Posted by Janie Logan Jan 29, 2011, 12:40 GMT
Booth (David Boreanaz) and Sweets (John Francis Daley) are shocked by the sudden death of the Gravedigger on "The Bullet in the Brain." Photo courtesy of FOX.
Right on the heels of "The Doctor in the Photo," an episode that held a mirror up to Brennan and made her reconsider past choices, "The Bullet in the Brain" set off the sniper arc that will dominate the latter half of Bones' sixth season, drawing a clear parallel between this killer and Booth.
We've seen the last of Heather Taffet (Deirdre Lovejoy), a.k.a. the Gravedigger, and just as she entered in dramatic fashion--i.e., a distorted voice on the phone who buried Bones and Hodgins in the ground, and was frighteningly evil even after she was caught--so too she departed: head exploding on the way up the courthouse steps.
Once Booth realized how skilled the shooter was, he was able to narrow down the list of suspects to a very small pool--his peers, back from his days as a sniper in the Army Rangers. He confronted the guy, Broadsky (Arnold Vosloo), at the end of the episode, but catching him won't be easy. And as the victims start to pile up around DC, Booth will surely be questioning himself and something that seemed so noble when he was at war. That soul-searching sounds like the perfect opportunity for Hannah to prove that she's not right for Booth, allowing him and Bones to finally get together. (Right???)
Unfortunately, executive producers Stephen Nathan and Hart Hanson have been pretty forthcoming that, along the way, the sniper will hit close to home. Sad though it will surely be, the death of a character can be important for keeping the stakes real. By all accounts, the series regulars are safe, so at least we know it won't be a completely devastating loss.
So with that in mind, I thought it would make sense to look at the likelihood of each recurring character being killed and what impact it might have.
The Squinterns:
Daisy Wick (Carla Gallo)
Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry)
Vincent Nigel-Murray (Ryan Cartwright)
Colin Fisher (Joel Moore)
Clark Edison (Eugene Byrd)
Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat)
Odds: 1/50.
Logic: It was nice of Hanson & Nathan to acknowledge that Zack (Eric Millegan) was irreplaceable after his departure in Season 3, but now the Rotating Intern has become an important element of the show, with each bringing something different to the group when it's his/her turn. There's a low probability that one of them will be killed because, on the practical side of things, a few of these actors are tied to other projects now and if any of their pilots gets ordered to series, Bones will need as many of them available as possible. Plus, none of them would have a huge emotional impact on the main characters or us, except Daisy, and then only for Sweets.
The Family Members:
Parker Booth (Ty Panitz)
Odds: 1/1,000. Because you don't kill a main character's kid unless you're really twisted.
Angela's Dad (Billy Gibbons)
Odds: 1/1,000. Because you don't kill a member of a famous rock band when he's willing to come on your show occasionally.
Max Keenan (Ryan O'Neal)
Odds: 1/200. Because Bones already lost her mom. Besides which, Max is too slick--not even a sniper could get him. He comes and goes when he pleases.
Jared Booth (Brendan Fehr)
Odds: 1/100. Not an important enough death. Of the few times we've seen him, he wasn't even that nice of a brother to Booth.
Russ Brennan (Loren Dean)
Odds: 1/300. Also not an important enough death, and he's off being a family man somewhere else.
Michelle Welton (Tiffany Hines)
Odds: 1/75. She's not Cam's biological daughter, but you still don't kill off a main character's kid.
Others:
Gordon, Gordon Wyatt (Stephen Fry)
Odds: 1/500.
Logic: He's off in a restaurant kitchen somewhere. Highly unlikely that the sniper would know about him. Plus, Stephen Fry is so cool and British, why would anyone ever want to kill him?
Hannah Burley (Katheryn Winnick)
Logic: If Bones and Booth are truly meant to be with each other, then the writers need to do it the right way, and breaking Booth's heart is most definitely the wrong way. The split between Hannah and Booth needs to happen naturally and peacefully.
That leaves one other recurring character--somebody who all the main characters feel connected to, who every viewer probably likes a lot when she's around and will be upset but not depressed to see her die…Caroline Julian (Patricia Belcher).
Odds: 1/2.
Logic: In the Season 6 premiere, Caroline was the one who brought the gang back together from their separate adventures. Bones realized that she was "the linch pin." If that wasn't a death sentence, I don't know what is…
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