Seeley Booth

Booth is from Philadelphia but was raised in Pittsburgh, though another episode indicates he had spent some of his childhood in Buffalo. He is a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team; he has pictures of the team hanging on the back wall of his office, has been seen wearing a Flyers T-shirt when off-duty and is known to become extremely annoyed whenever he is interrupted while watching a Flyers game. A deeply religious man, he was raised and still is a practicing Catholic, having served as an altar boy during his youth; throughout the series he is often seen wearing a St. Christopher medal, which was given to him by his grandfather before being deployed to Somalia, Little is known about his schooling years, though it has been implied that he went through the public school system It is not mentioned where or when he attended college but he has stated that he attended on an athletic scholarship before a shoulder injury ended any dreams of going professional and taught dance to help pay for tuition. He has been an avid athlete In Season 3 it is stated that Booth is 35 years old and that Brennan is five years younger than him and, in Season 4 episode The Con Man in the Meth Lab, the "squints" celebrate his birthday. In season 11, Booth (and his brother, Jared) are mentioned as now being in their (early) 40s. Family Booth is the older of two boys and has a younger brother Jared (Brendan Fehr). Their father "flew Thuds and Phantoms in Vietnam" and moved to Philadelphia where he worked as a barber and eventually started a family. After his death, Booth found a Purple Heart medal among his possessions, indicating he was likely shot down and injured at some point during the war. this was reinforced by the fact that Booth is able to almost instantly recognize suspects with a drinking problem even when they are sober. Eventually she left the family out of desperation. In the Season 8 episode "The Party in the Pants", she contacts Booth for the first time in over two decades to invite him to her wedding. The boys were essentially singlehandedly raised by their paternal grandfather Hank (Ralph Waite), whom Booth affectionately calls "Pops". Military and FBI After losing his athletic scholarship, Booth enlisted in the United States Army. and Special Forces. He served in the Gulf War, Guatemala, and Kosovo, qualification tabs, a Combat Infantryman Badge, and Parachutist, Military Free Fall Parachutist, and Air Assault badges. He also has a Pathfinder Badge in his shadow boxes in his office. His achievement and service medals can be seen in the shadow boxes mounted on the wall behind his desk in his office. While in the military, he was awarded a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart, and an Army Good Conduct Medal. He separated from the army at the rank of master sergeant. In the episode "The Beginning in the End," Booth is approached by a Colonel Pelant and handed a letter from the Secretary of Defense requesting him to return to active duty to train Afghan soldiers at "tracking and apprehending insurgents". He is offered a promotion to sergeant major and a position as an advisor to the Afghan National Army. Although initially reluctant, Booth accepts and is deployed to Afghanistan during the time frame between Seasons 5 and 6 when he, Bones, Angela, and Hodgins leave Washington, D.C. for a year-long sabbatical. Despite his distinguished service record, Booth is generally reticent about his military service and rarely speaks about it openly, even with Bones. Part of the reason is the classified nature of some his assignments. Bones subsequently discovers that he has been tortured while held as a POW in the Middle East, which Booth never elaborated on and has not been addressed since, after looking at his x-rays. In Season 2, he was kidnapped and tortured with a heated screwdriver by a mobster for refusing to give information and later told Bones that he has been "tortured worse". In Season 9, Bones mentions that he does not throw his socks into the hamper after coming home from work so that his feet stay warm, suggesting that he still suffers from the physical ramifications of the torture he endured. Booth is still haunted by memories from his time in the Army, having lost friends in combat and watched his own buddy bleed to death in his arms. and was also implied to have stopped attending unit reunions and gatherings in an effort to distance himself from his painful past in the military. It is apparent that he suffers from survivor's guilt, although the term is never used in the show, and his "kill count" is a major sore point and an extremely sensitive issue for him. Former priest and Army chaplain, Aldo Clemens, whom Booth regularly confessed to while he was in the service, told Bones that Booth was the reason why he left the priesthood and decided that God was his "worst enemy" and a "bastard". In the episode "Hero in the Hold," it is revealed that he has blamed himself for the death of his spotter, Corporal Edward "Teddy" Parker (whom Booth named his son after), on a sniper mission, even though Teddy had unintentionally disobeyed orders to keep his head down and was fatally shot as a result. He sought out Sweets for counseling in Season 6 after he was confronted by his former mentor and ex-military sniper-turned-vigilante Jacob Broadsky. Towards the end of Season 1 he confessed to Bones for the first time about the buried guilt of assassinating a man in front of his son, after much persuasion from a fellow veteran, telling her, "It's never just the one person who dies, Bones. [...] With