Jared Booth, played by recurring guest star Brendan Fehr (The Night Shift), hugely impacted our understanding of Bones’ Special Agent Seeley Booth and his history. Jared struggled alongside Booth through a childhood that included a runaway mom and an abusive alcoholic father, giving him a unique perspective on primetime’s most alluring and tortured crime-solving hero of the decade.
As secondary characters, family members are the perfect foil for expeditiously revealing the complexity and vulnerability of a main character. With a mere facial expression or a cutting remark, Jared brought out the best and the worst of Booth, resulting in passionate and immediate displays of loyalty, judgment, honesty, protection, and love, which the two brothers struggles to navigate as adults siblings. Here are the 17 most memorable of Jared Booth’s moments on Bones.
#17 “I bet you Seeley never took that risk.”
Jared Booth, a.k.a ‘Booth Lite,’ first appears in Bones’ fourth season in, “The Con Man in the Meth Lab” when Jared, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, comes to D.C. to be the new head of Strategic Plans and Policy at the Pentagon. Booth brings him to the Jeffersonian to ask Camille to accompany him to a cocktail party. When she has to cancel, Brennan takes her place and is impressed with the respect others show Jared. The two agree Booth would be bored at such a schmoozy event. Jared insists Booth is afraid of success and of taking risks. To prove his point, Jared kisses Brennan, and asks her if Booth has ever taken the risk of kissing her himself. Of course, Booth hadn’t.
#16 “They get me for DUI, I lose my job, Seeley. I mean, I lose my whole career.”
Brothers have complicated relationships. When the brothers’ absentee father is an abusive alcoholic who regularly beat the crap out of his sons, complicated doesn’t even begin to describe the fraternal complexity here. Such is the case with Seeley and Jared Booth. Jared has a history of getting himself into hot water. Booth is in the habit of swooping in to rescue baby brother. During “The Con Man in the Meth Lab,” Booth saves Jared’s military career by relinquishing credit for a solved high profile RICO case in exchange for keeping Jared’s name off the record after he’s caught drinking and driving.
#15 “There is nothing worse than somebody who always thinks they’re right, and then they’re right.”
Jared tells Sweets in “The Con Man in the Meth Lab,” that having a big brother is like having an extra dad, one who protects you from your real dad, but always treats you like a kid. In typical Jared style, the younger brother adds, “There is nothing worse than somebody who always thinks they’re right and then they’re right.”
#14 “I carry my own water, Seeley.”
In Jared and Booth’s final scene of “The Con Man in the Meth Lab,” Booth privately tells Jared that he will no longer be bailing his little brother out. He also delivers the unrequested sound advice that Jared stop drinking. Feeling patronized, Jared blows Booth off when he delivers a poignant line that reinforces the militaristic self-reliance and pride instilled in the Booth boys by the grandfather who raised them, and by the military service which molded and matured them: “I carry my own water, Seeley.”
#13 “That’s who I am, Tempe. I am the guy who makes a few calls.”
In “The Hero in the Hold,” Brennan calls upon Booth’s Pentagon-connected brother when she learns Booth has been buried alive in an old Navy ship scheduled to be sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Brennan is desperate for Jared to steal a cadaver from the Navy so she and the team can examine it for clues to Booth’s exact location. Sharply dressed and as handsome as ever, baby Booth balks at her request, once again delivering a memorable line exemplary of who Jared Booth is: “I’m in military intelligence. We don’t hijack dead bodies … That’s who I am, Tempe. I am the guy who makes a few calls.” In response, Brennan screams, “Booth never turned his back on you!”
#12 “I’ll need access to a secure terminal. And only conspiracy nuts call it ‘spring cleaning’.”
When Booth’s life is at stake in “The Hero in the Hold,” Jared finally steps up to the plate for his brother and not only hijacks a cadaver, but agrees to use his top secret Pentagon clearance to perform ‘spring cleaning’ on Heather Taffet, a.k.a. The Gravedigger, when efforts to get her to speak are fruitless. The exchange between Jared and Dr. Hodgins is priceless.
Hodgins: “You have to do spring cleaning on her.”
Sweets: “What is that? Is that some kind of torture?”
Jared: “Nothing. It doesn’t exist.”
Hodgins: “The government keeps secret, black, illegal files on every U.S. citizen. It’s called ‘spring cleaning’ because everything’s brought out into the light and turned upside down.”
Sweets: “Oh okay, that is complete paranoia, right?”
