'Bones': Emily Deschanel previews 'The Shot,' new intern, wedding talk and more

"Bones" season 8 is airing a powerful episode with episode 15, "The Shot in the Dark," and on Thursday, Feb. 7, we joined a conference call with series star Emily Deschanel about Brennan's near-death experience and what's to come this season.

"The Shot" heard 'round the lab. In the next "Bones" episode, Brennan heads into the lab to get some late-night work done after she and Booth (David Boreanaz) have a fight that ends with her accusing him of calling her a bad mother. That's when she's shot and Booth finds her. What follows is an experience that gives viewers "a better idea of why Brennan behaves in the way that she does, is kind of hyper-rational and has cut off her emotions in many ways, even though she's, over the last few years, opened up after knowing Booth," Deschanel explained. But how will this affect Brennan going forward? It's "a more subtle change," as this incident "encourages her to kind of have a different perspective on her behavior and possibly encourage to change it a bit," the actress previewed. Her near-death experience allows Brennan to do something that's not easily done: interact with her dead mother (played by Brooke Langton). Brennan believes this encounter, which reveals details about her past, is a hallucination (as seen in one of the sneak peeks released). Ryan O'Neal also plays a role in this episode, which Deschanel called "emotional…for his character," as he returns as Brennan's father. "There's a communication between my mother and my father through my character," she added.

What's next with Pelant? When we last saw Pelant (Andrew Leeds), he was stitching up his own face (!) after Booth got him as he was driving away in "The Corpse on the Canopy." Unfortunately, Deschanel couldn't reveal anything more about what's coming up with him other than, "I haven't read any episodes yet that involve Pelant, but we're just a couple episodes ahead right now and I know Pelant is coming back this season."

Are wedding bells in Booth and Brennan's future? That is going to be discussed in an upcoming episode, though "there's not necessarily a resolution," the actress admitted, adding, "Booth is not going to ask Brennan to marry him again. …He said, 'You have to ask me,' and she's also said that she's not getting married. So far, having a child hasn't changed that or at least changed her stubbornness about asking him, so we'll see. I love that, and if this happens, and I imagine at some point it will, I look forward to seeing what Brennan's proposal to Booth is like, but so far, I can't say I know definitively that that's happening yet."

Who can challenge Brennan? The Feb. 25 episode, "The Fact in the Fiction," is a notable episode for two reasons: it introduces a new squintern in Oliver Wells, played by Brian Klugman, and it addresses the concept of time travel. Yes, "Bones" is going there. Deschanel said of the new squintern, "He is an out-of-the-box thinker. He has multiple degrees. He challenges Brennan like nobody has challenged her before, challenges her to think outside the box, and he's a really fun character and super smart. Brennan questions whether he's smarter than she is, which is new and different as well. Most of the interns are all so different, but they all kind of defer to Brennan and respect her, not that he doesn't respect me. …He challenges everything. He doesn't need this job. He has multiple degrees. He almost has a forensic anthropology degree, but not quite. He thinks outside the box, knows about so many different disciplines and just questions everything. …It's very fun to see Brennan challenged in that way. You see that very rarely anywhere, but especially with interns." And as for the case, it involves a 20 something year-old who "dabbles" in time travel, and they're going to question whether a body they find is "actually him from the future." It's going to be because of Wells that "Brennan almost opens her mind to the idea of time travel," the actress previewed.

No courtship, no problems. As the "will they, won't they" couple of the show, getting Booth and Brennan together could've ended up being a disastrous mistake for "Bones." However, it wasn't. In fact, it was the opposite and brought a refreshing angle to the series. Deschanel attributed the fact that "there was no courtship," which she said could be "boring to watch sometimes," to why it worked. Some things may have changed, but at the heart of the matter, the core of their relationship didn't. Instead, they're still bickering, but over different things now as they figure out how to raise Christine and balance that with their work.

Other notes:

Cam's (Tamara Taylor) romance is going to be revealed, and "Brennan and Cam interact about that," the actress previewed.
Deschanel still wants to direct an episode, but she's waiting until her son is older. It could happen in season 9 or 10 (if there is one) or even both.
Prepare for more family members! "David has had conversations about his family, about his mother. I believe at some point his mother's going to show up," Deschanel teased.

"Bones" season 8 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on FOX. Don't forget to tune in for episode 15, "The Shot in the Dark." You won't want to miss it. (We've seen it and the series couldn't have done a better job.)