Why Bones' Wendell Was The 'Best Candidate' For A Cancer Storyline
Cancer subplots are an extremely tough needle to thread on television. When you're dealing with a disease that causes millions of new cases each year, the line between handling the subject sensitively and crossing the line into exploitation is thinner and blurrier than it might be with other topics. "Bones" may have done a poor job handling cannibalistic serial killers with its Gormogon arc — a storyline that even Booth himself, David Boreanaz, has admitted was "bad television" — but for the vast majority of people watching at home, cannibalistic serial killers, unlike cancer, aren't something they'll ever have to worry about in their real lives.
This was absolutely on creator Hart Hanson and his writing staff's minds when they decided to tackle The Big C. "Bones," unlike a lot of other crime procedurals, was equally invested in the home lives of the Jeffersonian Institute's employees as when they were up to their necks in blood, bones, and (usually dead) bodies. That extended to supporting players like Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry), who joined the ranks of Bones' (Emily Deschanel) squinty interns or "Squinterns" in season 4 and recurred over the seasons that followed, gradually coming into his own as a character and forming unique relationships with his bosses and co-workers. However, everything changed when he inexplicably broke his arm about halfway through season 9, only to discover he had a rare and highly aggressive form of bone cancer (namely, Ewing's Sarcoma, a real illness that, naturally, the show took some creative liberties with).
So why, then, was poor Wendell singled out for this storyline? According to Hanson and executive producer Stephen Nathan, he was simply the best candidate when it came to choosing a character who was not only close to Bones and Booth but could also sustain such an emotionally challenging arc.
Wendell for the win
Wendell saw his share of hardships (almost losing his scholarship) and hijinks (mistakenly thinking that Bones was hitting on him) alike early on in "Bones," so when they saddled him with a cancer plotline, it didn't necessarily feel like the series' writers were picking on him. With Wendell being a member of Booth's hockey team, that also meant they had a special bond by the time season 9 rolled around. This made it easier for "Bones" to depict the pair having intimate conversations about Wendell's cancer diagnosis without it feeling contrived or out of left field. As Nathan noted to TV Tango in 2014:
"Wendell is sort of the most all-American guy, and he and Booth are so close. To have two guys who are so strong deal with a vulnerability that intense, just seemed to work for the two of them. [...] Now to continue it with everyone on board, it just gave us a lot. It also gave us a way to explore that disease on the show."
To be sure, Wendell's bout with cancer was never thoughtlessly forgotten in later seasons; even after he went into remission, he and Booth would continue to have heart-to-hearts about their deepest fears and traumas as Wendell navigated the aftermath. This didn't go unappreciated by viewers at home, either; according to Nathan, the show's creatives got "a lot of feedback from people who are cancer survivors or families who have been dealing with that and it meant a lot to them." Hanson echoed that sentiment, adding that Wendell being one of the show's "most sympathetic characters" ultimately made him "the best candidate to do a sad and intense story."
Not every "Bones" storyline has aged well (or was ever good at all) but in this case? As someone who's seen a loved one deal with cancer up close, I feel qualified saying the show did alright.