Bones Boss on [Spoiler]'s Split, New Loves, Reigniting Booth/Brennan's feu 

Warning: The following contains spoilers from Thursday’s episode of

Don’t you dare call Booth and Brennan a boring, old married couple.

‘ two-part Season 11 premiere, Booth’s life-or-death ordeal ended with him and Brennan realizing that they belong at the FBI and Jeffersonian, respectively. And even though the pair is about to return to familiar territory, new co-showrunner Michael Peterson tells TVLine he’s determined to bring back Booth and Brennan’s spark.

Bones‘ David Boreanaz on [Spoiler]’s Death (‘You Have to Continuously Change’), Booth’s ‘Intense’ Journey

Seeley and Tempe aren’t the only couple getting a shake-up: In the episode, Cam and Arastoo split after coming to the conclusion that if she followed him to a new city, she’d just end up resenting him.

Below, Peterson previews the break-up aftermath (new love interests!), Booth and Brennan’s (happier?) Season 11 journey, Angela and Hodgin’s upcoming challenge and more.

TVLINE | For you and Jonathan Collier, coming in as the new showrunners, what was your mission with this two-part premiere?

] No. We had many different versions of the opener as, you can imagine, two new guys taking over this fantastic property…We had this alternate story, and it ended up being a little more Angela-and-Hodgins-focused than Booth-and-Brennan, and that’s why we ultimately decided to move it away from the first slot and move it into No. 10, so it’ll be our midseason finale.

It was such a strange place to start. We didn’t know if we were getting picked up last year. We had this finale where they’re walking away. We don’t mind being painted into a corner. It makes us get creative. We wanted to have a great story that, to us, felt organic to the characters… We want Booth and Brennan walking off into the sunset in a way, but also, they’re in the primes of their lives. I hate to say it, but they’re around my age, and I’m not quitting this job any time soon. I’m going to enjoy it, and it’s what I love to do. I think that’s very true for them also.

Obviously, they went through hell last year, between Sweets’ death and Booth being incarcerated, being betrayed in a way by the FBI, [and] the gambling stuff, the conspiracy stuff. They went through the wringer. This is after 10 years of going through similar type incidents. Still, that said, this is what they’re meant to do. Jon and I really talked about this season being about faith, which is a big thing. When you watch the 100th episode, they talk about Booth really does believe in faith, Brennan does not. … So it’s a very tragic way we got into that story, but we wanted to have them come back to their jobs because of this recognition that this is their destiny, this is what they’re meant to do. And they’re great at it.

TVLINE | There were quite a few twists and turns. Was there any part of you that was like, “We need to send the message that even though this is Season 11, there’s still plenty of drama and stakes to be found in the show”?

Yeah. I loved this episode, and I think a lot of the fans did, too. A lot of people that I know, their favorite episode is [about the] Gravedigger way back when, which had wonderful stakes. We wanted to recreate some of that magic from then… That ticking clock, we wanted to get that feeling back. It was a concerted effort to have that feel — rather than just being a standard

episodes, to make sure it was as personal as humanly possible and also nail-biting.

TVLINE | How does Jared’s death affect Booth going forward?

It’s going to have a dramatic effect on him. The nearest effect is going to be in the third episode where, in a way, he’s still in shock over it. There’s going to be guilt that he’s going to undoubtedly feel. I’ve gone through this season comparing Booth to Superman on many different occasions. Superman hopes he can save everybody. It’s painful to him that he couldn’t save his brother. That will have a deep impact on him throughout.

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TVLINE | As you said earlier, last season was a very difficult one for Booth and Brennan as a couple. How would you characterize their journey this year? A little happier maybe?

Yeah, I think so. It’s happier in the bigger sense of we’re not doing the gambling, getting-kicked-out-of-the-house [story] — at least not yet. But what we’re doing is making sure that they still have the fire. It is the reason why we watch them. We love to see them going back and forth at each other. A lot of shows have the problem of once somebody gets married, the banter gets a little stale. They’re a little too nice and too sweet with each other. So that was a big thing coming back, talking to David [Boreanaz] and Emily [Deschanel]. They were all about, “Look at the fire in those first couple seasons! We want to bring some of that back.” So we’ve got a really fun storyline that brings that to the fore in the Betty White story, which is Episode 4. We really do want to embrace, “Yeah, we’re married, but we are not boring, and we’re going to go at it.”

TVLINE | How are they transitioning back to their old jobs? David told me that Booth is now below Aubrey at the FBI.

Aubrey is ambitious, let’s just say. He has goals, and he’s a mover and shaker. Booth is more of your great foot soldier. Aubrey has ambitions to be a general. So that’s going to play out. Right now, it’s not heated yet, but we still have the second half of the year to go. So we’ll see how contentious that gets between Booth and Aubrey.

