The predictions on the livejournal

[lily_handmaiden]

After a long hiatus, I am back! Just in time to record my official predictions based on spoilers for the fourth season of Bones. SPOILERS AHEAD!

 

The premiere, from everything I've heard, should be a really fun time. First of all, we're in England. The reason we're in England is a little contrived, but it works more or less. You see, Brennan is speaking at Oxford and Booth is speaking at Scotland Yard. I know that Brennan is giving an academic lecture of some sort, but I'm hoping that Booth is telling the Yard how to work well with their squints. And I also kind of hope that the subject of how to handle your cops comes up in Brennan's talk. Anyway, the Yard ends up asking them to assist on a case with an American victim. As everyone and their Mom has already, easily predicted, Brennan is going to love England and Booth is going to hate it. They're going to spend their time running around doing a lot of the cliche things TV characters do when they go to England, like have trouble driving on the wrong side of the road and try to make the Buckingham Palace guards break. I don't mind this, because this is a show that handles cliches extremely well. More on that later.

What does bother me a little is that in one of the promos I saw that they're recycling the "I'm an excellent driver." "Okay, Rainman," joke. That happened in season one, in one of the field trip episodes-- I can't remember whether it was "The Man in the Bear" or "The Woman at the Airport." But regardless. Although I'll excuse it because people aren't supposed to remember wisecracks they made three years ago; only writers are supposed to do that. So Booth could easily recycle that without realizing it. Or he could even realize it and say it anyway, because that's just his stock response now when Brennan wants to drive on field trips. I hope she doesn't follow that up with "I don't know what that means," though. "I still don't know what that means," I'm more than fine with.

Y'all know how much I love England and how I'm going to be shouting "I'VE BEEN THERE!" throughout this episode. Something else that makes me happy is that, just like I wanted, Indira "Kiran Bitchley" Varma is playing bizarro-world Booth. You see, Booth and Brennan are going to be working with the English versions of themselves, Inspector Cate Pritchard and Dr. Ian Wexler. Although I don't think the parallels extend to the sexual tension, judging from the way the good Dr. Wexler is all over Brennan. Which should be funny. Although I predict that he winds up dead at the end of part one. And it will be tough for Brennan, and Booth will be there.
 

 

Back on the homefront, Grayson "Birimbau" Barasa, aka Mr. Angela Montenegro, finally shows his gorgeous face. As much as Hart Hanson claims that Birimbau doesn't break up Hodgins and Angela, I have to believe that his dinner with her is certainly the instigator for that breakup. I think what's going to happen, after Hodgins busts in and tries to fight the titan, is that Angela's going to start to feel that the "Be My Love" premise on which their engagement was built isn't true. He really needs to be married. He really wants her, in a way, to belong to him. And that's not going to fly. Either that, or the strain of the Zack thing causes them to re-evaluate priorities. Either way, or any way, it's not going to last. It can't. This is why: "I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon. Stupid in love with her. That's why I bought her that ... that crazy, expensive perfume. A man gives you a bottle of perfume like that, it says ... it says, 'I love you.' There. I said it out loud." In TV World, that doesn't just not work out. Plus, Hodgela is there to balance out the constant B&B tension. So, I give them till the end of the season, tops. Maybe even before that, as HH says that their relationship is going "to the next level." That could be referencing the breakup, or we could finally be getting the Hodgela marriage.

This is the way I think they're going to get back together. They're bringing back the Gravedigger this year, which I am so pleased about. They're going to catch him. And really, I think that the experience of being buried alive affected Brennan in a way she's never talked about. We've seen Hodgins talk to Angela about what it was like, but we've never seen Brennan do that to anyone. This is a good opportunity for that to happen, maybe in therapy. But also, the return of the Gravedigger could prompt a revisit to those goodbye notes Brennan and Hodgins wrote. Either Hodgins rereads his note and goes after Angela, or Angela reads it and goes after Hodgins. He wrote to her when he thought was dying! Telling her how much he loved her! COME ON! So, if that's not the way it happens, it should be. Also, we could finally see who Brennan wrote her note to (coughBoothcough). And that could be really good.

 

What we're not getting a lot of in the premiere is mention of Zack, and I don't know why people are surprised about this. This is a gimmick show. Whee, they're going to England! As such, it has to stand alone to an extent. So no, they're not delving into the Zack thing now. But it looks like I was very much right that they will later in the season. It looks like around episode five. Thank goodness! There's going to be further explanation! Just like I said! I'm interested in what they do there. There will be repercussions for all of the characters emotionally. And I'm curious to see what they do with Zack now. I'm hearning "a Hannibal Lecter-type thing," and I'm not really comfortable with all of the associations of that. I'm hoping that just means that Zack is going to be an expert assistant type person, not that he's creepy now. I'm also not sure about how he's coping. I'm hearing he blames it all on Gormogon, which gives me mixed feelings. It's good that he realizes that he was tricked, but shouldn't he take some responsibility for the choices he made? But then, is this just his way of coping? If so, will we see that break down? I guess part of me still wants our old Zack back, but he can't ever be that innocent again, regardless of what I want. That's the tragedy.
 

 

According to John Francis Daley, the squad is also going to still be distrustful of Sweets after the finale, and who can blame them? Good for them! He should have to try to get back into their good graces. Also, I am glad that he will have a girlfriend. He could use one. That could be really cute.
 

 

Apparently Cam also gets a love interest. I'm on board with that in theory. We'll see how it goes. When I heard she'd be dating one of Angela's exes, my first reaction (and I'm surprised I didn't see this anywhere else) was: NOT! HODGINS! NOT! HODGINS! Because he will be one of Angela's exes. But that would just be too awkward and impolitic for Cam to consider. Plus, it was hard enough for Hodgins to decide to date someone he works with. He's not about to go there again. Plus plus, it now looks (as I hoped) that it will be Birimbau. And I'm all on board for that! That could be hilarious! I heard somebody speculate that it will be Angela's ex, Roxy, who is going to show up, but come on. What are the odds of having two biracial, bisexual women in the same workplace?

 

There will be rotating grad students. Rather reminiscent of House last year, but whatever. Better that than they replace Zack right off the bat. That would be kind of awful, actually. Apparently whoever the viewers like best wins and gets to stay. I hope you've prepared yourself for this to be a very divisive issue, Hart Hanson.

We'll be meeting Booth's family this year, and I'm pleased about getting to know more of his issues. Also, apparently we get more Parker. And Parker will be traumatized about something. If it's a little thing, like seeing his mom screwing Captain Fantastic or whatever, or even the repercussions of Booth's non-death, I'm fine with that. But if something bad really happened to that boy? NOT. COOL. Leave that cute little kid alone! I do not want to hear about him being abused by his mom's boyfriend or whatever!
 

 

Brennan's going to juggle guys in her dating life. On the one hand, I really liked it this past year when neither she nor Booth were dating anyone else, only non-dating each other. That was a good, comfortable-but-not dynamic. But on the other hand, I would like to see Brennan walk the walk where she has only talked the talk. Maybe as a result of the issues raised by the non-death. And then I would like to see her grow, maybe, and decide that lifestyle isn't for her anymore. Maybe.
 

Argh! More after the episode, then!