Seeley Booth

Special Agent Seeley Booth
Bones character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Hart Hanson
Portrayed by	David Boreanaz
Information
Nickname(s)	Shrimp, Booth
Gender	Male
Occupation	Special Agent with the FBI Official FBI Liaison to the Jeffersonian Institute Sergeant Major in the US Army Special Forces
Family	Brother Jared Booth Grandfather Hank Booth Ancestor John Wilkes Booth
Significant other(s)	Temperance Brennan (partner, in love, currently expecting a child)
Children	Parker Matthew Booth (son, with ex-girlfriend Rebecca Stinson) Unnamed child (daughter, with Temperance Brennan; currently expecting)
Religion	Roman Catholic

FBI Special Agent Seeley Joseph Booth is a fictional character in the US television series, Bones (2005–present), portrayed by David Boreanaz. Agent Booth is a co-protagonist of the series alongside Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), to whom he affectionately refers as "Bones."

Character history

Seeley Booth is a former sniper in the United States Army who served in the 101st Airborne Division, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the U.S. Army Special Forces. He is also an expert knife thrower. He is currently a special agent with the FBI. Before leaving the Army, Booth held the rank of master sergeant. He served in the Gulf War, Somalia and Kosovo. While in the military he earned a Bronze Star, National Defense Service Medal and the Army Good Conduct Medal. He also holds the record for the longest shot ("Well over a kilometer") made in combat. Booth frequently consults with his professional partner Dr. Brennan, whom he has nicknamed "Bones," and her team (he refers to them as "squints" or "squint squad"), acting as a liaison between the FBI and the Jeffersonian Institute. When it comes to solving crimes, Booth has a very different approach from Brennan and her team, preferring a more human, interpersonal and intuitive set of methods. While he finds the information Dr. Brennan and her team uncover to be valuable clues, he often finds their means overly convoluted and restrictive, and prefers to add his own intuition and knowledge of people to it; as a result, his methods often clash with Dr. Brennan's scientific, objective, and analytical approach. Initially, his presence is met by hostility from some of the team members, especially Jack Hodgins. Eventually they put their differences aside and the team comes to accept Booth as one of their own.

In the episode "The Beginning in the End," Booth is offered the opportunity to further serve his country in Afghanistan. He is offered a promotion to sergeant major and a position as an advisor to the Afghan National Army who are being trained by coalition forces to take an increased role in battling Taliban insurgency. According to the unit patch on his uniform shown in the episode "The Mastodon in the Room," he is assigned to a Special Forces group. He is also shown wearing a 101st combat patch, Special Forces and Ranger qualification tabs, and Combat Infantry, HALO, Air Assault and Parachutist badges. His military training occasionally came in hand when solving cases involving firearms or terrorists, most notably when he was kidnapped by "The Grave Digger" and had to find his way out of a decommissioned ship rigged with explosives.

Although Booth tries to keep personal and professional life strictly separate, aspects of his personal life leak through. He is a religious man by nature, having been an altar boy as a child and his beliefs sometimes puts him in conflict with Brennan. He knows some Latin and is still a practicing Roman Catholic, seeking to atone for the lives he took as a sniper and since through his work in the FBI. While in the Army Rangers, he was apparently tortured, leaving him with emotional and physical scars (revealed in "Two Bodies in the Lab").

Booth has a troubled relationship with his family. Booth's father, a former Air Force pilot and Vietnam War veteran, was a barber and an abusive alcoholic. His mother composed jingles for television advertisements. He later reveals that, had it not been for his grandfather, he might have killed himself as a teenager. He also has a brother, Jared, a former lieutenant commander in the Navy who worked as an agent at the Pentagon and had a drinking problem. Jared Booth is a recurring character on the series, and his arrivals are often met with tension by Booth. Their relationship seems to have improved somewhat, especially after Jared sacrificed his career in the Navy to save him from "The Grave Digger". He later introduces his fiancee to Seely and asks him to be his best man at their wedding.

He has a nine-year-old son named Parker with his ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, who he states refused to marry him. Originally, the communication between Seeley and Rebecca seemed hostile, as she denied him visitation out of spite, but it is later revealed relations between them have dramatically improved. Parker Booth is named after a friend of Booth's from the Army Rangers, Corporal Edward "Teddy" Parker, who was slain in battle while spotting for Booth on a sniper mission. Booth is characterized as an excellent father. He is occasionally over protective of Parker; when Parker found a human finger, Booth quickly sends him to Dr. Sweets for a "counseling" session despite Sweets' insistence that Parker was fine.

