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| “ | There's darkness in this world and just because you or I might not be able to see it doesn't mean it isn't there. | „ |
| ~ Booth |
| “ | You know, being a sniper I took, a lot of lives, What I'd like to do before I'm done is try and catch at least that many murderers. | „ |
| ~ Booth |
Seeley Joseph Booth is one of the leading protagonists, alongside with Temperance Brennan, of the 2005 FOX crime TV-series Bones.
He is a renowned Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who partnered with his now-wife and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan of the Jeffersonian Institution at the District of Columbia. He survives with his son Parker, and a family that includes Brennan and their two kids: Christine and Hank Booth. Over the course of the series, he has shown to solve countless homicide cases with his simplicity and direction, let alone assisted by the institution uncovering evidence that ties to the murderers.
He is portrayed by David Boreanaz, who also played Angel/Angelus from Buffyverse and Jason Hayes from Seal Team.
History[]
Early Years[]
Seeley Booth is from Philadelphia, but was raised in Pittsburgh. Booth's age is never specified, but in season 11, Booth (and his brother, Jared) is mentioned as now being in his early 40s.
Booth is the older of two boys and has a younger brother Jared. Their father "flew Thuds and Phantoms in Vietnam" and moved to Philadelphia where he worked as a barber and eventually started a family. Their father was an abusive alcoholic; this was reinforced by the fact that Booth is able to almost instantly recognize suspects with a drinking problem even when they are sober. In Season 8 Booth bluntly tells Brennan that he "grew up in a household of violence and hatred", one of the few times he has ever openly spoken of his past. One of Booth's deepest fears and insecurities is that he would become like his father, which continues to trouble him to this day. After his death, Booth found a Purple Heart medal among his possessions, indicating he was likely shot down and injured at some point during the war.
Their mother Marianne was a dancer and composed jingles for television advertisements. Eventually she left the family out of desperation. In Season 8, when she reappears after 24 years to ask Booth to give her away at her wedding to her fiancé, he was reluctant to do so as he was still angry with her for abandoning the family. After realizing that Marianne was genuinely trying to repair their relationship and seeing how well she got along with Bones and their daughter Christine, Booth decides to go to his mother's wedding. She, along with Hank and Parker, were present at their wedding in Season 9.
Abused by his father and abandoned by his mother, Booth has a difficult and troubled relationship with most of his immediate family members.
He and his brother Jared had a strained relationship. 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." When they were young, Booth would protect Jared from their father by shielding him during a beating. Their relationship improved dramatically after Jared steals critical evidence under the pretext of a classified military intelligence operation to assist the Jeffersonian team to rescue Booth from "The Grave Digger", sacrificing his Navy career as a result. In "The Dentist in the Ditch", he introduces his fiancée Padme to Seeley and asks him to be his best man at their wedding. Despite the fact that they had drifted apart, Booth still put his career and his own life on the line to save Jared, even though it eventually proved futile. Jared is killed in the Season 11 premiere. Brennan performed the autopsy and her results confirmed that Jared had been physically abused as a child, like his older brother.
The boys were essentially singlehandedly raised by their paternal grandfather Hank, whom Booth affectionately calls "Pops". Hank had stumbled upon his son abusing Seeley and drove him out of the house. He calls Booth "Shrimp" as Seeley was a young child then. From then on, he raised his two grandsons as his own. Booth has admitted that he might have killed himself as a kid had it not been for his grandfather. Hank once told Bones during a visit that he was "more proud of [Booth] than anybody in the world".
For many years, Booth resented his parents and the mere mention of them, particularly his father, would elicit a hostile response from him. He detested his father for physically abusing him and Jared when they were young and, by his own statements, had not seen him for twenty years. In Season 7, when Booth learns of his father's death from Hank, he showed little emotion and repeatedly dismissed his colleagues' and the Jeffersonian team's concern throughout the day. After much persuasion from Bones, Booth reluctantly opens the box his father had left to him and sifts through the contents, which included a Purple Heart medal, the 1980 World Series tickets and old photos of father and son. It was one of the rare moments when Booth shed tears.
Booth have three children, Parker, Christine and Hank. Booth is characterized as a doting and occasionally over-protective father. He has a son Parker with his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, who refused to marry him. Rebecca is at first hostile, and denied him visitation out of spite, but relations between them later dramatically improve. Initially Booth had mistakenly thought that she turned him down because the precarious nature of his job and irregular work hours would prevent him from being a good father but she later confronts him and assures him that he was a "wonderful father" and that Parker was a "lucky kid". Parker is named after a friend of Booth's from the Army Rangers, Corporal Edward "Teddy" Parker, who was fatally shot while spotting for Booth on a sniper mission. In Season 7 it is revealed that Parker is living in England with his mother but visits Booth during the holidays. When Parker returns for vacation and sees her for the first time, Booth worries about sibling jealousy but is relieved when Parker hand-makes a mobile for Christine and accepts her into the family.
His and Brennan's daughter Christine Angela born in Season 7. She was named after Brennan's mother Christine and their co-worker and friend Angela Montenegro. Their infant son Hank was named after Booth's grandfather was born between season 10 and season 11.
Booth is supposed to be a relative of historical figure John Wilkes Booth. It was confirmed in "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 Lincoln.
Military and FBI[]
It was revealed in "The Movie in the Making" that he originally got into college on an athletic scholarship and played football there, but gave up any plans on making a career out of it when he wrenched his shoulder. He enlisted in the military two years later.
Based on facts subsequently revealed throughout the show, he would have served during the 1990s, prior to joining the FBI. Booth was former sniper and Sergeant Major in the 75th Ranger Regiment of the US Army Rangers, amongst his well developed marksmanship abilities, Booth is an expert knife thrower and is known to be familiar with various types of explosives and weapons. For a time, he held the record for the longest shot made in combat. He served in the Gulf War, Somalia, Guatemala, and Kosovo, along with other places. He also stated that he has trained with Delta Force operators and it has been indicated that he has experience in clandestine operations. His achievement and service medals can be seen in the shadow boxes mounted on the wall behind his desk in his office. During Booth's time in the Rangers, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart, and an Army Good Conduct Medal. He separated from the Army originally at the rank of Master Sergeant, but is later promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major as an incentive provided by the Army to deploy to Afghanistan.
