Last season of Bones dramatically ended with Pelant (the relentless serial killer) giving an ultimatum to Booth. Booth had to turn down Brenan’s (Bones) marriage proposal without giving her the reason or five random strangers would be murdered. Booth chose to tell Brennan he wasn’t ready, which ended the season finale with them both crying in separate rooms. So, we all predicted that this season premiere would be awkward. And, yes were we right.

The premiere began with Booth talking to an old priest friend to whom he used to confess his sins. His friend recently stopped being a priest and opened up the bar where they were talking. The former priest recommends that Booth take Brennan on a camping trip where he could whisper in her ear the reason why he can’t marry her. Booth reacts by saying that Brennan’s happiness would be too obvious and Pelant would realize what was going on. Booth is then called away on a new case: a body was thrown off a hotel into an air conditioning system. Booth and Brennan didn’t really interact at the crime scene, saying as little as possible. Everyone around them picked up on the awkwardness and were forced to choose sides. At different points in the episode, each character tried to talk to Booth and find out why he called it off the relationship, but he never told any of them the reason.

Despite Booth and Brennan’s relationship problems, the murder case needed to be solved. The team had multiple suspects all from the victim’s place of work. The case got even more confusing when Booth found a CIA agent at the victim’s house. (I won’t ruin it and tell you why.)

To find out more about this season 9 premiere, make sure to watch it and follow the rest of the season of Bones at www.fox.com/bones or on television, Monday nights at 8:00 p.m.