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Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (born Joy Keenan) is a forensic anthropologist working at the Jeffersonian Institute under Dr. Saroyan. She is also the wife and partner of Special Agent Seeley Booth. She has two children, Christine Booth and Hank Booth II with Booth and is the stepmother of Parker Booth.

History[]

Early Years[]

In the first season finale, Brennan stated that she was born in 1976, which would have made her either 29 or 30 (approximately the same age as Deschanel, who was born on October 11, 1976). In The Death of the Queen Bee (which aired nearly four years later), it is implied that her then-current age was 33 years, based on Brennan's identification of a former classmate from Burtonsville High School (presumably located in Burtonsville, Illinois) as the victim and statement that the classmate was 33. Brennan was part of the class of 94 in Burtonsville (The Death of the Queen Bee). According to her high school online yearbook entry on Brennan, in her senior year, she was a member of the Chemistry Club and Math club, her interests were chemistry and mathematics, and she was a National Merit Scholar and an Academic All-Star.

In "The Woman in Limbo" it is revealed before her parents' disappearance she lived with her family in Chicago, Illinois. Although Brennan seemed to have a relatively normal childhood, her parents disappeared when she was 15 years old. Her older brother Russ, himself still an adolescent, was unable to care for her and she was put in the foster care system. By the time she started college she had been to twelve different schools and has specifically said that she hated the lack of consistency.

Brennan was left by her parents when she was a teenager causing her to bounce from house to house as a foster child. This could be one of the reasons for her lack of social skills. It was stated that she did not always have the most stable home growing up. This could be another reason why she threw herself into books. She felt safe and could rely on facts causing her to be anti-social. Her life as a foster child has impacted her a lot as it has shown from time to time. We learn a little more in The Signs in the Silence about her foster life. Being in foster care helped her connect to Amy/Samantha. It took her a little bit of time to remember what it was like. To be surrounded by strangers in an unknown place. This brought back memories to Brennan and we see this softer side as she becomes determined to find out what happened and to find Amy's real parents.

There has been contradictory evidence about her time in the system; in one episode, Brennan stated that her grandfather got her out of the foster system, but in a later episode, she indicates that she never knew her grandparents (possibly the two references are to two separate sets of grandparents, paternal and maternal). However, taking into consideration the fact that Brennan's parents had assumed new identities when she was three years old, the grandfather who had taken her in from her time in the foster system may not have been her biological grandfather.

Her time in foster care was quite traumatic and abusive; Brennan indicated that she was once locked in the trunk of a car for two days because she broke a plate, and in the episode "The Finger in the Nest", she reveals to Booth that she walked into her elderly neighbor's house to find the woman dead. In the same episode, she also mentions to Booth that her parents were very concerned about her afterward because she started faking her own death. In Season 2, she mentions that during her time in the foster care system, she kept a list of foster homes she had been kicked out of on the bottom of her shoe.

Brennan was inspired to be an Anthropologist by the film "The Mummy" as revealed in several episodes, notably in A Night at the Bones Museum. Brennan graduated from Northwestern University.

She has three doctorates, as referred to by Hodgins in the "The Parts of the Sum in the Whole", in anthropology, forensic anthropology, and kinesiology; it's implied that most of her work at the lab was related to either long-dead bodies or victims of genocide. Also of note are Brennan's intimate knowledge and understanding of forensic anthropology and kinesiology, often being compared to the police detective Columbo for her seemingly unintelligent appearance toward suspects, which have given her an aptitude for gaining clues from the body movements of other people (The Woman in the Garden, The Truth in the Lye, The Girl with the Curl) and contribute toward her martial arts prowess, and she even advises Booth once how to win his fight against another Ultimate Fighting contestant in The Woman in the Sand'.

In season 5, "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole", Dr. Brennan reveals to Booth that she speaks six languages. In season 8, "The Tiger in the Tale", Booth mentions to Sweets that Dr. Brennan once took peyote with Native Americans. In season 11, "The Senator in the Street Sweeper", Dr. Brennan is mentioned to be a member of the Green Party of the United States along with Hodgins.

She is a licensed hunter (she has licenses that allow her to hunt in four unspecified states). She claims that she hunts only for food,[1] though in the finale of Season 1, she declares that she has become a vegetarian after discovering how Vince McVicar murdered her mom Christine Brennan with a Spring-Loaded Captive Bolt-Stunner In one episode, The Man in the Morgue, it is said she is trained in three types of martial arts. In Aliens in a Spaceship, it mentions that Dr. Brennan was currently studying karate. The known list of Brennan's diverse talents is expanded in Double Trouble in the Panhandle, as it is revealed she is a trained amateur highwire performer.

