Right off the bat, let me just say that I don't really know how to begin here.  Probably like many of you Bones fans, I still haven't managed to wrap my head around what happened in last week's season ender.  My mouth is still gaping open since my jaw started heading south midway thru that installment, until it finally fell to the floor at the bedside scene.

And yes, like most if not all of you, I would like to turn back time to before the writers' strike and have them rewrite the turn of events.  Alas, it was real and we must, like Jericho and Moonlight fans, find a way to come to grips with Zach (Eric Millegan) having killed someone as the unfortunate Gormogon apprentice.   I don't know if this helps any, but here's what Bones creator, Hart Hanson, had to say in an exclusive interview he gave to TV Guide. Remember – don't shoot the messenger here.

“Eric was a consummate pro about it, and he hated keeping it a secret.  He was really worried that his fans would turn against him,” Hanson told TV Guide about the controversial finale that all but erases Eric Millegan from the Bones canvas.  Or does it?

“We have not seen the last of him,” the show creator continued.   “He won't be in every episode, but Zack has certain talents we can use in a "Hannibal Lecter" kind of way.  We can go visit him and he can look at stuff.  If my voice sounds light right now, it's because the decision was not made lightly.  But we've got to do what we've got to do.”

And just what exactly was it that they had to do that led to such a tempestuous ending?  Get everyone all riled up, up in arms, unable to stop discussing and kept pining for more, probably.

“We certainly did that,” Hanson remarked.  “The first thing you do, of course, is be delighted they are tossing any words around.  They're responding, which is what you want.  The really bad response would have been silence.”

There are a bunch of reasons why we did what we did, the most important being that we're going into our fourth season and you want an audience to know that you're not "in a box" - that anything can happen.  Even though we're half a comedy, you don't want an audience settling in and getting blasé.   We knew pre-strike even there would be changes at Bones,” he said further.

In a separate interview, Eric Millegan told TV Guide that his verbal apology was left on the cutting room floor in that oh-so-heartbreaking scene in the hospital.  Hanson addressed why they opted to leave it out of the finished piece.

“The "I'm sorry" on top of the big fat tear was gilding the lily,” Hanson said.   “God bless Eric - he squeezed out a huge tear, in character.  Zack is somewhat distanced from his emotions, so it was as though the interior part of him was sorry but his intellect didn't know it.  When he said, "I'm sorry" after that, it was a repetitive beat.   Plus, he's such a sympathetic character - unlike Brennan (Emily Deschanel), who can be colder - everyone assumes he's sorry anyway.”


-Rosario Santiago, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: TV Guide
(Image Courtesy of FOX)