Bones Bosses Tease Season’s End “Heroes And Villains Will Be Reversed”

With Bones returning from hiatus on Monday March 10, speculation is rife on the remaining episodes of the season, what the show’s creators have planned for the finale, and what direction things will take in season 10.

What about the Ghost Killer, Wendell’s Cancer storyline, Hodgins’ newly discovered brother, and if it should come to it, plans for the series’ end?

Luckily, ScreenSpy was at hand this week to put your questions to Bones executive producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan. Catch their responses below.

More on the Ghost Killer

Stephen Nathan: We’ll be revisiting the Ghost Killer in episode 20, and we will find that the Ghost Killer is just the tip of an iceberg. It’s going to lead us in to a big conspiracy that appears as if it goes back to the FBI. It’s no secret that Hart and I are not madly in love with serial killers, so [the Ghost Killer] is a way for us to do a continuing story that doesn’t revolve around one murderer. It kind of takes us down the rabbit hole in a way that is a little bit more complicated and a little darker than what we’ve done in the past.

On Wendell’s Cancer Storyline

Stephen Nathan: Wendell will be coming back. I think it’s in episode 18. It’s an unfolding story. We will not tell you how it ends but we will revisit Wendell and he will come back mid-treatment. He’s working at the Jeffersonian still in his old job, but that will get very very complicated. It will not unfold the way we expect it to.

Wendell is the most all American guy and he and Booth are so close. To have two guys who are so strong deal with a vulnerability that intense just seemed to work for the two of them, and it really did in that episode. That scene in Booth’s office was so moving and so rich for those two characters. Now to continue it with everyone onboard, it just gave us a lot. It was also a way for us to explore that disease on the show. Not to be exploitive, but we have had a lot of feedback from people who are Cancer survivors or the families who have been dealing with that. It meant a lot to them, and if we can do that every now and again on the show, it means a lot to us to be able to do that.

Hart Hanson: Wendell is one of our most sympathetic characters and he has the most relationship with Booth and Brennan. He was the best candidate for a sad and intense story.

What About Hodgins’ Brother?

Hart Hanson: I don’t think he’s coming back before the end of this season, but he’s definitely someone we would consider dealing with again.

Stephen Nathan: We will see him again next year. There’s just no time.

On Brennan’s New Equal in the Lab

Stephen Nathan: Ignacio Serricchio will on be a week from Monday. It’s really great. He plays a Cuban defector who was the chief forensic anthropologist in Havana but his credentials don’t work here. As often happens with people who come from another country they have to get accreditation again. So the Secretary of State has asked the Jeffersonian to give him a position because he needs an internship before he gets his accreditation. He essentially is an equal with Brennan but Brennan is his boss. Ignacio is fantastic! He’s just terrific. We can’t wait to have him back. He will return.

On the Season 9 Finale

Stephen Nathan: There’s so much going on at the end of the season. The end of the season is going to take place over four episodes, and we’ll be peeling back the layers of the onion. There’s a lot of story.

The season finale will redefine Booth’s relationship with his crime fighting. The heroes and villains will be reversed. They will not be operating the way they have for the past 9 years. How long that will be sustained will be something that will be answered at the beginning of season 10. All bets are off at the end of season 9.

On A Potential End to the Series

Hart Hanson: I know when I wrote the pilot what the ending to Bones should be. That’s kind of something I just have to do to know what the series is going to be. It’s just something I have to aim at. So far so good! We did not in any way expect to get this amount of time. We strung out how long Booth and Brennan would be together for as long as we could. We’re very pleased with the number of stories which were generated by them being together, but every single season, right from the get go, we have been ready, if it looked like it, to end our series. Stephen and I were just talking about this the other day. I think if season 10 is our final season then the macro version of what I had in mind [for the series end] we’ll be able to use. If we go past season 10 the series will need a bit of a reinvention. We can’t tread water.

Stephen Nathan: Throughout these nine years it’s always the best laid plans. We had an idea of where we wanted to go but since the finish line keeps moving all we can really do is continue to really examine the characters and follow them where they lead. So far, they’ve surprised us. And it’s changed the course of the show. But we do know where it’s going. We ultimately know where it’s going. It’s not the Dharma Initiative!

Hart Hanson: We know where it’s going, unless it goes past season 10, and we have to rethink where it’s going. [laughing]

Stephen Nathan: Yes, and it very easily could go past season 10. [laughing]

Bones Returns to FOX in a new time period on Monday March 10 with “The Source in the Sludge.”