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Dr. Jonathan "Jack" Stanley Hodgins is an entomologist, botanist, and mineralogist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute.

Overview[]

Hodgins is one of the most sarcastic members of the group. He seems to have had a strong dislike for Dr. Goodman's (the administrator of the Jeffersonian Institute) approach to his work, but gets along much better with Cam, the head of forensics. He is sometimes "the funny man" with a notable impression of Booth in The Woman in the Garden.

He is one of the more normal people working in the lab and helps teach Zack how to appropriately socialize. Booth calls him "Bug Boy" and at the beginning, he doesn't like it but he comes to it. He is not only an expert on spores and minerals, but conspiracy theories are his hobby. He can estimate the time of death from the development of insect larvae in human and animal remains.

In The Heiress in the Hill, Jack's parents, Jonathan and Anne, are named by Dr. Lawrence Rozran, who also informs him that they had an elder son, Jeffrey, whom they never told him about. Hodgins mentioned that his Uncle Preston wants to be buried standing up without a casket when the team was searching for the accomplice of Howard Epps.

His family is extremely wealthy – and happens to be the single largest donor to the Jeffersonian Institute; they own the Cantilever Group, the third-largest privately owned corporation in the United States, and Jack is their sole heir. It is said that "The Cantilever Group itself generates more GNP than Europe" although this is probably a hyperbole as Europe generates trillions in GNP. Before he sold his family house in The Body in the Bag, Hodgins mentioned that his house belonged to his father, grandfather, and his great-grandfather; Chester Putnam Hodgins. When Angela finally electronically tracks down the family fortune in Season Ten it is $4.6 billion.

Hodgins avoids a Jeffersonian Institution "meet & greet" event for donors because he wants to avoid meeting his family and/or Cantilever Group executives in this setting. He is trying to avoid having his coworkers find out about his wealth. He wants them to respect him for his contributions and not fear him because technically he could be considered their boss. Booth, Zack, and Angela knew about his family, but respected his wishes to keep it from Brennan. However, as of Aliens in a Spaceship, Hodgins tells Brennan that his family is rich.

In Two Bodies in the Lab, he is shown driving a Mini Cooper, which is also his car in later episodes. He also receives a car as a gift from his father-in-law in season five. In The Man with the Bone, it is revealed that Hodgins is a certified cave diver. He is also seen in many episodes with an iPhone as his mobile device.

Hodgins abandons his paranoid thoughts and beliefs after it was revealed his best friend, Zack Addy was aiding an aptly named cannibalistic serial killer The Gormogon (which later was revealed to actually be named, "The Master"). Overwhelmingly devastated by his best friend's poor judgment and as well as his recent break up with Angela (see: Relationship with Angela Montenegro), Hodgins' beliefs and feelings of paranoia turned into misanthropy. He explains he "hates everybody" in a session he scheduled with Sweets after being repeatedly confronted by Sweets while working in the lab in The Finger in the Nest. After assuming he'd have to be heavily medicated and undergo an endless stream of therapy, Sweets assures Hodgins he will be fine becoming misanthropic. Sweets explains Hodgins is coping with the amount of turmoil recently evident in his life. The feelings of hatred toward everybody were the conversion result from the paranoia. Once Hodgins' coping mechanism progresses, his misanthropic feelings will eventually turn into something much nicer. He shows he had accepted the fact they were with Booth when Agent Perotta says: "My people were right". Cam and Carolyn asked: "Your people?" Hodgins and Wendell Bray, a graduate assistant, stated: "We're Booth's people."

In The Science in the Physicist, Hodgins, after learning Angela's father is in town, wakes up in the middle of the desert, with a bandage on his left shoulder. After removing it, it is revealed he received a tattoo of Angela's face, with "Angie Forever" written underneath. Watchers are lead to believe it was done by Angela's father as a form of passive-aggressive 'revenge' for hurting Angela. Later, in The Cinderella in the Cardboard, it is revealed he has been using an online dating service called Date or Hate. He claims he is looking for a "meaningful connection".

In The X in the File, Hodgins visits Sweets for counseling after Angela and Wendell admit their relationship (he enjoys pretending to blow up his co-workers' heads, particularly Angela and Wendell). Sweets comes to the conclusion that Hodgins is grieving for his and Angela's lost relationship. Hodgins exclaims that the only remedy for grief is time ("unless you're (Sweets) prescribing a whole lot of alcohol"), which Sweets confirms.

