BONES: Stephen Nathan and Hart Hanson Tease the Ghost Killer Conspiracy, the Return of Wendell, the All Bets Off Finale, and More

BONES has been on a hiatus due to its upcoming move back to Monday, but now, the show is just days from returning.

“[‘The Source in the Sludge‘]’s a good one to fall on the return to Monday nights,” BONES creator Hart Hanson told reporters on a conference call earlier today. “We’re really pleased.”

And that’s just the start of what’s to come. Check out what Hanson and BONES executive producer Stephen Nathan had to share about what else fans can expect in the rest of season 9…and a glimpse of what’s on tap so far for season 10…

The return of the Ghost Killer: As Nathan teased earlier this year, the Ghost Killer will make her return before the ninth season finale. But her story won’t be completely finished in that episode.

“[That story] will be tangentially a part of the season finale,” Stephen Nathan. “We’ll be revisiting the Ghost Killer in episode 20, when we find the Ghost Killer is just the tip of an iceberg…it is going to lead us into a big conspiracy that appears as if it goes back to the FBI…[because we don’t love serial killers], it’s a way for us to do a continuing story that doesn’t revolve around one murderer. It takes us down the rabbit holes that’s a little more complicated and a little darker than we have in the past.”

An update on Wendell: When viewers last saw Wendell, he had opted to fight his cancer, and we’ll get a chance to check in on him in a few weeks.

“Wendell will be coming back this season,” Nathan reiterated. “He’s coming back, I think it’s in episode 18. We will not tell you how it ends, but he will come back mid-treatment. And be working at the Jeffersonian, still, in his old job, but that will get very, very complicated. It will not unfold the way [the audience] expects it to.”

Clark’s writing a book: As the squinterns continue to grow, they keep racking up achievements. And for Clark, one of his new accomplishments will be something that’s familiar to Brennan: he wrote a book.

“It’s not going to land directly on Brennan, but it is a new wrinkle in the politics of the lab,” Nathan teased. “I don’t want to speak too much about the story, but I can tell you the name of the book is ‘Murder Made Me Do It.'”

I mean…

Meet the newest squintern! Brennan’s rotating group of squinterns adds to the mix with the March 17th introduction of Rodolfo Fuentes (played by Ignacio Serricchio).

“[Serricchio]’s really great, he’s playing a Cuban defector who was the chief forensic anthropologist in Havana,” Nathan previewed. “His credentials don’t work here, as often happens when people come from another country: they have to get accreditations again…The Secretary of State has asked that the Jeffersonian give him a position,because he needs an internship before he can get his accreditation. So he is essentially an equal to Brennan, but Brennan is his boss.”

Whether the two get on OK on-screen, that’s to be seen. But in real-life, the producers loved Serricchio.

“He was fantastic,” Nathan gushed. “He’s just terrific. We can’t wait to have him back. He will return.”

Have we seen the last of Hodgins’ brother? Hodgins was dealt a massive blow when he found out he had a brother his parents had kept from him — and that his brother was sick — and while viewers haven’t seen the last of him, don’t expect him to pop up this season.

“We will definitely see him next year, but there’s just no time [this year],” Nathan said. “There’s so much going on at the end of the season. Really, the end of the season is going to take place over four episodes. It’s kind of peeling back the layers to the onion. It’s difficult to deal with that.”

A little finale tease: Nathan has teased the “substantial cliffhanger” for the finale this season for months, and now that we’re a little bit closer, he was able to elaborate a (teeny tiny) bit more about what it might mean for our characters.

“The season finale will redefine…Booth’s relationship with his crime-fighting,” Nathan said. “The heroes and villains will be reversed. They will not be operating the way they have been for the past nine years. How long that will occur — how long that will sustain — is something that will be answered at the beginning of season 10. But really, all bets are off at the end of season 9.”

A love interest for Sweets? Sweets’ love life has been fairly on the DL since his split with Daisy,  but that might change soon.

“We’re toying with [a love interest for him] for season 10,” Nathan said. “Certainly not at the end of season 9. Sweets’ life is interesting, so we’re going to examine him and all of our characters.”

But, Nathan was quick to point out another couple will be getting some important screentime in the future.

