Arastoo Vaziri (Season 4-) is yet another temporary lab assistant, first appearing in the episode "The Salt in the Wounds". He is of Iranian heritage and is a devout Muslim who prays five times a day. Expecting others would find it odd that he is both a scientist and very religious, which his co-workers later confirmed, Vaziri decides to put on a false accent to sound "fresh off the boat" and thus make his religious devotion seem like an irrelevant byproduct of his heritage.
In Season 5 episode "The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood", he accidentally rants at Cam in his natural accent during an investigation and his secret is revealed to the team (and the audience). Cam promptly sends him to Dr. Sweets, who helps Vaziri work through the issues. His fears subside as the team accepts him as a fellow scientist after he gives them an honest explanation on how he reconciles his faith with science. It is assumed that Vaziri is an American citizen as implied by his knowledge and love for baseball and the fact that he served in the US military as a translator. In the Season 5 episode, "Devil in the Details", Vaziri revealed that he had served as a military translator in Iraq, where he killed an insurgent while defending his life after surviving an IED. His fellow squad members did not survive. He still harbors guilt over having killed the attacker, despite having acted in self-defense. In the Season 4 alternate-reality finale, he was one of several lab techs re-imagined as a potential buyer of Booth and Brennan's night club. In the Season 6 premiere, it is revealed he switched majors from forensic science to cultural anthropology and is interning at the Baghdad Museum. Later, he returns in episode "The Bones That Weren't" as Dr. Brennan's assistant and again in "The Signs in the Silence", in which he helps to identify a mysterious deaf-mute girl found covered in blood. Although he doesn't appear in Episode 20, "The Pinocchio in the Planter", he is mentioned by fellow intern, Wendell, according to whom; "Arastoo's family's loaded", when he put forward his argument Dr. Saroyan as to why he needed the extra hours in the lab. In Season 8 episode 7 it is revealed that, at age 18, (putting his age in the episode at 33), Arastoo went to university in Tehran (circa 1997) and was expelled for writing poetry about love, freedom, and democracy, which would have been deemed inappropriate in post-Revolution Iran. He fled Iran and ended up in the United States as he feared for his life. It was also revealed in that episode that he is in a secret romantic relationship with Cam. While in episode 20 in season 6 reveals that his family is well off, according to "The Bod in the Pod", Arastoo is living on a limited budget. It is also revealed in the season 8 episode "The Survivor in the Soap" that Arastoo's cousin was a child soldier and he harbors additional guilt over not being able to prevent his death. Arastoo is a published poet. He is also a skilled martial artist and proficient with a nunchuck. In the Season 8 episode "The Bod in the Pod", it is revealed lab director Cam is in a romantic relationship with Arastoo. They keep their relationship secret from all but Hodgins and Angela until the episode "The Survivor in the Soap," and in "The Pathos in the Pathogen" she openly admits to being in love with him when his life is threatened with an altered strain of virus. |