His former military training and experience has proven useful at especially in cases involving firearms or terrorists. Other notable incidents include in Season 4 when he was kidnapped by the Gravedigger and had to find his way out of a decommissioned Navy ship rigged with explosives. In Season 6 when he was forced to pursue rogue vigilante sniper Jacob Broadsky through a container terminal without back-up; and in Season 9 when he tracks down tech-savvy serial killer Christopher Pelant undetected through an abandoned power plant alone and armed with only a knife, rifle and pistol.
Despite his distinguished service record, Booth is generally reticent about his military service and rarely speaks about it openly, even with Bones. Part of the reason is the classified nature of some his assignments. Brenann subsequently discovers that he has been tortured while held as a POW in the Middle East, which Booth never elaborated on and has not been addressed since, after looking at his x-rays. In Season 2, he was kidnapped and tortured with a heated screwdriver by a mobster for refusing to give information and later told Bones that he has been "tortured worse". Bones has remarked that given the sheer amount of physical abuse that Booth's body has suffered, she is amazed that he is still physically active. 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.
Former priest and Army chaplain, Aldo Clemens, whom Booth regularly confessed to while he was in the service, told Bones that Booth was the reason why he left the priesthood and decided that God was his "worst enemy" and a "bastard". In the episode "Hero in the Hold," it is revealed that he has blamed himself for the death of his spotter, Corporal Edward "Teddy" Parker (whom Booth named his son after), on a sniper mission, even though Teddy had unintentionally disobeyed orders to keep his head down and was fatally shot as a result. He sought out Sweets for counseling in Season 6 after he was confronted by his former mentor and ex-military sniper-turned-vigilante Jacob Broadsky. Towards the end of Season 1 he confessed to Brennan for the first time about the buried guilt of assassinating a man in front of his son, after much persuasion from a fellow veteran, telling her, "It's never just the one person who dies, Bones. [...] With each shot we all die a little bit." In Season 9, when Bones receives a $75,000 advanced check from her book sales and asks Booth what he wants to do with it, he opts to donate it to the Wounded Warrior Project, a charity for injured veterans. In season 12 Booth admits to Bones that he had been lucky and was only able to move on with her support.
It was also revealed at the end of Season 1 that Seeley is recovering from a gambling addiction, which possibly arose as a coping mechanism after separating from the military and leaving a stressful, war-time environment. According to flashbacks in "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole," he only started to the kick the habit after meeting (and subsequently asking out) Bones for the first time while working a case together. As of the series pilot, he has been clean after attending GA meetings and has been able to resist the urge on several occasions when a case required him to be at a casino or a similar environment. In several episodes he can be seen twirling a poker chip (sometimes his GA sobriety chip) or playing with dice. He recently suffered a relapse when a case required him to infiltrate an underground gaming ring, but has begun to re-attend GA meetings after Brennan issued an ultimatum to him to move out until he got himself back together.
In Season 4, it is stated that Booth has been in the FBI for twelve years, which implies that he would have joined the Bureau around 1996. Booth is based at the J. Edgar Hoover Building along with his late colleague Dr. Lance Sweets and current partner Special Agent James Aubrey but frequents the Jeffersonian for updates on the evidence and has his own access card. The fact that he has his own office and is called "sir" by younger agents denotes some seniority or supervisory status. In addition, when his credentials are seen close up, the acronym "SSA" can be seen, strongly implying that Booth holds the rank of Supervisory Special Agent. It has been implied through interactions with other characters that Booth is generally well regarded and respected within the Bureau for his skill, even if his distaste for the politics that entails his job has put him at odds with his boss and other federal law enforcement agencies. He spent a period of time in Japan as part of an exchange program with the Tokyo Police.
Series[]
In the series pilot, Booth was introduced as an FBI agent in the homicide department who seeks the professional opinion of Dr. Temperance Brennan at the renowned Jeffersonian Institute. He is characterized as a "hands on" agent and makes no secret of his distaste for paperwork and formal documentation.
He was eventually made the liaison between the Jeffersonian and the FBI. Booth's appointment to the Jeffersonian was met with mixed reaction from Brennan team members, but he soon develops a close working relationship with the Jeffersonian team of scientists, whom Booth and his fellow FBI agents call "squints", a nickname which has since become a term of endearment Bones and her team associate him with. Booth once referred to the Jeffersonian team of scientists, whom he affectionately calls the "squint squad", as "my people". The rest of the team have since accepted Booth, as shown in several episodes where Booth's life was threatened and all go the extra mile to ensure his safety. Likewise he vows to protect them at all costs when they were threatened by rogue sniper Jacob Broadsky in Season 6 and serial killer Christopher Pelant in Season 8 or Mark Kovac in season 12. Whenever one of them encounters a traumatic even he shows concern and tries to help them deal with the trauma. Caroline Julian, a federal prosecutor who frequently works with them, has commented that aside from him "there isn't a single normal law enforcement officer who could work with these people." Although not as "book smart" as the other "squints", he is quick to link evidence with and often uses his "street smarts" and intuition to assist the case.
Early in the series, Seeley once arrested Brennan for shooting a murderer who, despite trying to kill her by setting her on fire, was unarmed at the time. Even though she was not convicted, she was still charged with a felony, which meant her original application for a concealed weapon was denied. In the second season, she was allowed a permit and later bought herself a 50 Caliber 500 from a local mall.
At the end of the second season, Seeley agrees to be Jack Hodgins' best man in his wedding to Angela Montenegro after Zack Addy refuses. It is unclear whether he knew he was the second choice, but the issue became moot after the wedding was called off, leaving Seeley and Temperance standing at the altar.
In the third season, Seeley uses information found by Brennan and the lab team to track down a serial killer known as The Gormogon. In the Season 3 episode The Wannabe in the Weeds, Booth is stalked by a suspect in his investigation. She had previously stalked the victim. The woman, Pam, thought that booth was in love with her and begin stalking him. Pam tries to shoot a temperance, jealous of her close relationship with Booth. Booth in turn takes the bullet. Brennan rushes over to Booth as he bleeds out and Pam ,realizing what she has done to the person she thinks loves her, tries to shoot Brennan. Brennan picks up Booths gun and shoots Pam in the throat without hesitation. The episode ends with Booth falling unconscious and bleeding on the floor. Though it is not said that he is dead. The screen goes black signaling that booth is unconscious.
In the episode "Mayhem on a Cross" Booth states, had it not been for his grandfather, he might have killed himself as an adolescent, though he only reveals this to help Brennan when she told him and Sweets about her own trauma in the foster system. Booth, Brennan, and Sweets all had abusive childhoods and have formed something of a surrogate family, clearly affectionate, but hidden behind banter and mock insults.