Jared: (With an austere glance at Hodgins) “I’ll need access to a secure terminal. And only conspiracy nuts call it ‘spring cleaning.'”
#11 “It’s all worth it as long as you save my brother.”
Brotherhood in all its forms means always having each other’s back. One hundred percent. No matter the cost to one’s self. When Jared is handcuffed for bucking Navy protocol to help Brennan and the Squints in “The Hero in the Hold,” he has only one thing to say: “It’s all worth it as long as you save my brother.” True dat, baby brother.
#10 “Uh, yeah, no Booth has ever had to save his brother from an insane kidnapper. I owed you for digging me out of crap my whole life.”
In “The Beaver in the Otter,” Booth is disgusted over Jared’s dishonorable discharge for misuse of authority and theft of government property because, “No Booth has ever gotten a dishonorable discharge!” Jared reminds him of the extenuating circumstances attached to this particular dishonor.
#9 “I’ve always wanted to see India. Without, you know, spying on Pakistan.”
Jared can’t figure out what to do with his life now that he’s unemployed in “The Beaver in the Otter.” Booth tries to help baby bro get a job, but it looks like Jared is finally growing up. Going rogue by bucking the legal system to save his big brother’s life in “The Hero in the Hold” was a turning point for Jared. He buys a motorcycle and decides he’s going to travel the world on it.
#8 “You’re so worried, come along. Then I’ll have the full might of Seeley Booth behind me.”
Having accepted that Jared is going to travel India on a motorcycle, Booth can’t resist giving him a boatload of brotherly advice, reminding him that for the first time in his life there will be no one there to pick him up when he falls down. Jared’s response: he invites Booth to join him on walk-about.
#7 “Am I alone if I take a saint with me?”
After Booth tells Jared that motorcycling across India is something he should do alone without his big brother, he gives him a St. Christopher medal, like the one Pops gave Booth when he shipped out to the Rangers. St. Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, who Booth believes kept him safe in Somalia. Perhaps even more poignant than Jared’s question about being alone if a saint goes with him, is Booth’s loving response: “You’re not alone.”
#6 “Didn’t your lawyer tell you not to answer any questions that you weren’t asked?”
In “The End in the Beginning,” Booth has a coma dream in which his and Jared’s roles are reversed. Jared is a homicide detective who can’t help but be overprotective of his brother, and Booth is a nightclub owner. This farce provided ample opportunity for the characters to have some fun, like in this scene where Jared interrogates Angela about her whereabouts on the night in question. In true Montenegro form, Angela sees this line of questioning as an opportunity to talk about her love life.
#5 “You don’t use your head. You think everything that you feel is true. You need to grow up.”
Wow. Talk about role-reversal! Detective Jared tries to convince brother Booth that Brennan is cheating on him with the Persian, but romantic Booth will have none of it. Finally, the brothers come to blows and Jared delivers a line coming straight from Booth’s own brotherly playbook.
#4 “I’m thinking of asking this girl to marry me.”
Jared returns from India in “The Dentist in the Ditch” to bring big brother Booth some shocking news that Booth is not at all prepared for: “I was swimming with elephants in the Andaman Islands, when out of nowhere, Padme swan dives off a cliff, nearly killing both of us … I’m thinking of asking this girl to marry me.”
#3 “You know, all that hero stuff? I learned it from my big brother.”
Jared introduces Booth to his fiance, Padma, in “The Dentist in the Ditch.” In retelling how the couple met and the heroic measures Jared took to overcome a pickpocket who had stolen Padma’s wallet, Jared gives Booth credit for being the greatest influence in his life.
#2 “You would make your own judgment. You wouldn’t care what other people said.”
In “The Dentist in the Ditch” when concerned older brother Booth tells Jared that a background check revealed Padma’s history as an escort, Jared shows that he finally has grown up by telling him off. Booth defends his actions by saying that if the situation was reversed he would want to know if the woman he was in love with was a prostitute. Jared’s response? “No, you wouldn’t. Okay, I have watched you for years. I learned. You would make your own judgment. You wouldn’t care what other people said. You’d say exactly what I’m gonna say. Go to hell.”
#1 “So, the question is: Are you in or are you out? I really wanted to know if you’d be my best man.”
In the final scene of “The Dentist in the Ditch,” Brennan and Booth meet with Jared and Padma to smooth things over after Booth’s inappropriate prostitute revelation. Booth has learned his lesson about meddling in his brother’s life and sees that love can overcome all obstacles, just like he’s always believed. And who better to prove that to him than his baby brother? En fin, Jared asks Booth’s an important question.
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
