The Booth Moment On Bones That Pains Fans To Watch
Now that Bones has concluded its 12-season run, it's hard to imagine a time when Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and noted John Wilkes Booth descendent FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) weren't together. But even the most ardent "Semperance" (or "B-Squared," depending on who you ask) shipper can't deny that both characters had other romances in their past. While Bones mostly stuck to casual dates or friends-with-benefits type situations, Booth is more of a romantic. In fact, he came very close to marrying another woman during the show's sixth season.
After a failed start to what would go on to be a successful relationship with Bones, Booth meets journalist Hannah Burley (Katheryn Winnick, in a stunningly divergent pre-Vikings role) while briefly deployed in Afghanistan. The two waste no time progressing their relationship, with Hannah moving into Booth's apartment in Washington, D.C. after she returns from the Middle East. Although Booth isn't in denial that he still harbors feelings for Bones, he sees Hannah as his future.
On the season 6 episode "The Daredevil in the Mold," Booth takes a huge step toward moving on from his complicated feelings for his friend and colleague and committing himself to a new woman. He proposes to Hannah ... but unfortunately finds out the hard way that Hannah is "just not the marrying kind."
The rejection was heartbreaking for Booth and any viewers who wanted to see him spread his wings and date someone other than Bones. But it's what happens next that had some fans unable to watch.
Fans can't get over Booth's engagement ring toss
Booth couldn't have picked a more picturesque location for his proposal: right along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. When Hannah rejects him and then walks away, Booth looks out over the water in a moment of reflection, and then takes the ring he was offering her and chucks it into the pool.
Reddit fan u/NotoriousB_i_queen had a hard time accepting Booth's hasty ring toss. They started a thread succinctly and calmly titled, "YEARS after it happened, every single time I see it I want to CRY. SEELEY BOOTH WHY WOULD YOU THROW AN ENGAGEMENT RING THAT WAS THAT EXPENSIVE INTO A LAKE???? SHE SAID NO I GET IT BUT YOU COULD HAVE RESOLD IT AND GOT YOUR MONEY BACK."
Fellow Bones fans thought some points were made. Redditor u/MsTerrell confessed that the scene was too much for them to take, writing, "I usually fast forward or walk out of the room every single time."
Many users thought Booth was just piling on more misery for himself by throwing thousands of dollars away. User u/Ivehearditbothwaysss pointed out that the whole thing was especially painful considering how much "[Booth] complains about his salary."
Alternatively, Redditor u/DingoD3 understood where Booth was coming from: "In that moment, in that burst of pain, you're not thinking about money." However, even they weren't without critique. They followed that empathetic statement with, "He was an idiot to buy it in the first place. Hannah was very clear that she was not the marrying type."
In the end, user u/AnotherCurrency was able to see the cinematic value of the action: "[I] guess that the scene where Booth pawns the ring for some cash doesn't have the same emotional intensity as Booth throwing the ring into the river."
What do Bones fans think of Booth and Hannah?
Fans clearly had some strong feelings about Booth's decision to ditch the engagement ring he bought for Hannah, but how much of that is about the ring, and how much is about the end of "Boannah"? The answer is surprisingly more nuanced than expected.
Confirmed B&B diehard u/Petrizzle responded to a thread about Hannah by confessing, "I do have to admit that if Booth had to be with someone other than Bones, Hannah would not have been a bad choice."
Reddit user u/SpiderSmoothie bravely outed themselves as an anti-Semperance fan by saying, "I thought [Hannah] and Booth were good together. I'm not a fan of the Booth/Bones pairing, tbh. Hannah was such a good character."
On the flip side, user u/Strict-Teaching was unabashed in their dismissal of anything getting in the way of Booth and Bones ending up together. Regarding Hannah, they admitted, "I kind of hated her too even though there was nothing super unlikable about her, maybe that's why: she seems too perfect."
Still, despite not outright hating Hannah, fans weren't exactly crying out in anguish at the end of her and Booth's relationship, and several cited an inability to get over the feeling that she was always meant to be nothing more than an obstacle for B-Squared. In another thread, user u/Flibberdejibbet posited that Booth might not be too heartbroken about the breakup, either: "I think [Booth] sabotaged the relationship subconsciously on purpose. They hadn't even been together for a year, she'd made it plenty clear she wasn't the marrying kind, and he still proposed!? He definitely was looking for a way out."
It might not be too late to get some diving gear and find that ring! Keep an eye out for that canceled Bones spin-off while you're down there.