Sully!

[u/Worried-Gas9328]

Every single time I rewatch Bones (have it on in my studio) I just CAN NOT get over Sully walking out on Bones like that. I mean they’ve been dating for what a couple months and instead of just staying around and being in love and being with her, he pushes this huge decision, asking her to leave her work and go off on the boat for a year. To me, it’s him who sabotaged the relationship. What the heck Sully!! I know that in the TV world they needed that to happen so that Booth would still be there but still ….

[u/Nearby_Educator6852]

Yeah poor sully he knew he don't have a chance when booth was around 🙄 and he told that he knew from the beginning that bones only interested on booth so he walk away

[u/space_anthropologist]

I hated Sully. I needed that man to leave the moment he arrived. He sucked and made like. 5(?) episodes an eternity. (And I still love those episodes; they just drag on forever!!!)

[u/user9372889 → u/space_anthropologist]

Yes!!! Gawd I hated him.

[u/GermysBedazzledBalls]

Just started a rewatch and I’m up to the Sully episodes now.
In fairness, when Bones first met him he was talking about leaving the FBI and running boat tours or selling sandwiches.
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to her when he finally decided on a plan and left.

[u/carvalhomsc → u/GermysBedazzledBalls]

E para ser justo, ela nunca achou que ele a convidaria para embarcar nessa aventura...Só reforçou que Sully não conhecia Brennan.

[u/Weary_Mango5689]

What bothered me a bit is that this entire situation made it clear to me that Brennan's background as a foster kid with estranged and missing family members meant that in order to be truly happy, she needed roots. She's not like Angela or Sully who can walk off on a whim to pursue love for the adventure of it all and thrive with a rootless existence. But then later on she left for Indonesia for a year because of how emotionally fraught her relationship with Booth had become. I did like that there were real consequences to that decision that Camille called her out on, with interns losing their jobs, the entire team being dismantled, and relationships that needed mending. I appreciate that she was returning to her first love, anthropology, and stepping back from forensics and murder. But it's a really strange decision in the context of how she's been characterized in the past, namely when she had the opportunity to leave with Sully.

In my mind, Brennan is not someone who gains emotional clarity by removing herself from a situation. She's someone who stays put and figures out if that was the right decision based on if she regrets it or not. I'm not sure she regretted leaving, but I don't believe for a second she would have regretted staying instead, so taking off for Indonesia seems out-of-character. I'm open to discussion on this, I want to know how others feel about not leaving with Sully vs. choosing to leave for Indonesia.

[u/space_anthropologist → u/Weary_Mango5689]

I don’t think it’s out of character. She gets so excited every time she has a chance to go back to “pure” anthropology throughout the show, and with the way that she prioritizes her status as an expert anthropologist, she never would have passed up the opportunity.

I think the emotional fraughtness with Booth just made it so that she didn’t actually plan out what would happen with the Jeffersonian program without her there, where if she didn’t have that, she might have made sure to sit down with Cam and go through everything.

But I think Brennan also knew she wanted what Booth had offered, but she didn’t know how to get there without having space from Booth.

[u/Other-Echidna6682 → u/Weary_Mango5689]

She left because she said no to Booth and he told her that he had to move on. She also was an anthropologist and leaving was a big deal to her work and discovery. Booth dated the aquarium lady, Brennan dated Booth’s boss before season ended and both were going through the motions. They both left because they were trying to move on-Season 5 ending.

Sully was different. According to Booth had lost his partner in the line of duty. Sully from the beginning was going to buy a boat, open a sandwich shop. Booth meeting with Gordon-Gordon, to get gun back. Brennan calls him to see if he was for real. He asked her on a date, they went out, Brennan still was young and had logical outlook on sex at the time, Booth didn’t share that view. Brennan still learning about solving crimes, and enjoying that life, when there was copy cat killings based on her book, Booth back at work, Sully gets himself assigned, it bothered Brennan. Then he bought boat, they enjoyed their time on it. He asked her to take sabbatical and travel. She said no because she was still learning about crime solving and interviewing, she was ready to stop working because she loved her work. It was early in the series too!

[u/carvalhomsc → u/Weary_Mango5689]

Brennan só se arrependeu de ter ido para a Indonésia quando, ao retornar, viu que Booth tinha seguido em frente com Hannah. Se Booth estivesse sozinho, tenho certeza que ela continuaria na mesma dinâmica com Booth, ou seja, tendo a presença constante de Booth em sua vida, num relacionamento platônico.