In 1998 she joined Jeffersonian Institute. In 2003 Dr. Goodman hired Brennan as Head forensic anthropologist. In 2004 she met street artist Angela Montenegro in art gallery and they began their friendship. She later met FBI agent Seeley Booth on case of Gemma Arrington.

Along with her work at the Jeffersonian Institute, Brennan is a best-selling novelist and writes about a fictional anthropologist, Kathy Reichs. Due to her book sales, Brennan is a very wealthy woman. She was told by her publisher that she would never have to work again, but she stays at her job at the Jeffersonian out of choice and love for what she does.

Series[]

In the first season, she hands Booth the file on her parents' disappearance and he agrees to look into it as a personal favor. It is later revealed in Season 2 that her parents, who were bank robbers specializing in safety deposit boxes, changed the family's identity after they stole some damaging FBI documents regarding the murder of an FBI agent and the false imprisonment of civil rights activist Marvin Beckett. Brennan's birth name was Joy Keenan.

Her mother (real name Ruth Keenan, known under the assumed identity of Christine Brennan) had hoped to someday return to her children and family, but made a tape for Brennan to watch on her 16th birthday in case that never happened. Brennan later discovered that Ruth/Christine was murdered in 1993, two years after she and her husband went on the run.

Her father Max Keenan re-entered Brennan's life when she and her brother were being threatened by an old acquaintance, who turned out to be Booth's boss, Deputy Director Kirby. Max evades capture after killing Kirby and takes Russ into hiding to protect him. Later, Max allows Booth to arrest him in order to improve his relationship with his daughter. At trial, Max is acquitted of murdering Director Kirby (due in large part to a defense Booth indirectly came up with, positing an alternate theory of the crime in which Temperance was the killer instead, creating reasonable doubt), and he begins to rebuild his life. He temporarily works at the Jeffersonian as a guide for children visiting the place and demonstrates his brilliant talent as a former science teacher. However, Brennan is concerned about a convicted felon having access to a lab that investigates crimes. Max also introduces Brennan to her cousin Margaret Whitesell.

Brennan begins to feel both dissatisfaction and discomfort with her work toward the end of the fifth season. She also sees some futility in her work, stating that no matter how many killers they catch, there will always be more. To help her gain new perspective, she later decides to head up an anthropological expedition to Indonesia for a year to identify some ancient proto-human remains, after mulling it over during the episode. However, 7 months later, she and everyone else return to D.C. in order to save Cam's job, and they all decide to stay.

As season 6 progresses, Brennan must confront her feelings for Booth, whom she rejected in the 100th episode from the previous season. Having returned from 7 months of introspection, she has come to terms with her romantic affection towards him, even admitting that she regretted not having given them a chance together, midway through the season. However, Booth returns from Afghanistan with a new love interest, war correspondent Hannah Burley, whom Brennan befriends. When Hannah rejects Booth's marriage proposal, Brennan must help him through the emotional fallout.

In the Season 6 episode, "The Blackout in the Blizzard", Brennan mentions her pet iguana for the first time. This same episode shows that one of the number of scientific publications that Brennan reads is Medicinal Physics Quarterly, with one article on electrostatics and triboluminescence proving useful during the lab's power outage. Further concerning her pet iguana in "The Truth in the Myth", as a part of his rehab from alcohol abuse, Vincent Nigel-Murry made apologies for, among other things, having borrowed her iguana one night, wearing him as a hat for a party.

In the second to last episode of season 6 Booth and Brennan had sex, consummating their relationship, and it is revealed in the last few moments of the season finale that as a result, Brennan has become pregnant, with Booth the father. Throughout the episode ("The Change in the Game") Brennan has been seen asking Angela questions and making comments that make her seem excited and apprehensive; when she sees that Booth is happy with the news, she also seems overjoyed. This reflects her earlier desire to become a mother, circa season 4, as well as her desire that Booth be the father of the baby.

In Season 7, Episode 2 "The Hot Dog in the Competition", Brennan and Booth found out they were having a baby girl. Their daughter, Christine Angela Booth (named for Brennan's mother and her best friend), was born in a stable during the episode "The Prisoner in the Pipe". In the Season 7 finale, "The Past in the Present", key evidence in the death of her friend, Ethan Sawyer, is linked to Brennan. Max convinces her to go on the run along with Christine, saying that if she is arrested, even if she is found innocent, she may never see her daughter again.

