The Bones Serial Killer That Terrified Emily Deschanel The Most

During its impressive 12-season run on Fox, viewers fell hard in love with the "Bones" investigative team at the Jeffersonian Institute Medico-Legal Lab. The initial hook was the sparkling chemistry between Emily Deschanel's brilliant Temperance "Bones" Brennan and David Boreanaz's smart-aleck FBI Agent Seeley Booth, but, as the series progressed, fans came to care just as much for the quirky crew that helped Bones and Booth catch all kinds of creepy killers once a week. So when they found themselves up against a formidably devious foe, the show's fans legitimately feared for their safety. And creator Hart Hanson and his crack team of writers capably played on these fears, going so far as to knock off John Francis Daley's lovable FBI psychologist Lance Sweets at the outset of season 10.

Though we knew Bones and Booth would likely survive each episode, there were certain villains who threw a good scare at the series' fans. The Gravedigger (Heather Taffet) and Gormogon (Laurence Todd Rosenthal) were especially terrifying. But was there a serial killer that stood out among the show's rogues' gallery?

If you're asking Emily Deschanel, there was absolutely one that kept her up at night. And if you're a fan of the series, her pick should come as no surprise.

In an interview with Collider at the end of Season 8, Deschanel revealed that Andrew Leeds' Christopher Pelant, aka The Hactivist, gave her the willies and then some. Part of this was due to Leeds' utterly opposite demeanor on set. "[Andrew]... is the friendliest, sweetest person, so it's just really strange," she admitted.

As for the character, it was the "calm, steely way" of the criminal genius that got to Deschanel. As she told Collider:

"[Y]ou have this brilliant person who's able to really get around the law, in so many different ways, whether it's getting out of an ankle bracelet, or finding ways around not being able to use computers, or changing his name and identity and DNA records, so that he is known as a completely different person. That is so terrifying and so brilliant that I think I'd have to rank him as the number one, for serial killers."

Hanson clearly agreed. The character kept the team on their toes for three seasons and came back for a postmortem cameo in season 10. Seemingly every character personally got an acrid taste of his viciousness. Leeds was so indelibly evil in the part that he was probably in danger of getting pigeonholed. Fortunately, via his comedy training with the legendary sketch comedy troupe The Groundlings, he's been able to switch gears throughout his career (most notably as Jane Levy's brother on "Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist"). Still, for "Bones" fans, he will haunt their nightmares forever as Pelant.