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Celebrating 1,000 NCIS-franchise episodes

S11.E08: High Treason In The Holiday Season

WendyCR72

By WendyCR72
in Bones [V]

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

The team investigates the high-stakes murder of a political journalist who was found dead after recently publishing an article exposing corruption in the NSA. Due to the nature of the investigation, Hodgins’ paranoia takes over as the team realizes their every move is being watched. Meanwhile, Brennan secretly tries to plan a surprise for Booth and the whole team celebrates Thanksgiving together.
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ddawn23

ddawn23

Well that was... not great.

 

I have to admit-- it's been so long since they've mentioned Parker (at least that I remember), and I got distracted by how much Teen!Parker looks like teenaged Haley Joel Osment that I totally thought a huge secret was being revealed when the boy addressed Booth as "Dad."  I went from "OH MY GOD Booth has another kid!!!" to "Oh yeah, Parker exists."

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AntiBeeSpray

AntiBeeSpray

Well that was... not great.

 

I have to admit-- it's been so long since they've mentioned Parker (at least that I remember), and I got distracted by how much Teen!Parker looks like teenaged Haley Joel Osment that I totally thought a huge secret was being revealed when the boy addressed Booth as "Dad."  I went from "OH MY GOD Booth has another kid!!!" to "Oh yeah, Parker exists."

 

Well he probably was off at school and such (the actor), so that's why it's been such a long time (at least guessing) since he's been on.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

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Well he probably was off at school and such (the actor), so that's why it's been such a long time (at least guessing) since he's been on.

 

Actually, this is a NuParker and he has been - from the looks of it - slightly aged. Gavin MacIntosh is NuParker. Original Parker was played by Ty Panitz. Panitz had the light blonde hair (which suited him still since Jessica Capshaw, now on Grey's Anatomy, played his mom, Rebecca, and she had blonde hair, too.).

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AntiBeeSpray

AntiBeeSpray

 

Actually, this is a NuParker and he has been - from the looks of it - slightly aged. Gavin MacIntosh is NuParker. Original Parker was played by Ty Panitz. Panitz had the light blonde hair (which suited him still since Jessica Capshaw, now on Grey's Anatomy, played his mom, Rebecca, and she had blonde hair, too.).

 

Oh I see. Didn't even know that a new actor was playing him.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

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Gavin is a regular on The Fosters, so he probably won't be around for long.

 

Yeah, I read somewhere that scheduling conflicts with that show is why Parker did not show up sooner. I wonder why he was cast (well, he does sort of resemble DB) when he had a prior commitment? And I'm surprised the other show lets him do Bones if he is a regular there.

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mrsjoe

mrsjoe

Well, call me shocked that the most well known of the guest stars (the ex husband) DIDN'T do it. Well shocked is a bit strong since the NSA guy who was helping was over-enthusiastic and the shady NSA guy was clearly a red herring. And please, the NSA actually tortured her for the drive, but it never occurred to them to look in her office in a not that super hidden spot that Hodgens finds 1 minute after going in? Um, okay.

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ddawn23

ddawn23

This may have been talked about before since I know we've seen Michael Vincent this season, but I'm glad they had the forethought to SORAS him up along with Christine, who is supposed to be slightly younger than him.

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shapeshifter

shapeshifter

(edited)

My first thought:

totally thought a huge secret was being revealed when the boy addressed Booth as "Dad." I [thought]... "OH MY GOD Booth has another kid!!!"

As long as they were recasting Booth's son, shouldn't they have gone with someone taller if he's supposed to me a teenager now? Edited by shapeshifter
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Julia

Julia

(edited)

I wouldn't exactly blame an actor for being not enthusiastically on board with a plot that pretty much celebrates whistleblowers being tortured. And this plot was seriously distasteful.

 

However: Yay, Cam.

Edited by Julia
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Trey

Trey

 

However: Yay, Cam.

I missed this episode due to faulty scheduling - my own, since I thought it was on at 9, not 8. Is the Yay, Cam for her going out with the famous photographer?

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jaytee1812

jaytee1812

I wouldn't exactly blame an actor for being not enthusiastically on board with a plot that pretty much celebrates whistleblowers being tortured. And this plot was seriously distasteful.

Given Boreanez social media postings I'm sure he enjoyed that storyline.

Was Booth always this much of a moron? I remember an earlier episode where he admitted during the American revolution he would be on the side of the British because he was a good soldier who took orders, but he also realised that in the long run it wasn't always the right thing. It's like there are no shades of grey anymore, which is like he doesn't remember the numerous times the bad guys have been within government organisations on this show.

