Wow. I think I can breathe again. After the season 5 finale of Bones, I think I can finally breathe again. And the truth is, it wasn’t all that spectacular. The case of the week was interesting enough to be just a case of the week. However, I felt not connection with the circumstances of the case, nor the main characters until the end of the episode.
And Billy Gibbons was just plain awesome. Early in the series, his appearances were just that. Appearances. Now that he’s speaking, it’s just too cool for words.
The main theme of the finale was change. Everyone needed a change. Booth is going off to Afghanistan for a year. Brennan is studying remains in the Indonesian jungle for a year. Angela and Hodgins are going to be in Paris for a year. Everyone needed a break. That idea had me a little confused at the end, when everyone said they were leaving, but they’d be back in a year. The concept, in my mind, really only had two options: they could jump the timeline and in the fall when they return, a whole year would have passed, or the far more annoying House route where the main characters just don’t play any role for most of the season and return an actual year later, after the audience spent time getting to know new characters on their own.
Although a jump in their timeline seemed more likely than adding new characters for just one season, it didn’t strike me as the thing they would do. However, it has been reported that there will be a jump in their timeline, and when they return in the fall, a whole year will have passed. Everyone will have had a whole year of independence, and they will come back the same people, but very different.
Angela and Hodgins will have had a whole year of marriage without crime-solving drama getting in the way. And for them, that is huge. Booth will have spent a year in the line of fire, training soldiers. There is no way he will come back unaffected. And Brennan will come back with more knowledge than she left with.
On a different note, I was a little disappointed with the ending. After having invested in 5 years with these characters, the final scene with Booth and Brennan would have really been awesome had they both turned back to each other and kissed. That would have created a whole different dynamic for the characters, and perhaps would have changed what the writers have in store for the show next season. They did share a tender moment. And it meant so much that Brennan and Booth had that connection – it really showed the changes the characters went through with each other over the last five years.
No matter what happens, I’m looking forward to next season and seeing what great new things will happen to my favorite characters.
