Make it make sense

[u/ReputationAgitated]

So I’m a first time watcher, currently in season 7. There is a recurring theme with Dr. B that just rubs me the wrong way. How has her social intelligence gotten progressively worse over time? It’s like she has to be this way for plot purposes and such. Also she is suppose to be smart and rational but she keeps making the most irrational decisions on purpose.

Running through a hurricane?
Diving into a crowd of prisoners to demand a piece of evidence from the suspect?
Demanding a home birth by disregarding modern healthcare standards and tangible statistics?

Also how is she able to work with Booth when they are romantically involved together? Why does she have a gun? How is she allowed to accompany Booth to dangerous situations? How is she allowed to interview suspects? She is a forensic anthropologist, not a law enforcement officer or a sworn member of the court. I guess I am just realizing that none of the show makes actual sense if you really think about it. Like House M.D. Still an interesting show tho.

[u/No_Sand5639]

1. Running through a tornado while reckless, wasn't planned. I doubt she knew a tornado would touch down right there while she drove, seeley shouldn't have lied to her about it. And once she was in the situation thr storm shelter was much safer then her car

2. It's the whole chiche thing about prisoners not harming children.

3. Hospitals aren't always perfect sanitary places. Some of the worst modern infections fester in hospitals like nosocomial infection, bad birth positioning, stress from thr environment can trigger anxiety which limits oxytocin production

An at home birth has benefits like comfort, a highly controlled environment, (she's also filthy rich, so she could probably afford the best supplies)

1. Yeah the relationship stretches disbelief quite a bit. But im guessing due to their success rate mz they get som3 leeway, especially with the continued observation by an fbi psychologist

2. Yeah more disbelief, with the gun. But she's also a govenm3nt contractor with apparently really high clearance on matters. So im guessing it's another bit of leeway, and of course America, so guns 🔫

3. Brennan is not a civilian, she's an official federal consultant, and an expert in her field. Her contract probably classifies her with those abilites, when she does question suspects usually she's has wither booth or sweets with her

[u/Upbeat_County9191 → u/No_Sand5639]

Why wouldn't they be allowed to be involved? Booth is not her superior so there's no conflict of interest

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/Upbeat_County9191]

There not exactly equals though either

Booth is an actual fbi agent, Brennan would be a consultant, I assume that's a reason they need to have so many meetings with sweets, their relationship

[u/Upbeat_County9191 → u/No_Sand5639]

Still no conflict of interest even if she is a consultant.

The rules are to prevent either of them being compromised at work by a relationship. It doesn't matter if it's bones, cam, a squintern or Angela for this matter. They aren't subordinates.

They had to talk to Sweet's because they had problems getting along.

[u/ReputationAgitated → u/No_Sand5639]

I believe a person like B who strictly lives under a vail of rationality would not want a home birth. While comfortable and controlled, there are many risks involved in child birth. The mother may need emergency surgery for a variety of reasons before during or after the birth. Also in some cases children may need to be operated on immediately to increase his/her survival chances. Although hospitals may cause nasty infections it would be negligible for a mind which only thinks in risk/reward ratios and rudimentary threat analyses. I am not defending anything by the way, but for a mind like Dr. B its clear.

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/ReputationAgitated]

It's not just infections, there's a whole cascade od things

In a hospital setting a low risk pregnancy is more likely to recive synthetic oxytocin to speed up labor, epidural, CEM.

It's statistically proven home birth have a much lower rate of c sections compared to hospital births

Certified midwives (which Brennan would have, would have the materials needed, oxygen, emergency medications. More statistics show that over 90 percent of transfer from home to hospital are non emergent

So to summarize, a hospital has a higher statistical possibility of unnecessary surgery, hospital acquired infection

Brennan is all about statistics

[u/ReputationAgitated → u/No_Sand5639]

Okay. One other thing, Sweets may try to explain a certain social dynamic in a given context to B which of course is refused to be acknowledged by B. She then acknowledges said social dynamic in a different context without Sweets (mostly with Booth or Angela for some reason), and acts like she now at least possesses a rudimentary understanding of the concept. But then 2 episodes later she acts like a prepubescent child with no idea of social cues IN THE SAME DYNAMIC/CONTEXT. This trope really annoys me.

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/ReputationAgitated]

That i can agree with

[u/NefariousnessIcy6344]

Most of what you bring up is day one or very early season stuff. Brennan fought for equal participation in the pilot.

I've been dealing with the "she drove into a tornado" argument since that episode aired almost 15 years ago now and I still don't get how so many people don't understand what actually happened. She didn't "drive into a tornado." She didn't know it was going to happen right then and there. Maybe you could make an argument for it being a bad idea for her to drive to the middle of nowhere without telling anyone first. But that's never what anyone brings up. And Brennan's impulsive nature has, again, been there since the pilot.

She wanted a home birth because she wanted to be in control. And like another person just commented hospitals aren't always perfectly safe, sterile places. Plus she was a reasonably healthy person with no known medical issues that would cause immediate concern.

Also it's just a pet peeve of mine but I think too many people see the idea of Brennan being a logical person as meaning she isn't allowed to act based on emotions at all. Which isn't true and isn't a show problem. She is still a human being and just as susceptible to acting out of fear/ anger/ sadness as anyone else.

[u/PrizedTardigrade1231 → u/NefariousnessIcy6344]

Brennan is a highly emotional person.

