Who is Dr. Temperance Brennan?

by Ivey West

Temperance Brennan

Despite her Bones nickname, she’s a lot more Spock than McCoy. A product of a rocky childhood, Brennan’s brilliance manifested itself in her becoming a Forensic Anthropologist — a specialty so rare, we’re told in the Pilot that the next closest is in Montreal. As the series started, she was cold and clinical. The definition of any good character, though, is not where they start, but where they finish, and how they get there. Watching Brennan grow emotionally, especially through the evolution of her relationship with Booth, is what makes her such a fun character to watch.

Bones’ back story is slowly revealed to the audience over the course of the first season and a half or so. Abandoned by first by her parents (who went into hiding to protect their children), and then by her brother (who at his age couldn’t handle the responsibility of raising his sister), she spent her teenage years in foster care. When we first meet her, she’s professionally successful…. Accomplished scientist, burgeoning author, and she finds a way to actively participate on FBI investigations, instead of just consulting from her lab. Her personal life, however, doesn’t compare. She’s has few true emotional connections (We’ll get into the one noteable exception momentarily). She doesn’t believe in love. What’s logical about love?

Bones’ friendship with Angela Montenegro is the exception to the rules she leads her life by. Whereas Bones’ life is structured and logical, Angela’s is spontaneous and free. She is a friend to Brennan, but almost more a relationship guide. How these two became so close despite their personalities is a story that we’ve still not seen. Angela gets Bones, and all of her idiosyncrasies, better than anyone. She’s probably known, a lot longer than anyone else, exactly what Booth means to Bones.

Seeley Booth, FBI Agent and “Squint Liaison” extraordinaire, is seemingly the Ying to Brennan’s Yang. Bones eschews emotions while Booth wears them on his sleeve. One trusts only science, the other, his gut. Despite their differences, they have a lot more in common than is seen at first glance. We’ve slowly learned that Booth’s childhood wasn’t necessarily defined by stability either. Both of them share a impassioned drive to solve the crimes they are faced with … to right the wrongs. Booth attempts to make up for the death he caused as a sniper in the military (no, Shanshu it ain’t so!), while Bones needs to reconnect every lost body with their family.

We saw just how far and quick their relationship had come in the finale of the first season, with two events. When a set of unidentified remains turns out to be Bones’ mother, Seeley is the only other member of the team that recognized her image, because he had made the effort of learning the details of her parents’ case. Then, as the episode comes to a close, we learn that Brennan has dedicated her next book to her “partner and friend, Special Agent Seeley Booth.”

She has come a long way in four seasons. She’s risked her career to save Booth on several occasions. She’s come to terms with her abandonment issues with both her father, and her brother. Now she’s planning on having a child, and has chosen Booth, not to be the father, but the donor. While she’s come far, she will continue to grow emotionally. But not to quickly, I hope. Watching Pinocchio become a real girl is half the fun.