*****Episode Spoilers Below*****
After years of dancing around each other, suppressing, repressing, transferring, denying, diverting, double entendre-ing, missed opportunities and a thousand other obstacles, the star-crossed lovers of Bones have finally run out of room in which to avoid the issue. Literally. Season seven opens with a domestic tableau, Booth and Bones jockeying for position as they make breakfast on what has, for them, become a normal day.
For the last five months, Booth and Bones have been splitting time between his place and hers, an arrangement that has become a bone (!) of contention. Bones reminds Booth that he’s the one who didn’t want to cohabitate without being married. Is she proposing? Well, no, she isn’t, but Booth predicts that one day, she will. I want this to happen with a deep, burning passion, both as a Booth/Bones shipper and as a romance reader. Bones is the one who’s always maintained marriage isn’t necessary, so she has to be the one to ask for it. Because after what I’ve seen tonight, Booth has a big ol’ “yes” on the tip of his tongue…but she has to ask him first.
Since the course of true love never does run smooth, we have some time before that happens. One thing Bones has always done well is to relate the cases our heroes solve to their emotional journey, and the season seven premiere is no exception. There’s one scene where Booth and Sweets must question a musician afflicted with aphasia, who is only able to speak while playing his instrument. What happens to the lover, he asks Bones and Sweets, when the loved one changes? Heartbreaking in context and thought-provoking for Booth, because the woman he loves is most definitely changing.
There’s a lot for shippers to love in this episode. The breakfast scene is the stuff of shippers’ dreams. Booth taking cell phone pictures of Bones in less-than-dignified moments shows how he cherishes that vulnerable side of her as much as he does her intelligence. We have romantic kisses, mentions of intimate moments, Booth refuting Bones’ anthropological arguments with research of his own, and for those who pay attentions to the subtleties, Bones ate the pie. Ah, the symbolism. We hear Booth and Bones both say “I love you,” and the final scene—always my favorite part of a Bones episode—has the lovers agreeing and bickering their way towards making a home of their own together. We’ve heard them address their fears; Bones’ experience in the foster system and Booth wanting to be a better father than his own, and seen they’re willing to feel the fear and move forward anyway. Secondary characters don’t disappoint, and provide the right amount of support for our central couple.
Still, fans who took exception to being left out of the events that led up to the pregnancy may take similar exception to being plopped down in the middle of domestic doings. Yes, this is what many fans have wanted for years, but there are still gaps in the story that I’d like to see filled in as the season progresses. How did our couple get to the point of sharing apartments in the first place? I want to see the struggle that led to that decision, and I still want to know what happened—well, all right, how it happened—the night Bones finally let down her guard. What was the final chink in her armor that let Booth get that close, not only physically, but emotionally?
As Bones said in the final line of the episode, “That’s what you like about me; I’m not easy.” Booth is still Booth, and Bones is still Bones and melding their two lives into one is about as far from easy as any romance can get. There’s no doubt in my mind that these two crazy kids are headed for a happily-ever-after, but the road ahead still has a few twists, turns and loop-de-loops. I’ll be watching. How about you?
Anna C. Bowling considers writing historical romance the best way to travel through time and make the voices in her head pay rent. She welcomes visitors to her blog, Typing With Wet Nails and to follow her at Twitter.
