剧情（主角感情）走向——S6E9编剧采访

CK: [Laughs] Well, you know, sometimes, yeah. Sometimes, absolutely. I remember last year thinking, “I really want Santa’s head to explode.” [Laughs] But I think there was a certain — in this instance — it wasn’t so much the gruesomeness of the image, as the emotional impact on Brennan. We all love her, we all care about her like we care about a sister or a friend. And to me, it was my wanting a character I cared about to get back in touch with her heart.
It’s certainly a look at Brennan we’ve never gotten before. The tone and the entire feel of the episode was unlike anything we’ve ever seen on the series. Did that make the writing process more difficult?
CK: No. I wouldn’t say difficult, I’d say challenging. Usually, I get in the BONES part of my brain when I’m writing an episode. In this case, I got in the Brennan part of my brain, because I wanted it to be entirely from her point of view. And in fact, at the very, very, very beginning of the script, we put a note to production that this episode is weird. And instead of seeing the world through the omniscient view, we’re seeing the world through Brennan’s eyes. So approaching it from that point of view made it possible.
Was there anything you learned about Brennan that you perhaps weren’t anticipating when you first began writing the hour?
CK: I guess there were things that I felt about Brennan that I wanted the audience to [feel]. I wanted to open some doors into her character — doors that we wouldn’t ordinarily open. That was the reasoning behind the night watchman character, Micah. You know, I think we understand people and characters through their relationships with others. We used Micah to broaden our insight into Brennan because it’s a relationship you wouldn’t have expected her to have! She’s usually quite…intolerant of people. [Laughs] And here’s a guy, a humble night watchman — even though he’s super smart — and [he brings out] a different side of her. I think all of us — the fans, the writers and certainly Hart — we all know that Brennan has an incredible depth of emotion. It was just finding the opportunity to show that in a way that would be consistent with everything we know about her.
Fans are going to ask if Micah was real or not. I thought by the end of the episode that he was real, but did you intend to leave it vague?
CK: Yeah. There is an internal debate about whether Micah is real or not. I know how I feel about it, but others disagree. So… [Laughs]
Can you say which way you leaned?
CK: We’ll leave that up to your imagination!
I want Micah to be real, if only because that means you can bring him back.
CK: Yeah! Enrico [Colantoni (Micah)] is fantastic. I’ve loved him ever since VERONICA MARS. He was fantastic.
Was it difficult to balance the supporting cast in this episode, given how Brennan-centric it was?
CK: Well, in terms of the supporting cast, I think each of the characters was chosen because the whole notion is we’re meant to get the sense that feeling love is painful, but not feeling it is worse. That’s why we had Mike Dworsky, the dad of the sick boy, and Chris Markham, the helicopter pilot whose love for Lauren never came to be. They all played a part in Brennan’s emotional journey. It was different because we didn’t have our usual suspects in the sense of people with motives and means and opportunity — the [supporting cast] played important roles in the emotion of the episode. And yeah, we spent less screen time with our regular cast members because it’s all about Brennan and everybody is a reflection of her emotional journey.


And that led us to the car scene, which was the culmination of Brennan’s journey — not only in the episode, but one could argue of the season and perhaps the series overall. Was there a reason why you felt that conversation should take place in the car?
CK: Well, to be honest, that was also much discussed and it came to be more a production choice. In my perfect world, the scene would have taken place right there on the rainy, dirty street. But it became a little bit of a production issue and it actually turned out that I was quite happy it took place in the car because there is a certain sense of you can’t escape, because it’s in the confines of a small space. So I almost feel like — well, huge kudos to Ian Toynton for how he directed that scene. I think, in the end, it worked out better that it was in the car because they can’t get away from each other.
Literally and figuratively.
CK: Exactly! I guess that’s one of the examples of production limitations actually adding to the impact of a scene.
I know you’re the writer on record for this episode, but I assume it wasn’t solely your choice to have Booth turn her down, correct?
CK: Well, no, I wouldn’t say that. I think the Booth and Brennan love story that we all want to see play out, I don’t think we want there to be any sudden moves in that. I think their journey is about the rocky road to a happy ending, if you know what I mean. To me, I feel like if you have a friend or a loved one, you absolutely positively know what the best choice for them is, but they’re like too lost in their own issues to see it? We all know that’s the most frustrating thing on the planet, but I think the same way for Booth and Brennan, because we’ve all come to know them so well, they’re like family members. It’s like, “Hello? Guys, wake up! You belong together!” But if that came to pass in a sudden way, it wouldn’t be organic, it wouldn’t be right. At this point, in the world of the show, they’re real people and it’s hard and it’s a struggle to get to your true love in life and in BONES. I don’t think anybody believed that it would be as easy as Brennan declaring herself and Booth accepting, because it shouldn’t be. It wouldn’t be honest. To me, I get that people want it to happen and to me, that’s kind of a testament to the humanity of the show — that people care so much. It’s like caring about a friend or a family member. We just hope they get there eventually, you know? [Laughs]
Not to mention that Booth has a girlfriend. I know some fans will probably be annoyed he turned Brennan down, but the Booth that we’ve come to know and love over the past five seasons wouldn’t just say, “Bye, Hannah, it was nice knowing you!” He is an honorable man.
CK: Yes! That is actually what people have to [realize]. You hit it on the head. People have to remember that he’s a man of honor and a man of honor doesn’t do that. He’s the best side of the best kind of man. And it would be wrong for him to just throw off a woman that he was in a committed relationship with.


