The Booth Storyline On Bones That Still Doesn’t Make Sense

These days, many a beloved network series is being given the streaming age reboot treatment. Kelsey Grammer pulled off a full “Frasier” revival series which was, lamentably, neither disappointing nor remarkable. Meanwhile, NBC ordered a “Suits” spin-off, “Suits: LA” which will see the show that experienced a remarkable Netflix renaissance in recent years revitalized for a new generation. All of which has only heightened anticipation for a “Bones” reboot.

The Fox procedural, led by Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, ran for 12 seasons from 2005 to 2017, and maintained a devoted following throughout. With renewed interest in resurrecting series just like this, talk of a “Bones” reboot has increased, though such a thing would be complicated given Disney’s 2019 acquisition of Fox. If a “Bones” revival does come to pass, however, it would at least give series creator Hart Hanson a chance to address one of the most frustratingly nonsensical aspects of the original series.

Throughout its run “Bones” masterfully balanced standalone episodes with long-running storylines, introducing serial killers and following their sprees across multiple seasons before wrapping things up — usually in satisfying fashion. But there is one “Bones” storyline that remains unresolved and to this day makes no sense whatsoever.

When a show runs for 12 seasons, there’s bound to be a few missteps, including storylines that either don’t work as well as others or, in one particular case, storylines that end before they even really get started. David Boreanaz’s FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth was at the center of one such example which began in season 4 and never went anywhere.

Throughout season 4, we see Booth suffering from some sort of mental issue which produces hallucinations. When he was kidnapped by Deirdre Lovejoy’s the Gravedigger, one of the best serial killers on “Bones,” Booth hallucinated one of his old military buddies who had died in action. Later, in the episode “The Critic in the Cabernet,” Temperance Brennan asks Booth to donate his sperm so that she can have a baby. At this point the pair hadn’t officially gotten together, and the request prompts some anxiety for Booth, who later begins hallucinating Stewie Griffin from “Family Guy.” The cartoon character appears to Booth during an interrogation which also involves Brennan, who immediately realizes something is wrong.

After Brennan insists on Booth being seen by a doctor, an MRI reveals that he’s suffering from the effects of a benign brain tumor. In the season 4 finale, “The End in the Beginning,” Booth undergoes successful surgery to remove his brain tumor, though the anesthesia resulted in Booth going into a four-day coma. During this coma, Booth has a dream in which he and Brennan are married, but after he wakes up it’s revealed that his dream was prompted by Brennan reading him a book she was writing while he was unconscious. What’s more, he seemingly can’t remember who Brennan is, asking, “Who are you?” before the episode cuts to black.

It’s a big moment in the series, suggesting that Booth has completely forgotten Brennan, thereby threatening their burgeoning relationship. But when season 5 kicks off, however, things seem to be much less dire.

When “Bones” season 5 begins, it’s been six weeks since Seeley Booth and Temperance Brennan have seen each other. Booth has recovered from surgery and is given the all-clear to return to duty, and the pair reunite at the Jeffersonian Institute. But while Booth struggles to make sense of his newfound romantic feelings for his colleague throughout the episode, there’s no mention of his dramatic memory loss from the season 4 finale, as if the writers themselves had suffered some sort of severe mental lapse.

Some explanations for this claim that when Booth awakens from his anesthesia-induced coma at the very end of “Bones” season 4, he is confused rather than suffering from amnesia. During the climax of “The End in the Beginning,” Booth talks about how real his dream felt. So, when he asked Brennan, “Who are you?” he was seemingly asking whether she was the version from his dream, in which the pair were married, or the version he knew before he went into a coma. As such, this was not a moment of memory loss, but a moment of confusion.

It’s a pretty lame conclusion to what seemed like an event that would have wide-ranging implications. It also doesn’t make much sense that Booth would ask “Who are you?” rather than asking specific questions about his and Bones’ lives. As such, the character’s season 4 story arc remains one of the “Bones” storylines that makes the least sense. David Boreanaz is open to returning as Booth for a “Bones” revival, however, so maybe we’ll get a little more clarification in a potential future episode, should Hart Hanson feel the need to address the confusion.