“It’s tough with Ryan because I loved being around — I mean, Ryan O’Neal, I mean it’s just, that’s classic and that’s an icon to me,” Boreanaz told BUILD Series, speaking a month before “Bones” completed its run in 2017. “What he’s done, the work is so amazing. So it was tough to see his character go because I always enjoyed doing scenes with him.”
His feelings about Max shuffling off the mortal coil aside, Boreanaz admitted that sometimes killing characters is a necessary part of telling a good story, citing the death of John Francis Daley’s fan-favorite psychologist Lance Sweets as an example:
“But you have to sometimes kill those characters off in order to create the storyline going forward. It’s important, I think. Some would agree, some would not. I mean, when John Francis Daley was killed off the show, I know that was very difficult for a lot of people to see Sweets go. He was such a great character, great person to be around on set. But these things happen because the story evolves in that direction. Now, some people may think that’s wrong, but it’s the way it is.”
As Daley explained to Vulture in 2014, the “Bones” creative team ultimately decided that killing Sweets in season 10 would offer a “more satisfying conclusion” to his storyline than trying to accommodate Daley’s then-budding career as a writer-director. But so it goes in the world of television sometimes. Just like in the real world, you only have so much say about the time you get in life. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. (Bet you thought that earlier “LOTR” nod was going to be a one-off, didn’t you?)