One might not think The X-Files and Bones were very similar shows, but there are more similarities than you’d think. They’re both on Fox, have a male and female lead, and have both lasted over nine seasons. Okay, so those are ridiculously vague even without bringing up the FBI, but Bones will soon earn a comparison to one of the freakiest hours of TV of all time, as executive producer Michael Peterson has revealed an upcoming episode was heavily influenced by The X-Files’ nightmarish Season 4 installment “Home.”
So no, we shouldn’t anticipate Bones or Booth discovering a UFO or teaming up with The Lone Gunmen, but we can probably expect one of the darkest episodes of Bones to date. Here’s how Peterson explained how he wanted to honor the 1996 episode.
Part of it is, there’s a wonderful juxtaposition that happens in the 'Home' episode, where they’re playing this Johnny Mathis music that’s so cheerful, [but] with this horrifying stuff that’s going on. So there is an element of that. That was so inspiring to me. I was used to Hitchcock’s string music from Psycho - that’s what I thought horrors and scares were all about. I didn’t know you could do it the opposite way. So there’s a little nod to that in there, for this episode.
Not that musical cues are the only way that “Home” played a role in “The Monster in the Closet.” The episode will also get viewers face to face with a murderer whose creation was inspired by the horrifying Peacock family of X-Files fame, according to TV Insider. And Peterson, who also called the episode “fun,” is certain it will result in one of the show’s biggest twists.
It’s hard to think that Bones can possibly offer up an episode that holds a candle to “Home.” That episode’s “monster of the week” was the entire Peacock family, as well as the old booby-trapped house they lived in. It contained so many bone-chilling elements, including an infant being buried alive and evidence of decades worth of incest and inbreeding. And finding the amputation-friendly matriarch hiding under the bed was the stuff of discomforting legend. The episode was so disturbing that it was banned from airing again. There was hope among fans that the current X-Files revival would contain a sequel of sorts to “Home,” but it turned out not to be the case. But seriously, who doesn't want to see these guys again?
Bones is currently going through some rough times behind the scenes, with this season looking more and more like it might be the last. But if it manages to freak everyone out in a huge way before bowing out, I’m all for it. Now if only they’d made it a crossover episode.