He has stated that he is from Philadelphia, and is a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers with pictures on the back wall of his office. However, he grew up in Pittsburgh. In season 1, episode 13 "The Woman in the Garden" he is seen drinking from a Pittsburgh Steelers coffee mug in his office, suggesting he may also be a fan of the football team; in season 6, episode 16 "The Blackout in the Blizzard" he acquires a row of seats from Veterans Stadium and recounts for Dr. Brennan how he attended game 6 of the 1980 World Series with his father. He is also recovering from a gambling addiction, which possibly arose as a coping mechanism after separating from the military and leaving a stressful, war-time environment (in the episode "The Soldier in the Grave," Booth stated, "I've been good, I've been going to my meetings" when a former Ranger squad-mate inquired about his gambling problem).

As the series continues, Booth becomes closer with the Jeffersonian team, particularly Dr. Brennan. At the end of the second season, Booth agreed to be Jack Hodgins's best man in his wedding to Angela Montenegro (albeit as the second choice after Zack Addy turned the position down).

In The Wannabe in the Weeds, in season 3, Booth is revealed to have a grass allergy; a form of Hay fever; in Booth's case, his allergy is specifically to Johnson grass.

In season 4, Booth is shown to live in an apartment above a liquor store, called "Sportman's Liquors".

Booth also shows to have temperamental issues, and has shot inanimate objects on repeated occasions, such as shooting an ice cream truck's clown head in season 2 episode "The Girl in the Gator" due to coulrophobia, and a Black metal band's guitar amplifier after the guitarist spat on his badge in season 4 episode "Mayhem on the Cross," explaining that he found the shooting "justifiable".

Towards the end of season 4, Booth suffered from a brain tumor (that led to him hallucinating that Stewie Griffin was having conversations with him), which was successfully removed but left him with residual memory loss and a lack of confidence in the field. In the episode "The Proof in the Pudding," Booth is revealed to be a descendant of John Wilkes Booth, something he had previously confided to Dr. Brennan on their first case (as shown in the flashback of "The Parts of the Sum of the Whole", when she deduced the relationship due to their similar bone structures) and asked her never to bring up.

During the sixth season, while also dealing with his complicated relationship with Brennan and his new girlfriend, Hannah Burley, Booth finds himself facing his old mentor, Jacob Broadsky, a former army sniper who has apparently gone rogue, killing the Gravedigger—a serial kidnapper/killer who threatened both Booth and Brennan—only for Broadsky to escape after destroying any evidence that might have confirmed his role, pointing out that Booth has no definite proof that would allow him to feel "comfortable" shooting his old teacher. Although Booth has so far avoided shooting Broadsky even when he caught him in the middle of a hit- - shooting Broadsky's weapon rather than Broadsky himself, even after Broadsky stated that he had no problem making Parker a fatherless child—Booth is nevertheless comforted by the news that Brennan doesn't see him and Broadsky as identical, reasoning that the difference is that Booth is good and Broadsky is bad. At the end of season six Angela Montenegro gives birth and Bones is worried, and confesses to Booth that she is pregnant and he is the father.

The seventh season deals with Booth and Brennan's preparation for the birth of their child (revealed to be a girl in the second episode of the season). They are currently living together and are still discussing plans on where to live once the baby is born. Booth is also informed by his Grandfather that his abusive, estranged father has died. Booth tries to be indifferent, but eventually - with Brennan's help - expresses his feelings about his father, including talking about the good times they had together.

On the job

Due to his training in the military and as an FBI agent, Booth has the tendency to "follow the book" and adhere to protocol rather than sentiment; this has put him at odds with some of the other team members on occasion. When solving cases, Brennan's team will handle the scientific and analytical aspect while he does the interrogating and will go through great lengths to extract a confession from the suspect when needed. Although not a "squint", he is quick to connect the dots when tying evidence to suspects, which earns him the respect of Brennan. He is also well-known amongst fellow agents for his precise marksmanship.

Relationships

With colleagues

Initially, Booth faced some hostility from Brennan's "squint squad" due to both parties' lack of understanding of each other's jobs. Hodgins, in particular, was especially hostile due to his disdain for the government and bureaucracy in general. In the episode "Two Bodies in the Lab" where they conduct a rescue operation to save Brennan who was being held hostage, he let Hodgins come, something an agent normally did not do, and their animosity subsides. He further earns Hodgins' respect as the seasons progress. In season 4, when Special Agent Perotta took over the investigation in a case where Booth was a suspect due to his association with the victim, Hodgins (and intern Wendell Bray) declared to Perotta that they were "Booth's men".

