By Jamie Ruby

This week fans will get a another episode of Bones as it moves to its new timeslot on Friday with "The Fury in the Jury." Executive producer Stephen Nathan talked to the press on Monday about the move, as well as what fans can expect during the rest of the season, including the new "big bad."

One of the things coming up this season is Hodgins finding out something from his past, which Nathan talked in detail about to SciFi Vision. "That's going to be a little bit further down the line. I actually think that might not air until February, but I could just say very briefly that Hodgins finds out some things about his family, and he had a very close family. I mean, they were very, very wealthy, but he did have a very close family, but he is going to find out some secrets about that family that are going to be quite surprising to him. And it is not going to be grand political secrets or anything like that. It's going to be very, very personal.

"And, we are also, in another upcoming episode, Hodgins is somebody who is sent out into the field, something he always loves a chance to do, because there is a murder that revolves around a family that was close to his family when he was growing up. So, he is going into a world of wealth that he no longer enjoys."

The executive producer also expanded to the site a bit about the new "big bad" killer on the series that Pelant warned Brennan about. "That will be reintroduced in the episode that I was just talking about, when Hodgins goes back to an old family friend. So, Brennan is the type of person who is not going to forget the words of warning that were given to her by Pelant, and that has been simmering for the past six episodes or so, and we will see that surface in a way that concerns Booth and the other people at the lab and is something they are all going to have to contend with, seeing how immersed and overwhelmed Brennan is by the idea of this new serial killer."

He also talked to SciFi Vision about Nora Dunn, who guest starred in Monday's episode (which aired after this interview). "It was great to have her on the show. She was hilarious. Nora is playing another mystery writer who has a longstanding feud with Brennan. So, she has a book coming out, and Brennan also has a book coming out, so it's a feud between the two of them, which morphs into something much more complex and entertaining."

Nathan continued on to talk about another scene from Monday's episode. "...Now many people know I enjoy doing these openings and trying to revolt the audience as much as possible – well we have something so shocking [in the episode] that has absolutely nothing to do with a dead body, and it's absolutely revoltingly delightful."

Be sure to watch Bones in its new timeslot on Friday nights on FOX.

FOX Conference Call
Bones
Stephen Nathan

November 11, 2013
1:00 p.m. ET

SCIFI VISION: I was reading some things about some stuff that's coming up. Can you talk any bit about what we are going to find out from Hodgins' past that we don't know?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, that's going to be a little bit further down the line. I actually think that might not air until February, but I could just say very briefly that Hodgins finds out some things about his family, and he had a very close family. I mean, they were very, very wealthy, but he did have a very close family, but he is going to find out some secrets about that family that are going to be quite surprising to him. And it is not going to be grand political secrets or anything like that. It's going to be very, very personal.

And, we are also, in another upcoming episode, Hodgins is somebody who is sent out into the field, something he always loves a chance to do, because there is a murder that revolves around a family that was close to his family when he was growing up. So, he is going into a world of wealth that he no longer enjoys.

SCIFI VISION: Great. Yeah, that's right, because Pelant took his money. My other question is; now that Pelant is gone, I know obviously he was telling Brennan about whoever this new person is that's coming along that's worse than him, is that going to be coming soon, and can you talk at all about that?

STEPHEN NATHAN: That will be reintroduced in the episode that I was just talking about, when Hodgins goes back to an old family friend. So, Brennan is the type of person who is not going to forget the words of warning that were given to her by Pelant, and that has been simmering for the past six episodes or so, and we will see that surface in a way that concerns Booth and the other people at the lab and is something they are all going to have to contend with, seeing how immersed and overwhelmed Brennan is by the idea of this new serial killer.

QUESTION: Are there any plans to bring Aldo or Danny back soon—?

STEPHEN NATHAN: They will definitely reappear. Danny, we are working on that episode now. Again, this will be next year. This will, again, be probably in February, and it will be an episode which sort of teams Booth and Danny in a common cause, but also causes Booth to question Danny in a way that hopefully will be very surprising. That will be on whatever night Fox puts us on in January or February.

QUESTION: Will Danny or Booth have family members again this season?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Yes, we'll revisit them as well; when is still a question. I think what we are trying to do a little bit more this season is to highlight the personal lives and conflicts of a lot of our supporting cast. This is a family that has become so tight and so close that we get to see them sort of through Booth and Brennan's eyes. We are examining a little bit more this season Cam's life, Hodgins' life, and even the interns. We are doing quite an emotional story with Wendell coming up. So, we are going to see the sort of family of this show. Their lives hopefully become richer and a little bit deeper than they have been in the past.