each shot we all die a little bit." In season 12, while working a case involving his former Army buddies, Booth admits to Bones that he had been lucky and was only able to move on with her support. after leaving the military. However, this contradicts his statements in Season 6 about going AWOL to be present at the birth of his son, Parker (Parker was four when the show premiered in 2005) and in season 10 when he recounts to Wendell Bray of watching his men getting shot and killed by the Taliban during a mission in Ghazni, Afghanistan (American troops did not enter Afghanistan until after the attacks on September 11, 2001). A possible realistic explanation would be that Booth remained in the Army as a reservist. It was during his time in the service that he first became acquainted with Jacob Broadsky (Arnold Vosloo), a fellow master sniper who later become a personal nemesis for Booth. Awards and decorations The following are the awards (decorations, medals/ribbons, and badges) fictionally worn by Sergeant Major Booth. ==Characterization==

John Kubicke of BuddyTV described Booth as "charming, funny, a tad brutish but ultimately warm and caring". having played football and several other sports in high school and college. Other characters have described him as an "alpha male" Booth is portrayed as a patriot and has a strong sense of duty to his country and job. He takes his oath and position as a federal agent seriously His former boss Sam Cullen called him a "paladin" – "Defender of the faith, protector". Booth views the law in a similarly subjective way and believes that committing a crime is never justifiable regardless of the circumstances. This, coupled with his "by the book" approach, is apparent when he arrests Bones' father Max, for killing the Deputy Director of the FBI (who was revealed to be part of a cover-up), in her own office without hesitation in the Season 2 finale "Stargazer in a Puddle", although he does apologize to Bones before leading Max out in handcuffs. One of Booth's noted characteristics is his respect for life. Despite spending most of his working life around firearms, it is a known fact that he dislikes having to kill another human being and it remains a sensitive topic for him. In subsequent episodes Dr. Wyatt uncovers the guilt and anger Booth has been harboring for so long. In Season 6 Booth's FBI colleague Dr. Lance Sweets noted that the reason why Booth was able to live through the guilt was his ability to channel it into his career in the FBI and responsibility to his son and those he cared about. Having grown up in an abusive home, he has admitted to Sweets and Bones of his fears that he would become like his father. and accurately establish motive. Although Bones still ridicules the concept of "gut feeling", she and the Jeffersonian team have deferred to his own expertise as a federal agent, especially when connecting the crime with the weapon used. This is exhibited by the fact that he displays his military medals and memorabilia in his office rather than in his home and his horrified reaction to Sweets using the master bathroom and helping Bones fold his underwear when the latter was temporarily staying with him and Bones in season 8. He is also extremely guarded and taciturn about most aspects of his personal life, namely his abusive father, troubled childhood, "love life" and traumatic experiences in the military. For example, in the episode "A Night at the Bones Museum", he becomes offended when Bones talks about him while on a date with his "boss's boss" Andrew Hacker and curtly tells her that "what goes on between us is ours". When asked more personal questions, such as about his emotional problems, especially by Sweets or Bones, his first reaction is to change the subject, deflect them with jokes or become defensive. Even when confronted privately "out of office", he usually refuses to talk outright, choosing instead to downplay his emotions and brood over a drink at the bar. In later seasons, he has begun to openly admit to Bones or Cam when he is "not ok" instead of brushing it off. Booth tends to shy away from the limelight when it comes to taking credit for solving a case. He tends to be a kinesthetic person who favors the physical aspects of his job, such as chasing down suspects or leading a SWAT team, and would throw around a ball or putt a golf ball into a cup in his office while thinking through his cases. Booth shows a preference for the old school. He despises new age innovations, feeling that technology dehumanizes everything. He hates cappuccinos, referring to it as "foamy crap" and not actual coffee, only drinking his coffee black. He hates tea as well: when working on a case in England, he remarks that his drink is "the weakest coffee I've ever had". When Brennan informs him that it isn't coffee, but actually tea, Booth immediately discards it by throwing it in the river. He also dislikes reading news on a tablet, preferring to hold the newspaper in his hands, and had a vintage fridge in his kitchen at his old apartment. Boreanaz also intentionally deviated from FBI technical preparation, choosing instead to emphasize Booth’s military past as a field-hardened Army sniper, rather than portraying him as a textbook agent. He explained, “Everything that they told me about the FBI I threw out the door… I took the approach of the military aspect of the guy working for the FBI.” In addition, Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel built their on-screen chemistry through regular weekend sessions with acting coach Ivana Chubbuck, rehearsing and rewriting scenes to cultivate the informal rapport that became central to Booth and Brennan’s dynamic. ==Series==

