 |
For more information on this topic, see "Seeley Booth" on the Bones Wiki. |
- "Almost made it for the drive and Agent Booth's charming personality."
- —Abbie Mills[src]
Seeley Joseph Booth is a character in the Fox television series Bones. He appeared in the Bones crossover episode "Dead Men Tell No Tales".
History[]
Seeley Booth is currently an agent with the FBI. He frequently consults with his professional partner Temperance Brennan, whom he has nicknamed 'Bones', and her team (he refers to them as "squints"), acting as a liaison between the FBI and the Jeffersonian Institute. When it comes to solving crimes, Seeley has a very different approach from Brennan and her team, preferring a more human, interpersonal and intuitive set of methods. While he finds the information Dr. Brennan and her team uncover to be valuable clues, he often finds their means overly convoluted and restrictive, and prefers to add his own intuition and knowledge of people to it — something which clashes with Dr. Brennan's scientific, objective, and analytical approach, which has its very own limitations.
It was revealed that he knew August Corbin personally during their time in the military. He talked a lot about Abbie and her capabilities of becoming a good agent with the FBI, but Booth thinks that she should understand that the world can be saved, just not in one day.
Booth is supposed to be a relative of John Wilkes Booth. It was confirmed in Bones episodes "The Proof in the Pudding" and "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole" that he is a descendant and wishes that Brennan—who realized the connection because of their similar bone structures—won't tell anyone. Ironically, Booth has stated that his favorite president is Abraham Lincoln.
Personality[]
Generally, Booth has a cheerful, happy-go-lucky personality. He frequently smiles, makes jokes, and occasionally acts in a silly, almost childish manner. On the job, he tends to adopt a more serious, professional attitude, although his cheerful side occasionally slips through. However, he also has issues with his temperament and, as shown in several episodes, it has gotten him in trouble on occasion.
When it comes to solving crimes, Booth has a very different approach from his wife Dr. Brennan and her team, preferring a more human, interpersonal, and intuitive set of methods. While he finds the information Dr. Brennan and her team uncover valuable evidence, he often finds their means overly convoluted and restrictive and adds his intuition and knowledge of people on top of it — something that clashes with Dr. Brennan's hard, objective and analytical approach which is mindful of its own limits.
Booth is a patriot and has a strong sense of duty to his country and job. In "Soldier on the Grave", Angela described him as "someone who wants to keep honor and responsibility alive". For much of Season 1, this often led to friction between him and Jack Hodgins, who held anti-government views. According to Cam, Booth relies on his faith in the government to keep his sanity intact having killed nearly fifty people on government orders as an Army sniper. He takes his oath and position as a federal agent seriously and holds himself to an equally high standard; he is especially disgusted whenever a corrupt law enforcement officer is involved and refuses to participate in cover-ups.
Booth is also fiercely loyal and protective towards his friends and family to the point where he will not hesitate to physically threaten and intimidate anyone who attempts to harm them. Sweets theorized that his protective instincts – which he labeled "white knight syndrome" – stems from his abusive childhood and his having to frequently protect his younger brother Jared from their alcoholic father. His former boss Sam Cullen called him a "paladin" – "Defender of the faith, protector". Booth is characterized as a doting father to his three children, Parker, Christine and Hank II.
He is a religious man by nature and a practicing Roman Catholic, seeking to atone for the lives he took as a sniper through his time in Army. Due in part to his Catholic upbringing, Booth sees the world and morality in black and white, which contrasts Brennan's objective view of such abstract concepts. This conflicting view is often a source of friction and, later, banter between them. Booth draws the line between the "good guys" and "bad guys" and stated that "life is about taking sides", when asked abot how he is able to reconcile his past as a sniper while hunting down his former mentor-turned-vigilante Jacob Broadsky.
Booth once told Sweets that while he has killed (because he was following orders), he has never murdered. It is stated that Booth will not pull the trigger unless he is absolutely certain of the identity and guilt of the "target" he is about to kill and that it is sanctioned by a higher authority and not on his own volition. Booth views the law in a similarly subjective way and believes that committing a crime is never justifiable regardless of the circumstances. This, coupled with his "by the book" approach, is apparent when he arrests Brennan's father Max, for killing the Deputy Director of the FBI (who was revealed to be part of a cover-up), in her own office without hesitation in the Season 2 finale "Stargazer in a Puddle", although he does apologize to Bones before leading Max out in handcuffs. Booth has been shown to be somehwat arrogant, for example when someone he suspected said he was not ready to be a parent, Booth told him it was not his decision, even though it clearly was his choice.
One of Booth's noted characteristics is his respect for life. Despite spending most of his working life around firearms, it is a known fact that he dislikes having to kill another human being and it remains a sensitive topic for him. His past as a sniper still haunts him emotionally and Bones surmised that his choice to become an FBI agent and his dedication for seeking justice for victims was his way of paying penance. In the pilot, he tells Bones that he hopes to catch as many criminals as people he has killed. In the episode "The Man in the S.U.V.", after shooting and killing a terrorist about to detonate a bomb at a crowded convention center, he refused to accept credit and explains to Bones that he finds "no pleasure in taking someone's life". When he shot a mechanical clown on an ice cream truck for seemingly no reason, he was ordered to see Dr. Gordon Wyatt for counseling in order to get his badge and gun back. In subsequent episodes Dr. Wyatt uncovers the guilt and anger Booth has been harboring for so long. Booth's FBI colleague Dr. Lance Sweets noted that the reason why Booth was able to live through the guilt was his ability to channel it into his career in the FBI and responsibility to his son and those he cared about.
