Although it lasted a formidable 12 seasons, the offbeat Fox procedural thriller “Bones” was by no means one among tv’s highest-rated exhibits. Created by Hart Hanson, the hour-long premiered within the fall of 2005 and did not discover its loyal fan base till it moved to Thursday nights at 8 PM throughout its fourth season. By this level, the chemistry between Emily Deschanel’s forensics genius Temperance Brennan and David Boreanaz’s FBI agent Seeley Sales space was crackling, whereas a lot of the supporting solid may very well be deployed in quite a lot of methods to maintain the present from falling right into a samey rut. Hanson, the writers, and the casting division had created a humiliation of riches for “Bones,” and thus it could stay till the sequence concluded its run in 2017.
Attending to the purpose of that fourth season required a great deal of imaginative plotting that stored viewers on their toes with out betraying what they appreciated concerning the sequence and, most significantly, its characters. Like so many long-running procedurals, the “Bones” ensemble got here to really feel like household for its most ardent admirers, so the very last thing anybody wished to do was pull a wild twist that turned a popular character right into a villain simply to generate some buzz.
Except, that’s, you are getting back from a three-month-long writers’ strike, and you have to wrap up a serial killer storyline tout de suite. Then you definately might need to discover a sacrificial lamb, and you have to be ready in your followers to not prefer it one bit.
How Zack Addy turning traitor rescued Bones season 3
When “Bones” launched the cannibalistic serial killer generally known as the Gormogon in season 3 (a lot to David Boreanaz’s chagrin), nobody may’ve predicted that the fiend would be capable to compromise a member of Brennan’s workers. If, nevertheless, a viewer was prepared to make that leap, they might’ve by no means guessed that the traitor can be Bones’ ultra-bright younger protégé, Zack Addy.
Portrayed by the fresh-faced Eric Millegan, Addy wound up being excellent for this heartbreaking process – although, based on Hanson, it was hardly the payoff to a grasp plan. Because the present’s creator advised TV Information in 2008:
“Initially the plan – and issues undergo so many iterations — was that we’d discover that Zack was both the apprentice to the Gormogon, or that he was approached by the Gormogon, rebuffed the provide, after which was killed. Any variety of situations have been explored. However getting back from the strike, we solely had two episodes to set issues up, and this introduced the utmost bang for our buck — ‘Let’s shock everybody’ – and that appears to have labored to an extent. I’m delighted for our present, and for Eric Millegan, that some persons are livid.”
And that is how the WGA strike of 2007 – 2008 ended Zack Addy’s sensible younger profession on the Jeffersonian Institute. Although the character did get a measure of redemption later within the run, Millegan hasn’t appeared on tv since bidding farewell to Addy and “Bones” in 2017.