In the series pilot, Booth was introduced as an FBI special agent in the homicide department who seeks the professional opinion of Dr. Temperance Brennan at the (fictional) renowned Jeffersonian Institute. He was eventually made the liaison between the Jeffersonian and the FBI, much to his chagrin, but he soon develops a close working relationship with the Jeffersonian team of scientists, whom Booth and his fellow FBI agents call "squints", a nickname which has since become a term of endearment Bones and her team associate him with. Booth once referred to the Jeffersonian team of scientists, whom he affectionately calls the "squint squad", as "my people". for updates on the evidence and has his own access card. The fact that he has his own office and is called "sir" by younger agents denotes some seniority or supervisory status. In addition, when his credentials are seen close up, the acronym "SSA" can be seen, strongly implying that Booth holds the rank of Supervisory Special Agent. It has been implied through interactions with other characters that Booth is generally well regarded and respected within the Bureau and other federal agencies for his skill, His call sign is 22705. Because of his training as an FBI agent and military background, he adheres to protocol and the chain of command. As such, he often has to keep the "squints" in line when a case emotionally affects them in order to ensure that they abide by the rules and not jeopardize the case. to get what he needs, and will go through great lengths to obtain a confession, especially when the situation is urgent or desperate (e.g. a hostage situation), but he will not stoop to actually breaking the law or disobeying protocol. His former special forces training and experience has proven useful at times, in Season 6 when he was forced to pursue rogue vigilante sniper Jacob Broadsky through a container terminal without back-up; in the Season 9 episode "The Sense in the Sacrifice" when he tracks down tech-savvy serial killer Christopher Pelant undetected through an abandoned power plant alone and armed with only a knife, rifle and pistol; Booth is well-known within the Bureau as a "legendary shot". While in the Army he achieved the "Expert" Marksmanship Badge and is familiar with various types of explosives and weapons. (51), a corrupt sheriff Season 11 begins with Booth having taken up a position as a freelance instructor at the FBI Academy. However, he returns to the FBI full-time after his brother's death. ==Relationships==

Family Abused by his father and abandoned by his mother, Booth has a difficult and troubled relationship with most of his immediate family members. He and his brother Jared had a strained relationship, especially after Jared, a Navy lieutenant commander and intelligence officer based at the Pentagon, asked Bones out on a date while visiting the Jeffersonian with Seeley. Jared Booth was a recurring character in the series, and his arrivals are often met with tension by Booth. In Season 8, when his mother Marianne reappears after 24 years to ask Booth to give her away at her wedding to her fiancee, he was reluctant to do so as he was still angry with her for abandoning the family. He coached Parker's tee ball team. More feasible is that he is in fact a descendant of the same family but not John Wilkes himself. In either case, this relation is a particular sore-spot for Booth who does not like having it brought up. Minor characters constantly mistake Booth and Brennan for an already romantic couple, an accusation which they consistently and vehemently deny, although they spend more and more time together outside of work and a sexual attraction between them develops. Although she refused to admit it at first, Bones enjoyed working with him from the beginning, even after their falling out when Booth got her drunk and "fired" her, and, in Season 1, she cajoled him into launching an investigation after finding three bone fragments on a golf course so he could work with the Jeffersonian team on the case despite the fact that the FBI had no jurisdiction. Initially, Brennan detested Booth's use of the nickname "Bones", frequently snapping "Don't call me Bones!", although over time she accepted it and even began to like it, occasionally referring to herself using the nickname. Booth has admitted to Brennan and her father that he finds her "well-structured" and "beautiful," and has once reassured her that she has "her looks and a whole lot more". In "Two Bodies in the Lab", in season 1, and in "The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle", in season 5, Brennan and Booth's mutual love for Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" is mentioned; Booth even refers to it as "their song" in "The Rocker in the Rinse Cycle", and it is the first song on the mix tape he makes for her in "The Ghost in the Machine". Booth's grandfather Hank and Bones' father Max expressed approval of their relationship early on, even before Booth and Bones openly admitted that they were more than just professional partners, and Hank and Max incredulously asked Booth if he was gay when he denied that he was romantically involved with Bones. Max, in particular, strongly believed that Booth was the right man for his daughter despite the fact that Booth has had to arrest him a number of times for trying to take the law into his hands to protect Bones. Throughout the show, Booth and Brennan's differences in worldviews are regularly addressed by various characters and was the