Jack Hodgins (Bones)

Dr. Jack Hodgins
Bones character
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Hart Hanson
Portrayed by	T. J. Thyne
Information
Nickname(s)	Hodgepodge, Hodgie, The Bug and Slime Guy, King of the Lab
Gender	Male
Occupation	Entomologist, Botanist, Mineralogist, heir to the Cantilever Group
Title	Doctor (3 × Ph.D.)
Family	Billy Gibbons (Father-in-law) Chester Putnam Hodges (great-grandfather) Un-named Uncle
Spouse(s)	Angela Montenegro (2010–present)
Children	Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins (son, with Angela; born 2011)
Religion	Episcopalian

Dr. Jack Stanley Hodgins IV, Ph.D., is a fictional character in the American television series, Bones. He is portrayed by T. J. Thyne. Jack is introduced to the series primarily as an entomologist/forensic entomologist, but also as a mineralogist/forensic mineralogist, a palynology/forensic palynologist, and a forensic chemist, but conspiracy theories are his hobby. He can estimate time of death from the development of insect larvae in human and animal remains.

Character history

Jack Hodgins comes from an extremely wealthy family of Swedish descent (as hinted by Angela in season two), and is the sole heir to the fictional private corporation known as the Cantilever Group, although he hid his wealth from his coworkers for a long time. He is the single largest donor to the Jeffersonian, although he would rather toil in academia than spend time in the high social society to which his wealth entitles him.

Hodgins, like Zack, was bullied in school: in elementary and middle school for being a "rich boy" and in high school for his small physical stature and diminished social skills. It is later noted that he "managed to stand up for himself" on the last day of senior year, which Sweets believes gave him closure.

Hodgins drives an original Mini, although in later seasons he was seen driving a Toyota Prius as well. He is an experienced cave diver.

Although a noted conspiracy theorist, Hodgins abandoned his paranoid thoughts and beliefs after it was revealed his best friend, Zack Addy, had become the most recent apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer known as "Gormogon", due in part to Hodgins' complaints about secret societies potentially making Zach more susceptible to Gormogon's influence. Devastated by his best friend's poor judgment, as well as his recent break-up with Angela, Hodgins found his beliefs and feelings of paranoia turning into misanthropy. After being repeatedly confronted by Sweets about his behavior in the lab, Hodgins explained during a session that he "hates everybody". Sweets determines that the misanthropy was a way to cope with the overwhelming stresses in his life, and assured him that it will turn into something more pleasant in time.

Hodgins has three doctorates in Entomology, Botany, and Mineralogy. In his earlier characterization, he was shown as having anger management issues; (in the first season and in a flashback in season 6), Hodgins used to twang a elastic band on his wrist.

According to Angela, in The Truth in the Myth, Hodgins is a Virgo, and of course because of this, he would "belittle astrology". His starsign puts his birthday somewhere between the 23rd of August and the 22nd of September.

Like Camille Saroyan, his boss, Hodgins is left-handed as are both Tamara Taylor and TJ Thyne in real life.

Characterization

Hodgins is one of the more sarcastic members of the group, and initially deals with some anger management issues. He also had some initial difficulty in working with Dr Goodman, the Jeffersonian's administrator, as Dr Goodman frequently used conjecture or imagination to make inferences about the victims of crimes. He is sometimes "the funny man" with a notable impression of the character Seeley Booth.

He is one of the more socially adept scientists in the group, and often counselled Zack Addy in personal matters.^{[citation needed]} The two had a friendly competition for distinction of "King of the Lab"(Hodgins and Zack), awarded to whoever found the best lead in the case.

Throughout the series, Hodgins has been called a conspiracy theorist, and in many of the show's early episodes his knowledge of conspiracy theories was demonstrated. Whenever different aspects of the government, such as the Department of Defense or the State Department, become involved in cases, Hodgins will often be the first to suggest that a cover-up is involved. This sometimes brings him into conflict with Booth, who has a strong sense of patriotism, although Hodgins has shown on more than one occasion that he respects Booth despite his distaste for the government, to the point that he once informed FBI agent Payton Perotta that he was one of Booth's people rather than hers when he had to work with her during a case where Booth was a suspect.

