Jack Hodgins (Bones)

Dr. Jack Hodgins
Bones character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Hart Hanson
Portrayed by	T. J. Thyne
Information
Nickname(s)	Hodgepodge, Hodgie, The Bug and Slime Guy, King of the Lab, King of the Funeral, Thurston, Hodgekins, Curly, Bugboy, (by Agent Booth)
Gender	Male
Occupation	Forensic Entomologist, Botanist & Mineralogist, heir to the Cantilever Group
Title	Doctor (3 × Ph.D.)
Family	Jonathan Hodgins (Father) Anne Hodgins (Mother) Billy Gibbons (Father-in-law) Chester Putnam Hodges (great-grandfather) Patrick (uncle) Jeffrey[1] (brother)
Spouse(s)	Angela Montenegro (Wife; 2010–present)
Children	Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins (son, with Angela; born 2011)
Religion	Episcopalian[2]

Jack Stanley Hodgins IV, Ph.D.^[3] is a character in the American television series, Bones. He is portrayed by T. J. Thyne. Jack is introduced to the series primarily as an entomologist/forensic entomologist, as well as a botanist/forensic botanist, mineralogist/forensic mineralogist, a palynology/forensic palynologist, and a forensic chemist; conspiracy theories are his hobby. During an investigation, he is primarily responsible for estimating time of death and examining trace evidence and particulates.

Background and family

Jack Hodgins comes from an extremely wealthy family (Angela in season two says she thinks he is Swedish), and is the sole heir to the fictional private corporation known as the Cantilever Group, although he hid his wealth from his coworkers for a long time.^[4]

Son of the late Jonathan and Anne Hodgins ("The Heiress in the Hill", season 9), Jack Hodgins was thought to have been an only child until he discovered in Season 9 that he had an older brother named Jeffrey who was institutionalized with schizoaffective disorder.^[1] It is stated in "The Blonde in the Game", that he had an uncle named Patrick. His grandfather served as a "code breaker" under Admiral Chester W. Nimitz during World War II.^[5] His family is the single largest donor to the Jeffersonian, although he would rather toil in academia than spend time in the high social society to which his wealth entitles him.^[6] In Season 8, after serial killer Christopher Pelant hacks into Hodgins' savings and drains his bank accounts and the accounts of the entire Cantilever Group, he and Angela are forced to scrimp. However, in Season 9, he tells Sweets that he is content as he still has his work at the Jeffersonian and family – the two things which he values the most.^[7]

Hodgins, like Zack, was bullied in school: in elementary and middle school for being a "rich boy" and in high school for his small physical stature and diminished social skills. It is later noted that he "managed to stand up for himself" on the last day of senior year, which Sweets believes to have given him closure.^[8]

According to Angela, in "The Truth in the Myth", in season 6, Hodgins is a Virgo, and of course because of this, he would "belittle astrology". His starsign puts his birthday somewhere between 23 August and 22 September.

Hodgins owns an original Mini, which Booth jokingly called a "toy car", ^[9][10] although in later seasons he was seen driving a Toyota Prius as well.^[3] He is an experienced cave diver.^[11]

Although a noted conspiracy theorist, Hodgins temporarily abandoned his paranoid thoughts and beliefs after it was revealed that his best friend, Zack Addy, had become the most recent apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer known as "Gormogon", due in part to Hodgins' complaints about secret societies potentially making Zack more susceptible to Gormogon's influence. Devastated by his best friend's poor judgment, as well as his recent break-up with Angela, Hodgins found his beliefs and feelings of paranoia turning into misanthropy. After being repeatedly confronted by Sweets about his behavior in the lab, Hodgins explained during a session that he "hates everybody". Sweets determines that the misanthropy was a way to cope with the overwhelming stresses in his life, and assured him that it will turn into something more pleasant in time.^[12]

In "Aliens in the Spaceship", in season 2, Hodgins brings up "King of the Lab" for the first time, he and Zack occasionally 'competing' for the title by trying to come up with particularly crucial items of evidence in the investigation. This tradition falls to the side due to the rotating interns of the following seasons, as Cam does not encourage it and Hodgins has varying connections with the interns.

Later into season 8, Hodgins lost his money due to the machinations of killer and hacker Christopher Pelant, who hacked Hodgins' accounts while using the same computer system to target a military drone at a school in Afghanistan, forcing Hodgins to sacrifice his money by allowing the computer to keep running so that the team could focus their efforts on hacking the drone and stopping the destruction of the school. In "The Maiden in the Mushrooms", after using the last of Finn's late grandma's hot sauce, Hodgins figures out the ingredients, and opens a side business called "Opie and Thurston's" Hot sauce.

In season 10 in "The Eye in the Sky" Hodgins invents a packaging material and receives an advance of $2 million, restoring him to the ranks of the wealthy.