In The Body in the Bag, he states that the house that he and Angela are currently living in has been in the family since his great grandfather - Chester Putnam Hodgins. However, after that investigation, he buys the house of the crime scene from its current owner - Paisley Johnston - at "a greatly reduced price" since she didn't like the fact that a murder occurred in her home.

In The Corpse on the Canopy, Hodgins and Angela wake up to a bloody corpse hanging over their bed and bloody petals around Michael Vincent's pillow in his crib, all done by 'hacktivist' and serial killer Christopher Pelant.

Later into Season 8, Hodgins loses 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 The Heiress in the Hill, Hodgins learns that he has a mentally ill older brother, Jeffrey Hodgins, whom his parents had concealed from him. Jack Hodgins cares greatly for his brother and the two bond over Jules Verne and "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" which their father read to both of them every night before bed. Hodgins needs to fund his brother's bills since the Cantilever group money is gone. Brennan and Booth offer funds from Brennan's book advance, but Hodgins declines, preferring to take a loan like an ordinary person.

In The Eye in the Sky, Hodgins invents a honey-combed structured ultra rubber packaging material and receives an advance of $2 million, restoring him to the ranks of the wealthy. In The Next in the Last, while investigating the murder of a hacker who found and then stole Hodgins' money, Angela is able to find it again for him. However, Hodgins no longer wants the $4.6 billion back and instead asks Angela to donate it to a hundred charities, particularly ones finding a cure for the cancer Wendell Bray has. Angela agrees and the two don't tell anyone about the discovery. They also change their minds about leaving the Jeffersonian.

In the fall finale of Season 11, a body blows up and the blast leaves Hodgins and Aubrey lying on the ground unconscious. They are both rushed to the hospital and Hodgins is considered fine by the doctors. He goes home with Angela and takes aspirin to relieve his pain. A few days later he and Angela are leaving the Jeffersonian and he collapses onto the floor. He is rushed to the hospital, where the doctor reveals that the blast caused localized trauma, causing significant swelling around his spinal cord which was exacerbated by the aspirin which thinned his blood. The swelling compresses Hodgins' spine and crushes the nerves on his lower spine, specifically the ones related to movement below the waist. As a result, Hodgins is left paralyzed from the waist down. When Hodgins is released in The Death in the Defense, the doctor warns that while the nerves were crushed, they were not severed. As a result, they are prone to further damage and further serious injury could result in the rest of his body is impaired.

Since he lost the feeling in his legs, his misanthropic feelings have returned in The Murder of the Meninist and he started displaying anger and frustration at the loss of the feeling in his legs and his radically altered position with his other co-workers towards everyone, especially Angela. He eventually attempted to get a divorce with Angela, but she became frustrated and devastated at Hodgins and his recent radical change of feelings and refused to let him give up. Hodgins eventually began to try to fix his relationship with his co-workers and even bought Angela a diamond necklace and bracelet to help make up for the hard time he gave her. They both became determined to help Hodgins get his legs back by finding the correct surgery that reduces the chances of any risky procedures, but until then, Hodgins believes they're gonna be fine.

In The Secret in the Service, Hodgins almost fell down 25 meters in a laundry chute and was barely able to hold on. After Angela and Fisher discovered what occurred, Hodgins told them that he was actually grateful that he is in his wheelchair. He underwent months of physical therapy since he was paralyzed which considerably doubled his upper body strength which, in turn, helped him compensate for the loss of his legs. He wouldn't have been able to hold on to the downstairs chute if he wasn't paralyzed at the time. Since the events in The Jewel in the Crown, Hodgins actually started to regain the feeling in his legs. His legs were moving involuntarily which caused them to kick a few objects throughout the progression of the episode. Hodgins and Angela are glad that Hodgins is getting his legs back, however, the road to recovery is a painful one in this case, literally.

In The Nightmare within the Nightmare, Hodgins started to feel pulses of pain emanating from his legs while he is recovering from being paralyzed.