In season 4 episode "The Hero in the Hold, it is revealed he named his son Parker, after his slain spotter, Cpl. Edward "Teddy" Parker. Booth blamed himself for Teddy's death until he came face to face with Teddy's ghost who revealed that his death was not Booth's fault but his own as he disobeyed his superior's orders to "get down" repeatedly. At the end of the episode, Teddy reveals himself to Bones on the anniversary of his death. When Booth goes to the cemetery, he sees Teddy's girlfriend, and Teddy appears next to Brennan, who doesn't know who he is and thinks he is just another man visiting fallen comrades. Brennan assumes Booth was hallucinating Teddy's appearance, despite the fact he assisted Booth in an escape which would have required two men and the fact that she was able to see him at the end of the episode.
In the season 4 episode "The Critic in the Cabernet" Temperance Brennan decides to have a child and asks for Booth's semen for her child. Booth considers Temperance's request. This causes him large amounts of stress, which he irrationally denies to Bones and Sweets. Later, he begins to hallucinate visions of the character Stewie Griffin from the cartoon Family Guy. This, combined with his stress over Brennan's request, causes him to grow continually irrational, as he refuses to reveal his experiences to anyone. Later, he seemingly forgets he is hallucinating when "Stewie" appears while Booth is questioning a witness. He converses with "Stewie" while the others watch, and is seemingly confused by Brennan's concern he is talking to an invisible cartoon character. Brennan takes Booth to the hospital for his hallucinations, which she believes include Edward "Teddy" Parker in the previous episode "The Hero in the Hold", however it seems unlikely since Brennan unknowingly saw him at the end of the episode. It was announced Booth had a brain tumor and needed immediate surgery. Though he had earlier refused to give Brennan his sperm while he was hallucinating because he would want to be a part of the child's life, Booth tells her before going into surgery if something should happen to him, he wants her to have his baby.
In the last episode of season four The End in the Beginning" the surgery to remove Booth's brain tumor was a success. However Booth reacted poorly to the anesthesia which resulted in a coma that lasted four days. When he awoke muttering about how real the dream he had was (the subject of the episode), Brennan was there by his side, but he is unable to remember who Brennan was. The season ends with Booth's memory shattered and Brennan shocked that her partner and close friend of 4 years cannot remember her. It has been confirmed that Booth did not lose his memory, but was actually confused with which Temperance Brennan he was seeing - the one from his dream, who was his wife and pregnant with his child, or the real-life "Bones".
In Harbingers in the Fountain Booth is confused about his feelings for Brennan. Looking at brain scans which show Booth is not really in love with Brennan but is just believing that because of the dream. Even though Camille and Sweets told Booth that his love probably is because of the dream he takes the risk of telling Brennan he loves her, "in a professional and atta girl kinda way."
As the fifth season progresses, however, things begin to get more complicated as Booth regains the use of his mental faculties and comes to the realization that he is, in fact, in love with Brennan and likely always has been, even if he won't or would not admit it. He is finally confronted by this when he has to recertify as a sharpshooter for the FBI. When he becomes concerned that he will fail the examination, he talks to Dr. Gordon-Gordon, his and Brennan's therapist and friend from season two. Though Gordon has become a chef since his retirement, he confronts Booth about his feelings for Bones, and Booth admits that he is in love with her, but that she would never accept that because of her relationship fears. By putting himself in the position to "protect her" by having her appear at his testing, he is able to shoot a perfect score.
In the 100th episode, The Parts in the Sum of the Whole, Booth and Bones' entire relationship is redefined as they discuss their first case and first meeting with Sweets. It turns out that the two were immediately attracted to each other, and decided to go out on a date together before the end of the case when Booth has to "fire" Bones for punching a suspect in the face. Booth and Bones have drinks together, and share a passionate kiss, though Bones decides to go home rather than to stay with Booth that night, as she is somewhat inebriated. Their kiss is so good to Booth that he makes the choice to go home as well rather than to stay out and gamble that night, marking the first time that he chooses to not gamble. The next morning, however, Bones is furious that Booth got her drunk and they begin to argue as their personality differences clash with a vengeance, leading to the two of them to insult each other nastily. After they catch the killer, Bones questions the evidence in front of a bereaved mother, and Booth furiously hauls her outside to stop her. Bones slaps him and accuses him of being a bully and using his strength and the force of his personality to intimidate people, to which Booth responds that she is the same way with her intelligence. After he makes a snide comment about her father, Brennan coldly vows to never work with him again, and Booth agrees, though he appears heavily conflicted when she leaves the office. In the current time, Sweets furiously tells them that they missed their moment and are punishing each other for it, and that Booth is the gambler and has to take the chance. Outside the office, Booth takes the plunge and tells Brennan that he is like the old men who tell their children that they saw their spouses and "knew" that they were the one, and that he "knew" that Bones was the one for him from the moment he saw her. They kiss, but Brennan bursts into tears (one of the few times she's cried in front of him, and one of the few times that Booth has cried in front of anyone) and claims that she's a scientist and can't change, though it's clear that she's terrified of his hurting her the way that everyone seems to hurt her, and that she can't return his feelings. They decide to remain partners, as Brennan appears generally frightened at the prospect of losing him from her life, though Seeley tells her that he has to find someone for him who can love him the way that she can't. Though Bones appears heartbroken, she agrees.
Although things remain awkward between them, Booth remains by Brennan's side, and they even dance to "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal at her high school reunion, as she never got to have a slow dance at her prom. Shortly thereafter, Booth meets an attractive marine biologist named Katherine, and they initiate a romantic relationship. This causes some tension between Booth and Bones, as she seems jealous of Katherine but won't admit it. Despite their other relationships, the two usually end up alone together at the end of the night in a diner or the bar. When Brennan comments that Katherine is "very attractive" using herself as a standard, Booth seriously tells her that "Bones, you are the standard" by which he judges women's beauty, and Brennan can't say a word in response.
In the episode The Boy with the Answer, Booth is confronted with the possibility that Brennan, claiming she is "tired of dealing with murders and victims and sadness and pain", might leave the Jeffersonian permanently.
In the episode The Beginning in the End, Booth is approached by a Colonel Pelant and handed a letter from the Secretary of Defense requesting him to return to active duty to train Afghan soldiers at "tracking and apprehending insurgents". He is offered a promotion to Sergeant Major and a position as an advisor to the Afghan National Army. Also Brennan departs for a year-long anthropological expedition to the Maluku Islands. Although initially reluctant, Booth accepts and is deployed to Afghanistan during the time frame between Seasons 5 and 6 when he, Bones, Angela, and Hodgins leave Washington, D.C. for a year-long sabbatical.