QUESTION: What will we see about what Cam's storyline will be in the upcoming episodes of the rest of the season?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, we are going to be dealing with the, for the next few episodes where we are highlighting Cam, we are going to be dealing with the struggle she is having with her identity theft, which also becomes an identity crisis. We are going to be dealing with that, because that is really an interesting, doing the research on that, that's really fascinating, because most of the time the police do nothing. They can't do anything. They don't have the resources, and people are kind of left to fend for themselves and try to dig them out of a real horrible place. Fortunately, she has Angela. So, we will be dealing with that and eventually dealing with the person who has stolen her identity.

QUESTION: David [Boreanaz] is currently prepping to direct another episode. What can you tell us about the episode he will be directing?

STEPHEN NATHAN: We are prepping that now, and it's a terrific episode. He is just going to kill with it. He is simply one of our favorite directors, and this one is sort of a bit of a take on the "Looking for Sugarman" documentary that was out. It's the murder of an anonymous singer who we learn a lot more about as we uncover this case. This is also the episode in which we are going to see Wendell contend with something none of us want to contend with. Is that vague enough?

QUESTION: Can you talk about how the idea came about to actually send Brennan to jury duty? I can see this being a very funny episode. Can you talk a little bit about how the idea came about, and then what we will see?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, it's something that we have kind of had in the file for years, and just finally were able to break it. It seemed to us, somebody who is so incredibly logical and someone who would have the ability to uncover many more facts in a case be on a jury where their hands are tied, in terms of being an investigator, and they have to deal only with the information they are given. And Brennan, being supremely rational and logical, follows the judges' instructions to the letter of the law, so that what she feels is utterly unimportant. She is only dealing with the evidence, and that gets us into a lot of trouble.

In terms of, as you say, being funny, it is pretty funny having her around a jury, because she wants to be the foreperson, she is not the foreperson, if somebody asks a question in court, she answers. So, it really is Brennan going on a jury. It really was a chance for us to integrate two murders in one story and have Brennan involved in both, even the one she is not investigating because she is on the jury. That's really complicated-sounding, and I just want you to know it really is complicated. But, we hopefully do it in a way that won't give anybody a headache.

QUESTION: You talked earlier a little bit about the new serial killer. With Pelant gone, he was like your big bad, is this new serial killer going to be a big bad like he was, because you found that to be successful? And, gee, I really wanted Angela and Hodgins to get their money back.

STEPHEN NATHAN: Oh, I know. You know what, everybody wants to get their money back, don't they? Somehow those money-back guarantees never work out. But, in terms of the serial killer, I think we have, in a strange way, gone in the opposite direction. We always feel that it's best not to try to repeat ourselves. So, Pelant was such a big bad, was such a huge presence in everybody's life, such an enormous and personal threat, that it's very difficult to do that again, and everybody is going to compare one to the other.

So, we have another serial killer who is surfacing, one who has existed for many, many years, and who is anonymous, who we are calling, actually, the ghost killer. So, it's a very ephemeral presence and sort of an evil that lurks in the shadows, someone whose identity we are not even sure of. When we find out the truth that many of these murders that have gone into limbo in cold cases are linked, we then have to find out really who it is. We are pointed in the direction, in the episode actually that we are shooting now, that will be the first one back in January, but all that is happening is we are being pointed in a direction, and we also haven't, let's say, felt the end of Pelant.

QUESTION: In the past, you and Hart [Hanson] have mentioned that Booth had some anger issues, as we know, and that he wakes up in pain every morning. What I am wondering is how will that figure into this year's storylines, and how will it affect their marriage?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, I don't think the anger issues are really going to affect their marriage. We don't want to marry them and have them immediately get into marriage counseling. We have waited nine years for them to get married, and I want them to be happy for a while. They have enough to contend with, with people shooting at them, trying to kill them, and hanging out over dead bodies. So, I think we are not really going to focus on his aches and pains, his physical ailments on a regular basis. They will probably rear their head at some point later in the season, but it's more one of those things that is a fact of his life, rather than something so unique it's going to be highlighted.

QUESTION: Okay, well, thank you. I'm glad they are going to be happy for a while. I think everyone thinks that's fantastic.

STEPHEN NATHAN: Everybody deserves a little happiness.

QUESTION: They do, definitely. They have had lots of therapy already, right?

STEPHEN NATHAN: That's right. Especially when you have your hands inside somebody's torso and pulling out their organs, I think you have got to go home and have a good time.

QUESTION: In regard to their marriage, you have alluded that your plan is to push their relationship, not in destroying it or harming it, but I am curious what kind of interesting challenges they will have.

