As insane as it may be to believe, Bones is about to come to come to an end on FOX. The forensics procedural/adorable romance will debut its twelfth and final season tomorrow night, and Season 12 will apparently endeavor to wrap up a number of unresolved plotlines from the show's lengthy history. In particular, we will see Booth's (David Boreanaz) past as a Special Forces sharpshooter come back to haunt him in previously unforeseen ways. Bones showrunner Michael Peterson explained:
The big arc that's going to start in this season starts in Episode 4. Somebody from Booth's past---someone who was referenced in Season 1, from his time as a sniper and it comes back to haunt him in a very big way. It takes an emotional toll on Brennan as well. If something your spouse did before you even knew them comes back and there's horrible reverberations, something shifts. And it's going to affect Brennan in a way that's going to shake her to the core. By the end of the season, she's going to be questioning who she is.
Michael Peterson's words to TV Insider are nothing if not extremely cryptic, but they seemingly promise an awesome storyline that will both challenge and honor the legacy of the series when Bones finally premieres for its final season. The primary objective when approaching the storyline for Season 12 was to go back into the earlier episodes of Bones and find ways to tie up storylines that didn't receive thorough explanations the first time around. For Booth, this will involve dredging up his Special Forces history as a sniper to explore the impact those burgeoning revelations will have on his personal life (and marriage) in the present day.
It's not terribly surprising to learn that Bones intends to devote more time to Booth's military service and his time as a sniper. One of the earliest revelations about his character during the initial seasons of the series was the moral conflict he suffered over the lives he took as a marksman, and the show has never missed an opportunity to remind us of that fact.
With the series trying to keep the stakes high and the drama pumping as the show makes its way towards the finish line, this is a perfect way to send the show out on a high note. Expect plenty of action and drama to shake up his life with Emily Deschanel's Temperance Brennan, who has a bit of her own years-past drama rising up in the form of ex-lover Tim "Sully" Sullivan. (More on that here.) Sparks!
CinemaBlend will keep you up to date with any and all relevant details related to the final season of Bones as more information becomes available to us. The long-running series' final season will premiere on Tuesday, January 3 at 9 p.m. EST on FOX. For more information related to all of the most highly anticipated spring television debuts, make sure to check out our comprehensive midseason premiere guide and fill out your TV viewing schedules accordingly!