In Season 8 premiere, it is revealed that while on the run, Brennan was communicating with Angela, via flowers, and eventually used this as a way to communicate with Booth. Despite being on the run, Brennan risks her safety and decides to meet directly with Booth in a hotel room after months of being a single mother. Eventually, they arrest Christopher Pelant, who was the real murderer of Ethan Sawyer, and Brennan is allowed to return to her family.

In season 8 finale Brennan proposed to Booth and he said yes. But Pelant blackmails Booth to reject Brennan's proposal by threatening to kill five innocent people if Booth accepted, also warning Booth not to give a reason for his refusal, this threat is removed when the team manages to hunt down and kill Pelant, and Booth and Brennan marry in the Season 9 episode 'The Woman in White' and have a honeymoon in Argentina.

In the Season 10 episode, "The Eye in the Sky", Brennan learns that she is pregnant with her and Booth's second child. Also, Booth suffered a temporary relapse to his old gambling addiction. In the season finale, she and Booth decided to quit their jobs. But they come back to FBI and Jeffersonian after Jared's death in the 2-part premiere of season 11.

In the series finale The End in the End after a head injury temporarily impairs her ability to remember how to do her job, Brennan is left with an existential crisis, 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. By the following morning, Brennan reveals that her agnosia is almost completely healed, and she would be able to get back to work by the time that the Jeffersonian is restored in six weeks.

Personality[]

"What if I don't? I mean, so much of my life, my intelligence is all I've had. You know, I... I may not have had a family, but I understood things that nobody else could. My... my brain, the way I think, is who I am. Who I was. I... (chuckles) Now I-I don't know, I'm... I don't know anything, Booth. I mean... If the thing that made me... me is gone... who am I?"
―Brennan about herself in The End in the End
"Objectivity allows us to make unclouded assessments. I'm sorry if you think that means I don't care. I assure you If I knew how to convey how I feel, I would. It seems to make people's lives much easier."
―Brennan about her coldness in The Signs in the Silence
"Bones doesn't feel the pressure to act or do or say anything that she doesn't want to, and no one, no one, can make her. That's what makes her... Bones."
―Booth to Hacker about Brennan in A Night at the Bones Museum

She is an utmost scientist, surpassed in emotional detachment only by her assistant (in first two seasons) and later coworker forensic anthropologist Zack Addy. Most of the time she may seem cold and distant but you learn more about her as the show goes on. Brennan's character develops in the second season where she refers to the rest of the team as "our squints" in Judas on a Pole even though the term "squints" is predominately used by Booth when he describes the team, Brennan included.

Despite Bones' extensive knowledge of anthropology, she is quite unaware of pop culture, and her coworkers, particularly Booth, likes to tease her about it. A running gag on the series is someone making an obvious popular culture reference and she blankly states "I don't know what that means," and she is somewhat excited on the rare occasion that she does understand them; for example, in The Maggots in the Meathead, Bones excitedly explained guidos, GTL (Gym Tan Laundry) and other "tribal" features of Jersey Shore denizens after mistaking the reality program for a documentary on television.

Brennan also displays an exceptionally strong sense of integrity. In A Night at the Bones Museum, Booth comments to Assistant Director Andrew Hacker that one of the things that "makes her Bones" is that she does not feel pressure to do or say anything she does not want to and that no one can force her to.

Bones is very competitive and will show whenever there is competition. In The Diamond in the Rough Booth and Bones enter a dance competition to go undercover to find the murderer. It was stated several times how competitive she was. While Brennan is very good at staying focus on her job she was shown to get drawn into the dance competition a little too much causing her to lose focus. However, she was still able to solve the murder and dance. In this episode, it was stated that she could not dance but she can learn how to dance simply by watching videos and the dancers.

Brennan, due to her lack of social skills, insults most people she comes across without realizing it, and she constantly derides religion; she once stated that god was fictional within feet of an elderly priest. She also insults colleagues by claiming her working environment or field of study are superior to theirs, or that study done in her area of expertise is more likely to result in a cause of death than work done in theirs. An example of this is that in The Salt in the Wounds, Brennan got angry at Camille because she didn't remove the flesh from a corpse so Brennan could examine the bone. The main point of tension was that Brennan honestly believed that Camille couldn't find the cause of death from the corpse, whereas she could from the bones. When later proved wrong she reluctantly apologized; this is notable as she rarely apologizes. Usually, she either believes she is right or feels that what she says is not insulting.