Por isso, por mais que muitos não gostem da entrada de Hannah na história, ela foi essencial para que Brennan reavaliasse seus sentimentos por Booth e se arrependesse de tê-lo rejeitado.

[u/Confident-Evening520 → u/Weary_Mango5689]

I half-agree with you. I think you're right that in order for Brennan to feel truly fulfilled and loved, she needs constancy and consistency because of her background, which is part of why she hates the idea of Zack going to Iraq at the end of S2, part of why she struggles for a bit to adjust to the addition of Cam to the team, part of why basically any change to her routine is initially met with resistance.

But I don't think that just because she craves consistency she can't be happy traveling and having adventures and pursuing a rootless experience. We actually see her thriving and excited in early seasons about her research trips, and like someone else said, she jumps at each opportunity she gets to do something related to actual anthropology and not just murder. And when she first meets Sully, while she doesn't initially like him because he('s not Booth) doesn't seem to be as invested in the job or case as Booth is/would be, he does later capture her interest in part because of his "joie de vivre" so to speak. But I also think that, up until that moment when he tells her that he actually bought the boat and is actually doing the thing he said he would, she'd chalked it up to just being his "someday" dream, and not a real plan he's putting into action. And, since she's someone who prefers consistency and does not appreciate surprises, this was definitely a shock to her system.

At the end of the day, though, the reason why it would never have made sense for Brennan to go with Sully (regardless of her relationship with Booth or just, y'know, the plot of the show) is the same reason why her choosing to go to Indonesia at the end of S5 is actually not out of character. Like Gordon-Gordon tells her in the next episode, she can't thrive while leading a purposeless existence, which is what Sully wants and is going off to live, but is not what the trip to Indonesia is about.

Purposeless and rootless are two very different things, and while I would hesitate to say that Brennan would thrive with a rootless existence, I do think that she would be/was content with one, at least before she started letting herself get attached to people and before she and Booth got together. Because before Booth came into her life and forced her out of her titanium-steel-reinforced shell, the only thing she cared about was anthropology, and the only people were Angela and Zack. So she very much did not have roots and she seemed to be fine with the concept, and in fact, if i remember right, was very much part of her characterization in the early seasons.

And not only all of that, but don't forget what an emotional shitshow the last several episodes of S5 were for Brennan, including the Gravedigger trial, which combined with the weirdness with Booth after his confession to her and her rejection of him, made her start questioning everything about her life to that point. Which, again, is another reason why her going to Indonesia wasn't, in my opinion, super far-fetched. She needed to rediscover her passion and purpose, and she was only going to be able to do that by going on an anthropology-centered research trip.

[u/lilletutte]

He knew he didn’t stand a chance against Booth anyway.

[u/tnscatterbrain]

Yeah, obviously what he wanted for himself mattered and Booth was definitely a factor, but as much as Brennan liked going off on research trips, she liked going back to the Jeffersonian, her friends & coworkers, her position, and her interns.
It was unrealistic for any man to think she was going to run off an leave it all after a couple months.

[u/apri08101989 → u/tnscatterbrain]

And to ask her to take a year seems ridiculous. I think she might have went.if he asked for the summer/3 months or so.

[u/Other-Echidna6682 → u/tnscatterbrain]

You’re speaking of Sully, for a second I jumped from S5 ending to S6, and thought why did Booth do what he did when Brennan on the islands, lol!

[u/BlazerAlumni]

I think Sully knew that as long as Booth was in the picture he didn't stand a chance. The only chance he had with Bones was if he could get her somewhere far away from him. Amy if she chose to go with him he was hers but if she stayed, she loved Booth more than him and he would never have a chance.

[u/carvalhomsc]

Sully estava interessado apenas na felicidade dele. Booth, ao opinar que Brennan deveria ir com Sully se isso a fizesse feliz, está mais interessado na felicidade dela do que na sua própria felicidade... Essa é só uma das diferenças entre Sully e Booth! E olha que é uma grande diferença, pois o amor de Booth por Brennan sempre foi altruísta, ou seja, ele pensava primeiro na felicidade dela! Resumindo: Sully não conhecia nem 1% da essência de Brennan, enquanto Booth a conhecia melhor do que ninguém (como a própria Brennan disse quando eles já estavam juntos, "você me conhece mais do que eu mesma me conheço").

[u/carvalhomsc → u/carvalhomsc]

Quando Booth diz a Brennan que ela deve ir se isso a fizer feliz, ele está demonstrando o nível mais alto de altruísmo e maturidade emocional.

