Dear Bones

[laleia]

Dear Bones,

Somehow, you have successfully managed to irritate me with 1.) your murder mystery, 2.) your character development subplot, and 3.) your secondary subplot. I disagree with your thesis. And it annoyed me.


So the thing that pissed me off the MOST was the whole "Bones needs to apologize" subplot because, well frankly, I don't think she needed to apologize. I mean, at first I didn't mind so much, but it really irritated me when Booth said something to the effect of, "It's time for you to join us in the real world."

You know what? Bones doesn't always have the best interpersonal interactions with the world around her, but this is also something she accepts and in part has chosen. It REALLY pissed me off that he implied she was some sort of monster.

Further, I think she was completely justified in her actions. She had an opinion and wrote an academic article dismissing the idea of forensic podologists being officially certified about it. Sure, if she went up to his face and told him she thought he was worthless, I think she should apologize. She didn't. She attacked his occupation, sure, but people say lawyers are evil all the time and never bother apologizing for it. She simply wrote an official article about why his occupation shouldn't be recognized in a specific organization.

And I'm sorry that his arm went numb, but that's also NOT her fault. I don't think it's her responsibility that he was, as she put it, too weak to handle the information.*

(By the way, I also didn't appreciate the undercurrent of "Strong woman makes man impotent [oh no! without a right hand he can't masturbate!] with her intellect, must apologize to him for it and make him feel better about himself because it is all her fault.")

Furthermore, I agree with Brennan. It doesn't sound like the forensics of feet is a viable division of forensic science, not if he doesn't know anything about any other parts of the body. How often is that applicable? The reason forensic anthropologists can focus on bones isn't because there are TONS of bones-only crimes around the country. It's because Bones is primarily a researcher at the Smithsonian/Jeffersonian who spend most of her time working with long-dead bodies of which only bones remains. Most of her work is historical, she only consults with the FBI on occasion.

It just really pissed me off that Bones and Sweets made it seem like Bones was a monster for what she did when really ... she wasn't. She had no obligation to apologize. And it wasn't even necessarily a decent-human-thing to do. I mean, do academics regularly go around apologizing for refuting each others' theories? Maybe they do, I just didn't notice?

--

The second subplot that pissed me off was Cam's subplot, specifically her conversation with Sweets where he made it out like she was terribly evil and immoral.

So I'm going to put this out there. I'm sure the show's message is in line with the official ethical policy on these matters but: I don't think what Cam did was wrong.

Well, actually, I think the fact that she changed Michelle's essay is wrong, because that's submitting her works under her daughter's name, so that is unethical. However, I don't see anything wrong with Cam filling out the REST of the application (which ... is all the demographic information). I don't think it's bad parenting to submit an application to a school for your daughter. I think its bad parenting to FORCE your child to attend the school if they don't want to, but I don't see anything wrong with ensuring your child has more options, even if sneakily.

Moreover, I found Sweets's argument ("What about the student who didn't get in?") to be laughable. Is he ... arguing that people should only apply to schools they really, really want to go to? Um. People apply all the time to backup schools they're not planning on going to, and to reach schools they know they'll never be able to afford to attend. That's how the college process works. College admissions offices take that into effect when they make acceptance decisions. In any case, the student that "didn't get in" wouldn't have been rejected; he/she would have been waitlisted and could still get in. I know plenty of people who got into college off the waitlist.

Her conversation with Sweets where he was all judge-y just really pissed me off. So that makes two times this episode that Sweets was all judge-y.

Considering that I still haven't fully forgiven Sweets for when he "experimented" on Booth and Brennan completely unethically like three seasons ago or something (I mean, seriously, talk about your "personal code of ethics": you played with their lives by seeing to it that Brennan isn't told that Booth's not dead FOR YOUR BOOK), he's back in my bad books again. Which is really the writers' fault and not his fault, but whatever.

--

The last thing that annoyed me was the murder. I mean, it probably only really annoyed me because of everything else that annoyed me, but I was TOTALLY sympathizing with the murderer.

I mean seriously. I'm not pissed at the dead guy so much as the head professor guy. Seriously. For the sake of free pot, he RUINED HIS GRAD STUDENT'S DISSERTATION. WTF. I can't even imagine putting in 6 years of work and getting so much in debt, and then having that all go down the drain. (Granted, I think he wouldn't be in as much debt as she was saying, because as I understand it grad. education in Canada costs less than in the U.S., also most grad students fund large portions of their program through research stipends and T.A. positions at the very least, so if he was working at the body farm he should be getting a fair amount of money from that.)

Anyways, all in all, I was very upset with Bones today.

*When I wrote this, I started thinking about the whole triggering debate that comes up every now and then. See, people with triggers never ask the fanfic writer to take their story down or to apologize for having written it, they merely ask for a warning and an apology for not putting up the appropriate warnings. Does that make sense?

Comments

[scifichick774.livejournal.com]

Agreed. There was no need for Bones to apologize. She wrote a perfectly logical paper explaining her professional opinion - not her personal one. Indeed, she seemed pleased to see the other doctor at the beginning; clearly harboring no ill will against him. It is not standard behavior for those in academia to apologize for their published theories. Normally, any offended individuals will respond by publishing a rebuttal article (again, not personal), or they'll just accept that people have different opinions and suck it up. That the writers think they can change this by coming across heavy-handed is irksome.

Cam... I actually approved of her lashing out at Sweets for his judgment. I'm sure the show meant for it to portray her in a negative light, but what she did was not at all abnormal in upper middle class to wealthy circles, and she had every right to defend her actions to a pompous upstart who doesn't have any idea what kind of pressure and stress she deals with every day. And you're absolutely right about the whole "kid who doesn't get to go" thing. If they had any chance of going, they would be put on a wait list, not just denied admission.

This whole episode was just frustrating. And anger inducing. Blech.

[laleia.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only person to feel this way!

[darklightluna.livejournal.com]

Not sure what the situation in the episode was, but I do recall that when I was applying for college essays, the effing computer deleted all of the data I had entered for the 5th time and I had gotten more than a bit fed up. I ended up getting my Dad to do it because if I had to enter my name, SSN, and grades by class one more time someone was going to bleed.