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Julia

Julia

Given Boreanez social media postings I'm sure he enjoyed that storyline.

Was Booth always this much of a moron? I remember an earlier episode where he admitted during the American revolution he would be on the side of the British because he was a good soldier who took orders, but he also realised that in the long run it wasn't always the right thing. It's like there are no shades of grey anymore, which is like he doesn't remember the numerous times the bad guys have been within government organisations on this show.

 

No, he was always a jingo, but he wasn't always this much of a moron. In the first season, he investigated the cover-up of a friendly fire death in Iraq and he was more enraged by the guy who was 'protecting' the army than he was with the protesters he was offended by. In season 5, though, the people in the lab were kidnapped by maybe the CIA to do an autopsy on maybe President Kennedy and Bones lies at the end to leave Booth with his illusions about the government because he's all freaked out about being a descendant of John Wilkes Booth and that makes him obsessive about being a good soldier to the point of being unable to accept reality.

 

Also in season five they started giving David Boreanaz seriously dumbed down dialog to the point where he mostly grunts thing, but I figured that was like going into the lab, something he didn't feel like doing.

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

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Booth was pretty savvy early on. It was only when Wonder-Boy Shrink Sweets was added as a permanent cast member (IMO!) that Booth had massive amounts of gray matter lost so he could get "counseled". Alas, it happened for so long that I don't think anyone remembers savvy Early Booth.

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kili

kili

(edited)

Yes, Brennan used to bring the book smarts and Booth the people smarts (knowing what motivated them and how people would react), but when Sweets showed up, his people smarts were given to Sweets. That left Booth with the job of coordinating and putting on the cuffs. And because he no longer had an area of intelligence, he constantly had to stand around while others explained things to the audience through him. 

Edited by kili
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grinchyheart

grinchyheart

One thing that really bugged me this episode was Angela's facial reconstruction - she shows a generic, slightly scowling face and says this is what she looked like "before plastic surgery". Then she proceeds to change the drawing of the bone structure to match the victim's ACTUAL SKULL that she supposedly BASED the reconstruction on. 

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Panopticon

Panopticon

Aww, it's so sad to read about Booth being (a) a jerk to the people he supposedly loves and (b) a moron. I suspect that those things went hand-in-hand with the character devolution.

 

Right from the start of the show, Booth always did whine and moan about little things. ("I want my own pass to get into the lab!" "Don't order tofu from the Chinese restaurant even if you also ordered stuff I like!" "Despite my special forces training, I didn't bring water to hike through the desert, so give me yours!") Part of the offset of that was that he never complained about the big things or used them as an excuse. If he had had total control over the situation, no one would have known that his father beat him and his mother walked out and he couldn't bring himself to let Jared accept the consequences of his own actions at great cost to himself. 

 

But the rest of the offset was Booth's being incredibly emotionally intelligent and putting that to good use in his friend/colleague relationships as well as while solving cases. The overarching glaring example of that in the first few seasons is probably how he managed to frame holding Brennan when she was upset about her family drama as a partner/guy hug thing that he would do with anyone. He invented the framework because it was the only way she could allow herself to accept what she needed from him, despite the fact that he was happy to give it to her. And there were a million little examples that happened in almost every episode tag. Convincing Brennan to ditch a bill (which of course he paid behind her back) so she could experience being "bad." Not giving Brennan a Smurfette figurine because all Smurfette had were her looks and Brennan had so much more.  Freaking singing Keep on Trying with Brennan in the diner because she was dealing with her father's reappearance and that was Max's song!

 

No one had to tell him to do any of those things. He figured it out all by himself, usually on the fly, and with the motivation of liking and caring for the people around him. 

 

It would actually be interesting if the show explored why Booth regressed emotionally and intellectually... but good writing would only go so far if David Boreanez played it with a bored, blank look on his face. 

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Julia

Julia

Aww, it's so sad to read about Booth being (a) a jerk to the people he supposedly loves and (b) a moron. I suspect that those things went hand-in-hand with the character devolution.

 

Right from the start of the show, Booth always did whine and moan about little things. ("I want my own pass to get into the lab!" "Don't order tofu from the Chinese restaurant even if you also ordered stuff I like!" "Despite my special forces training, I didn't bring water to hike through the desert, so give me yours!") Part of the offset of that was that he never complained about the big things or used them as an excuse. If he had had total control over the situation, no one would have known that his father beat him and his mother walked out and he couldn't bring himself to let Jared accept the consequences of his own actions at great cost to himself. 