Of the "squints", Booth got along with Angela Montenegro the best from the pilot episode. However, Booth did not get along with Zack Addy, Brennan's assistant as he found Zack's cold naïveté a little disconcerting. Zack's social awkwardness turned him off from the onset. He leads Zack to believe ignoring him is a form of male bonding, when in actuality it is a way to avoid talking to Zack and has often called Zack things such as Brennan's "weirdo assistant". However, Zack comes to admire Booth as a man of experience and has asked his advice on various things, much to Booth's annoyance. Booth has threatened to shoot him more times than any other main character on the show. In the season 3 finale, the team sort through Zack's belongings and Booth finds a harmonica he gave Zack before the latter went to Iraq, possibly a sign that he has perhaps accepted Zack's presence to some degree.

When fellow FBI personnel Dr. Lance Sweets first joined the team, Booth often treated in a condescending manner due to his boyish looks and young age. He became hostile to Sweets when Sweets intentionally did not inform Brennan about Booth's staged death and role in an underground operation. Unlike Brennan initially, Sweets is able to relate with Booth in "layman's language". In season 4, Booth learned about Sweets' abusive childhood and eventually takes him under his wing. He regularly takes him along to interrogations or to analyze crime scenes for insight into the victim. He also consulted Sweets on a number of issues, including his feelings for Brennan.

Camille Saroyan

Seeley rekindled an old relationship with Dr. Camille Saroyan when she joined the Jeffersonian team. However, Seeley ended the relationship for the second time after an intense case nearly cost Camille her life, with Seeley asserting that on-the-job romantic relationships endanger the team in high-pressure situations. Booths is shown to have known Dr. Saroyan for some length of time (she mentions she has known Booth and his brother Jared for 15 years in the fourth season), with both of them possessing extensive familiarity with the other's family members. Despite the breakup, Camille and Seeley have remained close friends, working together on cases and giving each other advice on numerous occasions. Seeley even came to Camille, seeking advice, when he began to fully realize his feelings of love towards Brennan, unsure of whether or not he was "the same guy" after his brain surgery. Camille encouraged him to "forget the bruised brain, and go with his lion heart", telling him to act on his feelings for Temperance but to be sure that they were real.

Temperance Brennan

Temperance is Seeley's professional partner and his primary love interest throughout the series. While Seeley and Brennan maintained a professional relationship and friendship for six years, there was obviously a level of deep emotional attachment evident, and hints of romantic and sexual tension within their relationship. This tension is crucial to the plot of the series, with fleeting minor characters constantly mistaking Booth and Brennan for a romantic couple, an accusation which they consistently and vehemently denied.

Since the first season, it is established that Booth and Brennan have different approaches to solving cases due to their different backgrounds and this is often the catalyst for an argument, especially about personal issues such as religion and love. His no-nonsense adherence to following protocol also puts him into conflict with Brennan. After accompanying Booth on numerous interrogations, she comes to respect him for his ability to connect with people and accurately read their motives by observing their behavior.

Though denying a romantic relationship, they tended to spend more and more time together outside work throughout the series and a sexual attraction between the pair became more and more evident. In "The Woman in the Sand," Booth shows he is impressed when he sees Brennan in a somewhat revealing dress he picked out for her, and slaps her butt later in the episode. In other episodes, he appears somewhat stunned whenever he sees her in revealing clothing, most notably a Wonder Woman Halloween costume ("Mummy in the Maze") Booth has admitted to Brennan and her father that he finds her "well-structured" and "beautiful," and once reassured her that she has "her looks and a whole lot more."

On a deeper level, Booth has also demonstrated a deep devotion to and admiration for Brennan's character. He has shown an apparent jealousy of Brennan's romantic relationships, particularly in the episodes "Two Bodies in the Lab," "The Woman in Limbo", "The Headless Witch in the Woods", "The Man in the Mansion", "The Boneless Bride in the River", "The Con Man in the Meth Lab", and "A Night at the Bones Museum". Booth has shown a tendency throughout the series of intimidating, confronting or competing with anyone he believes to have a sexual interest in Brennan, including his own brother and his boss.