“We’re going to examine Cam and Arastoo in a way we haven’t before,” Nathan said. “We’ll meet Arastoo’s parents. We try and give all the characters their due. They’re all interesting for us, and they all vie for attention. And we try and do what we can.”

Ending of the show: There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether BONES will end after season 10 — and Nathan, Hanson, and BONES star Tamara Taylor (Cam) weighed in about their thoughts earlier this year — but if the show does conclude then, Hanson has a rough idea of where it will finish.

“I knew when I wrote the pilot what the ending to BONES should be,” Hanson said. “It’s something I have to do to know what a series is. I know what the end of [upcoming Fox series] BACKSTROM is. It’s just something I have to aim at. So far, so good. We did not in any way expect to get this amount of time. We strung out how long Booth and Brennan would be [apart] as long as we could; we’re very pleased by the number of stories generated by them being together. But every single season, right from the get-go, if it looked like it, to end our series. Stephen and I were just talking about this the other day: I think if season 10 is our final season, at least the macro version of what I had in mind will be able to be used. If we go past season 10, the series will need a bit of a [re]invention. We can’t tread water.”

“Throughout these nine years, it’s always the best laid plans,” Nathan added. “We had an idea of where we wanted it to go, but since the finish line keeps moving, all we can continue to do is examine the characters and follow them where they lead. And so far, they’ve surprised us, often. And it’s changed the course of the show. But we do know where it’s going. We ultimately know where it’s going. And it’s not the Dharma Initiative.”

“We know where it’s going, unless it goes past season 10,” Hanson reiterated, echoing a comment he’s made for years. “Then we have to rethink where it’s going.”

Some potential season 10 cases: BONES’ tenth season is still months (and months) away, but the producers are already pondering some things they may be bringing to our screens then.

“We have been toying with the idea for quite a while of visiting the past with Booth and Brennan and the other characters,” Nathan admitted. “We did have something in the works, but we didn’t do it because you can’t do too many weird things in a season. But next season, especially if it’s the last season, I think we can do a couple.”

That might also include the upcoming 200th episode, which should be in the show’s first dozen hours of next season.

“There will probably be a murder,” Nathan joked.

As for more specifics, Hanson allowed that they “have a few ideas” about what they might want to do for that hour.

“We’d love to do something special,” Hanson said. “Like the 100th episode, it would be great to do something that was really, really aimed at our very loyal, crazily noisy and invested fans…another love letter to them. We have to figure out what it is. We have a few ideas.”

On a sadder note, the show will, eventually, have to deal with Ralph Waite’s (Pops) real-life death. Hanson noted it was hard when people started questioning them immediately after Waite’s passing for the BONES plans on how they’d deal with the loss, but “I’m sure we will, in season 10, deal with it.”

“We have to do it when we’re not all still [grieving],” Hanson said.

The grossness ahead: It’s no secret Nathan loves the grossest cases possible,but he found himself a little stumped when trying to pick the most revolting case coming up.

“Oh my, I don’t know,” Nathan said. “We try and make them all equally revolting. It’s hard to choose. The season finale has a delightfully revolting body. We have somebody coming up that has been wrapped in kudzu. Really, I think, one of the most revolting place we find some remains coming up is in a septic tank.”

“We are sort of amazed it got by standards and practices,” Hanson admitted of the septic tank body discovery.

In fact, Nathan admitted, “It was a little tough for us to watch,” and Hanson pointed out Nathan ended up cutting out some of the grossness.

“Think of that,” Hanson teased. “Stephen Nathan said, ‘This is too much’ before standards and practices [saw it].”

“I’ve only done it two times in the history of the show,” Nathan replied. “[The one time before was] when the reporter — in the Gravedigger [episode] — was brought down from the flag pole, and his face had been shot off or something like that. We don’t do fresh, live bodies like that. So when we see them, it’s just too terrible…we like a nice animal to be able to crawl out of the remains.”

But for as gross as the show can be, Hanson pointed out that “nothing we’ve done on BONES comes close how awful human remains are.”

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BONES returns with new episodes on Monday, March 10th at 8 PM on Fox.

Related:

BONES: ‘The Repo Man in the Septic Tank’ Photo Preview – Meet the Newest Squintern!
BONES: Shohreh Aghdashloo to Guest Star
BONES: ‘The Source in the Sludge’ You Ask, I Answer

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