12 years is a long time to keep a TV marriage going, yet that’s precisely what David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel managed to do on “Bones.” Granted, their on-screen counterparts, Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan and FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, weren’t literally married the entire time (they didn’t tie the knot until season 9), but for all practical purposes, they might as well have been. The two actors were also instrumental in ensuring that “Bones” was more of a character-driven procedural than Fox initially had in mind, even taking extra time to work with an actor coach on refining their chemistry. Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine the show would’ve had anywhere near the longevity it achieved had its stars and creator Hart Hanson been content to merely xerox “The X-Files” like the network had wanted.
Even with that, though, the series had a hard fight to make it to 12 seasons. Whether it was Fox constantly looking for excuses to cancel Hanson’s sometimes zany and romantic, sometimes absolutely disgusting murder investigation show, the disturbing sexual harassment allegations raised against Boreanaz partway through its run, or longtime cast members like John Francis Daley being forced to leave the series in order to pursue other professional endeavors, it was anything but smooth sailing for “Bones” on the way to its golden years in syndication and streaming. Still, through thick and thin, Boreanaz and Deschanel were the glue that kept the ship from falling apart. In fact, by all accounts, the “Bones” duo were the all-too-rare example of co-workers who actually respected another offscreen as much as they did when the cameras were rolling.
As boring as that might’ve been for all the TV fans who can’t get enough of messy behind-the-scenes drama, this undoubtedly made Hanson’s life easier — so much so that he often trusted Boreanaz and Deschanel to improvise key moments on “Bones,” including the show’s final scene.
Boreanaz and Deschanel knew just how to play Bones’ final scene
The “Bones” series finale, season 12’s “The End in the End,” has all the ingredients that make the show tick. There’s a race against time to catch the season’s big bad (Gerardo Celasco’s serial killer Mark Kovac), an unforeseeable complication (Bones suffers a brain injury after Kovac and his fake wife/sister-in-disguise, Brit Shaw’s Jeannine Kovac, blow up the Jeffersonian Institute, which mucks with her crime-solving abilities for much of the episode), plot-driving character growth (Bones’ [Squ]interns rally to make their lab-momma proud and track down Kovac while she recovers), and even some hints of newfound romance along the way. The whole thing then culminates with Bones and Booth sitting and chatting about, well, everything on a bench near what remains of their old home at the Jeffersonian (may its memory be a blessing to everyone but Boreanaz, who’d been itching to blow up the lab since season 1).
Speaking to TVLine in 2017, Hanson confirmed that Bones and Booth’s benchside chat was mostly improvised by Boreanaz and Deschanel. As he explained:
“One thing that has made the show work so well is we always have that final moment with Booth and Brennan kind of talking [as their dialogue] trails off. Sometimes those things are scripted, but often David and Emily improvise. This was a combination of that. So it was written up to a certain point and then David was like, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’re going to do our thing.’ And they did. It’s always been a show where there’s this great trust. They trust us with what we put on the page and then they add that extra element, that extra little spark that has worked so well for 12 seasons.”
It worked in that closing moment, too. After 12 years of its heroes wrangling with twisted murderers on the clock (all the while getting ensnared in romantic entanglements both in and outside the workplace in their off-hours), what better way for “Bones” to wrap things up than with its leads talking about everything they’ve been through? In the end, that’s what the show ultimately was anyway: a story about two kindred spirits finding one another and making their way together through this strange, confounding, and ultimately humbling journey that we call life.
“Bones” is currently available to stream on Hulu.
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