Hold the phone, you guys. Last night’s episode of Bones totally caught me off guard. Immersing myself in spoiler alerts all day normally takes the edge off, as I haven’t been surprised by a television show since I saw Fringe’s Peter Bishop sparkle and shine earlier this season. But script author Kathy Reichs—the real-life producer, novelist, professor, forensic anthropologist, and person on whom Dr. Temperance Brennan was based—definitely pulled a fast one on me when she decided to have Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) and Angela (Michaela Conlin) get married—and in jail! I’m definitely all aboard the Hodgins-Angela ‘ship. But marriage? Really? Wasn’t it technically the result of egregious product placement?
The relationship between these two nerdy lovebirds has been more enjoyable to watch this season than the one between Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Booth (David Boreanaz) because Hodgins and Angela are so dang open and honest about their feelings. It’s so refreshingly mature! Plus, Thyne and Conlin have terrific chemistry and clearly they’ve worked hard over the last five seasons to develop a real connection between the two characters. The tension between Hodgins and Angela has been particularly noticeable over the last few episodes since Angela’s pregnancy scare. As soon as they landed behind bars together, it was painfully obvious that they would reconnect. It was completely surprising, however, that they decided to get hitched.
I applaud the spontaneity and unexpectedness of the whole thing, especially because the informality of it didn’t necessarily upstage Sweets’s (John Francis Daley) proposal to Daisy (Carla Gallo) last month in “The Bones on the Blue Line.” I also think that Hodgins and Angela’s marriage will help Brennan and Booth make significant strides in their relationship (once they forgive the new couple for not inviting them to the wedding, of course). But I still can’t help but think that a tiny bit of this show’s magic is gone. Where will the Angela-Hodgins drama come from now? A real pregnancy?
