Watching Bones

Just wanted to share this article with you - it’s an interview with Eric Millegan in the Lansing State Journal. He talks with them about the night he got the news that his character was being written off the show and how a good night went from bad to worse. It’s a neat insight into the fateful day for one of our favorite squints and how the news was broken to him.

I am a little confused about the “Gormogon logic” they talked about very briefly in the article - something about killing a few to help the many. Maybe I just need to rewatch some of the older episodes when the Gormogon storyline began… That’s something I’m hoping they pick back up on next season as they hopefully bring Millegan back for a few guest spots - the whole “how” he was convinced to join the Gormogon and what brought him to that point. Guess we can only hope!

Millegan reflects on ‘Bones’

U-M, Interlochen alum went from Broadway to TV

Eric Millegan was getting ready for a fine evening.

The “Bones” co-star and University of Michigan theater grad was courtside with his favorite basketball team, the Portland Trail Blazers. Then:

• He learned he would soon be unemployed.

• He learned he’d been helping a serial killer.

• And the Trail Blazers lost.

“That went from one of my best days to one of my worst,” Millegan said.

He’s had time to get used to it now, but viewers may need a while. The season finale aired Monday, packing a surprise.

There was Zack Addy (Millegan), former child prodigy and current sweet-faced scientist. He had been secretly helping Gormogon, the serial killer.

“When I first found out, I was like, ‘That’s ridiculous!’ ” said Millegan, 33.

Then he agreed it’s possible: Zack takes pride in being ruled by logic; he fell for the Gormogon notion of killing a few people to help the many.

By the end of the hour, Gormogon was dead and Zack was being shipped to a mental institution. He might return, Millegan said, but not as a regular.

So Millegan is back to job-searching. He has more turf to search than most, all the way from Hollywood to Broadway.

Before any of this, he was a sweet-voiced teen who grew up in Oregon, but has some of his best memories from Michigan.

He spent three summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp - “the most amazing time in my life” - and won a scholarship to the University of Michigan’s elite musical-theater program.

Those were good years, he said, especially after he became open about his homosexuality. And after graduating, he became busy in musicals.

On Broadway, he was a disciple in the “Jesus Christ Superstar” revival. Elsewhere, he starred with Estelle Parsons in “Harold and Maude” and starred in the early workshops of “Spring Awakening.”

Then came “Bones” and Millegan was considered a fresh face. “I’d been in the business for 10 years,” he said.

Zack was the assistant to “Bones” Brennan (Emily Deschanel), who had an almost maternal fondness for him. Derided as “squints” by the FBI guys, they were better at lab work than at human contact.

“It’s been such a journey,” Millegan said. “I don’t think any character has changed as much, except for Brennan.”

He savored the three years of steady employment. Shortly after the writers’ strike was settled, before actors were called back to work, he went to that Trail Blazers game.

Then he got a call, asking if he could come in the next day for a meeting.

“I’m like, ‘Hmmm. I’m paranoid and this does not sound good.’ ”

So Millegan insisted on the news then. He learned that his character was leaving.

Some good came, he said, including the quiet moment between Zack and Brennan. “It’s a great scene; the whole episode was really good.”

And some bad came, including a return to unemployment. Also, the Trail Blazers finished with a .500 record and missed the playoffs; sometimes, things just don’t work out.