The Pictures In Booth's Office On Bones Have A Hidden Meaning

When you play a character for 12 years, there's bound to be some overlap between their fictional life and your own. That's exactly what happened with David Boreanaz and FBI Agent Seeley Booth on "Bones." The off-kilter Fox procedural ran from 2005 to 2017 and clearly Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel, who played forensic scientist Temperance Brennan, felt extremely close to their characters and the show overall. In the years since the series went off the air, Boreanaz has seemed eager to return for a "Bones" revival, and has spoken enthusiastically about his positive experiences working alongside Deschanel. But he's also probably just missing Agent Booth as a character. 

Aside from Angel on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and the "Angel" spinoff series, Booth is the role for which Boreanaz is most well-known. Clearly the actor himself embraced this, infusing the FBI agent with elements of his own personality as the series went on. Nowhere else on "Bones" was the connection between Booth and Boreanaz more obvious than in the former's office, where multiple decorations spoke not only to the FBI agent's background, but to a shared history between the character and actor. In particular, two photos on Booth's desk reveal a lot about the pair.

Seeley Booth, who always carried three specific items in his pockets, was born in Philadelphia but grew up in Pittsburgh and his office pays tribute to his background, with a black-and-white photo on his desk that depicts the Philadelphia Flyers. A Pittsburgh Penguins jersey hanging in his office also speaks to both his youth spent in the Pennsylvanian city as well as his love of sports. But the other photo on Agent Booth's desk might just represent something deeper about the character.

The photo is a signed portrait of Bobby Orr, a legendary former hockey player who competed in the National Hockey League for 12 seasons, first as part of the Boston Bruins, then with the Chicago Blackhawks. At first, it might seem odd to have a signed portrait of a player who had nothing to do with any Pennsylvania NHL team. But it's perhaps what Orr was known for outside of the sport that made him a hero of Booth's.

It's never confirmed exactly how old Booth is, but Orr retired as a professional player in 1978 and Booth was almost certainly too young to have remembered watching him during his heyday. This suggests that Booth admires Orr for other reasons. The hockey legend is known for being magnanimous, supporting other former players with rehab and even giving ex-Bruins trainer John "Frosty" Forristall a place to stay after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. Since Booth is a good guy with some notable vices and flaws and some troubling memories of his time as a Special Forces sniper & Army Ranger (Boreanaz underwent high-pressure sniper training for the role), perhaps Orr represents a standard to which he can aspire.

"Bones" set decorator Kimberly Wannop previously spoke to the Set Decorators Society of America during the ninth season of the series and revealed some behind-the-scene information on Agent Seeley Booth's office. "Booth's office is a little peek into his world," she said. "He's an FBI agent, but wants to fight the establishment. His personal effects are throughout the room, including several sports pieces: putting green, football, a Philadelphia Flyers hockey puck as his paperweight, even a mini Stanley cup." Wannop also spoke about the large picture behind Booth's desk which she confirmed had changed throughout the seasons but is "always a hockey photograph." She added, "Booth has a young son, so there are also many photos with him. Booth's furnishings are manly and simple, he's the old beat-up office chair guy."

If the hockey element appears to have been slightly overdone, it might have something to do with the fact that David Boreanaz himself is a big fan of the sport and the fact that he and Booth share quite a few similarities. Boreanaz moved to the Philadelphia area at age seven, so like his character, grew up in Pennsylvania. Speaking to Suburban Life Magazine, the actor recalled going to sports games with his father, Dave Roberts (who actually had a cameo on "Bones"), a weather presenter and TV host who took a young Boreanaz to his first ever hockey game. That sparked a lifelong love of the sport in the actor, who has remained a passionate Flyers fan ever since. He also told the magazine, "I admired my father for being so kind to other people," which might also shed some light on his character's apparent admiration for Bobby Orr and his selflessness. Either way, it certainly sheds more light on the abundance of hockey memorabilia in Booth's office, and speaks to the close connection between the character and Boreanaz himself.