David Boreanaz and Joanna Cassidy

Twenty-four years is a long time to not see your kid. So when Seeley Booth's mom, Marianne (Joanna Cassidy), suddenly comes to town on the April 15 episode of Fox's Bones, why does Booth (David Boreanaz) welcome her into his home to drink, sing and dance the Continental?

"Booth [thinks he] understands what his mother has been through," Boreanaz says of his character's warm reception. "But something comes up later that jolts him into thinking differently."

Booth finds out that his mother has spent the last two decades pursuing a singing career, accompanied by her piano-player boyfriend ­Reggie (CHiPs vet Robert Pine). Now Reggie has popped the question, and Marianne wants her son to walk her down the aisle — but Booth wants no part of it. "That's when it all blows up," Cassidy says.

Further souring the family reunion is buzzkill Brennan (Emily Deschanel), who grills Marianne about abandoning her sons and asks about the limp Marianne developed after Booth's abusive father threw her down a flight of stairs years ago. "Brennan's not being malicious," Deschanel says. "She's trying, in her way, to show sympathy."

Now that Brennan's dad and Booth's mom, brother, son and grandfather have all appeared, how long will it be before they return for the couple's wedding? "The subject is definitely being broached, and I imagine we will end up going down the aisle at some point," Deschanel says. "But maybe it will be when the show ends."   

For the time being, fans will have to settle for a bachelorette party that's tied to the murder of a male stripper (also in the April 15 episode). "The ladies swarm Booth, thinking he's a stripper, and his trousers drop," reveals director Reginald Hudlin. "We like to give the people what they want!"

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