After seven months of service, Booth returns to work with Bones, but now he has a girlfriend: Hannah Burley, a journalist he meet in Afghanistan. She moved to Washington D.C. to be with Booth and they eventually moved in together in Booth's apartment. The relationship between the two is very good, Hannah makes friends with Bones and gets along with Parker. Unfortunately, however, the relationship between Hannah and Booth ends when the latter makes the proposal: Hannah rejects Booth's proposal, claiming that she's not the marrying kind. Brennan and Booth begin to rekindle their relationship.
During the sixth season, while dealing with his complicated relationship with Brennan and his new girlfriend Hannah, Booth faces his former mentor Jacob Broadsky, a former Army sniper who has apparently gone rogue. Broadsky kills the Gravedigger, a serial kidnapper and killer who threatened both Booth and Brennan, destroys identifying evidence, and escapes. Broadsky points out that Booth has no definite proof that would allow him to feel comfortable shooting his old teacher. Booth is comforted by the news that Brennan does not see him and Broadsky as identical and later successfully arrests him without having to kill him.
In the episode "The Hole in the Heart", in which Vincent Nigel-Murray dies, Booth has Brennan stay at his apartment for her safety. Later that night, Brennan is still overcome with grief over Vincent's death and she turns to Booth for comfort. The two fall into his bed together in a seemingly intimate but non-sexual embrace. The next day, she tells Angela Montenegro that she "got into bed with Booth". In the following episode, she tells Booth that she is pregnant with his child.
At the start of season seven, Brennan and Booth are in a relationship and going back and forth between apartments. Booth and Brennan agree to give up their apartments and move in together. In the episode "The Crack in the Code", they decide to buy house that Booth found at a police auction and renovate it. In the following episode, Booth delivers their daughter in a small stable off the road when Brennan cannot make it to the hospital to give birth. They name their baby Christine Angela, after Bones' mother and Angela Montenegro. In the season finale Bones is framed by tech-savvy serial killer Christopher Pelant, who is released when the jury finds him "not guilty". Bones, with help from Max, is forced to go on the run with Christine in order to avoid being arrested and buy Booth and the team enough time to clear her. Prior to her departure, she and Booth had Christine christened into the Catholic church out of respect for his religious beliefs.
The family reunite in the Season 8 premiere and, by the second episode, Bones and Christine have returned home. However the couple have some difficulty readjusting after nearly three months apart with almost no contact with one another. Booth puts up a facade but was still resentful and bitter over the separation. They resolve their differences by the end of the episode. Brennan finally decides to marry Booth, who is overjoyed. However, their plans are ruined when a vengeful Christopher Pelant blackmails Booth, threatening to kill five random people if Booth marries Brennan.
For the first several episodes of the season 9, despite their efforts to mask the frustration and resentment, there was much tension between them and between Booth and the other squints, who accused Booth of being unfaithful and getting "cold feet" at the last minute. In the season premiere, Booth confided in his friend Aldo Clemens, a former Army chaplain turned bartender, about Pelant's threat against him and he was having trouble mending his relationship with Brennan.
In episode 4, "The Sense in the Sacrifice", Booth vows to take Pelant out once and for all, especially after Pelant murdered his colleague FBI Special Agent Flynn and manipulated evidence to frame Flynn. After killing Pelant, Booth reveals to Bones Pelant's threats and why he called the wedding off. He then reiterates his marriage proposal, which she happily accepts. In "The Woman in White", Booth and Brennan marry at a small garden ceremony outside the Jeffersonian. They spent their in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In the Season 9 episode "The Cold in the Case", the Deputy Director personally requests Booth to review other agents' case files and has Sweets analyze Booth's performance and military record. The FBI intends to open a field office in Germany, where the US has a major military command and, according to Booth, would be a prime location for counter-terrorism activities. Booth was being considered for a promotion to head the new field office on a 2-year assignment. After finding out that Sweets had been ordered to review his military record, Booth worried that the promotion was based on his military training as a sniper rather than his service record at the Bureau. Bones expressed her support even if meant having to uproot the family to a foreign country. In the next episode, Booth reveals that the Deputy Director Victor Stark put in his recommendation and that he is to be confirmed by the congressional subcommittee before it is finalized.
In the Season 9 finale, he was due to be confirmed by Congress as the new head of the Berlin office but his investigation into the Ghost Killer case and the murder of a conspiracy blogger harboring information of a mass blackmail involving cover-ups and corrupt government officials and businessmen led to him being targeted. Booth presents a proposal entitled Hiding in sight: A blueprint for addressing potential terrorist activity at the hearing. However, he was placed on administrative leave when classified information from his service record is exposed by a congressman questioning him, sparking a media frenzy and leading Booth to speculate if he was intentionally nominated for the promotion to be made an example of. At the end of the episode, Booth was attacked by three Delta Force operatives sent to silence him in his and Bones' house and was seriously injured in the subsequent gunfight. Bones calls an ambulance in time but Booth is charged with killing three FBI agents supposedly sent to serve an arrest warrant and is handcuffed to his hospital bed. She is taken into custody for questioning on the orders of Deputy Director Stark after vehemently protesting that the "FBI agents" were in fact rogue Delta Force assassins and that Booth was "defending himself".
He was released from prison in the Season 10 premiere and reinstated despite concerns from Brennan and Sweets that he was coming back to work too soon. But his nightmare continues when Sweets is killed, and even after the arrest of the conspirators, Booth blames himself for his death. Also this season, he recently suffered a relapse when a case required him to infiltrate an underground gaming ring, but has begun to re-attend GA meetings after Brennan issued an ultimatum to him to move out until he got himself back together. In the season 10 finale, Booth announced that the case presented in that episode would be his last case with the FBI. His wife also decided the case would be her last with the Jeffersonian. The couple pack their belongings and leave their respective offices.
Season 11 begins with Booth having taken up a position as a freelance instructor at the FBI Academy. However, he returns to the FBI full-time after his brother's death.
In season 12 Mark Kovac, son of the Serbian general, he had been assigned to kill nearly twenty years ago during the Bosnian War, seeking revenge to kill Booth and people who close to him.
