Meegan Weighs in on the S3 Finale [Guest Post]

The good news is that Meegan McCauley is the extremely lucky person who won the eBay auction for a walk-on part on a future episode of Bones. I was thrilled that she agreed to give us her thoughts on the season 4 Bones finale and she has promised to update us on her experience as a Bones cast member! Thanks, Meegan!!

Alright, so why are so many Bones fans upset about the finale? I’ll tell you:

1. We have grown to love Zack as the goofy little-brother-without-a-clue type and that is endearing.
2. The trust of the team was broken and THAT is something that is difficult to handle because as fans, we want to believe that everyone in “the core group” is trustworthy.
3. The entire dynamic of the show changed when Zack was revealed to be the apprentice because we know that he won’t be a regular part of the team anymore and we think “how could the writers do this to US?“

Okay, now that the reasons are laid out, let’s go into why we should get over it and move on to the upcoming season. Many of us do not want to accept the fact that Zack is in fact the apprentice. People are talking about it all being a dream or a part of Booth’s coma or something silly like that. I just need to say: get over it and move on. The writers did what they could with what they had left and they wanted to wrap up the whole Gormagon storyline. AND…it actually makes A LOT of sense and here’s why:

1. Weakness. Caroline said it: “this is a case of a stronger personality taking advantage of a weaker personality.” While Zack is a genius, he is also a weakling. He has never been able to “fit in” (as in Iraq) because of his extreme rationale. He was quite easily influenced, as long as the logic was there. Brennan was an influence on him; luckily, she was a good influence. But Brennan had Booth and she moved away from being the mentor figure to Zack that she had been in the past.
2. Purpose. Zack needed purpose in his life. Sure, he had purpose in the lab, but that was all science to him. He also had purpose in going to Iraq. He was proud and felt obligated, BUT we all know how that turned out and therefore, he came home even more purposeless than when he left. He was affected by his experience and quite seriously, I think he was damaged mentally. Call it post-traumatic stress if you will, but that can’t be THE reason he became the apprentice. Back in the lab, he did his job and he based everything on the facts. He did not personalize things and he did not take his job to mean that he was on some sort of mission to catch all the bad guys that had done these horrible things to all of these victims. No, he was presented with bones; he analyzed those bones and he came up with a result…that was his JOB. He never took it any further than that. Clear, cold, science.
3. Logic. Sorry to those of you out there who think that the Master’s logic didn’t make sense…because it did. Zack lives in a world of black and white…no gray areas. Something either makes sense or it doesn’t. He doesn’t live in a world of good and bad. It is all blatant logic. The Master convinced him that the mission was for the greater good of humanity and while we as viewers might find it hard to believe that Zack would buy into the secret society thing, the point is…IT WAS LOGICAL…to him. Irrefutable, in fact. To a person who bases everything upon the rational and the logical, weighing everything in his brain and reaching an outcome based SOLELY upon reason…well, Sweets said it in “The Verdict In The Story”…the extremely rational mind is very capable of committing murder if he or she believes that what they are doing is in the best interest of everyone involved.

Basically, Zack was the perfect prey for the conniving predator. Weak, purposeless, and extremely logical. It adds up to disaster when someone of great influence gets a hold of those traits and uses them to serve their own purpose. Zack said it himself: “the apprentice is expendable.” The Master didn’t care about him, he convinced Zack of his “higher purpose” nonsense and because Zack can only understand logic, he bought it hook, line, and sinker.

I’m not saying I am not sad to see Zack (aka Eric Millegan) leave, because I am sad. Eric is fantastic. I am simply saying that we, as TRUE BLUE Bones fans should take a deep breath (or two or three or fifty) and sit back and just THINK a minute about how things unfolded. Yes, it SUCKS that Zack is the apprentice, but the fact is, there is NOTHING we can do about it. It’s a part of the show, Zack is going to a psychiatric facility, and maybe we will see him down the road after he has had some serious psychotherapy…let’s hope.

This is but an ending of a chapter in the Bones story. Albeit, an incredibly sad ending, but there will be many more chapters for us to read and cry over and enjoy.

We will miss you, Zack! And hopefully the angry mob of so-called fans will take a chill pill (yes, I just used a fabulous ’90s phrase) and be set and ready for the belt buckles, the bickering, the Hodgela, the pie and coffee, and the progression of the B&B relationship that season 4 promises to bring us.

And who knows…maybe Hart and the gang will throw in another fun costumed episode in the vain of Wonder Woman and Nerd Squint. Or even better, more undercover! Remember, we wanted a kiss of some kind and look what happened! See, think positively and ye shall receive.

Zack has moved on and so should we.

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