He is extremely protective of her in general, and is often defensive of her to the point of physically assaulting those who pose a threat to her safety. He has saved Brennan's life in several episodes, digging her out by hand when she was buried alive ("Aliens in a Spaceship"), taking a bullet meant for her ("The Wannabe in the Weeds"), and violently threatening a gang member into calling off a hit put out on her ("The Woman in the Garden"). In instances where he believes Brennan's life to be endangered, Booth often (to Brennan's annoyance) refuses to leave her side, once offering to sleep on the couch at her apartment, taking a blow from a bomb meant for her and leaving the hospital later to rescue her despite being in a medically crucial condition to the point of barely being able to walk ("Two Bodies in the Lab"), flying immediately from Washington, DC to New Orleans after Brennan wakes up bloodied, beaten and possibly raped in her hotel room ("The Man in the Morgue").

In the third season, their relationship took on a new component when they were forced to undergo partners therapy with Dr. Sweets. Sweets observed that while they were very close to one another, there was emotional and sexual tension between them. Their experiences in partners therapy – which has been extended indefinitely – continue to be an important part of their relationship on the show.

The partners shared their first (in a flashback) and third kiss in "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole," the second being in "The Santa in the Slush" when Booth and Brennan agreed to kiss in front of prosecuting attorney Caroline Julian, who bargained the kiss in exchange for pulling strings for Brennan's family Christmas. Before the kiss Bones was chewing gum, and after the kiss Booth was chewing gum.

Since the time of that second kiss, although they have not since mentioned it, the partners have only grown closer. Nearly every episode since season three has ended with a scene of Booth and Brennan bonding at the conclusion of a case. These scenes have become increasingly romantic over time, reflecting the ever-growing affection Booth and Brennan have for each other.

This came to a head in "The Critic in the Cabernet," in which Brennan asks Booth to donate sperm to father her child, which startles him visibly. He eventually agrees, and the two begin making plans for her insemination, but before she can go through with it, Booth is diagnosed with a brain tumor. As he is being wheeled into surgery, he tells Brennan she can have his 'stuff' (referring to the donation he made) to have her baby. After a successful surgery to remove the tumor, Booth spends four days in a coma, during which he dreams about an alternate reality where he is married to and expecting a baby with Brennan, whom he calls "Bren." Upon waking up, it takes Booth a week to re-acclimate himself to reality.

Season five began with Booth realizing his love for Brennan as he recovers from his tumor. However, he was cautioned by both Dr. Saroyan and Dr. Sweets to be sure of his feelings before confessing his love to the very rational Brennan. Afraid that his feelings for her were related solely to his tumor and coma, Booth was conflicted about whether or not to tell Brennan. Although Booth and Brennan did exchange words of love, they both qualified their confessions with professionalism. And afterwards, their relationship remained fraught with sexual tension. They nearly kissed again in "A Night at the Bones Museum" and in "The Dwarf in the Dirt," Gordon Wyatt directly states to Booth "Temperance Brennan… You're in love with her" — a statement that Booth does not deny but simply replies that it doesn't make any sense because they are so different. To this statement by Booth, Dr. (now Chef) Wyatt responds that the heart cannot always help what it wants. Booth, however, seemed certain that his feelings were not reciprocated, saying "She doesn't love me. I would know if she loved me," to which Wyatt suggested he have patience and hope. In "The Foot in the Foreclosure," Booth's grandfather, Hank, encourages the relationship, urging both Booth and Brennan separately to stop holding back. In "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole," it is revealed, to the shock of Dr. Sweets, that Booth and Brennan shared a kiss while working on their first case together and nearly wound up sleeping together, showing that the pair have entertained romantic possibilities from the outset of their relationship. After leaving Sweets' office, Booth attempts to initiate a relationship with Brennan and kisses her after being told by Dr. Sweets to take a gamble. Booth tells Brennan that "he knew, right from the beginning" that Brennan is the one he wants to spend his life with. Although she obviously returns his feelings, Brennan rejects his advance and states her uncertainty about the possible outcomes of such a relationship given their seemingly conflicting personalities, Booth agrees to respect her wishes and attempt to move on as they continue to work together.

It is heavily suggested throughout the series that Booth and Brennan are complementary personalities that complete each other. In "Harbingers in the Fountain", Avalon Harmonia (Cyndi Lauper), a tarot reader and Angela's psychic, suggests that Booth and Brennan are destined lovers stating that "'this' ('this' being Booth and Brennan's feelings for each other and the evident sexual and romantic tension between the pair) will all work out eventually".

