Temperance "Bones" Brennan Character Analysis
Facts:
Grew up as an odd child out due to her neurodivergence & Specific interests.
Abandoned by her parents.
Spent time in foster care & abusedÂ
Felt abandoned by her brother, who didnât care for her after their parents left.
Got into good colleges regardless of a difficult childhood
Has three doctorates in anthropology, forensic anthropology, and kinesiology
Did work with genocide victims and 9-11 victims
Joined the Jeffersonian
Successful AuthorÂ
Forms a bond with Booth.Â
Had to do the investigation on her own motherâs murder
Deals with her father, who is a criminal and lied to her
Forms a family with her team at the Jeffersonian, later adding Sweets to this bond.
Is targeted by any serial killers
One of her own interns is murdered.Â
Has two children who help continue to open her up to life
Has to live on the run away from BoothÂ
Loses sweets
Booth is put in jail, and they are separated again.Â
They quit their job temporarily but come back.
Booth ends up gambling again, which damages their relationship.
Injured at the end of the story but able to return to workÂ
Temperance âBonesâ Brennan deals with a lot of traumas throughout her life and a lot of love throughout her life. She has been abandoned and hurt as well as surrounded by the love of both her birth family and, just as importantly, the family she was able to build at the Jeffersonian. The people she found loved her with all their hearts and would do anything for her. The way the people she found can open up the hurt heart she had is beautiful.Â
She struggles completely reasonably with opening herself up. Having your parents and brother abandon you and then being mistreated by foster parents and peers will make you unable to form close bonds easily and cause damage to your views of how relationships work.Â
Brennanâs intelligence and skill at her work are impressive and regarded as some of the best in the world, and she holds this with a sense of great pride. Her ego built around her intelligence can also be problematic because she can use it as a shield against having a real connection.Â
Brennan struggles to truly understand and process emotions due to her neurodivergence. Her skill to deal with her emotions is to try to rationalise them. She blocks other people's emotions at the end to not let herself truly bring the feelings in from the outside world. Her own emotions might be turmoil within the walls she built, but she keeps those on the inside. And her own affect can become confused.
Her emotions often come out in fits and bursts. In the beginning, they come out in times like when she has to deal with her parents or when children and animals are harmed. We see that there is a dissonance for Bones with her emotions, not understanding what she is showing and feeling and disliking showing it. Later in the show, when she learns to allow her inside emotions, her affect and others to flow together.Â
High intelligence can also create an ego. Brennan experiences this and it causes friction with people who work with her who are of equal stature, like Cam and Clark. Being Bennanâs version of âsmartâ can cause her to disregard people who have emotional intelligence.Â
 One of Brennenâs earliest close relationships we see is with Angela, a person who seems very different from her. She is spiritual, artistic, flirty, open and leads with her heart. However, they match each other in intensity of love for each other. Thatâs what matters the most to Angela. Brennan also believes in Angelaâs skills, asking her to come work with them at the Jeffersonian. Brenna knows Angela's art and technology skills are good enough to warrant the trust. They also both have abnormal childhoods. Angela, having a rocker father and mother who seemed to have never been in the picture, was adopted, or for some other reason. Angela also helps Brennan with her books. Angela supports Brennan through emotional situations, giving her advice when she struggles to know what to do. Angela is the only person Brennan communicates with when sheâs on the run and Angela is extremely angry with Booth when he halts the marriage due to Pelant. She is the first piece of a family Brennan built.Â
Hodgins and Brennan have a less defined relationship, but are close, going through many things together, like being buried by the Grave Digger. They are both supportive when the other goes through hard times and work to catch people who put the other in dangerous situations. They respect each otherâs work in their fields. He is Angela's husband and the father of her child, making him Brennan's family that way, but their friendship also makes them necessary for their family to work.Â
Cam and Brennan butt heads to begin with. Brennan does not like feeling like she is out of control in what she considers to be her space. Brennan has a deep need for control due to all the out-of-controlness she experienced as a child. She feels intellectually superior and more important. Brennan learns to see Cam as a necessity within the system. They come to not only respect each other but also consider one another to be part of the family. They invite each other to family-style events like weddings and celebrating child births. They come to help each other during hard times.Â
Brennan originally had a relationship with Zack Addy as her first intern, whom she shows a great deal of love. He is much like her, showing neurodivergence to an even stronger extent than she. He is very much like a little brother to her. When he betrayed them, it affected her; she talked Zack into helping them. She proved to Zack that he loves Hodgins more than his overall beliefs. She still shows affection for him, even touching foreheads. When they see each other again, we see Zack kidnap her in an effort to prove his innocence. She sides with him being framed for the crime, and helps get him exonerated. Her love for Zack shows that her ability for familial love existed even before her long-term relationship with Booth.Â
The group of Interns she has over time means a lot to her, and she cares deeply for them. When she loses parts of her memory at the end of the show, she remembers things about them as they mean so much to her.
Arastoo: He is part of the Family as the husband of Cam and she shows great respect for him as a scientist as well as a person for the trauma he suffered as a young person.
Clark: He becomes a Doctor and they clash once he takes charge of historical anthropology. She comes to respect him after seeing his work. While originally finding their family dynamic non-conducive to work, he becomes friends with the whole squad. Clark comes to help when they need it.Â
Daisy: She is one of the interns Brennan seems to like more than the others. Taking her with her when she leaves on a sabbatical later taking her on her "bachelorette partyâ. She is also more folded into the family as the FiancĂŠe of Sweets and mother of his child.Â
Finn: Brennan and Cam are willing to take him in as an intern and Jeffersonian employee with his background in crime. Brennan finds his background to be non-pertinent in most situations. This shows her logic-focused worldview can be part of compassion.
Fisher: His sardonic pessimism and her general flat faculty can comically conflict. He also once offered her his sperm, which she turned down. For the most part, they get along generally well, Fisher even loving her novels.Â
Fuentes: Doesnât get along with Brennan to begin with, as he is flirtatious and arrogant.Â
Jessica: She helps Brennan learn about social media.
Oliver: Probably the intern she gets along with the least, like most, she thinks his know-it-all and blase attitudes to be grating. But she also often states his genius status is warranted.Â
Vincent Nigel-Murray: She sometimes shuts down his fact giving, but he is well-liked and cared for by Bones; his death affects her deeply, being a catalyst for her relationship with Booth. She awkwardly brought a flower to put on his casket.Â
Wendell: He is helped out by Brennan to be able to stay in the Jeffersonian because she respects his work and she cares about him. She also shows compassion when he has cancer.
Sweets is a psychologist, so originally, she dislikes him because she doesnât like his profession. He needs science to fit her rigid view of âlogicâ to trust it. His usefulness in helping re-solidify her and Boothâs working relationship isnât something she finds necessary. Sweets ends up finding his views of them smashed funnily when he learns Booth and Bones first met they almost had sex.Â
Over time, Sweets and Brennan learn to respect each other, and as they work together if she never loves psychology. On a more personal level, Gordon Gordon points out that Sweets is imprinted on them like a baby duck. Brennan and Booth deeply love Sweets as a family member. They take him into their house, Brennan expressing when he leaves that she wasnât sure about bringing him into their house, but then was very unhappy about him leaving because she actually loved having him around her; she does care for protecting him. Losing wounds her family.
