I haven’t watched this show for awhile, so maybe Tempe and Booth have already acted on their mutual attraction. Did they and I missed it? If they haven’t, why not? Have they talked about it? Or are they really just friends and I’m assuming too much.
Because I’d keep watching. (I kept watching Cheers and Moonlighting.)
It seems like they’re being kept apart artificially. In real life, bones would have been jumped by now, or one of them would have a steady relationship with someone else.
He was involved with Cam, slightly more than casually, but not terribly seriously. They knocked it off because of professionalism reasons, IIRC. A couple of episodes ago, they introduced FBI Agent Tim (Sullivan?), a nerdy-like-Bones, suave-like-Booth character who Bones is getting extremely interested in.
So they’re not doing the drawn-out constant tease, but they’ve not resolved the potential romance forever. It could be back, if the writers need it.
Frankly, the way they handled it felt like the most realistic thing on the show to me: the attraction was there, and the tension was building, but then it was wordlessly and with no hard feelings dropped when someone (or some two) else came into the social circle. Who hasn’t been there?
Bones is way more than interested in Sully - they are sleeping together! I think it makes sense to have Brennan not leap into a romance with Booth. The way she interacts with Sully it’s clear she has never really figured out how to ‘do’ the relationship thing - he’s helping her ‘figure things out’; it would be a shame if Booth and Brennan got together and it was ruined for a stupid petty reason.
sigh
I know. I was trying to answer the OP without spoilerage.
That’s okay. 
I’ve been watching this season so I knew about that. Which is why I asked if anything had happened before with Tempe and Booth, because in tonight’s episode Tempe didn’t really come up with a good reason for not taking that year sabbatical with Sully which made me think she has feelings for Booth that she’s refusing to acknowledge, or that they had tried a relationship and it failed.
WhyNot, your explanation makes a lot of sense and it’s how things often happen in real life. Kudos to the writers for having things happen that way. It’s so adult!
Due to their personal relationship, he was able to persuade her to violate safety protocols on a case, which led to her being gravely injured. I believe he specifically said to Bones later that he’d decided it’s a bad idea to have a relationship with a coworker in this job, because it can endanger people. It was pretty clear he was talking about both Cam and Bones.
I don’t think the suppression of their feelings is necessarily unrealistic. Not everyone acts on their mutual attraction. What I thought was unrealistic was the premature advancement of Sully and Brennan’s relationship. You don’t name your yacht after a 3 week girlfriend, no matter how much you like her.
Especially a yacht that the man admits he doesn’t know much about, and really needs crew to help with. I wouldn’t run away with him either.
Booth went kicking and screaming to the therapist, but is changing as time goes by. I’ll be interested in how that impacts the different relationships.
Eek, sorry, didn’t even think about spoilers (I thought the OP said they had seen the most recent episode). Will read closer next time!
Isn’t this series supposed to be ‘loosely’ based on a real life person (Bones)? Every time I watch, I wonder what’s part of a real case and what’s not…
That said, the minute these two get together, the show will be doomed.
Temperance Brennan is the main character in Kathy Reichs’ books. Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist in Quebec and in North Carolina. Her books are loosely based on real life cases.
Tempe is also an author and the name of her main character? Kathy Reichs.
Excellent. Thanks for the clarification.
And, to add to the confusion, the books are nothing at all like the TV show and the two Tempes are nothing alike, either. TV Tempe is 30ish, single, and not well socialized. Book Tempe is older, divorced, with grown children, and very well socialized and not geekish at all. Like the real Kathy Reichs, except she isn’t divorced.