Bones
has always been an emotional show. Not in the sense that you well up during every serious character interaction. More like you gag and turn your head when you watch giant water beetles crawling out of a bathtub full of liquefied human. Still, the show has a moment or two every few weeks that tugs at your heartstrings.

The season premiere had many of those moments. In fact, there were probably more lump-in-your-throat, tingling-at-your-eyes moments during this episode than there have been in any one season.

The first one took place at Bones and Booth’s reunion at the Reflecting Pool. With no interaction for seven months while Dr. Brennan was in Indonesia and Booth was in Afghanistan, their reunion was poignant. Not because of all of the sexual tension there’s been between these two, but because they are two parts of a whole. They complete each other both intellectually and emotionally, and it wouldn’t be the same if they moved on their separate ways.

Even if that means they put romance on the back burner for a while. I know many will be upset that Booth has moved on to a new relationship that is, as he put it, as serious as a heart attack. However, it may be time to tamp down the bubbling sexual moments between Booth and Bones and return the show to what it has done best in the past. Especially since so much has changed since last season.

Which brings us to the next emotional moment: Angela’s revelation that she’s pregnant. Not too sure why this one caused a throat-lump moment. We’ve seen plenty of shows where a character announces they’re pregnant and all we’ve done is respond with a shrug. It could be due to the fact that we love Angela and Hodgins being together more than we love Boot and Bones pairing up.

These two have always had a connection from the earliest episodes and it was a fine day last season when they decided to tie the knot. Now they’re going to be parents and great ones at that, with Angela providing the more cultural side to the child’s growth while Hodgins will let the kid play with mud and insects. There have been rumors that a new baddie is going to appear later this season and cause possible harm to one of the team. Hopefully, they aren’t talking about Angela’s unborn child. If so, a Facebook flash mob may come knocking on creator Hart Hanson’s door sometime in the near future.

The final emotional moment came at the very end of the episode when Cam reopened the Jeffersonian lab. It was just Bones and Booth, staring into the space that was once their lab and is now a storage room or exhibit hall, and absorbing it all in. All they did was simply welcome each other back, but it was the way they said it and the smiles on their faces that made us feel that everything was going to be all right and that the events that led up to everyone leaving at the end of last season were going to be put aside.

You may be wondering why we’re recapping these moments rather than the other stuff, like the week’s mystery or Cam’s potential job loss. Well, strip away the decaying skin and maggots and ‘Bones’ is basically a romantic dramedy. To many fans of the show, the interpersonal relationships between the characters are more important than the latest dead body. That part is just the gravy. The real meat is whether or not Bones and Booth will be the next Huddy. Hence, the reason for so much relationship talk.

That doesn’t mean nothing else happened. Fact of the matter is, this episode of ‘Bones’ was pretty busy once you got past the flimsy excuse that everyone needed to come back because Cam was about to lose her job. That was the part of the episode that wasn’t truly thought out by the writers. Once we got past that, things began to smooth out.

That’s also when we learned a few things. One being that the Squints all look strange in white lab coats. For years we’ve adjusted to Bones and her team wearing baby blue lab coats while doing their work at the Jeffersonian. The white coats, as well as Cam’s federal forensic office, were jarringly different than the ultra-modern and roomy Jeffersonian lab.

The other is that Daisy and Wendell may be major players this season. According to those who stayed in contact with each other, most of the Squinterns had gone on to different things, like a new college major, a job in a different city or, in the case of Vincent Nigel-Murray, a trip around the world. This is a good thing since Daisy and Wendell were on the show more and more last season. It made sense to thin out the Squintern herd and focus on those who make more of an impact.

The third thing we learned is Sweets looks very strange with facial hair. It could be it makes him look older and, after years of being considered too young for his position, it gives him a sense of maturity. Or it could be his way of changing himself inside and out after Daisy ripped his heart out and ate it prior to going to Indonesia.

For folks who’ve said that ‘Bones’ has lost its way over the last few years, perhaps this premiere episode is a sign that they’ll be returning to old-fashioned detective work with some comedy and romance thrown in. We’ll have to see what the next few weeks brings.

‘Bones’ airs Thurs., 8PM ET on Fox.