The Bones Fan Theory That Points Fingers At A New Gormogon

Fox's Bones is one of the most beloved forensic crime procedural shows ever broadcast — as its 12 seasons and 246 episodes clearly attest. Though the story of Emily Deschanel's Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan and David Boreanaz's FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth ended in 2017, the show continues to intrigue and interest people, inspiring an active community of fan theorizers online. 

Bones focuses on Dr. Brennan's crack team of forensic anthropologists. Agent Booth is a forensic layman and the long arm of the law who cooperates with the team and acts based on its findings. As is so often the case in these scenarios — at least on TV — the main characters come from different worlds, but eventually warm to each other. In this instance, they get warm enough to marry in season 9.

Bones and Booth's romantic subplot doesn't exactly make Bones a love story, however. The series is teeming with scary villains, serial killers and even cannibals. From the dangerous "Hacktivist" serial killer Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds) to the live burial expert Gravedigger (Deirdre Lovejoy) and the rogue sniper Jacob Broadsky (Arnold Vosloo), Bones never had a shortage of memorable murderers. Among the nastiest and strangest of them was the Gormogon, a ritualistic cannibal who's so shrouded in mystery that his actor (Laurence Todd Rosenthal) only appears briefly and has no spoken dialogue. 

As creepy as that is, it's also worth mentioning that "Gormogon" is actually a title, not a guy — and more than one killer has held it. In fact, a Bones fan theory has pointed out that the show might have another, previously unknown Gormogon hiding in plain sight.

The Gormogon investigation is the main arc of Bones season 3, and the team spends the season gathering more and more information about the mysterious, ritualistic nature of the killer's crimes and existence. Before Booth's SWAT team finally confronts the killer and guns him down in his creepy ceremonial chamber, the viewers find out that there have been more than one Gormogon over the years, and that the current one even had an apprentice — Dr. Brennan's youthful assistant Zack Addy (Eric Millegan). The Gormogon's influence looms so large that in season 12, we find out that he also had a second apprentice (James Immekus).  

Though the Gormogon ultimately turns out to be a random person, the show drops several hints that the killer might be a character we've met before we actually see the cannibal in the flesh. In fact, one very major character is suspicious enough that he's even arrested as a Gormogon suspect. The man in question is Dr. Lance Sweets (John Francis Daley), a young psychologist who enters the show as the therapist for both Dr. Brennan and Booth. Though the mental health professional turns out to be innocent and even becomes a series regular, some viewers feel that there's something "off" about the character. What's more, they feel that said something reeks a lot like a hidden career as a version of the Gormogon.

As the fans posting on one Reddit thread explain, Bones does drop ample hints that the quirky Dr. Sweets is more than meets the eye. Dr. Saroyan (Tamara Taylor), in particular, is extremely vocal about this. 

"I don't believe the man Booth killed at the end of Season 3 was actually Gormogon," a commenter points out, and goes on to say that the Gormogon in the season 3 finale might very well have been a fake-out. "There's so much about Dr. Sweets that doesn't add up. In 3×15, Cam literally said that he was Gormogon and that she could SMELL that he's a bad guy. And they literally ARREST him for suspicion of being Gormogon and then after they kill fake Gormogon they just pretend that s*** with Dr. Sweets never happened!" The poster also notes that 2007 Writer's Guild of America strike might have impacted the intended Gormogon storyline. "Some people have said on here that they do think Dr. Sweets is Gormogon, but the writers just screwed up the writing because of the writer's strike and stuff. But even till the episode where Dr. Sweets gets killed, I still think he's Gormogon." 

Of course, as other commenters point out, Dr. Sweets could just be exactly what it said on the tin: A sweet, awkward dude who just wants to get along with everyone. Either way, we'll probably never find out whether the show was planning a later twist that would out him as a Gormogon, because his character arc came to a rather abrupt end in season 10. Actor John Francis Daley is also a prolific screenwriter, and when he needed time off to write the 2015 remake of Vacation, the show's writers decided to kill Dr. Sweets off.