Brennan loves to read and watch documents expanding her knowledge. Some of what may be her favorite thing to learn about are tribes and cultures from other countries or in the past. She will often refer to them and sometimes compare them when out in the field with Booth. She will often state these facts to her colleges, sometimes the suspectlesses but mostly Booth.

Brennan for a long time never really cared about dating or at least not see it as others. She will say mate "He wants to mate with me." It is a scientific way of dating which is probably why Brennan says she feels most comfortable with facts and science. Bones will take about sex whenever the subject is brought from casual talk or it has to with an investigation. Since she doesn't seem to know or care when not to say things she will often talk about how a guy wants to have sex. Brennan has had a number of relatively short relationships, including an ill-fated date with a man who turned out to be a murderer and the re-kindling of a romance with her former thesis supervisor.

She has stated that although she does not always feel the need for a committed emotional relationship, she has engaged in casual relationships to "satisfy biological urges". In one episode, she was spending time with two men, one for his intelligence and the other for his sexual skills. In The Plain in the Prodigy, she tells Booth she lost her virginity at the age of 22 and when asked why she waited so long, she said it was because the decision was "important to her".

Sweets postulates in a number of episodes that Brennan's apprehension over having relationships is largely due in part to the abandonment and abuse she experienced as a teenager after her parents disappeared. It is said that she "hides" herself behind a front of hyper-rationalism and she always keeps people at arms' length, except for those closest to her (namely FBI partner later husband Seeley Booth and best friend Angela Montenegro).

Bones' emotional detachment results in a lack of social skills, so she either has trouble understanding jokes or comments related to male-female relationships, or she just chooses to ignore it. If someone makes a joke and everyone laughs she will not laugh. It is clear that she is trying to think about why the joke is funny. Most of the time she does figure it out but will explain why it is funny. Sometimes she does find the joke funny and will laugh but this ends up ruining the joke for everyone else. Brennan and the squints will sometimes crack jokes but it is typically about the bones and no one understands the jokes. However, it seems that Booth is the only one who will laugh at her jokes but considering the past season his laugh is genuine.

Her portrayer in the television series, Emily Deschanel, commented that "Bones" Brennan "is a lot younger and different" from the Brennan in Kathy Reichs' books. Deschanel remarked, "Not that there aren't certain similarities, but it's a kind of a mesh." According to Deschanel, she and the show's creator Hart Hanson discussed that her character "almost has Asperger's Syndrome".

Her scientific approach to life makes her look like a non-loyal and judgmental nasty mockery of religious-based people in life. But in truth, she's actually the total and absolute complete opposite of all of that. Unlike Booth, she has little belief in religion or fate and states that everything can be explained by science, although this view gradually changes later on.

Brennan is a self-proclaimed atheist and often points out what she believes to be the irrationality of religious and spiritual beliefs. This has led to more than one argument with Booth, who is a devout Roman Catholic; he becomes particularly irate when she compares less common religions, such as voodoo, to Christianity. During the Sleepy Hollow crossover episode "Dead Men Tell No Tales", Ichabod Crane notes that Brennan is so skeptical that she dismissed the demon Moloch (the primary antagonist in the first two seasons of Sleepy Hollow) as nothing more than "a tall man with a skin condition", although this does leave him reassured that she will not realize the nature of the secret tomb they have uncovered underneath the Capitol Building.

Brennan's personality undergoes significant changes throughout the course of the series. Her thinking becomes less rigid in later seasons, something which is observed by Dr. Gordon Wyatt, who notes that she is now able to distinguish the difference between accuracy and truth. In season 4, Booth takes her along to his interrogations and helps her learn how to set aside her scientific perspective and relate with the victim's family and suspects on a more interpersonal level. She is also able to put aside her rationality to support her friends in sometimes irrational pursuits, such as Angela's quest to raise money to save a pig from slaughter, and to comfort Booth, even using science or quoting directly from the Bible to rationalize his religious beliefs.

Her sensitivity and empathy towards others are also much improved, seen quite strongly when she comforts his grandfather, and when she attends a funeral so that the victim's single mother won't be alone. She also displays more "typical" human emotions when in extreme stress. One example of this is her fear of snakes in "The Mummy in the Maze," when a girl is in the process of being scared to death in a room, the floor teeming with snakes. This goes against her empirical nature, as, when Booth tells her that the snakes aren't venomous, she states that she is aware, but still refuses to step in the room, causing Booth to carry her on his back.

