“I’m your partner. Let me be your partner.”
Buckle up, everyone. I have a lot to say about this episode, and much of it is personal reflection. Sorry not sorry. The first time I saw this episode, it made me a bit nervous–I recall being nervous while watching it. One of the things that Bones has done for me is that it’s made me feel more compassion, understanding and empathy for what veterans go through and how veterans feel. Ideologically speaking, I’m extremely anti-military, anti-war, anti-gun, all of that stuff. I’m certainly not going to blame veterans for that, and I have great respect for veterans, but sometimes I wonder how otherwise smart people could end up devoting their lives to something so imperialist, so unethical. But again, I try hard to keep my priorities straight in this conversation. Veterans are caught up in something that is much bigger than them. It’s no individual’s fault; it’s the institution. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Oh, I digress. I’m sure you can see the problem. My politics do not align with a pro-military stance. But this show has forced me to soften my stance a bit–by choice. I could easily see episodes like this and roll my eyes, or think Booth was some conservative asshole. But I don’t want to be that angry, narrow-minded type of person. I really don’t. I don’t take joy in that perspective. So, I’ve used this show as a way to help me work through some of my personal feelings about the military and the people who support it. It’s been liberating, in a way. I realize now that most people don’t have extreme views about the military or the government; and that wishing war didn’t exist the the military didn’t exist doesn’t mean they don’t exist, and that people don’t deserve our respect. This is a rambling way, I guess, of saying thanks, Bones, for helping me have more compassion for people who live very different lives than I do, and to get outside of my own head.
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This episode, significantly, helps us first begin to learn more about Booth-as-veteran. This is a really important part of his story, life and personality, and it’s something that informs how he sees the world and why he acts and thinks as he does. This episode is our introduction to so much about Booth. He has this need to see the world as a just place. He does not like it when something threatens his worldview that the good guys win and the bad guys lose. He has a lot of trust in the world, because he did awful things in the army and can’t live with himself if he doesn’t believe it was for a just cause.
The case in this episode involves the burned body of a man left at the grave of a celebrated veteran, Charlie Kent, who was conveniently going to be honored that day. What Booth originally thought was a very tasteless anti-war suicide protest turns out to be a murder. The victim, a man named Devon Marshall, who fought with Charlie in Iraq. Throughout the episode, we learn that Charlie Kent, war hero, was actually killed by friendly fire, and there was a conspiracy to cover it up. Then, it turns out it was more than friendly fire. An Iraqi family was killed and the scene was staged to look like an attack by insurgents after the fact. I love how the episode shows the stories of everyone in the unit, and how the inconsistencies in the stories eventually lead the team to discover which one of them killed Devon Marshall in order to keep the conspiracy a secret. Even if the story is really hard to process, I really like the way they told it.
As good as the case is, a lot of scenes are hard for me to watch. Even though I know the “insurgents” which turned out to be the Iraqi family aren’t real, it’s awful to watch, because I’m absolutely sure that things like this happen in war, and happened in Iraq. Innocent lives are always collateral damage, and it’s devastating. It’s all the more devastating because of current events. 😔
One of the best parts of this episode is that various characters run the gamut of opinion about the war. Obviously Booth believes in the idea of a “just war.” Brennan, while believing that war is part of how the world works, also thinks that humanity should work toward not needing war, and she remarks that it would be better if military cemeteries didn’t have so many headstones. Hodgins, unsurprisingly, is very passionately anti-war, ranting to Angela and Zack about how there were no weapons of mass destruction, that the president is a terrible person, and all kinds of things that apparently passed for “paranoid ramblings” in 2006 but now are understood as facts. This is the first time, but certainly not the last time, I take note that Hodgin’s “conspiracy theories” are often things that turned out to be true, or at least sound completely reasonable in 2023.
Personally, I align with Hodgins’ perspective on the war, but I am trying to be more like Brennan. Regardless of my personal beliefs, I need to understand that situations are not all black and white. I always say that most of life is lived in shades of grey, so why don’t I actually act in accordance with those beliefs?
Also, poor Booth. He spends a lot of time in this episode looking forlorn and upset like this:
And this is also when we learn about Booth’s gambling addiction for the first time:
Throughout, Brennan wrestles with how best to support Booth through this thing she doesn’t understand about him. Angela suggests that she be there for him. That she should listen, and know when a simple touch is enough.
The end of the episode is one of those really nice Bones moments. Booth and Brennan are back at the cemetery. Booth, who seems on the verge of tears throughout the conversation, tells Brennan about an awful moment in Kosovo where he killed a man accused of genocide, but he did it by shooting the man–as a sniper–during his small son’s birthday party, traumatizing the child for life. Crying then, he says “You know, we all die a little bit, Bones. With each shot, we all die a little bit.” While this is happening, Brennan puts her hand on Booth’s forearm to comfort him. He seems slightly stunned that she has done so, but his reaction is to place his hand on top of hers. This isn’t a sexual thing. It’s comfort only. But it’s a beautiful moment, because as Angela said, a well-placed touch is enough, and Brennan understood the assignment. This scene is another one of my favorite types of scenes, where these two learn more about each other and cultivate a bit more intimacy with each other. Baby steps add up. It’s lovely to see these moments again knowing where it leads.
But back to the final scene… the cynical part of me wants to believe that this is copaganda at its finest. But I make a conscious choice to set that aside and see that Booth is damaged and troubled from his time in the army, and that it’s important he share his stories in order to humanize not only the character, but on a broader level, all veterans. War is hell. That much is true. We need to understand that, regardless of ideology. And–we need to be more like Brennan. I strive to be, anyway. She may not understand it, but she wants to understand it because it means something to Booth. And she wants to understand him. And even if she can’t understand it, she wants to be compassionate. Sometimes we need to peel back some of the onion layers to really understand another person’s perspective.
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Since there was Rammstein in this episode, I need to post Rammstein. The specific song is called “Feuer frei!” which is a German military phrase that means “open fire!”:
In conclusion, for a bleeding-heart liberal such as myself, this episode was really eye-opening and led to a ton of self-reflection. Lots of good Booth character development. Lots of food for thought about war and peace. 10/10.
The Bones Files 
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