More Stats on the Finale

‘Bones’: Season finale and more with Hart Hanson

May 20, 2008, 12:51 PM | by Abby West


Bonesfinale! So that's it, folks. We've come to the end of the road on season 3, and I have to say that I've got mixed feelings about last night's finale. From the fake funeral in the beginning to the heartbreaking revelation of Gormogon's apprentice at the end, much of the episode either rang false or felt a little too condensed for me. (We'll reveal the killer's name after the jump for those who actually haven't watched the show yet. Get on that already.) Suffice it to say, for now, that to make me believe that ending, to wrap my head around that logic, it would have needed another episode or two to play out.

But let's start with the fake out over Booth's alleged death. I don't think anyone really thought Booth was dead, despite Emily's Deschanel's superb acting, selling Brennan's desire to stay within the cold embrace of her work to avoid the sadness of her Booth's supposed demise. There was so much that could have been done with this if it were stretched out longer than three minutes. I concede that it may have taken the characters too far along their building-love path, but it seemed like a cheap trick to find out so quickly that after Booth was shot in the chest last week by stalker Pam that the FBI supposedly used that opportunity to fake his death and lure out another killer. And that the good doctor Sweets would use this as a chance to test Brennan's feelings for her partner by not telling her that he was alive. Back in the lab, Brennan was rightly livid that she wasn't told, and that anger led to last night's finest scene for some: a naked Booth in the bathroom.

Now I won't harp on the beer-can hat being a little incongruous (though, as one Bones-obsessed colleague of mine pointed out, there was a tray there that he could have used and a beer hat seemed too low-rent for him, even in the comfort of his bathroom) but from the Green Lantern comic book to the cigar to the vinyl record playing on an actual record player, that was a total guy-bath time. And let's not forget the rubber ducky that shows up later. The scene might have been too light-hearted for some but a more serious scene, one in which Brennan didn't actually gesture at his nether regions and ask if he wanted a towel, would also have brought them closer to the brink of consummating their sexual tension. And in our heart of hearts, we want them to put that off as long as possible.

Speaking of putting things off for as long as possible — so Zack is our killer, huh? Not sure I did a double take, but I was perplexed by the situation. I would love to be able to quote the first episode of the season, but wasn't there something about the apprentice being a widow's son? And didn't Zack have a rather large, intact family (mother, father, siblings) that came to visit him at the lab during that Christmas episode in season 1? It was frustrating not hearing the scary logic that persuaded Zack, who was not isolated or disenfranchised, to kill a man in the name of... what was it again?

I can't help but keep thinking of how the everyone-is-a-suspect thing could have been stretched out longer. Hodgins and then Sweets as suspects could have been really intriguing. They were really selling Hodgins as the apprentice and T. J. Thyne was really creeping me out for a bit. It was a bit of nice character development to have Sweets take a stand against Booth's threat to put him in handcuffs and arrest him. It took him from the sort of fawning man-crush he'd had on Booth, back to being an adult professional semi-authority figure. And even Cam was acting a bit suspicious, but that turned out to be just a sort of jumpiness from knowing that someone at the Jeffersonian was the killer. Yet Tamara Taylor did an excellent job in the hospital-room scene when she found out that it was Zack. Her crestfallen face and dejection were enough to transfer you from questioning the logic to feeling the emotion. Putting aside the exchange between Brennan and Zack, which was just a bit confusing, watching Zack's friends gather around his favorite things (many of which they gave him), the shock and sadness were evident.

Still, among the many questions the episode left me with are these:

1) If Zack blew up his hands, who stole the skeleton?

2) If Gormogon did it, how did he get into the super-secure Jeffersonian? Wouldn't that make him slightly more than a nobody?

In my interview with exec producer Hart Hanson, Hanson said he was expecting a "violent reaction" from fans. But here he further explains why they chose to make Zack the apprentice: "We had gone pretty much as far as we could with that character. There’s an opportunity with that character to bring in a number of people. We’re not replacing him with a single character. We’re going have a bunch of people coming in and out and that gives us a bunch of opportunities in the lab for humor and stories."

Hopefully this isn't really a goodbye to Eric Millegan, who is actually a good friend of Hanson's. "We’re looking for ways to have him back as a guest star from time to time. We love the guy," says Hanson. "But you know, best laid plans. Eric’s a very talented guy and for all we know will be starring on Broadway and that will be that. I wish that for him but not too much."

It would be great to have Zack return next season, and as the squint squad takes turns visiting him maybe we could get a better idea of what reasoning Gormogon used to persuade him to commit murder.

Despite my many misgivings, I'm willing to give this episode a pass on the strength of the first two seasons and most of this one. The writers and cast do such a good job with the relationship-building and have come through so often that I can swallow the loss of Zack and hope that they'll pull off the next season, maybe even satisfying some questions from this one.

So, how are you all feeling about this turn of events? How violent was your reaction? Are you just shaking your fists or shutting the door behind you? Let us know if you'll be back for the two-hour premiere of season 4 on August 27. Have a good summer, guys