In the Season 8 episode "The Shot in the Dark", Brennan is shot while working in the lab late at night. While undergoing emergency surgery, she experiences a vision of meeting with her deceased mother, Christine Brennan. Initially dismissing this as a hallucination, Brennan experiences several more visions throughout the episode. During these discussions, it's revealed that Brennan's hyper rationalization originates from the very last piece of advice her mother gave to her (before going on the run) which was to use her brain instead of her heart. While that advice enabled Brennan to survive all these years, the vision of her mother explains, it's now time for Brennan to do more than just survive.

Since entering a relationship with and marrying Booth and then having children, the character has undergone development personally and is shown to be a caring wife and protective mother. She would often put aside her own atheistic views and uses her hyper-rationality to justify Booth's religious beliefs, as shown in season 8 where she references the Bible in order to persuade Booth to forgive his mother and in the season finale where she agrees to a church wedding, rationalizing that she could appreciate the "beauty" of the ceremony and its significance to Booth. She also showed concern in Season 10 about Booth's change in demeanor following his release from prison and exoneration, noting that he had not attended mass for some time.

Brennan cares deeply for her daughter Christine and son Hank, possibly because she does not want to potentially repeat the mistakes of her parents. That said, she occasionally puts pressure on Christine, though she may not always be aware of it. Similarly, she appears to care about her stepson, Parker Booth, just as much and seems to consider him as much her children as Christine and Hank.

Relationships[]

Romantic[]

See also: Bones and Booth

"You and I, we're bound to one another. So much so that I don't feel that I could survive without you. You nurture me. You protect me. You are my home. If I were to damage that by a meaningless dalliance, it would be like killing myself. Something that I would never do. I would never let anything compromise the life we share, Booth. I love you."
―Brennan in The Repo Man in the Septic Tank

Special Agent Seeley Booth is Brennan's partner and husband. He is also the creator of the nickname "Bones" which Brennan didn't really like at first, but slowly grasps onto it as a lovable nickname from her partner. It is revealed in the 100th episode, The Parts in the Sum of the Whole, that two first met on a case in 2004; 13 months prior to the 2005 pilot case of Cleo Eller. In this case they work on the case of Gemma Arrington. During this time the two had some feelings for each other, like when they both go to a bar and share a kiss. They were planning on having sex but Brennan called it off and drove away in a taxi leaving Booth in the rain. But after the case, the two develop resentment towards one another and didn't speak again until the Cleo Eller case, where they officially become partners.

In season 1, the two work on many cases together and build a strong partnership and friendship together. Booth also hints that a character in Brennan's book series, special agent Andy, is based on him and his job with the FBI. In this season, Brennan trusts Booth with the file on the disappearance of her parents, while Booth trusts Brennan with a story about his past in the military, which was a dark time for him. When Brennan begins to date a man she met online, David, Booth displays some lingering jealousy and a very protective nature. Throughout season 1, the feelings the two shares begin to grow. At the end of season 1, after Booth and Brennan try to solve the case about Brennan's mother's murder, Booth discovers Brennan dedicated her new book to him, after he stole a peek.

In season 2, Booth begins to date Cam while Brennan dates Sully. In both relationships, jealousy is hinted at with Brennan and Booth, but nonetheless, they still stay fantastic partners. In the episode Aliens in a Spaceship, when Brennan and Hodgins are buried alive, Booth ran toward the area where signs of Hodgins and Brennan are and was the first to dig her out. In this season is also the beginning of the two's undercover roles as Tony and Roxie. During this season Booth and Brennan help each other out with Brennan's father on the run and the serial killer Howard Epps. At the end of season 2, when Angela and Hodgins have their wedding, Booth is the best man while Brennan is the maid of honor. In the end, Booth apologizes to Brennan about her father and they share a hug at the alter. It foreshadows a bit, when the two are looking at each other at the front of the altar, about their own wedding. Though this does cause a rift between their friendship with the whole symbolism of a man and woman at the altar.

