TV Guide - William Keck

Bones

I was the first to tell you that Bones, in Season 6, will be introducing its third recurring serial killer (after Gormogon and Gravedigger). Now I have exciting new details to share about this baddie. He'll be a sniper — just like Booth was before he teamed up with Brennan!

"You have to be incredibly cold and calculated to be a sniper," says Emily Deschanel, who is already mourning the loss of one squintern whom series creator Hart Hanson says will be taken out by the sniper. "I don't want anyone to die."

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The fourth episode of the new season sounds like a strange one — and of particular interest to fans of the supernatural. "It will appear to Brennan that she is solving her own murder," Hanson says. "She is looking at a body and slowly realizes it's her, which leads her to rethink her entire life." This is no dream, insists Hanson. "She'll try to keep it hidden from Booth for as long as she can, and will ultimately change how she approaches him."

The far-out concept appeals to Emily Deschanel, who tells me, "I'm intrigued by this. It sounds very creative. I'm sure they'll be some fear for Bones, which she'll try to overcome with scientific analysis."

The season premiere (Thursday, September 23) will open with glimpses of Booth in Afghanistan, Brennan and Daisy in the Maluku Islands and Angela and Hodgins in Paris. "Brennan and Daisy are looking for evidence of cross-breeding between two ancient species of man," says Hanson. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, "Booth is playing lifeguard. We see him training other people. And in Paris, Angela and Hodgins are having exactly the life they wanted. Why would they ever come back to solve crimes in D.C."

Expect Booth to brings back a souvenir from the battlefield in the form of new love interest, war correspondent Hannah Burley. David Boreanaz, who will be directing Episodes 10 and 16, says he read with three women up for this recurring, open-ended role, but it worked best with actress Katheryn Winnick. "There's good chemistry — a lot of trust and very relaxed," he says. "The network has final say, I just give my influence." As for what his character likes about Hannah, Boreanaz says, "she likes being out in the field and has a big sense of adventure. Things he sees in her he also sees in Bones. It'll be an exciting opening. One thing I'm promoting this year is getting some more action involved. In five seasons, I think they've used 10 percent of the action I'm capable of doing."

Of course the action fans most want is between Booth and Brennan. And in the premiere, it seems Brennan wants that too. "She's had a lot of time to think in the Maluku Islands and contemplate her future, and I think she regrets having said 'no' to Booth," says Deschanel. "I think him having a new girlfriend will complicate that, but she loves him and wants him to be happy."