‘Bones’ Spent Way Too Long Playing the Will-They-Won’t-They Game

The Big Picture

• Bones took a lighthearted approach to crime investigations, infusing humor into even the most grotesque cases, making it stand out from other crime dramas like CSI and NCIS.
• The show missed opportunities to bring Booth and Brennan together in meaningful ways, leaving audiences unsatisfied with their off-screen relationship progression.
• Although Bones eventually brought Booth and Brennan together, it felt too easy after a long buildup, but fans were still satisfied with the outcome and the show continued to be successful.

The police procedural Bones did a lot of things right. The long-running Fox hit created by Hart Hanson brought to life the Temperance Brennan book series by Kathy Reichs, based on her work as a forensic anthropologist. Reichs’ book series was fictionalized, but it was rooted in the realities of her profession. To keep the more technical aspects of the show scientifically sound, Kathy Reichs was brought on as a producer. Bones told transfixing stories of unidentified bodies and bizarre, often grotesque crimes, but the highlight of the show was the will-they-won’t-they dynamic between Temperance “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).

Bones is, at its heart, a police procedural. It differs from the likes of CSI, Law & Order, and NCIS in the more comedic, even lighthearted approach the show takes to telling its tales. With Brennan’s expertise in identifying indecipherable human remains and Booth’s expertise in finding criminals, they make the perfect team. Though the crimes they investigated were often overtly off-putting, writers always managed to throw in an element of humor. Where other crime dramas were serious and dark, Bones managed to navigate even the most revolting of cases, like the liquefied remains in the Season 6 episode “The Body in the Bag,” with wit and irreverence. What made Bones so adept at bringing humanity to the stark forensics was the dynamic between the characters, especially between Booth and Brennan — but the show itself took way too long to make them an official couple.

‘Bones’ Brought Booth and Brennan Together in the Worst Way

After waiting six seasons for the romantic tension between Booth and Brennan to come to a head, audiences were stunned to realize they would not get the big romantic moment for which they longed. After holding off their magnetic attraction for years, Booth and Brennan deserved fireworks, and viewers earned a front-row seat. Unfortunately for audiences, they never fully reaped the rewards of Bones’ long-awaited coupling. Instead of a passionate kiss and an outpouring of love for one another, Booth and Brennan’s relationship took shape off-screen, leaving audiences in the dark. Viewers were left to hear about the details as Brennan recounted them and discovered she was pregnant and Booth was the father.

Though Bones‘ creator, Hart Hanson, has remarked that the decision to bring the couple together was always discussed in the writers’ room, how it finally happened almost feels like an after-thought. With Emily Deschanel’s real-life pregnancy, the decision to embrace that narrative drove the writers to throw the couple together quickly and focus on the outcome of their romance rather than the moments leading to it. Their story feels incomplete without a big romantic moment to transition Booth and Brennan from friends to lovers.

The other issue with the decision to accelerate the relationship and write Deschanel’s real-life pregnancy into Bones’ narrative without taking a moment to establish Booth and Brennan as a couple is that, instead of finding true love with Booth, Brennan is reduced to a woman who needs to be saved from the societal judgments of single motherhood. Had Bones brought the characters together earlier in a more organic way, audiences would have gotten their happy ending, and Brennan’s character as a strong, independent woman would have been preserved. Booth and Brennan deserved their moment to come together, confess their true love for each other, and decide to pursue a relationship. Though the writers did a disservice to viewers and the characters alike in glossing over the long-awaited relationship, they did at least commit fully to the couple’s narrative, leading to six more successful seasons of Bones.

‘Bones’ Missed the Perfect Opportunity to Make Brennan and Booth an Official Couple

Bones had the perfect moment to bring Booth and Brennan together. In the Season 3 episode “The Santa in the Slush,” circumstances arise that have Booth and Brennan knowingly standing under the mistletoe at the behest of Caroline (Patricia Belcher). Their kiss is electric and gives the show the perfect opportunity to have Booth and Brennan acknowledge their feelings for one another. It was the ideal setup to provide audiences with the passionate moment they wanted and allow the characters to begin building their relationship. Instead, Brennan disregards the kiss as nothing, just the result of mistletoe, and the two leads carry on for another three seasons before getting their happy ending.

Another moment comes in Bones’ 100th episode, when Booth tells Brennan she is the one, and he’s known from the first moment they met. It couldn’t have been more perfect for Brennan to have let her guard down and admit her feelings for Booth. The episode also recounts the first case they worked on together, which took place before the pilot episode, in which Brennan ends up being fired by the FBI team, gets drunk with Booth, shares a steamy kiss, and then bolts. Needless to say, there was ample opportunity to allow Booth and Brennan to explore their complex relationship.

‘Bones’ Finally Succeeded in Bringing Booth and Brennan Together

With other “almost” moments of intense romantic tension throughout the many seasons of Bones, it’s clear that the writers weren’t going to make it easy for Booth and Brennan to couple up. That’s what feels so odd about how they ended up coming together: it was almost too easy. The build-up of their relationship had gone on for so long that it almost seemed impossible to bring them together. Yet, Season 6 sees them finally consummating their relationship, discovering they will be parents, and then skipping months ahead in their story. Season 7 opens with the two blissfully expecting the arrival of their baby and in love, as fans always wanted.

Luckily for Bones, though fans were a little miffed at not witnessing the culmination of the romantic tension between Booth and Brennan, viewers were satisfied with the coupling of the two. In bringing the pair together in the way the writers did, the show was able to preserve the integrity of the individuals and move the narrative forward. By the time audiences saw Booth and Brennan together, they had already established their relationship. With six more successful seasons, it’s clear that Bones did not fall prey to “The Moonlighting Curse,” begging the question, “Would Bones have been as successful if Booth and Brennan had coupled up sooner?” Though we will never know what could have been, there is no reason to think that the show would have suffered had Booth and Brennan come together earlier. What we do know, however, is that Bones continued to delight audiences with character-driven narratives, gripping forensics investigations, and the perfect, though delayed, happily-ever-after for Seeley Booth and Temperance “Bones” Brennan.

Bones is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.

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