In The Hope in the Horror, Angela discovered that Zack Addy was consulting with his physical therapist under the name of a world-renowned neurosurgeon; Dr. Alexander Bancroft. Zack tried to help Hodgins literally get back on his feet by having his physical therapist perform a protocol developed by the real Alexander Bancroft. Hodgins wanted to thank Zack for helping him try to get his legs back, but Zack told him that he should not be thanking him because the treatment is ultimately unlikely to work. Hodgins tried to explain that he has feelings in his legs, but Zack told him that the pulses of pain were actually resulting from compromised nervous activity in the sacral plexus. Zack wanted to give Hodgins hope since he was told that hope sometimes has the power to heal, but his fear was that all he brought him was even more pain. At the end of the episode, Hodgins lost all feeling in his legs, but he reassures Angela that he's not in pain anymore, and that the two of them will be just fine having gained hope as Zack wanted. Angela and Hodgins had sex in The New Tricks in the Old Dogs for the first time since Hodgins was paralyzed. Brennan remarked earlier that Hodgins' paralysis never affected his "spinal reflexes at a sacral level" in The Last Shot at a Second Chance, suggesting that he is still sexually capable. It implies the possibility that despite his limited mobility, he and Angela might have a chance at having another child. In The Day in the Life, it's revealed that Angela is once again pregnant.

Throughout Season 12, Hodgins works to exonerate his old friend Zack Addy for the murder of Ray Porter after Zack confessed to being innocent. Despite finding compelling evidence in The Flaw in the Saw, it is thrown out on suspicion that Hodgins planted it to free Zack. In The Steel in the Wheels, Hodgins is able to locate the body of the Apprentice with the help of Doctor Gordon Wyatt and Angela and with it blood evidence proving that Zack is not the killer. In The Day in the Life, Hodgins testifies on Zack's behalf at his appeal and is enraged at Caroline Julian's apparent efforts to sink the case, not understanding that she is helping them subtly. Though Hodgins is thrown out of the courtroom, his efforts prove successful and Zack is exonerated for the murder of Ray Porter though he must serve out the remaining thirteen months of his sentence for aiding a known killer.

After the bombing of the Jeffersonian and the death of Mark Kovac in The End in the End, Cam reveals that she will be taking a brief leave of absence as she and Arastoo are going to Mississippi to adopt three foster children. Since Brennan has no desire to be in charge, Hodgins will run the Lab until Cam's return. Hodgins is excited to literally be King of the Lab and races around the ruined lab in his wheelchair.

Relationships[]

Romantic[]

Angela Montenegro[]

Hodgins: I'll tell you this. If Epps comes near Angela, I'll kill him.
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In beginning, while on the surface Angela rubs Jack the wrong way, he seems to secretly like her. Although not expressly stated, it has become increasingly clear that he and Angela are involved - at the very least as more than just friends. This is seen in the many moments between Hodgins and Angela in most of the episodes following their first date (The Girl with the Curl, The Man in the Mansion). Their first date in The Girl with the Curl was to the park, to play on swings. In Aliens in a Spaceship he admitted to Brennan that he was in love with Angela.

In The Priest in the Churchyard, they "christen" a replica of Cleopatra's bed slated to be put on exhibit. Hodgins also asks her to move in with him. As of the episode Spaceman in a Crater, Hodgins has proposed to Angela twice, but even though she admits she loves him, she turns down his proposals because something doesn't "feel" right - although she appears to encourage him to continue trying to propose. Hodgins surprises Angela with a "Be My Love" proposal, and claims he loves their relationship just as it is (The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House). Angela is elated and asks Hodgins to marry her immediately. He accepts, but their wedding is cut short when it is revealed that Angela was technically already married to an unknown man following a drunken one-night stand and wedding ceremony in Fiji.

In Season 3, Hodgins and Angela hire a private investigator named Amber Kippler to locate Angela's husband. The investigator finds that Angela's husband, Grayson Barasa, is living on No Name key in Florida. Hodgins and Angela ask Amber to force Grayson to the divorce papers. However, Grayson refuses to sign them, claiming he still loves Angela and has even built a house for himself and her. Hodgins is originally unnerved by this but is consoled by Amber, who explains that she personally believes that Angela will stay with him.

In The Yanks in the UK, Angela's husband, Grayson, shows up to the Jeffersonian, saying that he will not sign the divorce papers because he is still in love with her. They share a brief kiss in her office. After Grayson sees Hodgins and Angela kiss and hears bells, he signs the divorce papers. He and Angela resume planning their wedding. After Cam reveals that she slept with Grayson after his flight to Fiji was canceled in The Yanks in the UK pt. 2, he and Angela are both upset. After they all apologize to one another in Sweets' office, he and Angela realize that they do not trust each other, causing them to break up.

In The Witch in the Wardrobe, they are arrested together, because Hodgins was "driving like an old lady." Thanks to old outstanding (misdemeanor) warrants, the arresting officer are unable to release them until the local judge speaks with them. After bonding in jail, they realize they shouldn't have broken up, and when the judge comes to free them, they get married in the jail cell. In the last episode of Season 5, it was revealed that they were going to France for a year because they did not want to work without Brennan and Booth.