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, there are a lot of challenges that they are going to have to face now. I mean, at one point we want to examine the fact that both of them working together are in an extremely dangerous situation, and what does that mean for their family? What does that mean for Parker and Christine? How does their work affect their family life now? These are some of the things that we are going to be exploring, because they are real. But, primarily we are just going to be putting them in hopefully ever more challenging situations and allowing them to rely on the Squints and their friends even more than they have in the past.

QUESTION: You talked a little bit about the time shift to Friday night earlier on in the call, and I just wanted to get you to comment on that. When Fox needs some time period shored up, they put you guys in there, and you guys always seem to come through, but as an executive producer of a show, how does it feel to have the network move your show from time slot to time slot and night to night?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, you know for a long time it was always upsetting when we would get moved around. We are team players; if they feel they need us someplace, we'll go there, and it's always been proven that wherever we go the audience follows. I say that with an unbelievable amount of appreciation and love for our audience. They are so devoted that they do follow us everywhere.

That said, they have announced us moving to Fridays for years, and we never have, and now we are, and this is a fact. Thankfully, this has happened, and this is just me talking, at a time when the days of the week really don't mean all that much on television anymore. So many people time-shift a show, so many people watch it later. Our DVR numbers go up 35-40% sometimes in live +3 and live +7 day viewing, because we are opposite "The Voice," so people are going to watch that live because people are going to be talking about it the next day, and we're the type of show that you can say, "I'm going to watch Bones tomorrow night".

Now we still have a tremendous, large audience that watches us when we are on, but I am really not that concerned with Friday. I think all these loyal fans are going to come over to Friday, and if they don't watch it Friday because they are going out or something, they're going to watch us on Saturday or Sunday or the next Monday, and I really believe that we have to view our audience in a different way. The days of sitting in a chair and leaving one network on and watching shows live are fast disappearing. There's Hulu and iTunes and everything, so I think that Friday is not ideal, because Thursday was great for us and great for Fox because of us, and so was Monday, and on Friday there are fewer viewers, but hopefully we will stop the flow of viewers leaving on Friday and show them that Bones still has a little might left, even though we might be in a walker.

QUESTION: Have you guys spoken to the Sleepy Hollow folks? Are they going to throw to you guys on Friday and mention somewhere in the script the way that you guys did when they debuted in September?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, we don't know, but if they do it with the headless guy, we might not hear it because he doesn't have a mouth.

QUESTION: You mentioned that we are going to see deeper into [the interns'] storylines. Which ones will be focused on? And, will we be adding any new interns that you are aware of?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Well, we might be adding an intern. What happens with our interns, again with great love, these interns are such a gift to us, but they are all fabulous actors, so they have other work and they sometimes disappear, in which case we do add other people. Oliver Wells, who was just starting to blossom on the show and will be appearing in the next few episodes, is directing a movie, so he will be gone for a while and hopefully will be back.

As I said, we are going to be dealing with Wendell, with Aristu and Cam, Clark now is going to figure in quite heavily in certainly the initial telling of the Ghost Killer story, Fisher is going to be coming back and might be hooking up with someone we know, and I think we're really just trying to explore these characters. We have loved writing all of them, and we kind of can't get enough of them.

SCIFI VISION: Can you talk about Nora Dunn going to be on the show?

STEPHEN NATHAN: Oh, Nora is going to be on the show tonight. There is an exclusive airing of Bones tonight, just for everyone who has a television. So, Nora is on tonight. It was great to have her on the show. She was hilarious. Nora is playing another mystery writer who has a longstanding feud with Brennan. So, she has a book coming out, and Brennan also has a book coming out, so it's a feud between the two of them, which morphs into something much more complex and entertaining.

Tonight's episode, I just have to say, the one good thing about our move is that we have a doubleheader, we have two episodes, and they are both just terrific. Tonight's episode has - now many people know I enjoy doing these openings and trying to revolt the audience as much as possible – well we have something so shocking tonight that has absolutely nothing to do with a dead body, and it's absolutely revoltingly delightful. Tonight's episode is just terrific; everybody is just wonderful. And then, to have another episode that we are so proud of on Friday night, with Brennan being on the jury, it will hopefully be as much of a treat for the audience as it is for us. We are really excited about the move being kicked off in such a great way. I think you asked a question, and I have totally forgotten it; I was just babbling.

SCIFI VISION: No, it was about Nora Dunn. You told me. You answered.

STEPHEN NATHAN: Oh, Nora Dunn. Okay. Now I'm just talking. Now, I going to tell you bout my vacation, I'm going to tell you what I ate last night.

Yeah, I guess that's it for everybody. Thanks, everybody, so much for your interest and all the support you have given the show for so long. We certainly wouldn't be here without you and without the amazing audience that we have. So, thank you all.