Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
Dr. Camille Saroyan arrives at the Jeffersonian as head of forensics and Brennan soon learns that Cam and Booth have a past. Cam must establish her authority with Brennan while the team adjusts to having a pathologist oversee the lab. Zack earns his doctorate, and cases repeatedly pull the investigators into the private stakes of their work: Booth worries about his son Parker, Brennan revisits her parents’ disappearance, and Howard Epps escapes custody and turns his threats toward people close to the team.
The Grave Digger becomes a direct danger when the kidnapper buries Brennan and Hodgins alive and demands ransom. They ration oxygen and work out clues from underground while the rest of the team races to locate them; they are rescued, but the kidnapper remains free. Hodgins also proposes to Angela. She initially turns him down, then the two make up and agree to marry, while Brennan begins seeing FBI agent Sully but declines his offer of a year sailing the Caribbean. Sully leaves without her. The team’s relationships keep moving even as its cases carry consequences beyond the lab.
Max Keenan returns in person as Brennan investigates a burned body linked to her family’s criminal past and later helps her pursue Booth when he is captured by gangsters. In the finale, Max gives Brennan a video of her mother and surrenders to Booth after a fight, so she learns her parents’ flight was meant to protect the children even as her father goes into custody. Zack is asked to serve in Iraq, and Angela and Hodgins discover at their wedding that Angela’s earlier marriage is still legally in force. The ceremony stops before either can marry, leaving Brennan and Booth alone at the altar.