I have been waiting for the Castle premiere for what seems like forever. I put the kids to bed early, made sure everyone knew not to call, I was set.
Wow.
It starts off where we left off, with Kate in her wedding dress looking at the burning wreckage of Castle's car. The devastation and desperation on her face is gut-wrenching. There were so many great shots of the water putting out the fire, getting on Kate's face like they were tears, it was amazing.
Kate goes to change and the boys start investigating immediately. There was also a helpful Hampton cop who was there right along with Espo and Ryan, putting the clues together. Taillight on the road. Drag marks going away from the car. Castle was obviously kidnapped. They interview a fruit stand guy who saw a black Escalade hurrying away. The hunt is on.
Ryan thinks to ask the FBI to reactivate Castle's phone and that leads them to a junkyard, just as the black Escalade is being crushed. Kate and the boys chase the crusher guy down and Kate does this AWESOME tackle to get him on the ground. Love her. She gets him in interrogation and she means business. She tangles him in the handcuff chain and nearly breaks his fingers. She is close to crossing the line when Espo and Gates try to back her down a bit. One of the saddest points of the whole show is when Kate is at her desk, staring at Castle's chair, and Espo gets her some coffee and hands it to her over her shoulder. For just two seconds you can see the hope on her face as she turns around that Castle is back. But he isn't. Sigh.
Gates brings in the FBI and they follow some promising leads. Until the money trail leads them to Vinny Cardano, the mobster from Murder, She Wrote, that was one of Castle's sort of friends. Vinny admits that he got rid of the car and got paid $10,000 to do it. They go to the money drop off point and who does surveillance show dropped off the money? Castle himself.
Dun, dun, dun.
The FBI agent wastes no time in pointing out to Beckett that maybe Castle has faked his own disappearance and maybe he was overwhelmed or had a secret life. He does mention that Castle knew Vinny, knew that he could make the car disappear, and the money that was withdrawn from Castle's account for his honeymoon, actually matched the bills Vinny was given for the car disappearance. It is not looking good for Castle. Beckett just looks so lost and confused, I tell you, if there was an Emmy for Best Acting With Facial Expressions alone, Stana Katic would win hands down. So incredibly emotional.
The show fast forwards two months with Kate running down every lead, every maybe lead, pinning newspaper articles to her board, everything she can think of to keep going, to find him. And then, one day, the Coast Guard finds Castle floating in a dinghy in the middle of the ocean. Kate rushes to his side, but he's unconscious and very sunburned, poor guy. She listens to the doctor talk to Martha and Alexis, but wants Lanie to look him over, too, just to see if they can find any clues as to where he's been.
Lanie finds some very interesting tidbits from Castle's clothing that create more questions. He has a key with a 38 on it sewn into his pants. He's been exposed to Denghe fever. And he has a gunshot wound that is healing from being grazed probably a few weeks back. Hmmm...very interesting.
At the hospital, Ryan and Espo are talking about where Castle could have been and Espo expresses his anger at Castle for pulling off his own disappearance and leaving them all hanging like that. Ryan says, hey, after all the time we've spent with this guy, let's give him the benefit of the doubt. I was nodding my head through that whole scene, go Ryan! We don't know what happened yet. But the evidence is mounting.
The boys investigate the sky blue dinghy Castle was found in and trace it to a private beachfront property. They go question the owner, scaring the daylights out of him while he's taking out his trash. He claims he saw a camper down by the beach, but since it's public land, he didn't think too much about it. He also identifies Castle as the camper. Espo and Beckett go check it out and find a tent with Castle's shoes, watch, and wedding tuxedo, along with food and supplies. There's also newspaper clipping about his disappearance and it's confirmed that Castle's fingerprints and DNA are all over the tent. After that, even Ryan gives in and says he believes Castle was involved in his own disappearance somehow. So sad and kind of disappointing, but the evidence was pretty overwhelming and cops deal in evidence.
Castle wakes up at this point and has no memory of what happened. For him, it's like he was in the crash, then woke up in the hospital, that's it. Kate needs answers and he doesn't have any to give. He tells her he wouldn't just leave and I agree, he wouldn't just leave not only Kate, but also his daughter. The strain between them was palpable as Castle insisted she take him to his supposed campsite. Once he looks it over, he tells her it's just not possible that he camped there because he wouldn't set up so close to the water since he has a fear of tsunamis. (After he did research for a book. I can relate to research scaring an author! haha)
Kate isn't sure what to believe so they go to talk to the owner again who ID'd Castle the day before and when the owner comes to the door, he's a different guy! Castle has been framed. I have to say, Kate does looked relieved at that, in a way.