 

But the rest of the offset was Booth's being incredibly emotionally intelligent and putting that to good use in his friend/colleague relationships as well as while solving cases. The overarching glaring example of that in the first few seasons is probably how he managed to frame holding Brennan when she was upset about her family drama as a partner/guy hug thing that he would do with anyone. He invented the framework because it was the only way she could allow herself to accept what she needed from him, despite the fact that he was happy to give it to her. And there were a million little examples that happened in almost every episode tag. Convincing Brennan to ditch a bill (which of course he paid behind her back) so she could experience being "bad." Not giving Brennan a Smurfette figurine because all Smurfette had were her looks and Brennan had so much more.  Freaking singing Keep on Trying with Brennan in the diner because she was dealing with her father's reappearance and that was Max's song!

 

No one had to tell him to do any of those things. He figured it out all by himself, usually on the fly, and with the motivation of liking and caring for the people around him. 

 

It would actually be interesting if the show explored why Booth regressed emotionally and intellectually... but good writing would only go so far if David Boreanez played it with a bored, blank look on his face. 

 

I don't know - I went there first too, but kili makes an awfully good point that the deterioration of Booth and Brennan really went into overdrive when the show was year or so into syndication and they pulled away from Booth and Brennan to concentrate on terrible backdoor pilots and making Dr. Sweets happen. Just think how different the show could have been if Sweets had been Gormagon's apprentice...

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Panopticon

Panopticon

(edited)

Oh, I don't doubt any of that. I do think Boreanez (and Deschanel is guilty of this too) looks like he can't be bothered most of the time compared to the really excellent performances from early on, but that happened after the writing went from excellent to building other things on the backs of the two leads. And hey, it still happens in the show's dotage... here's hoping that Halloween mess helped Sleepy Hollow out.

 

I was more musing on how the current episodes drive home how very well Booth was initially drawn. I originally thought that in the early episodes he was a two-dimensional stock character who mainly existed to complement the very complex and off-center Brennan, but that's not the case. He had a full-fledged set of strengths and weaknesses and motivations. And I do wonder if there's any amount of good writing and good acting that could explain what the hell happened to Booth (and Brennan) in a non-meta sense.

 

Speaking of writing, I hope someone wrote that fanfic where Sweets was Gormagon's apprentice... Heh.

 

(I did love the early season 4 episodes where Sweets still aggravated Booth and Brennan so they verbally honed in on him like two nuclear missiles sent to swat a mosquito while Sweets basically cowered in the corner. But by the end of the season he'd started siphoning off their power.)

Edited by Panopticon
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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

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(I did love the early season 4 episodes where Sweets still aggravated Booth and Brennan so they verbally honed in on him like two nuclear missiles sent to swat a mosquito while Sweets basically cowered in the corner. But by the end of the season he'd started siphoning off their power.)

 

Sweets got off on a really bad note for me once he didn't tell Brennan that Booth was alive at the start of S4 because of "research" or whatever. That was just a dick move, especially since Booth told Sweets to tell her, likely knowing Brennan's abandonment issues.

 

So I did like when Brennan basically threatened Sweets to tell Booth what Sweets did so Booth would kick his ass.

 

I only wish she had followed through.

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Panopticon

Panopticon

So I did like when Brennan basically threatened Sweets to tell Booth what Sweets did so Booth would kick his ass.

 

 

One of my favorite moments in the entire series. "You just sit there and be a good little boy, and maybe I won't tell him even though I'd enjoy watching him rip you limb from limb." Except said more eloquently.

 

That stunt was downright sociopathic. Sweets tortured Brennan with this massive grief she had no way of expressing.... because he wanted to see what would happen. I doubt that I ever would have accepted him as the most special snowflake ever to drift from the heavens in any case, but I certainly never could after that.

 

Give me Aubrey over Sweets any day, actually. Aubrey walked into the show already talented, competent, and decent. He wanted Booth's approval, but not so badly that he would let Booth dismiss and berate him for no reason... though it is too bad that the show was structured such that he had to use semi-meta language like "if you hate on me you're really hating on Sweets because he chose me, it's not my fault he's gone." Aubrey? If it were your fault Sweets was gone, I'd like you even more than I already do. 

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Julia

Julia

I could have dealt with Sweets as a problematic coworker, even after that.