There’s always hope. Coming in here, for Jon and myself, we wanted to make sure that nobody is safe. We’re going to shake things up. It’s wonderful to be on a show for the 11th season, but we want to make sure we play with everybody’s expectations and you keep watching every week because who knows what’s going to happen? But again, we want to keep it character-focused. By doing the jump in timeline, it was just an organic way to play with the expectations of Cam and Arastoo’s relationship. Certainly, for a while, Arastoo is gone. He is off looking at other opportunities. But he will also be somebody who’s coming back in the 10th episode and starting up a new, major storyline. In the meantime, we’re going to see what happens. They

TVLINE | Are there going to be love interests coming in for Cam?

Oh, you gotta hope so! She’s a beautiful, brilliant woman! Why wouldn’t there be? Yes, absolutely. We’ll be having love interests for many different people this year.

TVLINE | At TCA, you mentioned there’s something big coming down the line for Hodgins and Angela. Is this a good thing or bad thing for them?

I always go with the philosophy of, “Let’s see.” It does not seem good at the start.

Probably not for the first part of the season, but we’re definitely looking at, hopefully, getting her back in the second half of the season. She was fantastic. We loved working with her, and she was nice enough to say she’d like to come back. It was delightful on all sides.

fans, what did you think of the premiere’s conclusion? Are you heartbroken over Cam and Arastoo’s split? Hit the comments with your thoughts!

absolutely loved the second episode! I’m excited to see what’s next.

I loved the episode tonight. It is evident the new writers went back and watched the first two seasons, and they are trying to recapture what made the show great.

So well said! I’m in total agreement with you!!

I loved the second episode. Love Bones and Booth.

I thought this was a fantastic episode! KUDOS to the entire BONES family! The acting & writing is fabulous! I’m with the writers about B&B having a relatively normal happy life with a little fire here & there!! I have really grown to love Aubrey and his new FBI position should prove interesting!! I just can’t imagine what will happen with Angela & Hodgins?? : / I really like Arastoo (he is a great actor, so I will miss him). I’m one of the few fans that loves Tamara but mostly dislikes her character, Cam! But I’m sure she will find a new love interest & I hope Arastoo will as well! I’m so happy that Patricia Belcher is still actively in the show – she is a favorite of mine! I really miss Ryan O’Neal – I hope he returns soon! Love the squints & I’m looking forward to The Queen “B”, Betty White!! Really interested in the crossover show! Lots of great episodes ahead and it’s very hard to wait a whole week to see wht happens next?? The hiatus will be a dreaded period I try not to think about-yet!

(Sorry for going on & on, but my comment just rolled out so easily! I LOVE BONES!)

Very happy with this episode. It did just about everything right. Emily Deschanel was spot on all throughout. Brennan will never say she has faith but she does. I loved her scenes in interrogation room and with Booth. The hospital scene reminded me of first year hospital scene and I am glad Brennan told Booth she doesn’t want him to change. I also loved Booth using science to help his wound. Pretty gross though. Every part of the story that got them back to their jobs made sense for both of them but I hope he isn’t under Aubry for long. I do not care about Cam and Arastoo breaking up but I am worried for Angela and Jack. Great start to season. one more thing, you can have Booth and Brennan bicker but they do not need to have anything close to a split again to keep them interesting.

As someone who DETESTS Aubrey, he brings nothing new to the FBI table, except gluttony, I am glad to see that Booth reclaims HIS office next week when he gets reinstated…DB was just messing around, you can check his twitter page for Booth in his office twitter pics & bobblehead Bobby

I still miss Sweets. Probably will till the show ends. We have in Aubry a character who apparently wants to go places , has elements of Sweets to him but also given elements of Booth. I dont destest Aubry I just dislike how often the show triesto push him.

Agree, they pushed Aubrey way too hard onto the show, I really don’t like characters forced down my throat, also I find him rude and abrasive with no depth of character except he likes to eat which is just unfunny & milked to death….hes trying too hard to be a big shot and all I see is nerdy annoying Butthead (Beavis) has joined the FBI 👎

I agree he doesn’t bring much but Aubry isn’t going anywhere and if Booth and Brennan get more scenes together it really doesn’t matter. These showrunners seem to get Bones so I think this will be a terrific year

I thought David was fantastic in the ep, he really was at his kick ass best, give that man an action movie!!!

I loved that Brennan truly got how selfless Booth is when protecting others…then their bickering about how he can’t die & blood loss….it was classic B&B: love & teasing 💜

There’s got to be a way to make it work for Cam and Arastoo. Their relationship is deep. Any other love interests will make Cam look incapable of a long lasting mature relationship.

