During Bones's penultimate Season 11 installment,viewers got the shock of a lifetime when Booth was forced to wear glasses! Wait, no, that wasn't it, although it was definitely worth noting immediately. Dr. Jack Hodgins, who's versed in more science fields than I can name, was clueless about why things kept falling around him until it was revealed he was the one causing it, via muscle spasms in his leg. Which means his paralysis may not be so permanent! But what does that mean? Here's what co-showrunner Michael Peterson had to say.
At the end of the day, his journey is far from over, I think that really is the key to it. There is some movement: what does this mean for him?...The story is not necessarily going where you'd think it might.
So the most immediate assumption to be gleaned from this is that we shouldn't expect the Season 12 premiere to feature an entomology-themed obstacle course that Hodgins breezes through without effort. But that would derail the episode anyway.
Peterson is trying to get us to stop making predictions about what Hodgins' leg twitches could mean by saying the story might not match up with whatever we're thinking. So, Bones fans, we're just going to have to outsmart him by thinking of every conceivable outcome for this development, and yes I'm throwing the obstacle course sequence into the hat. Really, the main outcomes I can think of are "he starts walking again," or "he doesn't start walking, but the research helps others." I need someone like Hodgins around to help me brainstorm this.
Peterson also told TV Insider that this bodily movement will give Hodgins "a little bit of hope," which is good, considering his life has not been very easygoing since he was first paralyzed following the bomb explosion from the midseason finale back in December. He could use some happiness, both at work and at home with his wife Angela. But it kind of sounds like there were different ideas about where to take Hodgins' storyline when the creative decision was made to go down this route.
Peterson credits the arc shift to a writers room full of new and old scribes, and particularly the presence of Karine Rosenthal, a favorite writer of Peterson's who returned after a few years of being away from the show. How impactful was Rosenthal?
I think for Hodgins, in particular, his journey has been impacted by having Karine in the room and adding good perspective of what we should do moving forward. The long and short answer is it was going one direction, we brought in new voices, and I think we found a better way to go with his character.
This season has already sort of faked us out with Booth's "death," and it sounds like the finale is going to be one that not everyone makes it out of alive, thanks to the return of the creepy-ass Puppeteer serial killer. But I can't imagine that Hodgins is going to be the one dying if his journey is so far from over. Personally, I'm hoping the "better way to go" involves another cameo from Betty White.
Bones will air its Season 11 finale on Fox on Thursday, July 21. Will everyone survive to the end? Will anyone survive? Well, probably. There's that whole other season coming.
