Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jack Stanley Hodgins III.
The man is a rock star. I don’t say that enough. I’m so often distracted by the things Booth does with his stupidly perfect face—I don’t always give Hodgins the credit he deserves for being this team’s backbone on a weekly basis. He’s King of the Lab. His passion, enthusiasm, and curly hair should not go overlooked any longer. Neither should his abs; I MEAN REALLY NOW.
Hodgins is this show in a nutshell. He’s everything Bones does right in the character department. Think about how remarkable it is that the bug guy has a significant role—most shows would just make him, you know, the awkward bug guy who rattles off scientific jargon and then disappears behind his test tubes. Hart Hanson didn’t play it like that. He made Hodgins a full member of the team, and then he made him awesome.
Hodgins drives fast cars and has a way with the ladies. He also likes racing beetles on a Friday night. He’s a conspiracy theorist with anger management issues, but experiments and fancy machines and tiny bugs make him giddy. He’s rich squared to the power of ten times four, but he doesn’t want to be anyone’s boss; he just wants to be Jack Hodgins who works in the lab.
Which just makes me want to work in the lab.
I love how much Hodgins loves science. It’s one of the most important things about this show: everyone loves what they do. They take their jobs seriously, but there’s no shame in enjoying what you were built for, even if you’re built for solving murder. That’s why we have Hodgins: to remind us that it’s cool to get excited about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Also, can we talk about how good TJ Thyne is with the big confusing words—how he makes them sound like real, fascinating, breathing things instead of letters in dusty books? Must be his hot tea and honey voice. TJ Thyne doesn’t know the meaning of phoning it in. Remember when Hodgins cried about how much he loved Angela?
If you don’t want to walk through life with him, you’re lying to yourself. He seduced Angela with fish bacteria. He kissed her on a swing set. He left a Shakespearean rose on her desk and looked her in the eyes and walked away without saying anything, like a damn Brawny paper towel man.
Hodgins has Angela’s face tattooed on his sculpted bicep and even when they were broken up he LIKED IT.
He likes having people in his life. He takes a while to let you in, but once he does, he’ll spend an entire day figuring out the secret ingredient to your grandmother’s hot sauce, just to make you happy.
He might sometimes hate everyone “to varying degrees” and plan his coworkers’ murders in great detail, but that’s just a coping mechanism. Hodgins is also the most optimistic of all rubber band snappers. Remember when he found out that his baby had a 25% chance of blindness and decided to take up the piano, just in case?
And remember when he strangled Pelant without blinking? Because that happened too. Jack Hodgins is my new Jack Bristow. He thought he was so hardcore in the early seasons, but having a family, being happier—it’s made everything more real for him. He loves more people and will go to to greater lengths to protect them. Hodgins has probably changed more than any of the other characters, but his change has also been the most organic, because it’s still all about passion. In the beginning, he was excited about conspiracy theories and being malignant and blowing things up, and now he’s excited about Angela and his child and blowing things up.
And I like it. I like Hodgins. I like him a lot. Sorry for not saying so more often. He’s a winner.
He really is the most passionate man, which is my absolute favorite thing about him. He’s romantic and intelligent and sweet and kind and clever and a little flaky and just perfect, IMO.
You know, we had a chat on Twitter one night about which secondary Bones character (as if Hodgins would ever be merely secondary but for the purposes of our discussion he was) they could kill and piss the fans off the least, and Hodgins was the only unanimous vote for an absolute NO. Every other character had a case made where the fans would eventually accept their demise, but not Jack Hodgins. His death would literally kill us all.
King of the lab, indeed.
I just have so many Hodgins feelings. I’m not entirely sure that I realized their depth until I was writing this. I love him. At least as much as I love Booth, I love Hodgins, and that’s really saying something. It’s so true–nobody would ever get over it if something happened to him.
I kind of feel like he’s the lynchpin.
I have often said that given the choice between Booth and Hodgins, I would choose Hodgins. Booth is so pretty, but Hodgins is EVERYTHING a woman could want (I daresay handsome, as well) and I suspect some of that twinkle in his eye naturally belongs to the actor behind him. TJ Thyne rocks it. Hodgins is the best. Hands down.
He really, really is. I don’t disagree!
Hodgins is my favorite character on Bones for all the reasons you mentioned, especially his passion for his job and his constant excitement about the crazy experiments he gets to do. Also, TJ has a really nice face.
REALLY nice face 🙂
I’ve had a crush on TJ Thyne and Hodgins (separately) for the last 8 years…TJ seems like he would be such a freaking awesome guy to hang out with.
Same! I think I would gladly follow either the character or the person anywhere.
I’ve only just discovered this because…well, I like to be behind with the times 🙂
This post has reminded me of all the reasons why I love both Hodgins AND TJ…he is pretty much the perfect guy (and by perfect I mean, gloriously, wonderfully imperfect).
I want so badly just to run around the set with him, doing Hamlet with all the skulls and taking pictures and having a grand old time.
Oh Hodgins one of my all-the-time favorite characters on Bones. I actually met TJ Thyne last year at comic con. I was dressed up as Snow White and he gave me compliments on my outfit. I had a whole speech prepared how much I love Bones and his character but it all vanished from my mind when I met him and I was just shaking like a proper fan girl. Sweet guy he is.
What rock music show does Jack Hodgins like best?
Beetle Mania