After ending season 8 in a state of crisis, Bones will be facing the Pelant storyline head on when the show returns from season 9.

Season 8 ended with the intended engagement of Booth and Brennan, only to find the plot thwarted by hacker Christopher Pelant. The hacker then called Booth, telling him that he must not marry Brennan, or else five innocent people would die.

Booth called the engagement off and the pair sat in silence. The ending was very bittersweet for fans, so naturally they wanted to know how this particular storyline would get resolved.

Michael Ausiello of TVLine reported on May 21 that the plot will end "by Christmas-ish," next season.

Executive producer Stephen Nathan confirmed that the Pelant crisis will be wrapped up "within the first half of the year."

There is no word yet on when the couple will officially get engaged again or whether or not they will get married soon. On whether they would get married in the series finale, Nathan teased:

"If we lived in a predictable universe, that's exactly what would happen. But we're not a predictable show ... [While it may not for sure be a wedding], there will be one huge event [that brings people together]. And I mean the whole family - including Brennan's father, Max, and Booth's mother, brother, son and grandfather."

Despite the characters facing engagements and having their lives threatened, Nathan insists that the show will not be ending anytime soon.

"I'm not planning on Season 9 being the last season at this point," he said, "I think there's a lot more life in the show. It just doesn't feel old to us."

Bones will begin airing its ninth season in the fall on Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox before moving to Fridays at 8 pm in late fall.

Watch an exclusive clip of David Boreanaz (Booth) and Emily Deschanel (Bones) on the set discussing their relationship:

Tags: Bones