Season synopsis
Contains spoilers for this season and earlier seasons.
The season opens three months after Brennan fled with Christine, still accused of killing her friend Ethan Sawyer. She has kept contact with Angela through flower messages, while Booth and the Jeffersonian team work to prove that Pelant altered the security footage and planted evidence. The investigation connects Pelant to his murdered high-school guidance counselor; Angela’s analysis helps expose the framing, clear Brennan, and bring her home.
Pelant’s arrest does not end the threat. He conceals his identity behind a fabricated Egyptian citizenship and is taken for extradition, but later returns to menace Hodgins and Angela, who find a body above their bed and flower petals by their son’s crib. At a mercenary company, Pelant hijacks a drone aimed at an Afghan school while draining Hodgins’s accounts. Hodgins sacrifices his fortune so Angela can stop the attack. The season also gathers the interns around Brennan’s identification project for unclaimed remains, including a victim from September 11.
Booth and Brennan rebuild their home life with Christine while handling cases that test their family boundaries and plans. After Brennan is shot at the Jeffersonian, Booth supports her through surgery and a vision of her mother; later she struggles with Christine’s ordinary childhood and considers the future with Booth. When Brennan proposes, he accepts, but Pelant threatens to kill five strangers unless Booth ends the engagement and keeps the reason secret. Booth breaks it off, leaving Brennan hurt and the team preparing to confront Pelant again.