Right, he is living with her. There is a level of commitment there.
CK: Exactly.
How careful were you with the words that were used between them in that scene? Booth never explicitly said “I love you” to Brennan in the 100th episode and Brennan didn’t use those words in this scene — is that something that is being saved for the right time?
CK: [pause] You know, I think that in life, again, you have to choose your words carefully. And we all know how much those words mean. We debated the language in the scene and it was adjusted a bunch of times to try and get it to the truest possible point. And if it feels a little bit frustrating, that’s because it’s meant to.
I actually thought it was a great testament to their relationship because there have been parts of this season where it has seemed like Booth was really disconnected from Brennan, but in that scene, he knew exactly what she meant.
CK: Yes! I’m so glad!
It was really, really well done.
CK: I think everybody really came together in a remarkable way on this episode. There was little stuff. Whit Vogel, our art department coordinator, I walked into one of the early meetings and she had actually made a model of the tree, because the art department was so committed to getting it right. And here in the middle of the table is an incredible box with a miniature tree growing out of it. And she pulled a cable and the top of the box lifted off to reveal the tree’s root ball and the skeleton entangled in it. The amount of work that girl put in… Everybody was just totally on their A-game. There’s a scene early on in the episode when Brennan’s first leaving the hospital, when she’s first looked at Dr. Lauren’s photo and seen herself, she gets into the elevator and there’s that incredible shot of her descending. For sure, I did not script that scene. Ian, who I think is an absolutely brilliant director, I said to him, “In that one image, you captured a visual of her entire emotional journey in the episode.” Now I can’t imagine the episode without that scene. We see her and it’s like we see her descending into this interior world that she normally completely avoids and Ian just — I think it’s one of the most beautiful images we’ve ever had on the show. It visually defines the entire journey of the episode for me.
For sure. And Emily. I don’t think we can say enough about how amazing Emily was in this episode.
CK: Beyond amazing. We all know she’s one of the most amazing actresses on television, today and maybe ever. But in this episode, she just went past that. There’s such truth and beauty to her performance, I hope that it gets acknowledged far and wide.
I completely agree. There’s no way you can watch this episode and not feel for this woman and be amazed by the range she shows.
CK: And the rawness. Usually you don’t get that in a television performance. There’s usually a certain kind of slick quality to network television performances and Emily, she blew me away. She completely blew me away. And we’re just incredibly honored to work with her. I knew she was that good. And I hope she gets the acknowledgment she deserves.