Back at home, Castle is talking about untangling the conspiracy around his disappearance before he drinks to homecomings and the people he loves. Awww. As Kate and Castle get ready for bed, Castle says he knows they just can't pick up where they left off, so he asks her how she didn't give up hope for two months. She confesses that she stared at his picture on the murder board and felt like if she did that long enough, it would keep him alive. He puts his arm around her and says he knows one thing, that he missed her terribly. Because there's no way he wouldn't have. *sniff*
I loved the kickoff to the season. (It sort of reminded me of Season 3 of Alias when Sydney comes back with no memory and spends a large chunk of the season figuring out what happened to her.) But will Castle's amnesia and whatever he went through make him different somehow? Who was behind it all? How will this affect him and Kate? And do the boys feel bad about doubting one of their best friends? I cannot wait for next week.
Did you watch? What did you think?
I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
5 comments:
I felt like they doubted him too quickly in places...maybe Espo and Ryan had ample evidence piling up, or whatever--but I wish Kate would have stood up the whole time and believed him no matter what, despite the evidence. They've been through SO much together.
And I feel anxious, like where is this leading, especially with Castle's statement at the end, "We can't pick up right where we left off, can we?" I'm FRIGHTENED that it's foreshadowing! :)
I think Kate believed right up until the tent and seeing his wedding tuxedo. The look on her face was so heartbreaking. :( She'd reached her limit by then I think. And she's always thought he was a little too good to be true. Maybe in the back of her mind she was thinking worst case scenario, you know?
I think it looks like Caskett is still solid, didn't you? He won't give her up after all they've been through together. At least I hope not!
Mike and I saw one big plot hole as soon as the FBI agent said that the money's serial numbers matched with the money used to crush the SUV. Unless money is withdrawn from a bank for something nefarious, like paying off a kidnapper, or blackmailer, and in coordination with law enforcement, then the bank won't bother to take the time to jot down the numbers, even if it is a large amount. That immediately thew our suspicion on the FBI agent. AND I'm so disgusted that the writers sprung the old "I can't remember" amnesia defense/excuse into this storyline. To me, that is so cliche. From this, they can have Castle robbing banks, or getting married to someone else, and all without explanation as to why he was a target to begin with. This will probably be the central theme around the whole season, and it tweaked me just enough that I might wait for your reviews to come out instead of investing my time in watching them. Yes, sometimes a straightforward kidnapping for vengeance, and being chained up in a basement and held for ransom by two crazed female groupies, sounds better to me. Instead, the wedding is indefinitely postponed until he remembers what he did/ what happened for those two months he literally was someone else. For all we know, he could end up in prison at the end of series finale. I would be so … spitting mad if I invested 7 years of viewership, of hoping, of wishful thinking of their getting together in marriage and not just immorally sleeping together, that I would never, ever watch another series, of any type, again!
Rant over and out.
We, too, were aggravated with the writers at the point Castle's face showed up on the money drop. All of them were immediately against him, how could he do this to us rather than giving him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's under duress, maybe they've threatened to kill Kate or Alexis if he doesn't do this. Five years of working alongside him, cut him some slack!
Overall, though, it was a good episode and we were frankly surprised they actually found him and got him talking before the end of the episode. We were sure they'd drag it out a couple more shows.
I agree with you Julie on the award winning performance. She's very emotive.
Anyone else think there might have been a bug in Castle's watch? ;)
Debra, if he had been kidnapped by crazed female groupies, I think he would have charmed his freedom out of them pretty quickly. :) I agree, I hope it isn't as cliche as you are thinking. I personally believe there's a lot of room for growth on the Castle story. And here's hoping for a mid-season wedding! :)
Jon, I think the doubt started to creep in when they saw his face, but Ryan and Kate didn't go over to the dark side until that tent scene I think. And I thought the same thing, that he could have been under duress when he made that money drop. Also, I hope the tech guys checked for bugs. I guess we'll find out! (I really am glad they didn't drag it out. The show isn't the same without Castle in it, you know? Even one show without him is too many.)
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