Emily Deschanel in a scene from the "Bones" episodes "The Shot in the Dark." (Ho)

Under protest I'll issue a spoiler alert for tonight's Bones episode The Shot In The Dark. Although, I believe if it happens in the first scene, it doesn't count.

Temperance "Bones" Brennan gets shot. (It's called The Shot In The Dark, people, you knew somebody would take a bullet).

"My character is shot and then has an encounter (with her dead mother) and she's transported to her childhood home," says Emily Deschanel, who doubles as star and producer of the eight-year series.

"She has flat-lined, and many people will interpret it to be that she's gone to Heaven," says Deschanel, whose almost Vulcan-logical forensics expert character has also pointedly expressed an atheist philosophy.

Having the lead character shot while working late in her lab at the Jeffersonian Museum is more than just sweeps week drama, Deschanel says. It's part of a character arc that, who knows, could lead to Bones and the father of her child, Booth (David Boreanaz) tying the knot one day.

"I think after watching the episode viewers will have a better idea of why Brennan behaves the way she does, and has cut off her emotions - even though in the last few years she's opened up from knowing Booth," Deschanel said in a press teleconference.