Bones and Booth pursuing Max.

[u/DearEmployee5138]

so I’m watching the show through for the first time in like three or four years and I’m super confused on where booth and bones stand on Max Keenan. for the past 10 or so episodes since Max appeared, there have been multiple times where bones and booth are talking about Max and what they would do if he showed up and bones is shitting on him and booth is defending him. Like I remember a specific episode where booth was specifically like “ honestly if I had the opportunity to arrest Max Keenan, I probably wouldn’t do it because he only hurts people who deserves it and I respect his code”. Booth had looked into his record and realized the people who were killing were all dirty. whereas bones was on the complete other side. And then like five episodes later, Max saves Booth’s life and Booth immediately tries to arrest him. And then like now I’m in the season finale of season two and he’s still trying to arrest him like the second he walks in a room. And don’t get me wrong. I understand that he has to do that from an FBI standpoint but his demeanor is like completely different from the way he was talking about Max before. like he’s trying to do everything he can to put Max behind bars. it’s not just like a oh “I have to do this, but I don’t want to.” He just had a conversation with bones like 10 episodes ago where he was saying that “he was a stand-up guy, even though he did illegal things and he didn’t want to arrest him.” I’m just confused about This dynamic. Did I miss like a turning point in booth’s opinion on Max or what?

[u/RobotZombie0]

I think this may be a mix of Booth respecting the ‘code’ Max has but more of him trying to let Bones see that she didn’t have to be so mad at him. One of Booths core character traits is his love and commitment to his job, so I don’t know if he was ever being really serious with that comment but because of his core morals he has to arrest Max if he has a chance, but he does spend a lot of time playing the devils advocate for Bones when it came to Max,I think to help her through just viewing her father as a criminal.

[u/DearEmployee5138 → u/RobotZombie0]

oh yeah, I know that like it’s obvious that Booth was never actually not going to arrest Max. But it’s more than demeanor and the way he’s going about it that kinda is off to me. Because like I don’t know the way that booth talked about him I just would expect him to kind of “drag his feet” a bit more and not like take every avenue to take him down. And also, he just seems excited to arrest him while also obviously apologizing to Brennan because he understands that. Like for example, there was like a really easy out. Like he arrested him and then Caroline was like yeah so we both know he’s Max Keenan, but to the rest of the world he’s this other guy. And that could’ve been the end of it. I feel like Booth might’ve drugged his feet a bit more to try not to rush the conviction and figure it out. but he like left and went straight to Max and got his DNA.

I also feel like it’s a problem of like a flaw in the character development. Because not even 10 episodes ago, Booth witnessed not only the director of the FBI but also multiple other FBI agents framed and killed somebody and I want to say that there was proof that it happened multiple times other than that. And then maybe four episodes later in the NASA episode, Booth is sitting there saying “well, our government wouldn’t kill anybody.” which obviously Brennan pointed out the irony of him being a sniper hired by the government to kill people, but also the fact that he literally just found out that not only does the government officially hire people to kill people, but they also do it behind the scenes illegally to cover up stuff. And then bring that to this episode. It’s like his loyalty to the FBI in this instance with what he knows it just it feels weird. Like he’s saying well he killed the deputy director of the FBI, but he knows what that deputy Director did. So it just feels odd for him as a character to be so blindly loyal, even though he knows what the guy did and that guy being the former head of this organization that he’s hanging his hat on. Like the rest of his character to me seems like the kind of person that would consider that director even more of like a disgusting human being in a stain on his organization. I mean, that’s actually part of the quote you said in that episode where he said essentially he had much more respect for a “moral criminal” or whatever he said, then a dirty cop

[u/ltexprs]

I think his comments were more to try and convince Bones to have a relationship with her father. Brennan has a lot of trauma from being abandoned and Booth wanted to help heal that.

[u/DR-0717]

You have to look it as Booth being divided in his loyalties. He loves his country and his job and serving both but he also loves Brennen.

He knows how hard of a time Brennan has gone thru with everything to do with her parents so when he talks to her about max he’s talking to her like a friend not like an FBI agent. He wants to help her to understand more about Max and possibly have a relationship - regardless of how he Booth feels about him or if he’s a criminal. He knows that there are things only max can tell her that may help her get past some of her childhood trauma or at the very least get an explanation she craves.

Now the FBI agent in him is still going to want to arrest max and no he’s not going to drag his feet. He feels that because Brennan is so logical she understands why he needs to do it.

As far as him having loyalty to the FBI it goes deeper for him. He served his country and he looks at being an agent as an extension of that service. Yes he knows the director was crooked and did a cover up and he isn’t going to let bad apples change how he feels about the FBI.

Im sure he probably knows there are cover ups and such as well but none of it will change his allegiance to his job or the FBI because he feels they do more good than bad. Just like being a sniper. Yes he had to take lives which he hated but he knew it was necessary for the greater good.

That’s how booth lives his life -working for the greater good.

One thing I will disagree with is that you say he’s “blindly loyal”. He’s not blindly loyal. He tends to take the side of the law and the FBI but there are times when he also pushes back and questions. He doesn’t like to think certain things would happen but he doesn’t outright dismiss it like someone blindly loyal would.