In the Season 6 Finale, The Change in the Game, Angela gives birth to Hodgins' son, a baby boy named Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins; the unusual name was a compromise with Angela's father, who had wanted to name the child Staccato Mamba (after words he'd heard in a song), as well as a tribute to Vincent Nigel-Murray, who had recently been killed by Jacob Broadsky.

Clarissa[]

Jack and Clarissa Bancroft were engaged; however, she and Terence Bancroft started dating and as Jack said "it unfolded the way those things do." Later, Clarissa and Terence get married. Hodgins hasn't contacted or heard from either of them in eight years, until the events of The Man in the Mansion.

Friendship[]

Zack Addy[]

Railingzackui1

Hodgins and Zack overlooking the team

It is often implied that Zack and Hodgins have a strong bond. In more than one episode, Hodgins refers to Zack as his "best friend." He often competes with Hodgins to be "King of the Lab", a title claimed by the one who makes a pivotal discovery or conclusion detrimental to a murder investigation. Zack seems to be friends with Jack, with whom it was once thought he was roommates. He actually lives in the apartment above Hodgins' garage on the grounds of his large estate.

Zackandhodgins

Hodgins pointing accusingly at Zack in 3x10

In The Man in the Bear, Zack competes with Hodgins over a beautiful delivery lady named Toni. Hodgins gave Zack a small copy of the Kama Sutra to get him to stop asking Booth questions about sexual intercourse. In fact, he rents from and also carpools with Hodgins, since he can't drive or ride a bike, simply because he refuses to learn because of what he knows about Structural Design. He once made a comment to Booth that if he (Booth) had the same understanding of structural engineering, he would be afraid to drive as well.

In The Pain in the Heart, despite working for the Gormogon and the beliefs he got as a result, Zack protects Hodgins from an explosion he set despite knowing he'd injure himself severely. Bones is later able to use his protecting Hodgins above his own beliefs to get him to turn on the Gormogon. Hodgins is later stunned by the fact that Zack actually listened to all of his conspiracy theories which had an impact on him.

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Hodgins smiling at Zack during his visit

In The Perfect Pieces in the Purple Pond, Hodgins is shown to visit Zack in the mental hospital and has hope that one day Zack will be able to rejoin them in the lab. He still refers to Zack as his best friend and while joking with Zack, nearly calls himself "King of the Lab" but stops himself when he remembers Zack is no longer at the lab. He states his hope that Zack will one day return and be "King of the Lab" again. Hodgins also refuses to take Zack's space in the lab which Cam tells him she had suggested as she felt Zack would be most comfortable with Hodgins taking that space.

By the events in The Bone that Blew, Max Keenan re-inspires Hodgins into finding out how stuff works in an amusing way, leading the duo to conducting an experiment with Wendell Bray using a wind tunnel, and in later episodes, he's shown to have left his cubicle and begins nesting into Zack's space ever since.  

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Hodgins being interviewed about Zack

In The Movie in the Making, in a series of interviews seeming to be about difficult times the team faced during their time at work, Hodgins is asked about Zack by the camera crew. He gives a short and basic rundown of his friend, ending with that he thought that "being around all the death and murder was a little too much" for Zack. Whether this is in attempt to protect Zack's reputation with being sent to a psychiatric ward or because he actually believes it is unclear, but his grief behind his friend's departure is evident even years later as he's shown to twist his wedding ring.

In The Hope in the Horror, it was revealed that Zack was consulting with Hodgins' physical therapist as a world-renowned neurosurgeon named Dr. Alexander Bancroft. He wanted to help Hodgins by having his physical therapist perform a protocol developed by the real Alexander Bancroft in an attempt to help Hodgins recover from being paralyzed, but the procedure has a less than 1% chance of success. Zack wanted to give Hodgins hope since he believed that hope has the power to heal, but his fear is that all he brought him is more pain. His efforts were revealed to have been fruitless as expected, but despite this, Hodgins reassures Angela that he wasn't in pain anymore, over losing his legs nor from the treatment from physical therapy, giving Hodgins a newfound sense of hope as Zack wanted for his friend the whole time.

In The Flaw in the Saw, Hodgins works to find evidence to exonerate Zack. While he finds something, Cam accuses him of planting the evidence as they all know Zack is innocent and want him free, which infuriates Hodgins.