My problem came when Gordon Gordon made the case to them that they had to keep Sweets around out of pity, because the baby duckling was just too needy and wounded to act like a responsible adult or an ethical doctor.

Then Sweets, acting as a psychiatric professional, manipulated Booth into not talking about his feelings by lying to him about what he knew Brennan's feelings were because he didn't want mom and dad pairing off and excluding him. And then once Brennan retreated into her shell and rebuilt all her defenses, using Booth's addiction to prod him into an admission she wasn't ready for and an ultimatum because now Sweets was getting laid and he had better toys to play with.

And somehow through all of this, with his patients/friends left miserable and emotionally crippled for years (and later dumping his girlfriend the day she came to live with him at his request so he could move in and inject himself into every private hour the newlyweds who'd never been alone might have), the weekly speeches about what a sweet, loving, empathic, ethical fellow he was. It actually replaced the shipping comments from random guest stars. Almost as if everyone had forgotten that he was only there because he was hopelessly, dysfunctionally broken.

Seriously, forget Pelant. Sweets was the big bad who got away with it until he died. Which I guess is to say the producers' screw you to a show they squandered the credibility to move on from.

Not that I'm bitter.

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Panopticon

Panopticon

You know, I was perfectly able to dislike Sweets without knowing 75% of that! I rolled my eyes out of my head just because at the beginning of season 5  Sweets held up a picture of a brain scan and told Booth it proved he only thought he loved Brennan because he'd had brain surgery. As far as I know Sweets wasn't being selfish/malicious there, but he was certainly being stupid and incompetent. Every character on that show with eyes knew how Booth felt about Brennan throughout season 4, pre brain surgery. (And Gordon even tried to explain it to Sweets using very small words...)

 

And, damn it, the timing would have been perfect. No particularly stressful external drama. No particularly high walls. No particular trust issues between them. When he came back to work, she was bouncing all over him hugging him with no underlying concerns. Wrapping her arms around him when a clown showed up with no underlying concerns. Exchanging platonic "I love yous" with no underlying concerns. There was no realistic reason that he shouldn't have said "Hey, Bones, that story you read me while I was unconscious? I want that. Not so much the club ownership part, but the you-and-me part."

 

No realistic reason except Sweets said don't, and all judgment calls must be deferred to Sweets.

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Julia

Julia

You know, I was perfectly able to dislike Sweets without knowing 75% of that! I rolled my eyes out of my head just because at the beginning of season 5  Sweets held up a picture of a brain scan and told Booth it proved he only thought he loved Brennan because he'd had brain surgery. As far as I know Sweets wasn't being selfish/malicious there, but he was certainly being stupid and incompetent. Every character on that show with eyes knew how Booth felt about Brennan throughout season 4, pre brain surgery. (And Gordon even tried to explain it to Sweets using very small words...).

Sweets later admitted to Gordon Gordon that he'd written an entire book about his conclusion that they were obviously in love with each other by that point. He knew already.

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Panopticon

Panopticon

So it was malice and not just stupidity, then. Good to know.

 

I guess when his dying words were that world was better than B&B thought it was, he just left out "because I'm no longer going to be in it to screw things up for you on purpose." 

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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

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You know, I was perfectly able to dislike Sweets without knowing 75% of that! I rolled my eyes out of my head just because at the beginning of season 5  Sweets held up a picture of a brain scan and told Booth it proved he only thought he loved Brennan because he'd had brain surgery. As far as I know Sweets wasn't being selfish/malicious there, but he was certainly being stupid and incompetent. Every character on that show with eyes knew how Booth felt about Brennan throughout season 4, pre brain surgery. (And Gordon even tried to explain it to Sweets using very small words...)

 

And, damn it, the timing would have been perfect. No particularly stressful external drama. No particularly high walls. No particular trust issues between them. When he came back to work, she was bouncing all over him hugging him with no underlying concerns. Wrapping her arms around him when a clown showed up with no underlying concerns. Exchanging platonic "I love yous" with no underlying concerns. There was no realistic reason that he shouldn't have said "Hey, Bones, that story you read me while I was unconscious? I want that. Not so much the club ownership part, but the you-and-me part."

 

No realistic reason except Sweets said don't, and all judgment calls must be deferred to Sweets.

 

I HATED when Sweets used Booth's brain scan in "Harbingers..." to discourage Booth from telling Brennan ILY. UGH.

 

And I just realized this is not the past seasons thread. So if we need to continue, we should go there.

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