In season 3 Booth and Brennan's care for each other grows as they search for the serial killing cannibal, Gormogon. In season 3 when Brennan's brother wants to see his sick step-daughter in the hospital, Booth lets him see her for a few minutes for Brennan. This is where Brennan gives him a kiss on the cheek. During this season is when they also share a kiss underneath the mistletoe which was a request by the lawyer, Caroline Julian. At Christmas when Brennan is with her family at the prison, Booth and his son, Parker, bring a Christmas tree to them since they aren't allowed to have one. In the episode The Wannabe in the Weeds Booth is shot at the end taking a bullet for Brennan because of his crazy stalker, Pam, who thinks that Brennan is in the way of her chance of getting to Booth. In the season 3 finale, it's said Booth is dead and Brennan is shown not to be grieving as she works hard. When Angela coaxes her into going to the funeral, Brennan agrees to only find out Booth was not dead because of undercover work. She then punches him and rants how she wasn't told. At the end of this episode when Zack Addy is caught for all the crimes he committed for Gormogon, Booth comforts Brennan since she felt like she never gave Zack anything. Booth replies "I think you gave him something great, Bones." referring to the acceptance letter she sent Zack for him to become her assistant at the Jeffersonian.

In season 4 the two are seen to get closer together, even though there are some other relationships going on. During this time they go undercover as Buck and Wanda Moosejaw for the first time, also implied that they had to share a bed in the episode Double Trouble in the Panhandle. In this season Brennan asks Booth to become her sperm donor so she could have a child of her own. Booth thinks about it for a while, but after he decides to donate to her and go through with it. When Booth has his brain surgery because of his tumor, he tells Brennan that he wants her to have his children if something were to happen to him. Brennan goes into the operating room with him. During this time Booth falls into a coma and dreams of an alternate reality where he's married to Brennan and they're going to have a kid together. They also own a nightclub, but when he wakes up he forgets.

In season 5 Booth's feelings for Brennan become stronger. In The Parts in the Sum of the Whole, Booth reveals those feelings and wants to make it work with Brennan. Meanwhile, Brennan doesn't want to because she doesn't think she's compatible with Booth because she isn't like him, part of her shows she thinks she isn't good for him and thinks he deserves better. Booth and Brennan "break up" but still stay partners.

At Brennan's high school reunion Booth helps almost give her the prom she never had and they share a dance to the song Kiss from a Rose by Seal. At the end of this season, Brennan is called to be the head of an anthropology exposition in Indonesia while Booth is sent overseas again, being called to serve in the military again. The two both go their separate ways and leave each other for a year.

In season 6 neither has seen the other for almost a year. They both reunite at the reflecting pools, hugging one another. Booth has moved on though and met his new girlfriend, Hannah Burley, a reporter to whom he wants to become committed. During the episode The Doctor in the Photo Brennan realizes she lost her chance with Booth and cries in the car with him, upset she lost her chance at happiness, having concluded over the course of the episode that she was in love with Booth. When Booth breaks up with Hannah, Brennan is there for them and in The Blackout, in the Blizzard, they both decide they want to be a couple when the time is right.

In the episode The Hole in the Heart when Broadsky kills Vincent Nigel-Murray, Booth comforts Brennan and it's implied that she slept with him that night. At the end of the episode Booth and Brennan are linking arms as they sing Lime in the Coconut to Murray's coffin as it's being sent back to England. In the season finale, The Change in the Game it isn't said, but it's slightly inferred that Booth and Brennan are a couple. They go undercover as Buck and Wanda Moosejaw and at the end of the episode, Brennan confesses to Booth that she's pregnant and he responds with a wide smile. This confirms that Booth and Brennan had in fact slept together in the previous episode, which resulted in the conception of a baby.

In season 7 Booth and Brennan are a couple finally with a child on the way. In The Prisoner, in the Pipe, they have their daughter, Christine Angela Booth, who is named after her grandmother and godmother. At the end of the season, Brennan has to run away with their daughter after her baptism, leaving Booth behind when Brennan is accused of murder because of Pelant, a serial killer who is terrorizing Booth and Brennan. In season 8 Booth and Brennan are reunited and are able to be a family again. There is some trouble between the two revolving around the fact Booth missed out in Christine's life for three months, and this causes a small rift but nothing that isn't fixed. In this season Brennan proposes to Booth using beef jerky, finally ready for marriage, but Booth has to stop it due to the fact Pelant threatened him, leaving the couple heartbroken. In season 9 Brennan and Booth begin with trouble due to the fact Booth put the wedding off, upsetting Brennan because she doesn't know the truth. When they finally catch Pelant, Booth re-proposes to Brennan, and the two get married in The Woman in White.

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 as the team uncovered a complex blackmail scheme, 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, Brennan and Booth return to the FBI and Jeffersonian institute full-time after Booth's brother's death.