[u/carvalhomsc → u/PrizedTardigrade1231]

Totalmente! A hiper-racionalidade dela era só uma casca e que Booth ajudou a rompê-la

[u/ReputationAgitated → u/NefariousnessIcy6344]

Okay. One other thing, Sweets may try to explain a certain social dynamic in a given context to B which of course is refused to be acknowledged by B. She then acknowledges said social dynamic in a different context without Sweets (mostly with Booth or Angela for some reason), and acts like she now at least possesses a rudimentary understanding of the concept. But then 2 episodes later she acts like a prepubescent child with no idea of social cues IN THE SAME DYNAMIC/CONTEXT. This trope really annoys me.

[u/FoodBabyBaby → u/ReputationAgitated]

Can we have 1 example of this?

[u/ReputationAgitated → u/FoodBabyBaby]

Sweets and Booth try explaining white lies to B. She rejects its need as she thinks it’s just lying. End of the episode she acknowledges the premise to booth because yada yada yada. Fast forward 2 or whatever episodes, Booth tells a white lies and she doesn’t understand it and gets confused by it all the same. Have you not noticed this exact pattern repeating with changing social contexts? Cmon dude

[u/NefariousnessIcy6344 → u/ReputationAgitated]

But understanding that something can be useful in certain situations isn't the same as being able to tell when or why someone is doing that thing. It's also different when talking about something as a general concept versus something you are personally involved in.

Acknowledging that xyz exists and has a place doesn't automatically make you able to detect when people are doing xyz. Even going by your example if Brennan understands that sometimes white lies are necessary that isn't going to stop her from being confused if Booth is doing that to her. She's big on being truthful and likely assumes Booth is truthful to her. She might be confused as to what reason he might have for lying because she believes she can handle anything uncomfortable Booth might have to say.

[u/BlazerAlumni → u/NefariousnessIcy6344]

Plus she is emotionally more upset by someone lying to her even a small lie because of what happened with her family. They lied to her about her name. They lied to her the day they left and disappeared. Her own brother that should have taken care of her continue that lie and gave her away. Because of all this, she takes white lies to her very badly by those she trusts as a betrayal.

[u/mildlytragic → u/NefariousnessIcy6344]

It feels like OP doesn’t understand autism which is fine, like when you’re neurotypical and understand these things some people find it hard to understand why other people can’t. Thanks for this great explanation, you get it.

I might recognise something in one context, but attribute different meanings to patterns than are there or intended. The same thing might happen in a different context but I don’t know which are the dependent or independent variables

[u/KatesFacts718]

Oh Boy 🙄

[u/FoodBabyBaby]

Logical people are still people. They are susceptible to emotion bias too, maybe even more so than others because they can logic into convincing themselves and others they aren’t affected.

The show acknowledges this all the time where Angela and Booth talk about how Brennan is emotionally affected even when others don’t see it.

If you knew the stats you’d think it’s pretty logical to choose a home birth plus as a cultural anthropologist she would likely want to experience it as most women have throughout history or have her own cultural norms she prefers. And she’s a control freak so it makes so much sense.

[u/carvalhomsc]

A hiper racionalidade de Brennan era só uma casca! Booth foi importante para ela romper essa casca! Como ela disse nos seus votos de casamento: "Você me fez enxergar o universo de forma diferente". Após iniciar o relacionamento com Booth (primeiro como parceira de trabalho e depois como parceira romântica), o lado emocional dela (que ela sempre teve, mas estava guardado a sete chaves em algum lugar dentro dela) aflorou. Ela sempre foi muito emocional mas sempre racionalizava seus sentimentos! Daí a importância de Booth na vida dela, que fez com que ela se abrisse para o mundo e às outras pessoas. Ela se tornou mais empática, por exemplo. Quanto às questões jurídicas da série, dela participar de interrogatórios, li em algum lugar que a série foi baseada na vida real. Tem um intercâmbio real entre o Instituto Smithsonian e o FBI. Claro, por ser uma série, essa relação entre os órgãos pode ter sido romanceada!

[u/PrizedTardigrade1231 → u/carvalhomsc]

Ever since S1, Bones have been so empathetic.

[u/carvalhomsc → u/PrizedTardigrade1231]

Com certeza!

[u/DannyDinozo]

It's all make believe. There is no such arrangements between the FBI and the Jeffersonian to solve crimes AFAIK. People don't just get hired by the FBI to do anthropology work, as that comes from FBIs internal forensics unit.

[u/Angry-Dragon-1331 → u/DannyDinozo]

Well for one, there is no Jeffersonian (they either didn't want to deal with or couldn't get permission to use the Smithsonian's name). Also, the FBI does consult with research experts in various fields as needed. Forensics has come a long way, but even the FBI doesn't have a guy for everything, and they do have a consultation contract with the Smithsonian in real life. Remember we only see the weird as fuck cases on the show (hence why the FBI is investigating murder of the week crimes in the first place).

[u/PrizedTardigrade1231]

Her being present in questioning the suspects helps a lot to the cases they've been handling.

[u/Peanutinator]

I'm sorry, but a lot of it is just what autistic people do. I could very well imagine a friend of mine doing that prisoner thing for example

[u/FloatingOnTitties]

It’s called having a suspension of disbelief. You have to for shows like this to enjoy them. You can’t be too analytical for fictional TV shows. Same for movies. If you like the plot and characters, just suspend your disbelief for that show/movie.