For one, the Brennan-centric hour features a bravura, waterworks-inducing performance by Emily Deschanel, whose socially detached alter ego finds her world rocked by a case involving a woman whose physical, professional and psychological makeup matches her own - and whose tragic disappearance sadly went unnoticed.
It is through working that case that Brennan is prompted to reevaluate her own connections with people, especially with regards to one Agent Booth.
"It's a different episode, and one of my favorite scripts," Deschanel shared in a Friday conference call. "[Brennan] is looking at her life and seeing what she would be leaving behind when she dies - and you don't see that side of her very often."
"It forces Brennan to a place where she is bold, and aware of her feelings in a way she hasn't been before," Deschanel adds.
While we won't reveal just how Brennan acts on this new insight, there is the question of whether this unsettling case will have lasting ramifications for the character.
"It affects her in many different, opposing ways, as you'll see in episodes to come," Deschanel told Movieline.
Alas, any "awakening" enjoyed by Temperance could prove to be too little too late, as Booth's romance with newswoman Hannah is set to only further escalate.
"It actually does get more serious [between those two], and that creates a whole 'situation' for all of them," Deschanel says. "There are internal conflicts for Brennan because she wants to be with Booth, she is realizing, but because she loves Booth, she wants him to be happy - and he is happy with Hannah now."
And what guy wouldn't be? "Hannah is wonderful, smart, tough, cool, beautiful.... You can't blame Booth for falling in love with her," Deschanel notes. So as opposed to some TV love triangles where the third party is in one way or another unlikable, "It's great to have a conflict where no one's intending bad things," Deschanel says. "It's a wonderful dance."
Then again, three people dancing with each other can get awkward - and awkward will be the operative word when Hannah soon gets wind of exactly who feels what for whom in the Booth/Bones relationship.
That upcoming reveal, Deschanel previews, "creates an interesting dynamic between these two [women] that you don't see very often. It definitely creates some issues and conflict."