Michael Stires was Brennan's former professor from her university. They had an affair back when he was her teacher, and slept together in The Girl in the Fridge before Brennan stopped their relationship.

Peter "Pete" St. James is Brennan's ex-boyfriend, he is the reason for Brennan's trip to Guatemala. He later appears in her house reclaiming his TV. She attacks him, fearing an intruder in her apartment. This character may be a reference to the book incarnation of Temperance Brennan's ex-husband. He only appeared in Pilot.

David Simmons met Brennan on an online dating website. He only appeared for two or three episodes and it is later acknowledged she dumped him after finding out he was a recruiter for a cult.

Brennan and Tim "Sully" Sullivan had a short but semi-serious relationship in season 2. They met on bad terms in The Girl In The Gator but later started their relationship. The relationship ended when Sully left to the Caribbean after Brennan declined his invitation to sail with him for a year. He later returned in the season 12 episode, The Grief and the Girl, to comfort Brennan after the recent death of her father, Max Keenan.

Mark Gaffney and Jason DeFry were only seen in the episode The Man in the Outhouse. Brennan slept with Mark because he had the excellent sexual skills but did not date him because she did not find him satisfying knowledgeably. The opposite goes for Jason, who Brennan went on dates with but did not sleep with. Both relationships ended by the end of the episode when they found out she was dating/being intimate with both of them.

Brennan showed interest in Andrew Hacker at the beginning of A Night at the Bones Museum, and they went on a date later in the episode. He also appears in The Proof in the Pudding and The Predator in the Pool as a continued romantic interest. He is briefly mentioned in The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle. He does not appear again and it is assumed Brennan broke up with him sometime between the end of season 5 and the beginning of season 6.

Friendship[]

'Angela Montenegro'

Brennan is best friends with her coworker, Angela, saying she loves Angela "like a sister" and an aunt to Hodgins' and Angela's child, Michael Vincent.

Trivia[]