source of friction early on in their partnership. She was dismissive of his religious beliefs (and organized religion in general) and would take the opportunity to downplay it. In Season 2 Booth expelled her from the interrogation room after she repeatedly made insensitive remarks, despite her good intentions, during an interview with a parish priest. in which Brennan asks Booth to donate sperm to father her child. He is startled but eventually agrees. The two begin making plans for her insemination, but before she can go through with it, Booth is diagnosed with a brain tumor. In Season five, Booth realizes his love for Brennan as he recovers from his tumor. However, he is cautioned by both Dr. Saroyan and Dr. Sweets to be sure of his feelings before confessing his love to Brennan. Afraid that his feelings for her are related solely to his tumor and coma, Booth is conflicted about whether or not to tell Brennan. Afterwards, their relationship remains fraught with sexual tension. Although she shares his feelings, Brennan rejects his advance and states her uncertainty about the possible outcomes of such a relationship given their seemingly conflicting personalities. Booth agrees to respect her wishes and attempts to move on as they continue to work together. In the episode "The Boy with the Answer", Booth is confronted with the possibility that Brennan, claiming she is "tired of dealing with murders and victims and sadness and pain", might leave the Jeffersonian permanently. In the final scene of this episode, Booth watches as Brennan turns to face him while riding away in a taxi. Brennan departs for a year-long anthropological expedition to the Maluku Islands, while Booth agrees to spend a year in Afghanistan, training soldiers to apprehend terrorists. In the Season 9 premiere, Booth confided in his friend Aldo Clemens, a former Army chaplain turned bartender, about Pelant's threat against him and he was having trouble mending his relationship with Brennan. At the end of the episode, Brennan decides to stay with Booth, much to his relief, and tell him that she is willing to trust him. In episode 4, "The Sense in the Sacrifice", Booth vows to take Pelant out once and for all, especially after Pelant murdered his colleague FBI Special Agent Flynn and manipulated evidence to frame Flynn. After killing Pelant, Booth reveals to Bones Pelant's threats and why he called the wedding off. He then reiterates his marriage proposal, which she happily accepts. In the Season 9 episode "The Woman in White", Booth and Bones prepare for their wedding. Bones agreed to a church wedding after realizing the sacrifice Booth had made as the Catholic church does not condone co-habitation; Aldo had told her that Booth was willing to sacrifice his soul and "live in sin" if it meant being with her. She rationalized the decision, saying that she could see the "beauty" behind the ceremony and tradition associated with a Catholic wedding and added that she also knew Latin. However, their plans are ruined by a cold case and a fire in the church in which they were to be married. With Angela's help, they hold a last-minute simple garden ceremony outside the Jeffersonian. Aldo presided over the ceremony in the presence of Booth's mother Marianne, grandfather Hank and son Parker, Bones' father Max and their close friends from the Jeffersonian. They spent their honeymoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Their infant son Hank Jr. (named after Booth's grandfather) was born off-screen sometime after season 10 and before the beginning of season 11. Rebecca Stinson Rebecca Stinson, portrayed by Jessica Capshaw, is Booth's ex-girlfriend. When she became pregnant, Booth proposed but Stinson did not accept. They named their son Parker Matthew Booth, the first name "Parker" after Booth's friend who died in the army. They occasionally engage in a liaison, but are mostly just friends. Booth resolves to end their liaisons after Rebecca assuages his doubts that he was a good father to Parker. Camille Saroyan Booth rekindles an old relationship with Dr. Camille Saroyan when she joins the Jeffersonian team. However, Booth ends the relationship for the second time after an intense case nearly costs Saroyan her life. Booth asserts that on-the-job romantic relationships endanger the team in high-pressure situations. Booth has known Saroyan for some length of time; in Season 4, it is stated that she has known Booth and his brother Jared for some 15 years. She was one of the few characters who already knew about the brothers' abusive childhood and they call each other by their first names, at least in private; there is a running joke where Booth counters with, "Don't call me Seeley," to which Cam replies, "Don't call me Camille." Despite the breakup, Saroyan and Booth remain close friends, working together on cases and giving each other advice on numerous occasions. Hannah Burley Hannah Burley, portrayed by Katheryn Winnick, is Booth's ex-girlfriend whom he met while training soldiers in Afghanistan. She was originally in Afghanistan as a journalist. She moved to Washington D.C. to be with Booth and they eventually moved in together in Booth's apartment. However, they soon break up when Hannah rejects Booth's half-hearted proposal and she moves out of his apartment. Early in Season 1 Jack Hodgins was particularly hostile to him due to his disdain for the government and bureaucracy in general. Booth's patriotism, position as a federal agent and military background and Hodgins' argumentative nature further added to the friction. Booth has the tendency to cut Hodgins off