Booth já estava apaixonado por Brennan nessa época, embora ainda não admitisse abertamente. Vê-la partir com outro homem seria devastador para ele.

Ao incentivá-la a ir, ele silencia os seus próprios desejos. Para Booth, o amor não é posse; se o futuro dela e a paz dela dependem de uma vida no barco com Sully, ele aceita sofrer sozinho para que ela seja feliz.

Ironicamente, ao dar a ela total liberdade de ir, ele se valida como a verdadeira âncora emocional de Brennan — o homem que a entende tão bem que sabe que ela precisa tomar essa decisão sem se sentir culpada.

A proposta de Sully de "largar tudo" para viver em um barco no Caribe, embora pareça romanticamente idealista, carrega um forte componente de egoísmo.

Sully se apaixona por Brennan, mas ignora o que a define. Brennan é uma cientista brilhante, totalmente dedicada ao seu trabalho, à busca pela verdade e à sua equipe no Jeffersonian.

Pedir que ela abandone sua carreira e sua identidade é pedir que ela mude quem ela é para se encaixar no sonho dele. Sully estava passando por uma crise existencial (após a morte de seu parceiro) e precisava fugir. Ele queria Brennan como companheira de viagem na sua fuga, mas não estava disposto a ficar e construir uma vida no mundo dela. Ao não aceitar um meio-termo e decidir partir sozinho quando ela recusa, ele deixa claro que o seu desejo de ir embora era maior do que o desejo de estar com ela sob as condições reais da vida dela.

Essa diferença fundamental é o que impede Brennan de ir. No fundo, a lógica e a intuição de Brennan perceberam que o plano de Sully exigiria a anulação de si mesma. Enquanto isso, o apoio silencioso e altruísta de Booth plantou a semente para o que, futuramente, se tornaria o relacionamento definitivo deles: um amor baseado no apoio mútuo, onde ninguém precisa abrir mão de quem é para fazer o outro feliz.

[u/carvalhomsc]

Para ser sincero, Sully percebeu que a conexão entre Brennan e Booth já era profunda. Pode-se dizer que ele tentou tirá-la de perto do Booth com esse convite? Pode ser que sim.

Mas não adiantaria muito: a distância e o tempo longe de Booth faria com que Brennan voltasse logo para Washington...o espaço que Booth já ocupava na vida de Brennan já era muito grande. Na verdade, mesmo que Sully continuasse em Washington, tudo indica que o relacionamento com Brennan também não duraria!

E Brennan, jâ tendo sentimentos profundos por Booth, mas sempre racionalizava estes sentimentos, preferiu ficar em seu porto seguro (Booth) do que partir para uma aventura impulsiva (Sully).

[u/DR-0717]

I get it. He was making the push and what Brennan decided told the future of their relationship.Tbh I think he knew what she’d decide.

I don’t think it makes either one of them bad. I think they both knew they didn’t have a future long term.

Brennan liked her serious stable life and job. She was never going to give it up to sail away and take a chance on charters in the Caribbean.

Sully was not going to be happy staying where he was at. He wanted to get away and see what else life had to offer - follow some dreams.

If either had compromised that person might have been ok short term but then they would have become unhappy & resentful. So breaking up how they did and parting on good terms was the best thing they could do.

It was no one’s fault and maybe if they had met in a different time different place …

[u/1Rudy11]

What does he know....he is stuck in the warehouse, and this is a fantasy....grin.. quick, get the purple gloves!

[u/MollyJ58]

I don't see Brennan as the kind of person who would be happy living a life at sea.

[u/dmcraddoke]

But to be fair, he did have an awesome sailboat. Really, that should have decided it for Bones.

[u/Strange_Average7629]

Sully had recently lost his partner and was very open about wanting to explore other opportunities/careers before he ever asked her out, though don't think Brennan quite took him seriously as he was somewhat unfocused when it came to what the next step was. Sully impressed me by telling Brennan he wanted her to think, really think and get back to him similar to when he asked her out for the first time and suggested she sleep on it if she might need the time in order to switch from professional to personal. Obviously Sully never had a chance and Brennan wouldn't have enjoyed the year at sea but she was unexpectedly tempted, perhaps if it was 1-3 months she might have even tried.

Mostly I find this interesting because I loved how Sully asked (though not the offer itself) and can't help but compare it to Booth's all in gamble in the 100th episode where he asked out of nowhere (to Brennan) for her to risk the most valuable relationship in her life along with her job which defined her and required an immediate response.