Autism as NCIS and Bones Characters
Autism can present in a lot of different ways and I’m using characters that I headcanon as autistic to show how differently autism can present in different people.
Dr Temperance Brennan: The Cold Hearted Sweetheart
Brennan is a woman who is extremely intelligent but often comes off as rude and cold hearted but it is shown throughout the show that she is anything but- she just struggles to show her emotions and understand other people in a way that others understand.
Struggles to understand social cues and rules despite being an anthropologist and often says things that are insensitive and upset other people without meaning to
Struggled to make friends throughout school due to her morbid and odd interests and difficulty socializing
Very strong sense of justice and often has trouble understanding why certain things are the way they are when she believes things are unjust
Usually sticks to a rigid routine, she wants things done a certain way in a certain order and operates heavily on logic to make things go “correctly”
But she is still very capable of living on her own and does have a successful career but struggles in the “real world” to connect with people outside of her circle who don’t understand her demeanor. She is one of the characters that is more obviously autistic and may be viewed as the “good type” of autistic in media by neurotypical people.
Zach is another character from Bones, he is Dr Brennan’s first intern and is considered to be extremely intelligent but struggles severely with social interaction. He often frustrates Hodgins due to his inability to show interest in other people’s interests and Zach’s self inflated demeanor.
He, unlike Dr Brennan cannot make decisions that are not based on logic and proof. He becomes almost paralyzed when his routine of proof and testing is interrupted and he is asked to guess
He is sent back from Iraq due to not being able to integrate and is even told to consider why the only place he fits in is at the Jeffersonian
He comes off as very arrogant and rude due to his very blunt manner of viewing the world and does not understand how the way he presents himself upsets other people.
He is eventually manipulated by a serial killing cannibal due to his black and white logical thinking
Zach also struggles with living in the real world and would be considered to have higher support needs. He lived with Hodgins and chose not to learn to drive. Zach is often what people think of when they think of an autistic person.
Daisy Wick: The Socially Unaware Barbie
Daisy is one of the characters that I strongly believe is autistic but is often overlooked when talking about autism on the show due to the fact she is different from Zach and Dr Brennan. Daisy struggles with social rules but does not usually offend as much as she makes people uncomfortable. She often says and does things that people find weird or annoying but she seems mostly unaware of these things.
Regularly makes people uncomfortable on the show with her overly friendly demeanor, often asking personal questions and overstepping boundaries.
Usually ends up making things worse because she may try to apologize but goes about it incorrectly and irritates those around her.
There are many times in the show where she attempts to mimic Dr Brennan or “mask” in order to appear more put together and act in the way she feels she is “supposed to”
Struggles to pick up on jokes or sarcasm, often not understanding that she has offended someone by pointing out their mistake or boasting about her own success
I think that Daisy is a great example of how autism can present specifically in women. People claim they would never bully an autistic person but autistic people like Daisy are often targeted for being cringy or weird.
Abby Scuito: The Teddybear
As an autistic woman I relate to Abby the most out of all of these characters. She is considered eccentric and weird and often shows her emotions in odd and even juvenile ways. She has very strong emotions and opinions and seems to struggle with relationships outside of NCIS headquarters.
Often shows her emotions and feelings in a way that appears more “juvenile”, not seeming to understand the different subtleties of workplace behavior vs friendly behavior. Usually choosing to hug or be “overly friendly” with her friends/coworkers
Seems to not be able to read between the lines or connect the dots like with the episode where the murderer using McGees book tries to kill her and she doesn’t connect that the characters are related to her and her friends
Struggles to interact with people outside the workplace. She rambles and talks about things that other people find weird or uninteresting
Struggles to function without things being the way she needs them to be (Her normal clothes, her music, her CafPow, and being alone) any time one of these is interrupted she loses balance.
Doesn’t fully understand other people’s emotions off the bat and may need to be told multiple times or be shown very clearly what they want from her.
I feel like Abby shows the struggles that more “juvenile” autistic people face. When we have more childish special interests or show affection or friendship in ways that are closer to kids. Despite her adult interests she still is treated a lot like a child despite being an adult. Neurotypical often see these types of autistic people and feel the need to talk down to them even though they can be and often are very intelligent like Abby, just not socially.
Ellie Bishop: The Low Profile
This one may be controversial but I headcanon Bishop as autistic. She struggles learning to work as a team and often goes against Gibbs rules and the rules of the team because she feels things would work better. She also is very good with patterns.
Very good with patterns and statistics, often resorting to them when she becomes stressed or overwhelmed
Follows a routine when thinking (sitting on the floor, eating, connecting food items to thoughts)
Goes against the rules on many occasions and seems to struggle working as a team which imo is part of why she leaked the documents and got herself fired
Her personality could be described as being almost naive, seemingly unaware of the dangers of the world despite working for the NSA
She also seems to struggle a lot with who she is as a person, trying to understand her place in the world.
Once again I think some of my headcanoning her as autistic went a little against what the writers ended up doing with her but I feel like in the first seasons she was there she showed traits of a low support needs autistic woman that would probably usually be overlooked and just labeled as a “reclusive data freak” as one of her coworkers called her. The type that makes people go “but you don’t seem autistic.”
There are definitely more I can add but yeah- ta da
