It’s been a long summer for Bones fans, who have been anxiously awaiting Season 8 to see if Brennan - who skipped town with baby Christine on the Season 7 finale - will reunite with her beloved Booth.

And then, of course, there’s the persisting matter of devious serial killer Christopher Pelant and he consistently seems to be many steps ahead of our Jeffersonian team.

To find out what’s coming on tonight’s season premiere, “The Future In The Past,” along with upcoming episodes, TV Fanatic’s Jim Halterman jumped on the phone with Executive Producers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan (who co-wrote the opener) for a spoiler-filled chat...

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TV Fanatic: There’s already been a lot of talk online about Booth’s resentment towards Brennan, but I want to know about Brennan. Based on the premiere, she seems to be handling everything pretty well but are we going to see that maybe she has some issues to deal with, too?

Stephen Nathan: That’s all going to be in the second episode. You know, you have Brennan who retreated before she met Booth into a very solitary life to protect herself and also as a way to function. Now that she’s been left on her own for three months to fend for herself, she’s kind of retreated into that world again and is there room for Booth there? That’s a difficult thing for both of them to contend with.

Hart Hanson: And you know Brennan. The minute she thinks something makes rational sense, the argument is over. She does not always understand why she’s behaving in a certain way, but she doesn’t move on things the way Booth does.

SN: But it’s definitely not a one-sided thing. It’s not just Booth being upset. It’s both of them. Couples go through things and this is a couple. Hodgins and Angela will go through things. Booth and Brennan will goes through things. That’s just how it works.

TVF: I want to ask about Hodgins actually because, without giving too much away, we see him kind of in an uncharacteristic way in this episode. Is that just about the whole Pelant thing, so is that maybe a seed of something else coming for him?

HH: I gotta say our secondary characters are full of possibilities, and we’re going to go down as many of those roads as we can. I think the thing with Pelant that you’re referring to is a good example of... I don't know if anyone is going to get it but, for us, he’s another really rational guy. As far as [Hodgins is] concerned, he’s behaving in a rational way and that’s what he says later on when he’s talking to Sweets on behaving rationally and Sweets is looking at him like, ‘there’s shit we could talk about here.’ I hope the audience picks up that Hodgins went where he went because everything cannot be dealt with the rational mind.

TVF: We’re supposedly meeting Booth’s mother this season. Is this a way to show us a window more into Booth, or is it to branch out the story in another direction? What can you tell me?

HH: The audience doesn’t know much about Booth’s mother. We know that he’s not nuts about her and we have some fun in mind as to what elements about his mother might point at why he’s not nuts about her and whether she has any bonds to Brennan that might be disconcerting for everyone.

SN: And, also, Brennan does not have a mother. Booth’s mother showing up is very great thing for Brennan.

TVF: At this point, is it safe to assume that Pelant is working alone, or is there a chance that there might be some other minions out there that have not met yet.

HH: It’s not safe to assume that he is working alone.

SN: It’s not safe to assume anything at all with Pelant.

TVF: Now that we have baby Christine on the show, are we going to get a holiday episode?

HH: We’re discussing that right now. We’re discussing it at this very moment. Well, no, we’re talking to you this very moment, but as soon as we hang up that’s one of the things we have to figure out really quickly.

TVF: In terms of our team of the Jeffersonian it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Clark (Eugene Byrd) and Flynn (Reed Diamond) but can all those people be trusted? Or might their agendas not necessarily be the best?

HH: I think you are safe to ask that question. I think it’s a really good question and it’s one of the questions we want people asking themselves that, too. So, I guess... I always say no, you can't trust everybody or can you?

TVF: Last question, where is Emily’s blond wig?

HH: It might be burned now. [Giggles.]

TVF: I was just curious if you guys have it around.

HH: You want it? I’ll dig it up if you want it.

TVF: I was thinking next time I come to set, I at least need a tweet picture with me wearing it.

HH: I think that would be fabulous.

Bones new season kicks off tonight at 8/7c on Fox.

Jim Halterman is the West Coast Editor of TV Fanatic and the owner of JimHalterman.com. Follow him on Twitter.