In the episode "The Boy with the Answer", Booth is confronted with the possibility that Brennan, claiming she is "tired of dealing with murders and victims and sadness and pain", might leave the Jeffersonian permanently. In the final scene of this episode, Booth watches as Brennan turns to face him while riding away in a taxi, a scene that mirrors the one in "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole" after they kiss outside of a bar. This similarity may signal that much to Booth's disliking that history may be about to repeat itself and he may lose Brennan for an extended amount of time, just as he did when they first met. This is proven true when Brennan departs for a year-long anthropological expedition to the Maluku Islands while Booth agrees to spend a year in Afghanistan, training soldiers to apprehend terrorists. They say goodbye at the airport, agreeing to meet one year later by the Mall reflecting pool, at 'their' coffee cart.

However, their relationship takes a downturn after their return to DC due to Booth's relationship with journalist Hannah Burley. Although Hart Hanson has stated that Booth will always be in love with Brennan, referencing Booth's old comment about how 'everything happens eventually' to suggest that the potential for the two to reconcile still exists, shown in such moments as Brennan's apparent disappointment after learning that Hannah gets along with Parker. When Brennan was recently encouraged by a case to admit that she still had feelings for Booth, he turned her down, remaining silent when she stated that they had 'missed their moment' and simply saying that he loved Hannah. Despite this, with Hannah's departure after she turned down Booth's rather half-hearted proposal, the two have begun to reconnect, admitting during a recent case that, while they are not ready to get into a relationship, they would like to try when healed.

In episode 22 of season 6, "The Hole in the Heart", which saw the death of "Squintern" Vincent Nigel-Murray at the hands of renegade sniper Jacob Broadsky, Booth has Brennan stay at his apartment for her safety. Later that night, Brennan, still overcome with shock and grief over Vincent's death, comes to Booth for comfort and the two fall back into his bed together in a seemingly intimate, yet non-sexual, embrace. However, it remained unclear whether something more had happened between the two. The next day she told Angela Montenegro that she "got into bed with Booth". In the following episode, she tells Booth that she is pregnant with his child, thus revealing that the two had sex that night.

At the start of Season 7, a very pregnant Brennan and Booth are a couple but are going back and forth between apartments. Booth suggests that they should have their own place, whereas Brennan wants Booth to move into her apartment. It causes a minor rift between them but is resolved when Booth admits why he wants to move into a new house and Brennan having some time to think over it says its a good idea because she'd need him practically, emotionally and sexually. At the end of the episode they are in bed looking at houses on the internet. Booth also tells Brennan he loves her. He has also expressed the opinion that Bones will ask him to marry her; he doesn't know when but he "knows" that it's going to happen.

Rebecca Stinson

Rebecca Stinson is Booth's ex-girlfriend portrayed by Jessica Capshaw. When she became pregnant, Booth proposed but she turned him down not wanting to get married. They named their son Parker Matthew Booth. They have since occasionally engaged in a liaison but are mostly just friends, Booth resolving to end their liaisons after Rebecca assured him — following a talk with Brennan where Brennan admitted that she thinks Booth feels that Rebecca turned him down because he would be a bad father — that he was a good father to Parker.

Due to Jessica Capshaw's commitments to "Grey's Anatomy", it is unlikely the character will appear again on "Bones".

Hannah Burley

In the episode "The Mastodon in the Room," it is revealed that while on his recent deployment to Afghanistan, Booth met a war correspondent played by Katheryn Winnick when arresting her for being in a restricted area.

While Booth himself appeared to be serious, they had yet to be seen in a truly relational sense, although Hannah did attempt to bond with Parker during a recent episode, and the two appeared to get on relatively well. He proposed later in the season but she refused, saying that she could not commit.

Characterization

Booth does not fit in socially with the collection of "geeks" (whom he and his FBI colleagues refer to as "squints") making up Dr. Brennan's team. Booth fills out the stereotype of the "All-American boy" — now all grown up — very well. He is world-wise, socially at ease with people, very athletic, and apparently sexually confident with women (a contrast to the humorous social bumbling sometimes exhibited by some of Dr. Brennan's team, namely, Zack Addy). Booth often refers to himself as a jock, having played football and several other sports in high school and college. A signed picture of Bruins player Bobby Orr can be seen in the background behind his desk.

