Watching Bones

Still not over the shock of Monday’s bombshell? Yep, me neither. As excited as I was that they were going to be bringing in a new grad student(s), I certainly didn’t want to see it happen at the expense of one of our own. Zach turning out to be the Gormogon’s apprentice really sucks, although the episode was played excellently by the cast.

Apparently, Eric Millegan wasn’t terribly excited about being written off the show, although he doesn’t seem actually upset about it either. He talks about how it was an exciting way to go. One would wonder if they wrote him off because he wanted to pursue other projects, but he assures us that that wasn’t the case. Below is an interview Millegan did with TVGuide. It gives us a better look into how long they’ve known and what they thought about the way his character was ending his time on the show.

TVGuide.com: OK, so I have to say this out loud. Zack is the Gormogon apprentice.
Millegan: Yup.

TVGuide.com: I’m still cringing. How far in advance did you know about it?
Millegan: Two months ago. They met with me and told me and I was like, “What? Zack eats people?” And they told me that I don’t eat people, I kill them — I never reached the eating stage. And I was like, “Oh, My god.” But I was kind of excited because I knew it was going to be an exciting send-off.

TVGuide.com: So you’re leaving the show?
Millegan: Yeah. But they said, “You know, you’re not going to get killed, so we’ll still have the option of bringing you back.” It was shocking, and I just had to follow it and know that this is what’s happening. Zack ends up carted away to a psychiatric facility, but there is the possibility that the others may come visit me.

TVGuide.com: So we might see you next season then?
Millegan: Well, I’m not a series regular anymore, but it’s possible that I’ll be back from time to time. I can’t say much more than that, unfortunately.

TVGuide.com: Was this all written for you because you wanted to leave the show, or are you simply following the fate of your character?
Millegan: Oh, I’m following the fate of my character. It wasn’t my choice — it was a creative decision to shake things up and make a good season finale.

TVGuide.com: So you only found out you were the apprentice after the strike?
Millegan: That’s right. About a couple weeks before we resumed shooting.

TVGuide.com: Were there more Zack storylines that would have been pursued, had there not been a strike?
Millegan: Yes. As you know, at the end of Season 2, I went off to Iraq. They wanted to address it all in Season 3, but because of the strike they never got to it.

TVGuide.com: I was wondering when the show was going to address Zack’s post-traumatic stress. I kept waiting to see how he was going to deal with it.
Millegan: Yeah, I’m sad that we never got to go there.

TVGuide.com: When you first heard about the Gormogon storyline, who did you think the culprit might end up being?
Millegan: You know, I didn’t think about it. People on the board started saying they thought it was Sweets, the psychiatrist. But that didn’t even dawn on me. And it never dawned on me that it might be one of us, either.

TVGuide.com: When did the rest of the cast know that it was going to be you?
Millegan: Not until I knew. After they told me, they told everyone else.

TVGuide.com: Was it hard to keep it a secret form the rest of the world?
Millegan: Yes. But it’s my job to keep it a secret. And one thing that was hard was that Mike Ausiello did an interview with me at TV Guide’s Sexiest Stars party, and he asked if I was leaving the show. I said no, and I didn’t say I was leaving because I wasn’t allowed to. But then everybody on the message boards ran with that, saying, “Nobody’s leaving the show!” And I just thought, “Oh no, people are going to be mad at me when they find out.”

TVGuide.com: The actor who plays the master Gormogon, we haven’t seen him on the show before, right?
Millegan: No.

TVGuide.com: So was it strange playing Zack as a bad guy?
Millegan: He’s not so much a bad guy. He’s more a victim of brainwashing. It’s Zack’s intelligence that got in the way, because Gormogon rationalized [his cause] with him.

TVGuide.com: Do you think by the end of the episode, Zack really understood how he’d been used by the Gormogon master?
Millegan: Yeah, I think it really hit him hard. And actually, there was a moment that was cut out of the episode of Zack saying he’s sorry right after he explains how to catch Gormogon. Just an “I’m sorry.” I saw the cut, and realized they’d cut that out and was like, “No! Zack has to say he’s sorry!”

TVGuide.com: What have you’ve enjoyed most about working on this show?
Millegan: Working with the people. David [Boreanaz], Emily [Deschanel], T.J.[Thyne], Michaela[Conlin] and Tamara [Taylor] have been just wonderful to work with, and we really bonded very closely. Emily and I are even going to be singing “I Got You Babe” together at an AIDS benefit in August. So I’m still going to be bonded to them.

TVGuide.com: I think fans are going to feel like there’s an important chunk of the family missing.
Millegan: I hope so. I hope people miss me.