She already looks that way. Her relationship with Booth, then the one with her adopted daughter’s father, now Aristoo. I love Cam, but the writers are not doing her any favors.

Well her long term relationship with Booth was before she joined the Jeffersonian so that’s, effectively two relationships in nine years (2006 to present)?

I just hope we get more development with the side characters this year. the Show may be called Bones and that is the problem. The characters outside of the 2 main, rarely see any development.

Did anyone get a sense of Chemistry between Cam and Arastoo? Sometimes it seemed like there was but other times not. They also wrote themselves in a Corner. They elected Arastoo as the replacement for Brennan as they felt he was as close to that level of skill as they were going to get, then suddenly Brennan is back (when Im fairly certain she would have to put in resignation papers and then suddenly Arastoo is on the outs. Id certainly not want to stay given the option of constantly being second fiddle.

I think this was actually the perfect time to set up some more drama and I think they tried in that last scene. Booth wanted out of the FBI in the final episode of the last season and Bones wanted out in the same episode, I think I remember something about new challenges.

Both got out and then it feels like the Show got contrived to not actually let them experience any character development but instead pull them back into same old. I actually think Brennan was the only one who WANTED to go back. I think she thrives on the excitement of the chase/murder far more than Booth ever has. In fact had Booth not infiltrated the gang because of his brother then I dont think Booth would of ever wanted to go back to the FBI (he was civilian Consultant training agents). I guess the show couldnt do half in half out and have Brennan back in her old role and Booth not. Fans would have revolted had that happened. Im still not entirely convinced that Booth wants his old job back. It felt like he was done with that life and Brennan explaining to him at the Hospital that he missed his old job at the FBI was perhaps her more trying to plead with him to return to it, so things for the Showrunners could go back to the way they were.

Nor did I ever get the impression that Cam would have gone away with him. even of he had of proposed. Would she have hated him? Im still not sure. I think Cam as much as Bones needed to get out of there. Cam has been there for a very long time too and maybe a change might of done her good too. It would also have thrown a big herring into the mix if Cam had of left that 2nd episode. I must admit, Ive always found the character of Cam a little… I dont know the word.. a little 2 dimensional. The characters of the intern, Cam, Hodges and Angela sometimes feel like they exist to buffet the Bones and Booth scenes. They could have brought in a new person to shake things up a bit.

You raise a good point, I think maybe next week’s ep we will see just how important Booth views his work & why he returned

cos it does seem like Booth only got back in the mix for his family and didn’t want to return after it he sorted it ….Brennan kinda made the discision that they were returning to work on her own, regardless of Booth own wants? Idk, I may have to rewatch it again.

Nice, on point. Not sure if enjoyed is the correct word I should use in reading your contemplations, but I appreciated the thoughtfulness you put into your post.

Loved the opening two epsoides for this brand new season. The show runners were so on point when thy talk about faith. Especially when in the earlier seasons I always thought that difference of opinon between Both and Bones was a very undercurrent in those earlier shows. At the end when Jack and Angie were having a sleep over for the Booth kids, and Jack says “the more the merrier.” Angie says be careful what you say you just might get it was a very nice teaser for downroad epsoides for both of their characters. Finally it will be interesting to see how the Aubrey and Booth dynamic will play out at the FBI. Also loved seeing Caroline with a lot of screne time hope she will be more involved during this season. The wait for next week is sometimes too long, then I guess that’s why we have the reruns to keep us Bones fans sastified until the new one comes out. Once again great first two epsoides.

These two eps were better than the show has been for the last couple of seasons. So glad the show has some life to it again.

A truly solid start to the season, and it makes me optimistic that Coliier/Peterson will do right by this show instead of letting it stay the sloppy joke that it had turned into when Stephen Nathan was showrunner. I really couldn’t care less if Cam and Arastoo ever get back together, though.

Loved the show and have never considered Booth and Brennan an “old” married couple they have always had a spark and that does not require a lot of drama. The spark is normal and natural differences in personalities and their views. I think some is written into the show and is so seamless it seems normal and natural and why some viewers forget they are playing parts.

Well, I must be one of a just a few, but I thought the two part season opener was a MESS. It made no sense really. It did not fall in line with Booths character, and I never got the soty line straight. Jared was involved why?

What pushed me over the edge to bah-humbug, was Booth burning his brothers body. He would know as an Army ranger (and the other guy who was Jared’s friend in the military) that you don’t burn the body, you hid or bury it so that they can have a soldier’s funeral and be returned to their family. Ugh, it actally made me sick that Booth burned him up. I would never believe that Seeley Booth would burn any of his family’s body, no matter what they were tied up in.

I understand that DB did not come back to start work on Season 11 when everyone else did. And it showed in the two part opener.

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