The Bones Episodes That Fans Never Watch More Than Once

There are 246 episodes of Hart Hanson’s small-screen procedural “Bones” spanning a whopping 12 seasons, so the fact is that they can’t all be winners. Apparently, though, there’s a whole group of episodes that intrepid “Bones” fans really can’t stand, and those episodes center on Hannah Burley (played by Katheryn Winnick, known for projects like “Vikings” and “Big Sky”), a journalist who dates series lead Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) during the show’s sixth season.

Why is that? What’s wrong with poor Hannah? An easy explanation here is the fact that, throughout “Bones,” there’s an ongoing “will they, won’t they” situation between FBI agent Booth and his colleague at the Jeffersonian Institute, bestselling author and forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. (Booth calls her “Bones” because, well, she studies bones, hence the show’s title.) By the sixth season, fans have endured a series of near-misses with the couple, which is when Hannah shows up. Throughout seven episodes, Hannah dates Booth after they meet in Afghanistan, and not only does their relationship seem like a direct result of Brennan’s recent rejection of Booth, but it also seems really superficial. Apparently, fans agree, because on multiple Reddit threads, they said they skip Hannah’s entire arc in season 6.

On one Reddit thread asking which episodes of “Bones” are skippable during a rewatch, a whole bunch of fans honed in on the Hannah plotline. As u/jopper4eva succinctly put it, “I skip every Hannah episode. I can’t help it.” This was immediately followed by a specific gripe with Hannah: In the season 6 episode “The Bones That Weren’t,” Hannah ends up hospitalized after being shot in the field and it’s thanks to Bones that doctors realize there’s a fracture caused by the bullet that the doctors missed. (Why Bones is just allowed to look at all of Hannah’s scans isn’t clear, but whatever.) After that, Hannah all but demands a gift from the “doctor” after she wakes up from surgery to correct the fracture, at which point Bones … gives Hannah her sunglasses.

This whole thing is admittedly very weird, and fans hate it. “That scene is still so weird to me. Like, who does that?” u/trullaDE wrote on the thread. ‘Hey, you just pretty much saved my life, but I sure as hell want some material gift, too, and the expensive glasses you wear will do fine.’ It’s not even like she wants a token to remind her of Bones or anything, no, it’s just about getting that present, like an entitled spoiled brat. Did the writers want us to hate Hannah?”

A totally different Reddit thread gets right to the point with the title “Season 6 is much more pleasant when skipping scenes with Hannah,” and a now-deleted user is pretty blunt about the whole thing. “I’m in the midst of a rewatch. I know what is going to happen later on in this season but I have to deal with this Hannah delusion. I truly never understood the point. It was obvious Booth and Bones were going to get together. Hannah was a fine character and I don’t hate her like others. I simply find her useless. Kind of like curly parsley.” (Sick garnish dig.)

In a larger response, Redditor u/TOGHeinz basically says the situation is not really Hannah’s fault, per se — she’s just getting in the way of true romance. “She would have been a fine character 2-3 seasons earlier,” they said. “Like you said, I have no problems with Hannah the character, just when she was introduced. We’d come off a near miss with Booth and Bones, and an emotional goodbye as he showed up in his BDU’s to say goodbye at the end of the previous season. Then this one reunites them … but he has a girlfriend suddenly?” u/lastcallanniejames wholeheartedly agrees, writing, “Agreed. Hannah isn’t a bad person but all I wanted was that sweet, sweet Booth/Bones romance. Happily on season 8 now.”

“Bones” is streaming on Hulu now, and if you want to, you’re free to skip the episodes with Hannah — like so many other fans apparently do.