The body of a deceased police officer is rigged at a crime scene, causing an explosion that kills several more officers and sends both Hodgins and Aubrey to the E.R. with severe injuries. While Hodgins seemingly recuperates quickly, Aubrey is in more critical condition, requiring surgery. Arastoo returns to the Jeffersonian to help with the case and confesses to Cam that he still loves her. Shortly after returning to work, Hodgins collapses in the lab and at the hospital, the team is informed that Hodgins is paralyzed due to the trauma he suffered from the bomb explosion.
Tropes
- Artistic License – Medicine: Given his back got turned into roast beef by the bomb, Aubrey should have been lying on his stomach after getting out of surgery.
- Cop Killer: The kids who leave a bomb in a body that kills four cops, badly tears up Aubrey and ultimately paralyzes Hodgins. They mostly wanted thrills but it went far worse than they wanted.
- Cop Killer Manhunt: The aftermath of four cops dying.
- Dramatic Spine Injury: Jack Hodgins is working at a decomposed body scene with his boss Cam when hears a phone ring. FBI agent Aubrey realizes it's a bomb and yells at everyone to get back. He throws himself over Hodgins and likely saves his life by taking the shrapnel that would've went into Hodgins. Unfortunately Hodgins bruises his spinal nerves, something not initially found because the swelling didn't peak til a day later. The aspirin Hodgins takes to deal with after-explosion pain causes enough bleeding to paralyze Hodgins, possibly for life.
- Failed a Spot Check: The hospital didn't notice that Hodgins had some localized trauma and failed to warn him away from taking aspirin. As a result, he developed a bleed that put pressure on his spine and paralyzed him.
- Freudian Excuse: One of the perpetrators behind the bombings had psychopathic tendencies and a violent hatred of authority figures stemming from years of abuse by his late cop father, eventually deciding to wage war against law enforcement with help from his friend after the two of them got into conflict with a security guard over skateboarding on private property.
- Mid-Season Twist: Both Aubrey and Hodgins are blown up by a cellphone bomb, and while Aubrey eventually makes it out okay, Hodgins is left paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of the series.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: The killers are patterned on Harris and Klebold, the Columbine shooters. Misfits, one of whom was significantly more messed up than the other and who goaded the other into joining his vendetta.
- No Name Given: Enacted by Agent Julian. Realizing that the bombers did what they did partially for notoriety, she decides to deny them it by withholding their identities from the public.
- Tuck and Cover: Aubrey throws himself on Hodgins when a bomb hidden in a body explodes.