In series finale Brennan is left with an existential crisis, after a head injury temporarily impairs her ability to remember how to do her job, feeling that without her intelligence, she will lose everything that makes her who she is and uncertain of what she will be without that, but Booth reassures her that she is the woman he loves and his partner no matter what. Later, after going after Mark Kovac, Booth suffered an injury to his hand that rendered him unable to move it. Brennan was able to interpret what happened to his hand and was able to snap it back into place, restoring the mobility in Booth's hand and proving that she is getting better. Because of her, Booth is later able to kill Mark Kovac by shooting in the head with his handgun.
Personality[]
Booth described as "charming, funny, a tad brutish but ultimately warm and caring". Seeley fills out the stereotype of the "All-American boy"—now all grown up—very well. He is worldly-wise, socially at ease with people, very athletic, and apparently sexually confident with women. Other characters have described him as an "alpha male" and "a complex man". Booth often refers to himself as a jock, having played basketball and several other sports in high school and college. Despite his "jock" status he is a fan of comic books.
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. A deeply religious man, he was raised and still is a practicing Catholic, having served as an altar boy during his youth; 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. Due in part to his Catholic upbringing, Booth sees the world and morality in black and white, which contrasts Bones' 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 about 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 Bones' 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 "The Stargazer in a Puddle", although he does apologize to Bones before leading Max out in handcuffs. Booth has been shown to be somewhat 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. In Season 6 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.
Booth shows a preference for the old school. He despises new age innovations, feeling that technology dehumanizes everything. He hates cappuccinos, referring to it as "foamy crap" and not actual coffee, only drinking his coffee black. He hates tea as well: when working on a case in England, he remarks that his drink is "the weakest coffee I've ever had". When Brennan informs him that it isn't coffee, but actually tea, Booth immediately discards it by throwing it in the river. He also dislikes reading news on a tablet, preferring to hold the newspaper in his hands, and had a vintage fridge in his kitchen at his old apartment. Bones told Hannah that Booth has always wanted an old-fashioned rotary telephone, as he believes that it is what a phone should be: sturdy and heavy enough to knock someone out. He also believes that the mechanics of it make it human. Booth is a fan of classic rock and arena rock music. He has expressed great affection for the group Foreigner (in fact, Foreigner's Hot Blooded is Booth's & Bones' song), and poked fun at Bones for her interest in world, rap, and hip hop music. He also likes the band Poco. In the season three finale, he listens to the hardcore punk/punkabilly band Social Distortion. In the Season 4 episode "Mayhem on the Cross" he mentions that his father thought that Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys sounded the same. Given the relatively underground nature of the California hardcore punk scene, of which Social Distortion, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys were all seminal members, it is most likely that Booth's father would have heard these bands only if Booth himself had played their records. He is also familiar with country music as his grandfather "raised [him] on Grand Ole Opry".
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". His home and office walls are adorned with various sports memorabilia including a signed picture of Bruins player Bobby Orr and the jerseys of NHL legends Mario Lemieux and Bobby Clarke.
Relationships[]
Romantic[]
Temperance Brennan[]
| “ | Lance said that Booth has the psyche of a true warrior. That, it's a miracle he hasn't gone back (to war) long before this. Maybe you're hold him back, same way he's holding you back. | „ |
| ~ Daisy Wick to Brennan about Booth in "The Beginning in the End" |
| “ | When you talk to older couples who, you know, have been in love for 30 or 40 or 50 years, alright, it's always the guy who says, 'I knew.' I knew. Right from the beginning.... I'm that guy. Bones, I'm that guy. I know. | „ |
| ~ Seeley Booth |
What began as a consultation with Dr. Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, turned into a meaningful partnership and later on marriage and family. While Booth and Brennan maintained a professional relationship and friendship for nearly six years, there was obviously a level of deep emotional attachment evident on both their parts, as well as a hint of romantic and sexual tension within their relationship. This romantic tension between them was crucial to the plot of the series, with fleeting minor characters constantly mistaking Booth and Brennan for a romantic couple, which they consistently and vehemently denied.
Seeley appeared to be jealous of many of Temperance's romantic relationships, as seen in such episodes as "Two Bodies in the Lab", "The Woman in Limbo", "The Boneless Bride in the River", "The Con Man in the Meth Lab" and "A Night at the Bones Museum". He has shown a tendency throughout the television series of intimidating, confronting or competing with anyone he believes to have a sexual interest in Brennan, including his own brother, Jared. He is also extremely protective of her in general, and is often defensive of her to the point of physically assaulting those who pose a threat to her safety. He has saved Temperance's life in several episodes, digging her out by hand when she is buried alive, jumping in front of a gun pointed at her, violently threatening a gang member into calling off a hit put out on her, shooting a crazed and corrupt doctor who had just stabbed her, and shooting a crooked FBI agent-turned-hit man just as he is about to bash in the back of her skull with a gun. In other instances where he believes Brennan's life to be endangered, Booth often (to Brennan's annoyance) refuses to leave her side, once offering to sleep on the couch at her apartment and flying immediately from Washington D.C. to New Orleans after Temperance wakes up bloodied, beaten and possibly raped in her hotel room.
Throughout the show, 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. In Season 2 Booth expelled her from the interrogation room after she repeatedly made insensitive remarks, despite her good intentions, during an interview with a parish priest. 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 "The Santa in the Slush" Brennan's father wants to spend Christmas with their family, so Brennan asks prosecution attorney Caroline Julian to "pull some strings", though Seeley cautions Temperance that Caroline will want something in return. Caroline jokingly blackmails Brennan; amused by Booth and Brennan's longstanding insistence they do not view each other in a sexual light, she demands Brennan kiss Seeley on the lips for 5 "steamboats" (seconds), using mistletoe as an excuse. He became freaked out hearing about the deal and wanted to know why, but Caroline was only feeling "Puckish". The two kiss, and to the shock of Caroline (and themselves) the kiss lasts for 12 not 5, "steamboats", during which Brennan's chewing gum ends up in Booth's mouth for a humorous effect.
It is revealed in the Season 3 episode "Intern in the Incinerator" Booth knows Brennan's favorite things very well, naming her favorite flowers and planet and effectively guessing her choices for computer passwords. In several episodes he presents her with small, quirky personal gifts and favors, including a toy pig named Jasper, a 'Brainy Smurf' action figure, and a Christmas tree for her family. He often comforts and hugs Brennan after severe emotional distress associated with her personal life and their jobs. Throughout the series, despite their bickering and teasing, Booth has made it clear to Brennan he has a deep respect for her as a woman, a professional, and as a person.