in the middle of a conversation whenever the latter starts using scientific jargon, although Hodgins generally tolerates it. In season 4, when Booth's FBI colleague Special Agent Perotta takes over an investigation in which Booth is a suspect, Hodgins and intern Wendell Bray immediately declare to Agent Perotta that they are "Booth's people" rather than Perotta's. Booth also intentionally ignores Hodgins' "insane conspiracist ravings" and uses Hodgins' knowledge to his advantage, especially while investigating the Gormogon murders. By the time of "High Treason in the Holiday Season", Booth and Hodgins have become comfortable enough with each other's views that Booth asked for Hodgins' honest opinion on what they should do with a hard drive they had recently acquired which contained data on illegal NSA operations (Hodgins ultimately concluded that releasing the data would put innocent NSA agents at risk even if the operations they were taking part in were technically illegal). Of the "squints", Booth gets along best with Angela Montenegro due to her ability to relate to him in layman's terms and knowledge of pop culture. Angela was initially attracted to Booth. When she realizes that Booth and Bones were "meant for each other", she repeatedly attempts to match-make them. She often gave both of them tips on how to get along with and appease the other. Booth had a difficult relationship with Brennan's assistant Zack Addy, as he finds Zack Addy's cold naïveté and social awkwardness disconcerting and, later, irritating. After failing to woo a colleague, "Naomi from paleontology", whom he was attracted to, Addy approached Booth for "advice" in the episode "A Boy in a Tree", much to Booth's annoyance and did so ever since. Booth has threatened to shoot Addy on several occasions out of exasperation. Addy admires Booth as a man of experience, and repeatedly asks him for advice on various issues, including sexual relationships. Booth convinces Addy that ignoring one another is a form of male bonding in order to deter Addy from continuously asking him anymore awkward questions and so that he could avoid hurting Addy's feelings. In Season 2 Addy receives a letter from the White House requesting his services in Iraq and Addy asks Booth if "it hurt to get shot", as Booth was the only one of the group who had any first-hand combat experience in a war zone. When Booth asks him why, he shows Booth the letter, explaining that he chose to ask Booth as the latter "[knows] more about duty and honor than anyone else I know". Before Addy goes to Iraq, Booth gives him a harmonica as a parting gift. Following the climax of the events at the end of season 3, Booth regrets that he had never talked much to Zack, feeling that if he had he would have caught onto Zack's affiliation with Gormogon sooner and could, perhaps, have done something about it. When fellow FBI agent Dr. Lance Sweets first joined the team, Booth treated him in a condescending manner, due to his youth and boyish looks. Booth was one of the few who acknowledged the importance of psychological insight into an investigation and would bring Sweets along to investigations, albeit grudgingly — he disliked Sweets' habit of repeatedly questioning him when he was in a bad mood or confronting him with details of his private life when in the car en route to the crime scene despite Sweets' good intentions. Whenever Sweets made him feel uncomfortable in that manner, he would interrupt and cut him off with a sarcastic comment or directly tell him to be quiet. Booth became less sarcastic and more understanding with Sweets when he learns about the latter's own abusive childhood and subsequent yearning for a family after the death of his adoptive parents as he himself was abused as a child. Booth is generally wary of most of the "squinterns" due to their eccentric personalities, especially Aubrey's one-time love interest Jessica Warren and Sweets' girlfriend Daisy Wick. In season 10, following Sweets' death, he begins to treat Daisy more like a younger sister and looks out for her and her newborn son. He is good friends with Wendell Bray, one of Brennan's favorite interns, and they play ice hockey together on the same amateur team. In Season 9, Booth is visibly distraught when Brennan tells him that she suspects Wendell has Ewing's sarcoma. When Cam was forced to fire Wendell for using medical marijuana due to Jeffersonian rules, Booth, with Bones' and Caroline's help, find a loophole and Wendell is re-employed as an independent consultant reviewing case files and evidence reports, much to Cam's relief and delight. ==Reception==

John Kubicek of BuddyTV placed him on his list of the "15 Hottest TV Dads", describing the occasional moments he shares with his son as "tender and real". He was included in TV Guides list of "TV's Sexiest Crime Fighters". His relationship with Temperance Brennan was listed in Entertainment Weekly "30 Best 'Will They/Won't They?' TV Couples" and TV Tango's "Top 10 Romantically Challenged TV Couples". Booth's background and personal tastes loosely mirror those of actor David Boreanaz, who portrays the character. Boreanaz was raised in the Philadelphia area, was born in Buffalo (his fatherknown variously as Dave Thomas or Dave Robertsworked in both cities, including hosting Rocketship 7 in Buffalo), supports the Flyers and was an avid athlete in school. An ice hockey fan and amateur player, his love of the sport is frequently referenced on the show as the character is often seen wearing a Flyers T-shirt when off-duty, and several episodes have featured NHL players. ==References==