In Season 11 in "The Doom in the Boom", a bomb planted in the body of a police officer causes initially minor damage when Hodgins is caught in the blast, but it is later revealed that Hodgins' injuries have left him paralyzed from the waist down.

Work

Hodgins has three doctorates, in entomology, botany, and geology/mineralogy. He is known around the Jeffersonian as the "bug and slime guy" and Booth often calls him "bug boy", a reference to Hodgins' expertise in and affection for all insects in general. During an investigation, he primarily deals with particulates and trace evidence and determines the time of death by examining insect activity.

In later seasons, (4th(?) and beyond), Hodgins gets his own lab suite, known as the "Ookey Room", (which used to be Zack's workspace), where he does most of his lab work, keeps his collection of Arthropods, and performs most of his experiments. There is a running gag in the show where he often pleads Cam, his boss, for "permission" to conduct a seemingly pointless and absurd experiment, sometimes to bizarre and amusing effect but still aids the investigation nonetheless. In episode 10 of season 4, "The Bones That Blew", Hodgins stated that his passion to "figure stuff out in amusing ways" was why he chose a career in science. In several episodes he has cooked using the lab apparatus, much to his co-workers' bemusement.^[13][14] He also has been known to distill quite palatable spirits using lab apparatus repurposed for the job.

Characterization

Hodgins is one of the more sarcastic members of the group, and initially deals with some anger management issues.^[15] He also had some initial difficulty in working with Dr Goodman, the Jeffersonian's administrator, as Dr Goodman frequently used conjecture or imagination to make inferences about the victims of crimes.^[16] He is sometimes "the funny man" with a notable impression of the character Seeley Booth.^[17]

In his earlier characterization, he was shown as having anger management issues; in the first season and in a flashback in season 5, Hodgins used to twang an elastic band on his wrist.

Hodgins is one of the more socially adept "squints" and uses pop culture references and jokes, which Dr. Brennan and Zack Addy often fail to grasp. As such, he has little difficulty "translating" scientific terms into layman terms to Booth and is sometimes exasperated when Zack fails to understand a joke or quip. He and Zack had a friendly competition for distinction of "King of the Lab", awarded to whoever found the best lead in the case^[4]

Throughout the series, Hodgins has been known for his "insane conspiracy ravings", as Booth calls it,^[18] and in many of the show's early episodes his knowledge of conspiracy theories was demonstrated.^[19] In several cases, Booth, despite his disdain for most of Hodgins' conspiracy theories, uses it to his advantage for a case; in the episode "The Girl in Suite 2103" he asks Hodgins to call the FAA with his "craziest" conspiracy theory in order to stall a plane so the FBI can get to it in time to do a search. At the end of the episode when government agents come to take Hodgins away for questioning in relation to the hoax call, Booth declines to intervene telling Dr Brennan that being taken away by "Men in Black" would be his dream come true. Whenever different aspects of the government, such as the Department of Defense or the State Department, become involved in cases, Hodgins will often be the first to suggest that a cover-up is involved.^[9][20] In Seasons 9 and 10, his conspiracy theorist side comes to the fore and his theories often aid Booth and the team in finding clues in the major story arc in which the discovery of "The Ghost Killer" and her connections lead the team to uncover a widespread and deeply rooted conspiracy going on in the FBI.^[10]

Relationships

Romantic

Angela Montenegro

After a few episodes of sexual tension, Hodgins takes Angela out on their first date to a park to play on swings.^[21] When he was buried alive with Dr. Brennan, Hodgins admitted to being in love with Angela, saying "I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon, stupid in love with her." ^[4] Hodgins proposed to Angela twice before she turned the tables and proposed to him after he told her that love was enough.^[22] Their wedding is cut short in the season two finale when a State Department official interrupts the ceremony, having conducted a background on him and Angela as both are federal employees and discovered that Angela is technically married to a Fijian man named Grayson Barasa.^[23]

Hodgins and Angela hire a private investigator to locate Angela's husband, and the investigator finds Angela's husband, Grayson Barasa, living on No Name Key in Florida. Hodgins and Angela ask Amber to force Grayson to sign the divorce papers. Grayson refuses to sign, claiming he still loves Angela and has even built a house for himself and her. Grayson is initially resistant to signing the divorce papers, which puts a strain on the relationship between Angela and Hodgins. They realize that they may not fully trust each other, and end their relationship.^[24]

After their break-up when he learns that Angela's father (ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons) is in town, Hodgins awakes in the middle of a desert with a bandage on his shoulder, which he removes to reveal a tattoo of Angela's face along with the words "Angie Forever".^[25]