In the Season 3 episode "The Wannabe in the Weeds", Seeley is stalked by Pam, a suspect in his investigation. The emotionally unstable woman is suspected for the murder because she had previously stalked the victim. She subsequently begins stalking Booth, stating she feels a special connection with him, inspired by his reassuring touch as she grieved over the victim's death. At the end of the episode, Pam tries to shoot Brennan out of jealousy of her close relationship with Booth and sensing his attraction to Brennan. Seeley, however, steps in front of Brennan as she pulls the trigger and takes the bullet. Brennan then picks up Seeley's gun and shoots Pam in the throat without hesitation. In the next episode, it is revealed he survived but Brennan was unaware of his survival, so the two had an argument about the trust factor in their relationship. Otherwise, Booth can been seen throughout the series talking with Brennan about his top secret missions some even in which she shouldn't even know about.
In season 4, he accompanied her to her trip to England for a conference. He hated the country and shouted it out loud while trying to navigate London's streets behind the wheel ("Yanks in the U.K."). He also came with her on her trip to China "The Passenger in the Oven". He was also there to comfort her when she reveals her abuse as a child from her foster parents, and is willing to share some of his past in order to help her. They also bonds with Sweets on this occasion, forming, in the words of doctor Gordon Wyatt, something of a family.
In the season four episode "The Critic in the Cabernet", Brennan asks Seeley to become the father of her child, to which he responds to with great stress. Over the course of the episode, he begins to hallucinate Stewie Griffin to a point where he converses with the character in front of Brennan and a suspect they were questioning. If it were not for Brennan's insistence to go to a doctor, the benign tumor causing the hallucinations might not have been found or possibly found too late to save Booth. Before going into surgery, Booth donates his semen to Brennan so she can have a child. He found out earlier in the episode his count was 28.8 million for three milliliters. After the surgery is successful and Seeley awakes from a four day coma, he began murmuring about how the dream was so real. Brennan does not understand what he is mumbling and becomes scared and upset when he asks her, 'Who are you?'. In an interview with Hart Hanson he states that Booth remembers Brennan but he is not sure if she is the Brennan from the alternate reality episode "The End in the Beginning" or if she is his partner 'Bones'.
In Season five, Booth realizes his love for Brennan as he recovers from his tumor. However, he is cautioned by both Cam and Sweets to be sure of his feelings before confessing his love to Brennan. Afraid that his feelings for her are related solely to his tumor and coma, Booth is conflicted about whether or not to tell Brennan. Afterwards, their relationship remains fraught with sexual tension. Although she shares his feelings, Brennan rejects his advance and states her uncertainty about the possible outcomes of such a relationship given their seemingly conflicting personalities. Booth agrees to respect her wishes and attempts to move on as they continue to work together. In the episode "The Boy with the Answer", Booth is confronted with the possibility that Brennan, claiming she is "tired of dealing with murders and victims and sadness and pain", might leave the Jeffersonian permanently. Brennan departs for a year-long anthropological expedition to the Maluku Islands, while Booth agrees to spend a year in Afghanistan, training soldiers to apprehend terrorists. They say goodbye at the airport, agreeing to meet one year later.
Their relationship takes a downturn after their return to DC due to Booth's relationship with journalist Hannah Burley; Brennan is apparently disappointed after learning that Hannah gets along with Parker. When Brennan admits that she still has feelings for Booth, he turns her down and says that he loves Hannah. Hannah departs after she turns down Booth's rather half-hearted proposal. Booth and Brennan have begun to reconnect, admitting during a recent case during blackout that, while they are not ready to get into a relationship, they would like to try when healed as Brennan says "[Booth] aren't angry anymore and I'm strong enough to risk losing the last of my imperviousness".
In the episode "The Hole in the Heart", in which Vincent Nigel-Murray dies, Booth has Brennan stay at his apartment for her safety. Later that night, Brennan is still overcome with grief over Vincent's death and she turns to Booth for comfort. The two fall into his bed together in a seemingly intimate but non-sexual embrace. The next day, she tells Angela Montenegro that she "got into bed with Booth". In the following episode, she tells Booth that she is pregnant with his child.
At the start of season seven, a very pregnant Brennan and Booth are in a relationship and going back and forth between apartments. Booth suggests that they should have their own place; Brennan wants Booth to move into her apartment. It causes a minor rift between them. Booth also tells Bones that she would be the one to ask him to marry her since he believed in marriage and she was the one who needed the make the decision. At the end of the episode they are in bed looking at houses on the internet. Booth also tells Brennan he loves her and left it to her to decide when she wants to get married. After much discussion, Booth and Brennan agree to give up their apartments and move in together. In the episode "The Crack in the Code", they decide to buy a two-story house in the suburbs—which they jokingly called "The Mighty Hut"—that Booth found at a police auction and renovate it. In the following episode, Booth delivers their daughter in a small stable off the road when Brennan cannot make it to the hospital to give birth. They name their baby Christine Angela, after Bones' mother and Angela Montenegro. In the season finale Bones is framed by tech-savvy serial killer Christopher Pelant, who is released when the jury finds him "not guilty". Bones, with help from Max, is forced to go on the run with Christine in order to avoid being arrested and buy Booth and the team enough time to clear her. Prior to her departure, she and Booth had Christine christened into the Catholic church out of respect for his religious beliefs.
The family reunite in the Season 8 premiere and, by the second episode, Bones and Christine have returned home. However the couple have some difficulty readjusting after nearly three months apart with almost no contact with one another. Booth puts up a facade but was still resentful and bitter over the separation. They resolve their differences by the end of the episode. At the end of Season 8, Brennan finally decides to marry Booth, who is overjoyed. However, their plans are ruined when a vengeful Christopher Pelant blackmails Booth, threatening to kill five random people if Booth marries Brennan. Booth calls off the wedding, but does not explain the real reason to Brennan.
In the premiere of the season 9, despite their efforts to mask the frustration and resentment, there was much tension between the two of them. At the end of the episode, Brennan decides to stay with Booth, much to his relief, and tell him that she is willing to trust him. After killing Pelant, Booth reveals to Bones Pelant's threats and why he called the wedding off. He then reiterates his marriage proposal, which she happily accepts.