On the job, Booth is characterized as a "man of action" and once claimed that he would "rot behind a desk". Early in season 8, he was given an opportunity to earn a promotion to an administrative position but passed up the chance in order to help Sweets and rookie agent Olivia Sparling with an emergency situation involving an assassin armed with an explosive. Bones herself commented that Booth being assigned to a desk job was akin to "caging an animal" and that he was "meant to run free". Booth tends to shy away from the limelight when it comes to taking credit for solving a case. He tends to be a kinesthetic person who favors the physical aspects of his job, such as chasing down suspects or leading a SWAT team, and would throw around a ball or putt a golf ball into a cup in his office while thinking through his cases.
Booth tends to keep his personal and professional life as separate as possible and is quite territorial, especially in regards to his personal life and what he considers his personal space. This is exhibited by the fact that he displays his military medals and memorabilia in his office rather than in his home. He is also extremely guarded and taciturn about most aspects of his personal life, namely his abusive father, troubled childhood, "love life" and traumatic experiences in the military. For example, in the episode "A Night at the Bones Museum", he becomes offended when Bones talks about him while on a date with his "boss's boss" Andrew Hacker and curtly tells her that "what goes on between us is ours". When asked more personal questions, such as about his emotional problems, especially by Sweets or Bones, his first reaction is to change the subject, deflect them with jokes or become defensive. Even when confronted privately "out of office", he usually refuses to talk outright, choosing instead to downplay his emotions and brood over a drink at the bar. In later seasons, he has begun to open up to and confide in Bones. The "squints" soon began their habit of interfering, or be simply being very interested, with his personal life. Angela asked personal questions about and directly to Tessa, and even advised them on island trips. When he was dating Cam, Angela and Hodgins soon found out from what they had seen in the lab. But what really interests them is his relationship with Brennan; They all hint at it, and Angela always asks them questions. Camille herself becomes interested, asking questions as well, such as an instance when she was undercover, she asked if there was only one bed where they were seeing them so close Booth sat on Brennan's clothes. He became Hodgins' adviser when proposing to Angela.
He is a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team; pictures of the team hang on the back wall of his office, as well as he has been seen wearing a Flyers T-shirt in several episodes he also proceeded to watch a Flyers game at a funeral. During many episodes he is seen drinking from a Pittsburgh Steelers coffee mug, suggesting he is also a fan of that football team. In his apartment Booth has a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey jersey of Mario Lemieux, which implies he is a fan of the Penguins. He is implied to be a Philadelphia Phillies supporter as well; in season 8, his mother brings his childhood toy – a miniature Phillie Phanatic stuffed toy – to give to Christine and in "The Blackout in the Blizzard" he acquires a row of seats from the former Veterans Stadium and recounts for Dr. Brennan how he attended game 6 of the 1980 World Series with his father, describing it as the "best day of [his] life".
He is a religious man by nature, having been an altar boy as a child, (he knows a little Latin) and is still a practicing Roman Catholic; throughout the series he is often seen wearing a St. Christopher medal, which was given to him by his grandfather before being deployed to Somalia, around his neck.
Booth is the older of two boys and has a younger brother Jared. When they were young, Booth would protect Jared from their father by shielding him during a beating. The boys were essentially singlehandedly raised by their paternal grandfather Hank, whom Booth affectionately calls "Pops". Hank once told Bones during a visit that he was "more proud of [Booth] than anybody in the world". Bones has commented that the two brothers "can barely be in a room together". Booth tended to be "over-protective" of Jared, which the latter resented, when they were growing up and it added to the animosity. Jared once told Sweets that "having a big brother is like having an extra dad, only a dad who protects you from your real dad".
Booth is still haunted by memories from his time in the Army, having lost friends in combat and watched his own buddy bleed to death in his arms. As such, he is noticeably affected when investigating cases involving veterans and was also implied to have stopped attending unit reunions and gatherings in an effort to distance himself from his painful past in the military.
Relationships[]
Temperance Brennan[]
Lance said that Booth has the psyche of a true warrior. That, it's a miracle he hasn't gone back long before this. Maybe you're hold him back, same way he's holding you back.
Daisy Wick to Brennan about Booth.
Temperance Brennan is Seeley's professional partner and later, his wife. She is also one of his closest friends.
Throughout the "Bones" series, Booth and Brennan's differences in worldviews are regularly addressed by various characters and was the source of friction early on in their partnership. She was dismissive of his religious beliefs (and organized religion in general) and would take the opportunity to downplay it. Booth also has several heated arguments over various issues, especially religion. She gradually comes to respect and admire his faith when she realizes that it was his way of coping with the trauma and violence he witnesses on a regular basis at work. In numerous episodes she is shown trying to be supportive of Booth in spite of her social awkwardness, which Booth admits he finds endearing. When Sweets was observing them and writing a book on their relationship, Dr. Gordon Wyatt noted that Booth and Brennan are actually more similar despite appearing to be polar opposites – both experienced traumatic childhoods, are highly competent in their respective fields and extremely guarded about their personal lives. In season 12 of Bones, Booth admits to Brennan that he had been lucky and was only able to move on with her support.
Appearances[]
| Season Three | |||||||||||||||||||
| "I, Witness" | "Whispers in the Dark" | "Blood and Fear" | "The Sisters Mills" | "Dead Men Tell No Tales" | |||||||||||||||
| "This Red Lady from Caribee" | "The Art of War" | "Novus Ordo Seclorum" | "One Life" | "Incident At Stone Manor" | |||||||||||||||
| "Kindred Spirits" | "Sins of the Father" | "Dark Mirror" | "Into the Wild" | "Incommunicado" | |||||||||||||||
| "Dawn's Early Light" | "Delaware" | "Ragnarok" | |||||||||||||||||
| Bones: Season Eleven | ||||
| "The Resurrection in the Remains" | ||||