One of the reasons “Bones” lasted so long was its unique blend of humor and drama. The series ran for 12 seasons and consistently featured an incongruous but somewhat charming mix of humorous banter between characters, some pretty horrific crime scenes, and depraved serial killers. While humor and horror were two separate elements, the grotesque bodies in “Bones” were in some ways part of the comedy.
Some of the fake corpses created for the show went beyond what one might see in a straight horror film. There was new bodies on “Bones” that went too far even for the show’s producersAnd One person angered Zack Addy actor Eric Millegan even more. These are just two examples from a show filled with some of the most absurd details ever seen on a network show. There was even a disgusting bathtub scene that had to be cut from “Bones” because of some unbearable details. So there was something absurdly comical about the way the cross-eyed people at the Jeffersonian Institute casually gathered around and talked while one of these obscene tableaus lay before them.
However, the series often ventured into downright nightmarish territory, abandoning any attempts at comedy in favor of some straight-up scares. With that in mind, we took a quick look at the “Bones” episodes that fans are calling the scariest of the entire series.
Serial killers are the key to a scary Bones episode
“Bones” had a few standalone episodes, but also contained longer storylines that sometimes spanned seasons. These storylines often revolved around Emily Deschanel’s Temperance “Bones” Brennan and David Boreanaz’s Agent Seeley Booth tracking down serial killers – the very first of which was Howard Epps (Heath Freeman), aka The Manipulator. But according to fans, Epps couldn’t quite keep up with the horror of “The Gravedigger,” which had a penchant for burying victims alive, demanding a ransom for their release, and often simply failing to free them even after they were released to them had received money. The killer first appeared in Season 2 and was a part of the series until Season 6, when he was finally revealed to be U.S. Attorney Heather Taffet (Deirdre Lovejoy).
Over RedditFans are apparently thinking about it the “Bones” episodes of Gravedigger is among the scariest in the series – which is somewhat understandable considering that this “Bones” villain actually killed children. One user lists Season 2’s “Aliens in a Spaceship,” Season 4’s “The Hero in the Hold,” Season 5’s “The Boy with the Answer,” and Season 6’s “The Bullet in the Brain” as particularly creepy gravediggers. Follow on.
According to the Redditor’s opinions, the only real rival for the scariest “Bones” killer is Christopher Pelant, aka The Hacktivist (Andrew Leeds). This serial killer was introduced in the season seven episode “The Crack in the Code,” where he left a skull and spine at the feet of a statue of Abraham Lincoln. There was also season three’s cannibal killer, The Gormogon, whose storyline Boreanaz once called it “just bad television.” Yet even this serial killer was mentioned Redditorswith a particular jump scare from the third season episode “The Knight on the Grid” being highlighted as a top scare. In it, the Gormorgon jumps out of a closet and murders lobbyist Ray Porter, although the murderer is eventually revealed to be the apprentice and not the Gormorgon himself.
More serial horrors in Bones
Aside from The Gravedigger and The Hacktivist, some Redditors have highlighted Mihir Roshan, aka The Puppeteer (Ravi Kapoor), as being responsible for some of the biggest scares in Bones. The Big Bad of Season 11: The Puppeteer is known for drugging his victims with a lethal dose and then using the corpses as puppets. Users describe episodes that involve nightmares related to the murderer as particularly frightening, including one Redditor Name a jump scare from such a nightmare as staying with them for a long time. This is a reference to the Season 11 episode “The Nightmare Within a Nightmare”, which begins with the squinted eyes around the body of a burn victim, who then wakes up before Temperance Brennan herself awakens from the nightmare on the way to the crime scene.
Another Redditor He described the “episodes with the skeletons as puppets” as particularly disturbing. In Season 11, Episode 13, “The Monster in the Closet”, Brennan reassembles a skeleton before hanging it from the ceiling of the Jeffersonian Institute to enter the Puppeteer’s head. This scene reveals the killer’s sick practice of turning his victims into puppets and is one of the more subtly harrowing moments in the story of “Bones.” Other users also described “The Monster in the Closet” as “the scariest episode yet.”
But it’s not fair “Bones” serial killer – which was actually a request from the broadcaster – that gave the viewers a good scare as the show is quite capable of scaring the audience even with unique storylines.
Standalone horrors in Bone
When it comes to the scariest episodes of Bones, serial killers seem to be a particular favorite among fans. However, other users pointed out standalone episodes, such as the second season episode, “The Headless Witch in the Woods.” One fan in particular called the episode where Bones and Booth investigate the death of a film student “nightmare fuel.” “The Headless Witch in the Woods,” which borrows heavily from the “Blair Witch” films, is also notable for its frequent hints that the central murder was the result of possible supernatural forces, although this is never confirmed. So it seems to have gotten under the skin of some fans who are perhaps a little more sensitive to such things and a little less sensitive to blood.
Continue somewhere else Redditone user voted “Every time someone gets eaten alive (or almost) by rats or dogs,” which I think is a fair metric for judging the scariest episodes. There are also mention of “the episode where the girl has all her bones removed” and Jack Hodgins (TJ Thyne) tries to “blow up her remains to get some sort of lead.” This appears to be a reference to the Season 2 episode “The Boneless Bride in the River,” in which a corpse without a skeleton is found and the Squints attempt to construct their own to reconstruct the boneless body. (I told you there was some badass stuff in this show.)
Overall, the serial killers in “Bones” are responsible for most of the horror. A serial killer even terrified Emily Deschanel herself. But the series has also proven that it is more than capable of delighting us all with its individual episodes.