Wondering just how huge tonight’s heavily-hyped episode of BONES is that sees Brennan rushed to the hospital in critical condition after being shot while working late at the Jeffersonian lab? So huge that series star Emily Deschanel took the time to talk with reporters on a recent conference call to tease tonight’s emotional episode that forces her character to confront visions of her long-deceased mother, how life might change for both Brennan and Booth tragedy and whether or not the nefarious Christopher Pelant has anything to do with it. See for yourself, after the jump.
Emily Deschanel: After watching the episode, I think that viewers will have a better idea of why Brennan behaves in the way that she does, is kind of hyper rational and has cut off her emotions in many ways, even though she’s over the last few years opened up after knowing Booth. As the season goes on it’s kind of a subtle change. It’s not like it’s dealt with when people are discussing it or something right afterwards, but I think it will be addressed in later episodes this season. It is a more subtle change. I think that Brennan feels like the way she’s behaved as–it’s shined a light on her behavior and maybe encourages her to change a bit. It’s a big encounter. Basically, my character is shot, and then I have an encounter, which she believes is a hallucination, at least at first, where she is transported … to her childhood home, and she sees her mother. She interacts with her mother who is dead, and so, of course, she believes it’s a hallucination. She has flatlined. So many people will interpret it to be that she’s gone to heaven. Her interactions with her mother reveal things from her past, and also it effects Brennan now and, like I said, encourages her to have a different perspective on her behavior and possibly encourage her to change it.
It’s an interesting thing to do a series for this long and to play a character that things are revealed at eight years in. I felt like it was in line with things that I had in mind, and it didn’t contradict anything that I had kind of imagined for her past, just for myself. When playing the character, I like to build a past for the character and kind of decide why she behaves the way she does, what her experiences are and things that can remind her of things from her childhood, etc. etc. This doesn’t contradict anything, but it’s certainly new information to me, and I really enjoyed doing the episode because it shed light on Brennan and her past. I also really enjoyed having the interaction with her mother. You know, what other kind of episode can you have interaction with somebody who is dead, and that’s always been kind of a huge missing piece for Brennan; was her mother being gone and being able to talk to her mother about how she disappeared before she died and all of that. Brooke Langton, who plays my mother in this episode, did such a great job, and I really enjoyed working with her. She’s just very inventive as an actor, very giving, and it was a really good experience working together. It felt right to have her play my mother, and I really enjoyed that.
Yes, I think something like this always makes you kind of question all–or not question, but look at every situation in your life and think is this how I want it to be, and I think we are moving towards some kind of answers on that. We do discuss it in an episode that we’re about to shoot next week; there’s not necessarily a resolution, but it is discussed again. I think if you remember–Booth is not going to ask Brennan to marry her again. He’s already said it. He said, “You have to ask me.” She’s also always said that she’s not getting married. So far, having a child hasn’t changed that or at least changed her stubbornness about asking him. So, we’ll see. I love that and I look forward to if this happens. I imagine at some point it will. I look forward to seeing what Brennan’s proposal to Booth is like, but so far, I can’t say I know definitively if that’s happening yet.
Well, obviously, Pelant is one of the first thoughts everybody has when Brennan is shot. I’m not going to tell you if he’s involved or not. I don’t know if–let me just say, I haven’t read any episodes yet that involve Pelant, but we’re just a couple episodes ahead of that right now, and I know that Pelant is coming back this season, but I don’t have more information than that because I think they’re breaking those stories right now. I wish I had more information for you, but I don’t.
Yes. If I wasn’t a mother, and I was playing a character as a mother, and I’ve done that before I was a mother, you use your imagination, but it’s certainly an easier thing to do–you know, of course, Brennan is a different mother than I am, but you have that kind of biological response. You know with some of the things that you go through are like and even the hormonal changes. The minute you become a parent, I think that you’re always going to wonder if you’re doing something wrong, and I certainly experience that on a daily basis. It’s a big challenge I think–I just personally think that it’s probably a bad thing for a parent to do, because you don’t want your child picking up on that, but you can’t help wondering if you’re doing anything wrong. You have to trust your instincts and do what feels right for you. Brennan, obviously, yes, is going through that in the beginning of this episode. Booth and Brennan have a fight. Brennan believes that Booth is criticizing her parenting style, and runs out and ends up in the lab again at night to go finish working on this case, and that’s when she gets shot. Hopefully, I’m not revealing too much because this happens in the beginning. Basically, yes, it’s quite fitting, of course, that Brennan is dealing with her own issue of being a mother herself and, at the core of that, is missing her own mother. I think that’s also something that–you know when you’ve lost a parent, you just want to be able to call them up on the phone and say, how do I cook that thing you used to make for me, how do I do this, what did you do with me when I was a child, how am I supposed to do this as a parent and just life skills? Especially, when you have a child yourself, you go back and think about how you were parented, how you were mothered, what your parents did for you, and you just want to be able to call them and ask them. I think that’s a huge thing that Brennan is not talking about, but it’s got to bring up so much for her when she’s giving birth and she’s lost her mother and just trying to figure out how to be a good parent, how to be a good mother and not having that resource of her mother. It also brings back so many memories and makes her miss her mother. So, it’s quite fitting that this issue that she’s dealing with, in a way, causes her to see her mother again and hopefully helps ease those pains that she’s dealing with because doesn’t have her mother around. 
New episodes of BONES airs Monday at 8PM on FOX (Global TV in Canada) and stars David Boreanaz, Emily Deschanel, Michaela Conlin, T.J. Thyne, Tamara Taylor and John Francis Daley. Catch up on past episodes you may have missed for free online at clicktowatch.tv