‘Bones’ season 12, episode 8 review: Brennan grieves with Sully, sends Booth to Canada
Last time on “Bones” they went full throttle on pretty much every big story they have going right now. We saw Booth capture the man that was trying to kill him which was a big victory, but at the same time we saw Brennan lose her dad. As difficult as it was to see that loss, we also saw one of our favorite performances out of Emily Deschanel – one that was a quiet, soft misery of losing a parent. We hope the Golden Globes were paying attention.
It didn’t take very long before we were feeling as heartbroken as Brennan is over losing her dad. We can see her trying to hold in all of her pain, and as much as Booth is trying to be there for her, she’s not opening up to him. Brennan decides to go back to work to try to get back into a routine in hopes that some of her pain will subside, but as we all know, pain follows you everywhere you go.
When Brennan goes into the lab she is surprised by a visit from Sully! We weren’t sure when we were going to see Brennan smile again, but Sully was able to make her smile in seconds. So why is he here? He heard about Brennan’s dad passing and wanted to be there for her. Even while watching her show him pictures of her kids and him talking about a young woman he’s dating, it was clear that there’s still a bit of chemistry there – nothing on the level of Booth’s chemistry with Brennan, but still a little spark. So are we going to see the little green eyed monster otherwise known as jealousy rearing it’s ugly head?
When Sully asks Brennan out for dinner and she says yes we can see it not settling that well with Booth. The thing is, it’s hard to tell if it’s really jealousy or if it’s more about not being able to be the person Brennan wants to lean on. When Booth has a chance to go to Canada to work on a case, he says he’s not going because he wants to be there with her, but Brennan wants some space and asks him to go. Now before everyone jumps on Brennan for pushing away Booth and leaning on Sully, as a former funeral director we just want to say that we’ve seen it all when it comes to people grieving and everyone deals with pain in different ways. We’ve seen people pull away from their partners and lean on unexpected people/friends, so what Brennan is doing is actually quite normal and doesn’t mean she’s drifting from Booth. Besides, we can’t see the masterminds behind “Bones” causing this serious of rift between one of the best television couples of all time with only a few episodes left before the end of the series.
Once Booth leaves, Brennan goes out for dinner with Sully. It’s not romantic (as we expected), but she does open up to him in a way that Booth was hoping she would with him. When she starts crying, she asks herself the same question – why is she crying with Sully and not with Booth? He tells her that grief works in mysterious ways, and uses their own relationship as an example. Some of why Brennan is having a hard time opening up to Booth is that she doesn’t want Booth to feel like she blames him.
As hard as it was watching Brennan lean on Sully and not on Booth, we appreciate the show taking a risk like this and showing another side of grief that many people don’t see. This happens fairly often and we’ve even see it confuse people when it happens to them. Booth and Brennan are going to be just fine, because this is a love that is patient and kind and we saw that when Booth returned home. Episode grade: A
What did you think of tonight’s episode of “Bones”? Leave us a comment in the box below. Also, if you want to know what’s coming up on the next new episode of “Bones” the head on over to the link here and check out our preview. (Photo: Fox)