Her tears in the car scene, that was such a shock to see.
CK: Didn’t that just break your heart?
Absolutely. And I was a little bit disappointed that Fox used that in the promo for the episode, because it was such a shocking moment for the character. Do you wish it had been held back?
CK: If it gets more people to watch because they see something big is going to happen for the character, I’m okay with it. I think that it’s still a surprise when you get to the actual [moment]. Even though I know it’s coming when I watch the episode, it’s still a surprise to me because the performance is so amazing. We don’t really have any input [regarding] what goes into the promos, so I have to sort of hope that the promo department [gets it right] — it’s their job, so they must to know more than I do! I don’t think [the promos] will ruin it for anyone.
Now that you’ve seen the episode, is there anything you wish you could have done differently or is there anything you wish you could add?
CK: No. I mean, there were some things that were changed or trimmed because of time considerations or because of other considerations, but in the end, it’s exactly what I hoped it would be that morning when I woke up with the image of the woman in the tree and Emily saying, “I made a terrible mistake.” It’s the episode I hoped it would be. And that’s all any of us can ask for!
That’s good to hear. Just to clarify, is this supposed to take place before or after “The Twisted Bones in the Melted Truck”? I know this was the 8th episode shot [it was the 9th episode aired] and it almost felt like “TTBitMT” had some scenes which could have been explained as lingering implications from this hour.
CK: You know, it’s funny, a couple of people have asked that and the truth is we always intended it to air after that episode. Again, it was production concerns and for production reasons why they were originally shot in a different order. But it was always meant to be the last episode we aired before Christmas, before we went into reruns because we wanted to leave people thinking about change before they go off for the holidays. [Laugh]
And now you all have to deal with a little bit of a change because you’re going to be on after AMERICAN IDOL. Does that alter anything for you, or is everything still the same as usual in the writers room?
CK: It’s the same as usual. I guess there’s a little bit more biting of finger nails and a little bit more anxiety. [Laughs] Other than that, we’re just making the BONES show we love to make. I hope to heck a whole bunch of people, who for whatever reason haven’t seen the show, will leave their TV set on Fox and discover us because that would be fantastic, but I don’t know. We’ll see what happens!
Are you doing any more scripts this year?
CK: I may do another one a little later in the season, if time allows. We’ll see. No final decision on that. I have my plate full at the moment. I hope so. It’s a super fun show to write. We have some fantastic stuff planned for later in the season. Whoever is writing it, it’s going to be great!


回复：6楼
确实是一丝不苟，字斟句酌啊，也难怪某些剧走下坡路的时候，这部剧越看越好看。

回复：7楼
太长了啊，汗~ 哪位高手有空把关键的翻译下？俺只能读，翻译……水平不够啊@@

回复：13楼
是啊，主角的暧昧是吊观众胃口的大诱饵啊~
就好像看house的时候，我一直坚定的认为house和cuddy在一起绝对不会减少我的观看忠诚度，并始终捶胸顿足的呼吁编剧们挺直对大叔永无止境的虐……但是，但是当H和C真的在一起了，还是寻常恋人的甜蜜吵架纠结，我发现剧集真的没有以前那么有吸引力了，我每周翘首盼望的对象不知不觉全变成了Bones……
所以，我现在强烈呼吁，Bones的编剧们，你们放开手脚继续虐吧，只要能让我们一直追下去，虐的吐血也没关系！！！

回复：16楼
牛啊，膜拜~ 好多我看的时候不知道该怎么用中文表达的东东都被你表述出来了！
辛苦啦！！加油！！！

回复：20楼
不觉得啊，以前我没怎么特别关注Bones所以不知道，至少这次我觉得说的真是清楚明白了。

回复：24楼
啊，原来这样啊？他们老早就说过BB最后会修成正果？
汗，这就是不关注相关新闻的后果。我还为他们到底会不会最终move on，谁先move on，哪一次是真的move on，move on之后的真命天子是啥样的等等问题纠结了一两年呐……真冤！！！
从此后再不纠结了，搬好小板凳耐心等……但愿大团圆结局晚点到来……

回复：27楼
说句可能要被拍砖的话，现实中他俩连“错过”的机会都没有——性格，智力，收入（女的比男的多不知道多少倍），社会认可度（杰出科学家vs政府排不上号的执法人员），信仰（无神论者vs虔诚天主教徒——这个鸿沟我真不知道编剧要怎么逾越——我和虔诚的教徒朋友聊天都时不时要触礁的说）差异实在太大，就算有点动物本能的激情和日久生情的火苗，也早掐灭了~
话说我看前3~4季的时候，一直觉得很别扭，因为我怎么看他们都不配，我也丝毫感觉不到他们的chemistry，但是剧情却一直暗示明示他们的暧昧，为此我差点就弃剧了~不过还好，挺到第5季，终于慢慢被洗脑成功……

回复：32楼
“——CK：难道不是让您心碎了？（译注：你就是要让骨粉心碎嘛……）”mm真是太可爱了！
难得竟然这么耐心的把全文从头到尾都翻了，好几个小时呐！感动死了，mm真的辛苦了！

回复：40楼
嗯，就是啊，本来Bones如果和Booth在一起，已经要接受他前妻留下的“尾巴”（孩子），如果还要接受Booth脑子里对Hannah的追忆愧疚之类的，真的是太太……太对不起fans了！