and she fled to Maluku in hopes of putting emotional space between them and in an effort to figure out what she was feeling. Seven months of self enforced silence clarified things to the point that she now knows she loves Booth, worse she knows she hurt him badly and has the potential to hurt him even more. She sees Hannah as both a blessing and a curse. A curse in that she's Brennan's just punishment for rejecting Booth, and a blessing because Brennan is more than willing to sacrifice her own happiness for Booth's - and not for purely altruistic reasons either.

You see Brennan is still afraid of letting herself love Booth the way he wants her to, because she's still afraid of hurting him or, more importantly, getting hurt herself. Hannah solves that problem for both of them by being what she things Booth needs - an open, intelligent, and adventuresome woman who can love him completely. As long as Hannah is around Brennan doesn't have to risk her heart, and as long as she makes Booth happy Brennan won't feel guilty about having hurt him. Once Hannah is gone, however, Brennan's carefully constructed world of lies and self-delusion will crash down around her and she'll be forced to act on her feelings for Booth or give him up completely. I'm hoping for the former.

RM

Wow, your highness - I actually agree with most of this. Note I said most . My point of contention is this:As long as Hannah is around Brennan doesn't have to risk her heart, and as long as she makes Booth happy Brennan won't feel guilty about having hurt him. Once Hannah is gone, however, Brennan's carefully constructed world of lies and self-delusion will crash down around her and she'll be forced to act on her feelings for Booth or give him up completely. I'm hoping for the former.

I think there are going to have to be some mutual changes and realizations if these two are going to get together. I agree that Brennan had her realization in Maluka, and would have approached Booth if Blondzilla wasn't in the picture. However, she is in the picture, and that picture is affirming that insecure part of herself. The part that says she's not right for him. She is now stuck with knowing that she's in love with Booth, AND she wasn't right for him. I say she thinks she not right for him because if she thought the journalist wasn't right for Booth or was going to hurt him, she'd take Blondzilla out in second. Hence the warning Brennan makes to her about being sure.

So Brennan is in love with Booth and trying to hide it from him, trying to go back to that best-friend denial place. Only from what's been going on, looks like she's not doing so well with it. Even if/when Blondie leaves, Brennan isn't going to jump up and say, "hey guess what, I'm sorry about what happened before and maybe we could try it now." She STILL thinks she's wrong for Booth. If the blondie/Booth relationship ends badly, or hell, even if Booth is just sad, Brennan will see it as what would happen if things didn't work out between her and Booth.

Here's where the other part of what IMO has to happen. Brennan is basically falling apart because of her awareness of being in love with Booth. And Booth's powers of observation and investigation seem to have returned this year (HH issue, ) Last week he started to notice something might be off with Brennan. He doesn't want to know, he doesn't want to feel those feelings for her again. He wants to move on. It's not happening - anyone who watched the ep and saw that look at the end, knows this. Booth needs to figure out that love isn't so transferable. You love who you love and you can't MAKE yourself love someone else.

Now, you and I majorly disagree about what I'm going to write next, so like, I'm just going to agree to disagree now. I don't thing Booth really knew Brennan was "the one." He once called her "the standard" - which isn't the same thing. The standard is what a factory uses when making models of the same thing. You compare things "to the standard" which implies others can match or measure up. I think what his relationship started in a warzone under a fig tree is going to show him is that the mold labeled "love of his life" got smashed after Brennan. She's it.

That being said, this is where I think they'll meet in the middle. Booth is already sensing Brennan is holding something back from him. She couldn't hold anything about her feelings back before because she wasn't consciously sure about what was going on with her emotions. Now she is aware, and she's never been good at lying about what she knows. The information about Brennan being in love with him is going to surface, Brennan is going to let it slip and it will be the final piece of the puzzle Booth will have been trying to put together despite himself. Brennan and him are both going have to risk telling each other the truth. Brennan that she's in love with him, and Booth is going to have to get to the place of being able to say she is THE ONE, and he wasn't able to move on because of it.

Yup. I hope they do a good job of showing Booths inner conflict as he comes to the realization that his relationship with Hannah, which he has thrown himself into so wholeheartedly, just isnt enough for him and Brennan is still the one he really wants. He is the guy who would never cheat, and if this is well done it could be very compelling to see him struggle with trying to be committed to one woman while wanting someone else.

lexie1982 wrote:Yup. I hope they do a good job of showing Booths inner conflict as he comes to the realization that his relationship with Hannah, which he has thrown himself into so wholeheartedly, just isnt enough for him and Brennan is still the one he really wants. He is the guy who would never cheat, and if this is well done it could be very compelling to see him struggle with trying to be committed to one woman while wanting someone else.

Absolutely, and I hope that do that justice also. They tend to gloss over those things with Booth.

lancelot wrote:

lexie1982 wrote:Yup. I hope they do a good job of showing Booths inner conflict as he comes to the realization that his relationship with Hannah, which he has thrown himself into so wholeheartedly, just isnt enough for him and Brennan is still the one he really wants. He is the guy who would never cheat, and if this is well done it could be very compelling to see him struggle with trying to be committed to one woman while wanting someone else.

Absolutely, and I hope that do that justice also. They tend to gloss over those things with Booth.

Yes, well they spent the first three years building his character up, the fourth trying to morph him from an educated blue collar (morality-wise) law man with a code of honor into a crass goofy moronic class clown, and then the fifth looking for a way to shift him back to basics but without the morality (Booth joking around about sex toys, really?) so glossing over those aspects of his personality that make him the Booth we love, well, that's all part of the game plan.


RM

THX1138 wrote:

lancelot wrote:

lexie1982 wrote:Yup. I hope they do a good job of showing Booths inner conflict as he comes to the realization that his relationship with Hannah, which he has thrown himself into so wholeheartedly, just isnt enough for him and Brennan is still the one he really wants. He is the guy who would never cheat, and if this is well done it could be very compelling to see him struggle with trying to be committed to one woman while wanting someone else.

Absolutely, and I hope that do that justice also. They tend to gloss over those things with Booth.

Yes, well they spent the first three years building his character up, the fourth trying to morph him from an educated blue collar (morality-wise) law man with a code of honor into a crass goofy moronic class clown, and then the fifth looking for a way to shift him back to basics but without the morality (Booth joking around about sex toys, really?) so glossing over those aspects of his personality that make him the Booth we love, well, that's all part of the game plan.


RM

That is exactly what I have seen happen to Booth said better than I have.