  • Her character is very loosely based on author Kathy Reichs and the heroine in Reichs' crime novel series.
  • The name Temperance is derived from an English word meaning "moderation" or "restraint".
    • Brennan's birth name "Joy" is a name meaning joy, happiness, joyful.
  • She has an official Twitter page
  • There is a continuity error in Brennan's family history that reveals her parents' disappearance to have been an undeveloped concept at the time it was introduced:
    • In the season 1 episode, A Boy in a Bush, Brennan reveals to Booth that she was in the foster system until her grandfather found and removed her. However, later, in the season 2 episode Stargazer in a Puddle, she is shocked and offended when Max gives her a ring he tells her was an heirloom of her maternal grandmother's because this is the first time in her life she'd ever heard of her grandparents. Her exact wording was "I have grandparents?!"
    • Again in the season 1 episode A Boy in a Bush while Brennan is appealing to the foster boy by implying her own experience in the system she mentions "They take you away from your brother" which is the comment that stands out to Booth as personal. This implies that Russ was in the system with her but in The Woman in Limbo Brennan and Russ's revealed ages contradict this. Russ was 19 when their parents disappeared and it's illustrated that he was NOT denied custody in a legal court. At one point, Brennan flashes back to him walking out to his car in what was the last moment she'd ever seen him until that point and she clearly faults him for abandoning her as their parents had.
    • Even after it's revealed that Brennan was 15 when she fell into the foster system, there are quite a few vague references implying that she was there for much longer than 3 years. Ex: In the season 4 episode Mayhem on a Cross when Brennan mistakes advice from Dr. Wyatt as needing to "compare scars" with Sweets she abruptly tells him a story about being thrown into the trunk of her foster parents' car for two days for breaking a dish while doing chores. She attributes the accident to have been "a clumsy child".
  • Brennan has stated that she went to 12 schools before attending university, something she hated since she never felt stable. If she was 15 when she entered foster care, then that means she moved schools at least every other month; while possible, this implies that her time in foster care was longer than she admits.
  • In The Woman in Limbo Zach states that Brennan joined the Jeffersonian in 1998, putting her there approximately 8 years. However, in the episode The Girl in the Fridge, Dr. Goodman mentioned that he only hired her two years ago.
  • Both of Brennan's pregnancies were written in series. Emily Deschanel had actually gotten pregnant hence the 5-month leap taken in the season 7 opener, The Memories in the Shallow Grave in contrast to Angela's pregnancy having been fully developed. In The Prisoner in the Pipe while Booth is handing newborn Christine to Brennan there is a glimpse of Brennan's stomach still bulging with the real pregnancy.
  • Throughout the series, Brennan is vaguely shown gradually transitioning into a vegetarian beginning with the moment she made the decision in The Woman in Limbo when she discovered that her mother had been murdered with a cruel pig slaughtering tool: "I think I just became a vegetarian". In real life, Emily Deschanel is a vegan.
  • Brennan keeps an iguana in her office, which can be seen living in a glass case opposite from one of her couches. In the season six episode The Truth in the Myth, Vincent Nigel-Murray apologizes for using her iguana as a hat. She took his admission in stride and was even impressed that he was able to keep her pet in place atop his head.
  • In the episode The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle, she picks up a guitar and begins to play Hot Blooded, explaining that her ability to play the guitar comes from her knowledge of the akonting, the folk lute of the Jola tribe.
  • In The Source in the Sludge, she inadvertently consoles Daisy by revealing that she like the intern had failed her oral exams for her doctorate because she had challenged the panel.
  • Brennan has been a card-carrying member of the feminist group Women for Change since she was in college, having received their monthly newsletter for 20 years.
  • In The Movie in the Making, Brennan tells the film crew that she has three doctorates and speaks eight languages, two of which "you've probably never heard of." We can identify them gradually throughout the series:
    • Farsi: She once called Arastoo's poetry (which he writes in Farsi) beautiful and in The Murder in the Middle East believed she was the best candidate to travel to Iran to his aid as she wouldn't need a translator, but was forbidden in favor of Booth as she was heavily pregnant at the time.
    • Krio: She was able to speak to refugees from Sierra Leone in that language in The Survivor in the Soap.
    • Mandarin: We hear her speak it first to the woman whose son's pelvic bone she stole in (The Boneless Bride in the River) (a surprising violation to both the characters present and the audience as per an undercover routine she had initially been pretending NOT to understand the language and apparently hadn't shared the fact with her co-conspirators) and to the two upper-class children the victim had been employed as a manny to in The Bone that Blew in addition to translating their conversation to Booth.
    • Norwegian: is a potential 4th as she knew how to pronounce the name of the Norwegian death metal band in (Mayhem on a Cross) and corrected every incorrect pronunciation directed at her.
    • French: She speaks French to Booth in the Pilot and also speaks to Inspector Rousseau in French sometimes in The Jewel in the Crown during the investigation into the murder of Isabelle, the Marquise de Chaussin.
    • Spanish: She spoke Spanish throughout The Woman in the Garden and once in The Nazi on the Honeymoon.
    • German: When she and Booth were investigating the death of a chocolatier in The Babe in the Bar, she displayed her fluency of the language.
    • English
  • She never went to prom but she wanted to go.
  • Brennan cannot dance ballet. When Booth said that "You said so yourself. You know, you have that whole asymmetrical thing", Bones tells him "it's an asymmetrical development of my left iliac crest which is only a problem for ballet, not for ballroom". This was shown in The Diamond in the Rough that neither are that great at dancing. At the end of the episode the two fight over the lead dancer which leads to uncoordinated dancing.
  • Prior to moving in with Seeley Booth, Brennan's address was 415 Elmsworth NW Washington, D.C. 20003, her door is marked 22 indicating a unit number. Even the bill that is visible below the package has the same address, again omitting the unit number which should be included when addressing mail-in The Knight on the Grid.
    • Booth and Brennan’s first home address is 1297 Janus Street Washington DC, 20002. This is seen in Brennan's check, which she received from her publicist in The Heiress in the Hill.
    • Booth and Brennan’s second home address is 1858 Chesterfield Road, Fairfax, Va. This is seen in Booth's box with Jared's ashes.
  • Her email as seen in The Family in the Feud is temperancebrennan@jeffersonian.gov
  • At the beginning of the series Brennan often told Booth to not call her 'Bones' but in 'The Parts in the Sum of the Whole' she did not initially object to the nickname. Later in "Fire in the Ice' she corrects Booth when he accidentally calls Wendell 'Bones' and later in 'The Foot in the Foreclosure' she tells Angela that it was the only nickname she ever had, while smiling.
  • In the episode The Twisted Bones in the Melted Truck, Brennan mentions to Daisy that when taking her psychological evaluation, she answered the question "what is your favorite color" with "something in the 520 to 570 nanometer range", which is green.

Gallery[]

See Temperance Brennan's Gallery

References[]

  1. Booth: "You hunt?"
    Brennan: "Only for food."
    — The Man in the Morgue
    , Bones Season 1 Episode 19.
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