After time apart, it is made clear that Hodgins still has feelings for Angela. After Booth is hospitalized for a brain tumor near the end of Season 4, Hodgins proposes giving his and Angela's relationship a second shot.^[26] While, in Season 5, they seem to be just friends, there are still signs of romantic tension between the two. In the episode "The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken", Angela mentions to Hodgins that her required celibacy period will soon be over and seems to hint that she would like to break it with Hodgins; Hodgins turns her down, despite her insistence that she was implying no such thing. In "The X in the File", when Wendell tells Hodgins of his relationship with Angela, Hodgins is shown to be very upset and hurt. During the next episode, "The Proof in the Pudding", Angela has a pregnancy scare; during this time, Hodgins tells her that he loves her and that he will be there to support her and the baby. While the pregnancy test was revealed to be a false positive at the end of the episode, Angela still tells Hodgins that she is grateful for his support and will never forget it. They were later imprisoned in "The Witch in the Wardrobe" for a variety of minor infractions by a local sheriff, which led to remembrance of their happiness together. They both realized that they regretted breaking up and shared a passionate kiss. When a judge arrived to post their bail, they were finally married in a private ceremony in the jail cell.^[3] They announced their marriage to their colleagues soon after.^[27]

Upon their return from their honeymoon in Paris, it is revealed that they are expecting their first child, who will be named Temperance, if it's a girl, after Dr. Brennan.^[28] Angela's father wants to name their child "Staccato Mamba". It came to him in a song. Hodgins disagrees so he stands up to him and tells him "No".^[29] Finally he agrees with Angela and Hodgins on the names Katherine Temperance for a girl and Michael Joseph for a boy. Also in the end of the episode it was revealed that Hodgins got a tattoo of Angela's dad on his other arm which said "Dad". In the episode "The Blackout in the Blizzard" Angela and Hodgins find out they are both carriers of Leber's Congenital Amaurosis, giving their baby a 25 percent chance of blindness. This was a huge devastation for the couple, but in the end they reminded each other that they can handle anything together. Once the child was born, their son was confirmed to not be blind, and the two named him Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins (named in honor of Vincent Nigel-Murray who was previously killed).

Colleagues

Hodgins' argumentative nature sometimes annoys his co-workers but he is on friendly terms with most of the team, including the interns. He was close to Zack Addy (who lived with Hodgins, renting the apartment above his garage) and would advise him on how to behave in a social setting, sometimes with humorously awkward results.

Of the interns, Hodgins is particularly close to Wendell Bray, Finn Abernathy and Arastoo Vaziri. He initially had an awkward relationship with Wendell as the latter once dated Angela for a period of time and Angela had painted Wendell nude once. They later resolve the issue over time.

Hodgins adopts a more brotherly approach with Finn given their age difference and calls him "Opie" while Finn calls him "Thurston", likely a reference to Opie, a young boy in The Andy Griffith Show and crusty old millionaire Thurston Howell III from Gilligan's Island.^[30] In Season 8 he unknowingly finishes Finn's favorite hot sauce, later revealed to be the last bottle made by his late grandmother. Feeling guilty, Hodgins attempts to molecularly recreate the sauce. He succeeds and starts a side business with Finn after getting a chef to endorse and market the hot sauce and they named the sauce "Opie & Thurston's Hot Sauce".

Hodgins and Arastoo frequently chat about sports, especially basketball and baseball, while examining remains in the lab. When Arastoo admitted to faking his accent as a cover for his religiousness, Hodgins was one of the first accept him without reservations after Arastoo explained how he reconciles his religion (Islam) with science.

When Booth was appointed the FBI liaison to the Jeffersonian, Hodgins, who is anti-bureaucracy, was particularly hostile to him, especially for the early part of Season 1. Booth's military background, position as an FBI agent and patriotism further added to the tension. In "Two Bodies in the Lab" Booth went against protocol and allowed Hodgins to go with him to rescue Dr. Brennan - albeit because Hodgins was the only person available to drive him to help Brennan - and their animosity subsides from then on. Despite their opposing views, they are on friendly terms, with Hodgins expressing genuine regret when a current investigation exposed a military cover-up as he recognized what their discoveries meant for Booth. Hodgins also asked for Booth's advice when he was planning to propose to Angela. Most notably, when Agent Perotta — who was officially working with the squints on a case where Booth was a prime suspect and thus unable to serve as the lead investigator — commented that 'her' people had found some recent evidence in the case, Hodgins, along with intern Wendell automatically corrected her statement by saying that the squints were Booth's people.^[31] After Brennan, Hodgins is the 'squint' who has spent the most time out in the field with Booth – discounting Dr. Camille Saroyan, who had prior experience working in law enforcement before joining the Jeffersonian – occasionally accompanying Booth when investigations require on-site particulate analysis.

References