Relationships

Romantic

Jack is described at one point of "having a new girlfriend every second week" (by Angela), but his main relationship in the series is with Angela Montenegro. Hodgins was also previously engaged to Clarissa Bancroft.

After a few episodes of sexual tension, Hodgins takes Angela out on their first date to a park to play on swings. When he was buried alive with Dr. Brennan, Hodgins admitted to being in love with Angela, saying "I'm nuts about Angela. Over the moon, stupidly in love with her." Hodgins proposed to Angela twice before she turned the tables and proposed to him after he told her that love was enough. Their wedding is cut short in the season two finale when it is revealed that Angela is technically married to the man from Fiji, Grayson Barasa.

Hodgins and Angela hire a private investigator to locate Angela's husband, and the investigator finds Angela's husband, Grayson Barasa, living on No Name Key in Florida. Hodgins and Angela ask Amber to force Grayson to sign the divorce papers. However, Grayson refuses to sign them, claiming he still loves Angela and has even built a house for himself and her. Grayson is initially resistant to signing the divorce papers, which puts a strain on the relationship between Angela and Hodgins. They realize that they may not fully trust each other, and end their relationship.

After learning that Angela's father is in town (this is after their break-up), Hodgins awakes in the middle of a desert with a bandage on his shoulder, which he removes to reveal a tattoo of Angela's face along with the words "Angie Forever".

After time apart, however, it is made clear that Hodgins still has feelings for Angela. After Booth is hospitalized for a brain tumor near the end of Season 4, Hodgins proposes giving his and Angela's relationship a second shot. While, in Season 5, they seem to be just friends, there are still signs of romantic tension between the two. In the episode "The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken", Angela mentions to Hodgins that her required celibacy period will soon be over and seems to hint that she would like to break it with Hodgins; Hodgins turns her down, despite her insistence that she was implying no such thing. However, in "The X in the File", when Wendell tells Hodgins of his relationship with Angela, Hodgins is shown to be very upset and hurt. During the next episode, "The Proof in the Pudding", Angela has a pregnancy scare; during this time, Hodgins tells her that he loves her and that he will be there to support her and the baby. While the pregnancy test was revealed to be a false positive at the end of the episode, Angela still tells Hodgins that she is grateful for his support and will never forget it. They were later imprisoned in "The Witch in the Wardrobe" for a variety of minor infractions by a local sheriff, which led to remembrance of their happiness together. They both realized that they regretted breaking up and shared a passionate kiss. When a judge arrived to post their bail, they were finally married in a private ceremony in the jail cell. They announced their marriage to their colleagues soon after.

Upon their return from Paris, it is revealed that they are expecting their first child, who will be named Temperance after Dr. Brennan (though perhaps only as a middle name because the name Temperance is "horrible"). Angela's father wants to name their child "Staccato Mamba". It came to him in a song. However, Hodgins disagreed so he stood up to him and told him "No". Finally he agreed with Angela and Hodgins on the names Katherine Temperance for a girl and Michael Joseph for a boy. Also in the end of the episode it was revealed that Hodgins got a tattoo of Angela's dad on his other arm which said "Dad". In the episode "The Blackout in the Blizzard" Angela and Hodgins find out they are both carriers of Leber's Congenital Amaurosis, giving their baby a 25 percent chance of blindness. This was a huge devastation for the couple, but in the end they reminded each other that they can handle anything together. However, once the child was born, their son was confirmed to not be blind, and the two named him Michael Staccato Vincent Hodgins (named in honor of Vincent Nigel Murray who was previously killed).

Friendships

Despite his anti-government stance, Hodgins has demonstrated a respect and admiration for Seeley Booth after their years working together. Most notably, when Agent Perotta—who was officially working with the squints on a case where Booth was a prime suspect and thus unable to serve as the lead investigator—commented that 'her' people had found some recent evidence in the case, Hodgins, along with intern Wendell automatically corrected her statement by saying that the squints were Booth's people. After Brennan, Hodgins is the 'squint' who has spent the most time out in the field with Booth (Discounting Cam who was a skilled independent investigator before joining the Jeffersonian), occasionally accompanying Booth when investigations require on-site particulate analysis, to the point that Booth was Hodgins's best man at his first wedding to Angela (Albeit as second choice when Zack turned the offer down because he didn't want to taint their memory of the event in case he didn't come back from his recent assignment to Iraq)