History Headscratchers / Bones

** GEE specifically did not identify with either gender, which is why GEE avoided all questions regarding gender. This is a Japanese subculture that is totally foreign to westerners. If they were a guy who claimed to be a woman, or vice-versa, it would not have been NEARLY as much of a matter of perplexity to the crew (such things are considered somewhat normal nowadays). However, denying ANY semblance of gender makes them all wonder 'what gender is it, really?'

* This episode made me seriously dislike all the characters involved, to be honest. I was thinking they'd end it on a "wow, this is actually incredibly rude of us to be prying into something so personal in a stranger's life, we have seen the error of our ways and will be better people from now on" sort of note. Instead, they go with "Well, I'm just so darn curious I will invade the stranger's personal space to sneakily figure out which set of genitalia they possess, and now that everybody thinks that there is a dick in those pants, we can handily dismiss their chosen identity because them having means that we think they are "a dude!" and there is nothing wrong with this at all." Also, the whole episode reeked of racism. I was not comfortable at all with the fetishization of Japan, anime masks and feudal warnings and the constant emphasis on "honour" or the oh-so-exotic Japanese belief systems of incense and kami. This show just doesn't handle subcultures very well, whenever they pop up.

* Firstly, it'd be ''visual'' kei. Secondly, did none of them stop to think that GEE, maybe this doctor was a transman or transwoman? And that futzing around over "ooh, is that a boy or a girl? A boy or a girl?" might be really offensive? I got the feeling they were trying to establish "him" as genderqueer, but didn't plain know ''how''. That whole subplot just felt so skeezily badly handled. Even for a crime show. Why does his sex even matter? I can see maybe Booth being a little weirded out, but the way the entire lab joined in seemed ridiculous.
** Reality is unrealistic. Most people out there would react similarly, if perhaps with more social grace than people in the bones universe have, but that seems to be a defining trait for everyone, bit-character or not.

** You'll have to excuse the unenlightened here, but, why would being a transman/transwoman impact the questioning. Yes it might make the hug at the end pointless, but as far as I am aware most transpeople still identify as a specific gender, just not the gender they were born with. In this case the confusion was over which gender Tanaka identified with as much as which s/he physically was.
** GEE specifically did not identify with either gender, which is why GEE avoided all questions regarding gender. This is a Japanese subculture that is totally foreign to westerners. If she were a guy who claimed to be a woman, or vice-versa, it would not have been NEARLY as much of a matter of perplexity to the crew (such things are considered somewhat normal nowadays). However, denying ANY semblance of gender makes them all wonder 'what gender is it, really?'
*** Sweets from what I remember tried to tell the others it doesn't matter but they didn't listen.
* I think it might have more to do with cultural differences than anything. For most Americans, not knowing someone’s gender is very distracting and confusing. Remember Pat from SNL? Also, Americans tend to be pretty ethnocentric, so while it is offensive, I didn’t find it at all surprising that they would be so curious about Dr. Tanaka’s gender. Plus, considering Brennan’s tendency to immerse herself in and accept other cultures as an anthropologist, it’s also not surprising that she was so uninterested in Dr. Tanaka’s true gender.
** The fact that the closest equivalent to gender-neutral pronoun in english is third-person plural is probably also a factor, since it means that talking about or referring to someone without reference to their gender requires uncomfortable verbal gymnastics. Other english-speaking cultures which are more private than Americans' might still find the lack of a natural-seeming pronoun very frustrating.
* This episode made me seriously dislike all the characters involved, to be honest. I was thinking they'd end it on a "wow, this is actually incredibly rude of us to be prying into something so personal in a stranger's life, we have seen the error of our ways and will be better people from now on" sort of note. Instead, they go with "Well, I'm just so darn curious I will invade the stranger's personal space to sneakily figure out which set of genitalia they possess, and now that everybody knows that there is a dick in those pants, we can handily dismiss their chosen identity because 'He's a Dude!' and there is nothing wrong with this at all." Also, the whole episode reeked of racism. I was not comfortable at all with the fetishization of Japan, anime masks and feudal warnings and the constant emphasis on "honour" or the oh-so-exotic Japanese belief systems of incense and kami. This show just doesn't handle subcultures very well, whenever they pop up.

** This might be a somewhat bent TruthInTelevision, as they are working towards PHDs. Unlike going to medical school, where a doctoral degree is simply the result of completion of coursework, PHDs are meant for academic purposes, and require producing meaningful research as proof of your success.

* Ever watch EvilDead2? Is it a horror movie? Is it a comedy? It's both! Bones is what is called a dramedy. Not to the same level as ''Series/{{Psych}}'', but pretty close.

* Clearly, [[LastWeekTonightWithJohnOliver they were too busy looking at dick pics.]]

* Gormogon was the biker and I'm fairly sure he only killed the apprentice so he could have Zack, because of the whole "there can only be two" thing.

** it also seems just outright bizarre that an accomplished writer seems to have basically 0 familiarity with pop culture?

It looked very Catholic (the church, the vestments) and Booth implied but didn't seem to outright state that it was a Catholic church like his at the beginning of the episode, but the pastor was called a pastor and he insisted that Satan and his minions were the sole direct cause of all evil. Catholicism doesn't have pastors, and they have a firm stance that while Satan is a huge influence, individual, mortal people are a huge source of the world's human evil. Was it a case of ChristianityIsCatholic? Was it supposed to be Catholic and they had a CriticalResearchFailure (I would think Booth's actor would have noticed and corrected them)? Or was it some other denomination, or no identified denomination at all?

* It is specifiably said that Brennan's Mom died in 1993 and disappeared two years earlier. Fifteen year back from 1991 would be 1976. Making Bones 25 on 9/11. The average age of graduate students.

* RuleOfDrama, UpToEleven. It's still messed up though
* Along this same theme: (Also, agreeing Booth could have saved a lot of hurt Brennan feelings if he'd just been honest. And if he were honest, he could enlist the help of the squints and the FBI.) Since they knew Pelant was back, why not take the paranoid level UpToEleven, Fox Mulder style? If Booth hasn't already had their house swept for listening devices (or even if he had), why not do it again?

[[WMG: Is the biker who fails to kill the lobbyist in "The Knight on the Grid" the Gormogon or his apprentice? A man who visited the Gormogon's mentor rides a motorcycle, but the Gormogon had to have had ''some'' reason to view his apprentice as a failure and [[spoiler:kill him.]]]]

* I remember in the last Pelant episode Cam saying about the body in the portrait not being sufficiently “degraded” for them to get the call. Unlike say in a show like CSI, they don’t get cadavers that still look like people they usually get half rotten bodies or just plain skeletons.

*** You are CompletelyMissingThePoint, GEE specifically did not identify with either gender, which is why GEE avoided all questions regarding gender. This is a Japanese subculture that is totally foreign to westerners. If she were a guy who claimed to be a woman, or vice-versa, it would not have been NEARLY as much of a matter of perplexity to the crew (such things are considered somewhat normal nowadays). However, denying ANY semblance of gender makes them all wonder 'what gender is it, really?'

* Truth in Television. TBH , there are people who wouldn't recognize the current vice-president of it's own country (even though indeed watch a lot of TV , especially the news channel.)