In the Season 9 episode "The Woman in White", Booth and Bones prepare for their wedding. However, their plans are ruined by a cold case and a fire in the church in which they were to be married. With Angela's help, they hold a last-minute simple garden ceremony outside the Jeffersonian. Aldo presided over the ceremony in the presence of Booth's mother Marianne, grandfather Hank and son Parker, Bones' father Max and their close friends from the Jeffersonian. They spent their honeymoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
After that they honeymoon in Argentina and everything's normal until government conspiracies with the ghost killer arise. In the episode "The Recluse in the Recliner" Booth is being targeted, which ends up with assassins coming to their home and almost killing Booth. He almost died but Brennan saved him. At the end of the episode Booth is seen in the hospital but the FBI won't let Brennan see him because they put Booth under arrest. Booth is then thrown into jail and Brennan is left alone with Christine.
Despite such issues as Booth being framed and sent to prison, the only serious flaw in their relationship was when Booth suffered a temporary relapse to his old gambling addiction, which he overcame after the two temporarily retired from their jobs before the birth of their second child. Their infant son Hank Jr. (named after Booth's grandfather) was born off-screen sometime after season 10 and before the beginning of season 11. However, he and Brennan returns to the FBI and Jeffersoian institute full-time after Booth brother's death.
In End in the End Brennan is left with an existential crisis, after a head injury temporarily impairs her ability to remember how to do her job, feeling that without her intelligence, she will lose everything that makes her who she is and uncertain of what she will be without that, but Booth reassures her that she is the woman he loves and his partner no matter what.
Rebecca Stinson[]
Rebecca Stinson is Booth's ex-girlfriend and the mother of his son, Parker. When Seeley discovered Rebecca was pregnant, he asked her to marry him but she refused. It is later revealed she refused the proposal because she did not want to be "one of those women" and did not want to be judged. She later tells Temperance she now wishes she had not missed her and Seeley's "one true moment" and wonders if he feels the same way, which is shown throughout the series they are just friends.
Hannah Burley[]
While in Afghanistan, Booth met a journalist called Hannah after saving her from a situation with armed men. Since Booth had been rejected by Brennan in Season 5, the two form a bond and start a relationship. Booth tells Brennan that their relationship is as "serious as a heart attack" and that he is in love with her. Hannah transfers to D.C. and moves in with Booth, even meeting his son and becoming friends with Bones. Although Bones has lingering feelings for Booth, she tries to be happy for their relationship and maintains her friendship with Hannah. However from Season 6 Episode 11 The Bullet in the Brain, Booth showed signs that he wasn't as in love with Hannah as he thought he was and he still holds his feelings for Brennan. In "The Daredevil in the Mold", Booth, scared of being alone for the rest of his life and spurred on by a night of drinking with Sweets, proposes to Hannah, who gently turns him down, telling him that she is not the marrying kind.
Now knowing that their relationship was going nowhere and has no future, Booth breaks up with her and after trying to persuade him to change his mind (unsuccessfully), she reluctantly accepts the break-up and moves out of his apartment. Hannah's rejection demonstrated Booth's flaw in finding relationships with women who want to maintain their independence but the proposal showed how desperate Booth was to try and forget his strong feelings for Brennan and did it for that reason, not because he loved Hannah. In all that said, Hannah was just a rebound.
Team[]
Camille Saroyan[]
Booth rekindled an old relationship with Cam when she joined the Jeffersonian team. However, Seeley ended the relationship for the second time after an intense case nearly cost Camille her life, with Seeley asserting on-the-job romantic relationships endanger the team in high-pressure situations. Booth is shown to have known Cam for some length of time (she mentions she has known Booth and his brother Jared for 15 years in the fourth season), with both of them possessing extensive familiarity with the other's family members. Despite the breakup, Camille and Seeley have remained close friends, working together on cases and giving each other advice on numerous occasions.
Angela Montenegro[]
Of the "squints", Booth gets along best with Angela due to her ability to relate to him in layman's terms and knowledge of pop culture. Angela was initially attracted to Booth but when she realizes that Booth and Bones were "meant for each other", she repeatedly attempts to match-make them. She often gave both of them tips on how to get along with and appease the other.
Jack Hodgins[]
Early in Season 1, when Booth was appointed the FBI liaison to the Jeffersonian, Jack was particularly hostile to him due to his disdain for the government and bureaucracy in general. Booth's patriotism, position as a federal agent and military background and Hodgins' argumentative nature further added to the friction. Booth soon earns his respect when he cover up him from not to go to Jeffersonian Gala ball ('cause it expose his status as Cantilever Group hеir and his work in Jeffersonian) by FBI needs his expertise and later lets Hodgins accompany him to rescue Bones, who was being held captive by rogue FBI agent, and Hodgins witnesses Booth shooting the perpetrator as the latter was about to kill Bones. Hodgins later expressing genuine regret when a current investigation exposed a military cover-up as he recognized what their discoveries meant for Booth. While they still maintain their respective opposing views, they are on friendly terms and Booth often calls him "bug boy". Hodgins also asked for Booth's advice when he was planning to propose to Angela. At the end of the second season, he agrees to be Hodgin's best man in his wedding albeit as the second choice after Zack Addy turned the position down. Hodgins also asks for Booth's advice about proposing to Angela. Booth has the tendency to cut Hodgins off in the middle of a conversation whenever the latter starts using scientific jargon, although Hodgins generally tolerates it. In season 4, when Booth's FBI colleague Payton Perotta takes over an investigation in which Booth is a suspect, Hodgins and Wendell immediately declare to Agent Perotta that they are "Booth's people" rather than her's. In "The Heiress in the Hill " Booth learns of Hodgins' dilemma and, with Brennan's blessing, offers to donate the $75,000 check. Although grateful at the gesture, Hodgins refuses and decides to take a loan instead.
In several cases, Booth, despite his disdain for most of Hodgins' conspiracy theories, uses it to his advantage for a case; especially while investigating Gormogon murders; in the episode "Girl in Suite 2103" he asks Hodgins to call the FAA with his "craziest" conspiracy theory in order to stall a plane so the FBI can get to it in time to do a search. At the end of the episode when government agents come to take Hodgins away for questioning in relation to the hoax call, Booth declines to intervene telling Dr Brennan that being taken away by "Men in Black" would be his dream come true. In Seasons 9 and 10, his conspiracy theorist side comes to the fore and his theories often aid Booth and the team in finding clues in the major story arc in which the discovery of "The Ghost Killer" and her connections lead the team to uncover a widespread and deeply rooted conspiracy going on in the FBI.
Zack Addy[]
Booth had a difficult relationship with Brennan's assistant Zack, as he finds him cold naïveté and social awkwardness disconcerting and, later, irritating. Zack admires Booth as a man of experience, and repeatedly asks him for advice on various issues, including sexual relationships. Booth convinces him that ignoring one another is a form of male bonding in order to deter Zack from continuously asking him anymore awkward questions and so that he could avoid hurting his feelings.