Booth is a fan of classic rock and arena rock music. He has expressed great affection for the group Foreigner and poked fun at Bones for her interest in world, rap, and hip hop music. He also likes the band Poco and sang their song, "Keep on Tryin'" with Bones. In the season three finale, it is also shown he listens to the hardcore punk/punkabilly band Social Distortion. It could also be inferred that he is or at least was a fan of the original wave of hardcore punk, as in the Season 4 episode "Mayhem on the Cross" he mentions that his father thought that Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys sounded the same (with the implication that Booth disagrees). Given the relatively underground nature of the California hardcore punk scene (of which Social Distortion, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys were all seminal members), lacking radio airplay, mainstream press coverage, etc., it is most likely that the only way Booth's father would have heard these bands was if Booth himself had been playing their records.

It is revealed in the season three episode "The Mummy In The Maze" Seeley suffers from coulrophobia. When they were traveling through a haunted house, Booth was frightened of an evil clown mannequin, while Brennan was bewildered by his behavior, with him feeling ashamed when he purposely avoided walking by the mannequin. This provided insight into the event in a previous episode from season two, "The Girl in the Gator", when he shot a large plastic clown head on a ice cream truck, annoyed with the music.

Booth wears a "COCKY" belt buckle in episodes following "The Boneless Bride in the River" in season two. The buckle is absent in the first episode of season five after recovery from surgery. While not as noticeable as the red "Cocky" buckle, Booth did wear a stylized eagle buckle throughout season one and the first part of season two. He also likes to wear colorful socks.

However, Booth does not seem to get along that well with Zack; he finds Zack's cold naïveté a little disconcerting. Booth leads Zack to believe ignoring him is a form of male bonding, when in actuality it is a way to avoid talking to Zack. Booth justifies this as "being nicer than shooting him." Booth calls Zack things such as Brennan's "weirdo assistant" and has threatened to shoot him more times than any other main character on the show. However, Booth's opinion of Zack does not seem to be mutual; in general, Zack looks up to Booth as a man of experience, asking him for advice on numerous occasions. Booth makes it clear that he will not give sex advice; when Zack asks, Booth replies, "If you even try, I will take out my gun and shoot you between the eyes." However, Booth does seem more open to giving Zack advice about war when Zack is recruited to go to Iraq, and Zack says to Booth, "You know more about honor and duty than anyone else I know." It is also implied that Zack has grown on Booth; Booth looks a little sad when he sees that Zack has been recruited to go to Iraq in "Stargazer in a Puddle", and it is revealed in The Pain in the Heart that Booth gave him a harmonica when he left. Booth also seems as sad as everyone else that Zack turned out to be the Gormogon's apprentice in this episode. Later, when Zack returns in "The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond", Booth comments after Zack makes a "squint-y" comment that "this is one side of him I don't miss at all," implying that he has missed other aspects of Zack. During a dream sequence where Booth re-imagines his friends and colleagues at the Jeffersonian as the staff and guests at a night-club, Vincent- here the club DJ- refers to Zack as an idiot who confessed to a crime he didn't commit, suggesting that Booth knows or suspects on some level that Zack is innocent (Zack claimed to have participated in a man's murder when he actually just helped Gormogon find him, setting up his diagnosis so that he would go to an asylum because he recognised that he wouldn't do well in prison).

Booth stated in "The Girl in the Gator" Howard Epps was his fiftieth kill. However, Booth was not technically responsible for Epps death, so as of "The Man in the Cell" his official kill count is at 49, including the terrorist he shot in "The Man in the SUV". However, as of "Harbingers In the Fountain", Booth's official kill count is at least 52, as he killed the serial killer dressed as a clown in "Mummy in the Maze", bringing it to 50, Gormogon at the end of "The Pain in the Heart", bringing it to 51, and a doctor who attacked Dr. Brennan in "Harbingers in the Fountain", bringing it to 52. He also shot a conning sheriff who shot Dr. Temperance Brennan in "The Con Man in the Meth Lab", though a death was never confirmed, possibly bringing the total to 53. He also kills a terrorist in "The Mastodon in the Room", which makes his kill count 54.

Booth's grandfather (Hank Booth) gave Booth the nickname Booth 'Shrimp', because Seeley was a young child when Hank took Booth in, after Hank saw his grandson being beaten by his father.

It has been said in a TV Guide article Booth is supposed to be a relative of historical figure John Wilkes Booth, which was confirmed in the episodes "The Proof in the Pudding", "The Parts in the Sum of the Whole" and "The Crack in The Code". Booth is ashamed about his familial relations with John Wilkes Booth, and made Bones promise not to tell anyone. Ironically, it has been stated that Lincoln is his favorite president.

Through out the series Booth is most known to say I'll shoot you. He would often say it whenever someone would threaten himself or Bones.