In The Steal in the Wheels, Hodgins is able to locate the body of the Apprentice and as stated in The Day in the Life, developed a protocol where no one would examine the case evidence alone to ensure no accusations of impropriety can be brought against him. During Zack's appeal, Hodgins testifies to his friend's innocence and is enraged by Caroline Julian's apparent efforts to keep Zack locked up, not understanding that she is merely doing her job but in a way that discreetly helps Zack. Hodgins efforts to find proof ultimately result in Zack's exoneration for the murder of Ray Porter, though he must still spend thirteen more months locked up on the charge of aiding a known killer.

It has been speculated that due to his close friendship with Hodgins, he would be re-hired at the Jeffersonian after his release.

Temperance Brennan[]

Seeley Booth[]

Early in Season 1, when Booth has appointed the FBI liaison to the Jeffersonian, Jack was particularly hostile to him due to his disdain for the government and bureaucracy in general. Booth's patriotism, a position as a federal agent and military background, and Hodgins' argumentative nature further added to the friction. Booth soon earns his respect when he covers up him from not to go to the Jeffersonian ball ('cause it exposes his status as Cantilever Group hеir and his work in Jeffersonian) by FBI needs his expertise and later lets Hodgins accompany him to rescue Bones, who was being held captive by rogue FBI agent, and Hodgins witnesses Booth shooting the perpetrator as the latter was about to kill Bones. Hodgins later expressing genuine regret when a current investigation exposed a military cover-up as he recognized what their discoveries meant for Booth. While they still maintain their respective opposing views, they are on friendly terms and Booth often calls him "bug boy". Hodgins also asked for Booth's advice when he was planning to propose to Angela. At the end of the second season, he agrees to be Hodgin's best man in his wedding albeit as the second choice after Zack Addy turned the position down. Hodgins also asks for Booth's advice about proposing to Angela. Booth has the tendency to cut Hodgins off in the middle of a conversation whenever the latter starts using scientific jargon, although Hodgins generally tolerates it. In season 4, when Booth's FBI colleague Payton Perotta takes over an investigation in which Booth is a suspect, Hodgins and Wendell immediately declare to Agent Perotta that they are "Booth's people" rather than her's [Perotta's].

In "The Heiress in the Hill " Booth learns of Hodgins' dilemma and, with Brennan's blessing, offers to donate the $75,000 check. Although grateful for the gesture, Hodgins refuses and decides to take a loan instead.   In several cases, Booth, despite his disdain for most of Hodgins' conspiracy theories, uses it to his advantage for a case; especially while investigating Gormogon murders; in the episode "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. 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.

Wendell Bray[]

He initially had an awkward relationship with Wendell as the latter once dated Angela for a period of time and he was one of the interns set to take Zack's place as Brennan's assistant. They later resolve the issue over time and develop a brotherly bond.

Arastoo Vaziri[]

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 to accept him without reservations after Arastoo explained how he reconciles his religion (Islam) with science.

Finn Abernathy[]

Jack originally doesn't get along with Finn, he teases him due to his southern accent and colloquialisms but Finn convinces him that as they both speak science they should focus on that rather than what is different about them, Hodgins relents and they become friends after jointly making a python vomit up evidence, even teasing each other in the form of nicknames, Hodgins calls Finn "Opie" (the Ron Howard child character on The Andy Griffiths Show) and Finn calls Hodgins "Thurston" (Thurston Howell III, the Millionaire on Gilligan's Island).

Finn has only gotten upset with Hodgins when he consumed the last of Finn's hot sauce that his deceased grandmother had made, ignoring the note Finn had left stating that it belonged to him and without realizing that the hot sauce had sentimental value. Finn forgave him after Hodgins used the lab equipment to discover the recipe, using a swab from the bottle and making more after getting Finn to taste it and make sure it tasted like the sauce his grandmother made. Due to the nice taste, the two decide to enter into business together, getting a chef on their side to help make it and market it as Opie and Thurston's Hot Sauce.

Trivia[]

  • In The Movie in the Making, it was revealed that Hodgins also called himself many other nicknames similar to his signature nickname: King of the Lab. Some of which are scattered throughout the previous seasons.
  1. King of the Break Room
  2. King of the Parking Lot
  3. King of Modesty
  4. King of Egypt
  5. King of the Swabs
  6. King of the Funeral (The Double Death of the Dearly Departed)
  7. King of the Beetles (The Fact in the Fiction)
  8. King of the Cipher (The Crack in the Code)
  9. King of the Plant Graveyard (The Flaw in the Saw)


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