Life As Unremarkable

This week’s episode of Bones, November 5’s “The Skull in the Sculpture” could not have been more timely with California’s passage of Prop 8, which stripped gays of the right to marry. Angela (Michaela Conlin), the gorgeous artist that does renderings for Dr. Brennan (Emily Deschanel)’s lab, reveals a two-year lesbian relationship with Roxy, who re-emerges in her life as a murder suspect.

Everyone reacts according to their scripted roles: it barely registers for the socially challenged Brennan, it serves as the latest irritation for Angela’s jilted fiancé, Hodgins (TJ Thyne), Cam (Tamara Taylor) acts like she doesn’t know. The one surprise is Booth (David Boreanaz). Sure, his heteronormative biases are immediately revealed when Angela initially tells him, but subsequently, instead of more of the Neanderthal pretending he’s not a Neanderthal routine, Booth becomes genuinely supportive. He explains that his favorite aunt lived with a woman, and once he developed the awareness to understand that they were lesbians, it was a completely unremarkable revelation. “She had box seats to the Phillies,” he explains.

The last moments of the show suggest that the relationship is set to continue as a background plot. But it’s not set to be a source of scandal; it’s just one of those relationships, like Hodgins and Angela were last season. Dr. Sweets (John Francis Daley) kissing the annoying intern Daisy (Carla Gallo) raised many more eyebrows. So Bravo, Bones, you’ve set a plot in motion that embodies the spirit behind the opposition to Prop 8: that relationships among gays don’t inherently need to be singled out for comment.