In the Season 2 finale, Zack receives a letter from the White House requesting his services in Iraq and he asks Booth if "it hurts when you get shot", as Booth was the only one of the group who had any first-hand combat experience in a war zone. When Booth asks him why, Zack shows him the letter, explaining that he chose to ask Booth as the latter "[knows] more about duty and honor than anyone else I know". Before Zack goes to Iraq, Booth gives him a harmonica as a parting gift. Following the climax of the events at the end of Season 3, Booth regrets that he had never talked much to Zack, feeling that if he had he would have caught onto Zack's affiliation with Gormogon sooner and could, perhaps, have done something about it.
In Season 12, when Zack Addy was accused of being the Puppeteer, Booth thought that he was the killer, but after seeing him have an emotional breakdown in the interrogation room, he started doubting whether Zack was capable of killing anyone. He was the one who saved Zack from getting killed by the real Puppeteer, Dr. Mihir Roshan, by shooting him in the back. The next day, when Zack recants his confession to the murder of Ray Porter, Booth immediately gives Zack his support and offers to help him get released. Booth manages to move up the date of Zack's trial to the following two months and Brennan, Gordon Wyatt, Angela, and Hodgins manage to find the remains of the Apprentice and exonerate Zack's life sentence and murder charge, though he will have to spend another thirteen months at the institution to serve out the rest of his ten year sentence for aiding a known killer. Although their relationship has improved somewhat, Booth still feels uncomfortable around Zack, even saying no to a hug.
Lance Sweets[]
Booth and Sweets had a brotherly relationship, as shown in "El Carnicero en el Coche" when Booth says "To Sweets, the little brother I never wanted but am glad I have".
When Sweets first joined the team, Booth treated him in a condescending manner, due to his youth and boyish looks. Booth was one of the few who acknowledged the importance of psychological insight into an investigation and would bring Sweets along to investigations, albeit grudgingly — he disliked Sweets' habit of repeatedly questioning him when he was in bad mood or confronting him with details of his private life when in the car en route to the crime scene despite Sweets' good intentions. Whenever Sweets made him feel uncomfortable in that manner, he would interrupt and cut him off with a sarcastic comment or directly tell him to be quiet.
Booth became less sarcastic and more understanding with Sweets when he learns about the latter's own abusive childhood and subsequent yearning for a family after the death of his adoptive parents as he himself was abused as a child. Despite his tendency to pull rank on Sweets by making him do undesirable tasks such as paperwork or frequently light-heartedly mock him, he cares deeply for the younger agent and the two have an underlying mutual respect. Since then Sweets has been a close friend to Booth and his family outside of work. He also consults Sweets on a number of issues, including his feelings for Bones. When Booth was suspended from the field, he consulted with Dr. Gordon Wyatt instead of Sweets, who is the department's designated psychologist, in order to avoid having to put Sweets in a difficult position of having to choose between their friendship and his professional responsibility.
In Season 8 he invites Sweets to stay at his and Bones' home while Sweets deals with his second break-up with Daisy; Sweets helped with the chores and would babysit Christine. In The Friend in Need, Booth admits that on a rape and murder case Sweets solved, he'd already figured it all out but let Sweets solve it in the end as he was emotionally involved.
In the Season 10 premiere Sweets and Daisy are back together and ask Booth to be the godfather of their unborn son. Sweets was even going to name his son Seeley, Booth's first name (which was carried out, Daisy giving him the name Seeley Lance). When Sweets is killed later in the episode, leaving Booth visibly distraught. Booth was the most saddened by Sweet's death, willing to do anything to avenge him and he claims that the weight of the guilt he felt is what drove him to gambling again. Booth was touched by being given Sweets's final version of his book in The Psychic in the Soup, which he had changed into a love story to act as a tribute to their relationship rather than a psychological study on Booth's and Brennan's partnership, on what would have been Sweets's 30th birthday.
James Aubrey[]
In the season 10 premiere Aubrey is agent assigned to secretly keep tabs on Booth following his release from prison. When Booth quickly realized he was being followed and became angry, Aubrey immediately trusted and looked up to him and the rest of the team, despite their mistrust of him. Still hurt over his framing and Sweets' untimely murder, Booth flatly refuses to bring an FBI agent with him on investigations, choosing to bring Brennan instead, despite the fact that Sweets was the one who immediately approved of Aubrey. During the first few episodes, Aubrey incessantly attempts to gain Booth's approval and trust and was generally met with annoyance and suspicion by the former. Aubrey finally calls him out on it. Booth eventually accepts Aubrey as he comes to terms with the loss of Sweets. He is sometimes annoyed by Aubrey's sense of humor and over-the-top exuberance over certain things such as video games and young children but generally tolerates him.
By the season ten episode "The Verdict in the Victims", he's eating Sunday dinner with Booth and Brennan and occasionally baby-sitting Christine. Aubrey is the only character, other than Brennan and Sweets, to have dared to directly speak to Booth about his past gambling addiction. Booth is initially not pleased that Aubrey had read his file but Aubrey clarifies that he had "heard rumors", indicating that Booth's gambling problem was possibly a known secret within the department, and that Sweets had been "pretty thorough" in his report about Booth. When Booth leaves the FBI, he is assigned to take Booth's place. He surprises Aubrey by telling him that he is proud of him and that he couldn't think of anyone better to replace him.
Awards[]
- Bronze Star
- Purple Heart
- Army Good Conduct Medal
Trivia[]
- His FBI unit number for interacting with D.C. police is 22-705.
- Booth has killed fifty people during his time as military sniper.
- Booth is afraid of clowns.
- Booth has some artistic ability as shown in episodes when he made a clay horse, as well when he makes an origami swan as a Christmas present for Daniel Goodman. He also taught dance in college for 30 dollars an hour.
- Booth has grass pollen allergies.
- Booth may have had some contact with Zack in the seasons following his departure, as he knows an orderly at the institution where he is located, and knows exactly where his room is located.
- Originally Booth was going to be Brennan law enforcement partner only about a third of the time of series and Brennan going dealing with all layers of law enforcement, but Hart Hanson said he saw 'I can be a duck' scene and decaded Booth to be her full-time partner, realises "it became a romance even in The Pilot, before we got picked up".
External Links[]
- Seeley Booth on the Bones Wiki
- Seeley Booth on Sleepy Hollow
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