Thoughts on Castle's Sleeper Episode

So, I'm a little late with this post because I've been hanging out at Holly Kelly's launch party. They're giving away a goodie basket of chocolate and books and the deadline is tomorrow evening, so you should head over there and enter!  Click here

Last night's Castle was eagerly anticipated by me. I wanted to know where Castle was for those two months and why he wouldn't want to remember that. It was so Alias-like and I hoped they'd have a good explanation and they kinda did. Sorta.

So, we start out the show with Castle having a weird flashing images sort of dream. He wakes up from it and goes to the kitchen where Martha and Beckett are both worried about him. Beckett suggests he see her old counselor and he does. The counselor uses hypnotherapy to get more details out of Castle from the dream, but he cautions Castle against thinking the dream is recalling facts. But, of course that's exactly what Castle thinks. He remembers a license plate and a few other things that has the team looking into it for him. The license plate is from Thailand, so he starts researching Thailand and making a murder board and being obsessed. Everyone is getting worried about him. Beckett tries to get him to focus on something less broad--like the entire country of Thailand--and focus on the trophy.  It turns out that was a debate trophy he was the co-winner of in school, so he tracks down his co-winner to ask him about it, but the guy is a dead end.  Castle looked so disappointed.

Esposito is sort of needling Castle this whole episode, not quite believing him and the story since the license plate number was used in action films and the guy next to him in the truck in the dream looks like Chuck Norris. It makes me a little sad to see Espo's reaction, though. I would think Esposito would at least give him the benefit of the doubt. Castle has done an awful lot for the guy.

Even with his misgivings, though, Esposito does reach out to his contacts and get a file folder of the Special Forces people that would have the tattoo that Castle remembers (and who looks like Chuck Norris). It's a pretty short list. Castle recognizes one and when they go over to his house they find him dead. Lainey does an autopsy and finds out eight of the guy's teeth were removed. Ick.

The boys get the police dogs to do a search and find the bloody rubber gloves and some teeth in a storm drain. The dead guy had a napkin from a strip club in his pocket and they track down a friend of his from the strip club named Amber. She IDs the same guy that Castle remembered from his dream shooting at him behind the truck, but now he's in town trying to track down the dead guy (and Amber gave him the info he wanted.) And later, Amber is found in the apartment, killed the same way the special forces guy was. Double ick.

Back with the counselor, Castle can't remember any new details, so he asks Castle to think about what triggered the dreams. Then Castle remembers sitting in a coffee shop people watching, (I do that all the time! Writers,) when a news report came on and he felt a ringing/buzzing in his ears. They play back the broadcast and Castle sees that same guy that was shooting at him in Thailand in the background of the news report. They ID him as a former Russian special forces guy.

Castle starts looking into the Chuck Norris lookalike dead guy's phone records and financials and sees a charge to a restaurant every Tuesday at 6:00. So, of course Castle heads down there alone and he sees this waiter look at him funny and run away. Wait, it's the guy from his dream that was shot and dying. Castle chases him down and asks him a bunch of questions. Apparently, the guy's name is Balal and he used to be a schoolmate of Castle's before he joined the CIA, then went over and joined al-Qaeda (what the wha?) and got pretty high up and decided to give information on that organization. Only, the transfer didn't go so well and his handler was killed so there was a leak in the CIA. Balal said he'd only go with someone he knew like Richard Castle who was high-profile. He had information on an imminent al-Qaeda attack, but they couldn't get him out of Thailand without Castle and time was of the essence. So the CIA kidnapped him and took him to Thailand to get Balal out and save the world from an al-Qaeda attack.

So, here's my question: if Castle did so much good, why did he specifically want his memories of those two months removed? He's shown that he can keep secrets (with his dad being CIA and all his work with the police). It just seemed like a huge plot hole.

Well, anyway, Balal's cover is blown so he's blowing that pop stand and pretty much just leaves Castle standing in an alley. Of course the Russian hit man confronts him and Castle cowers, but at the last second someone else shoots the hitman. It's Jenkins, the guy who told Castle to forget and move on.  He fills in the blanks that Balal left, saving the world blah blah blah. Castle punches him for making him miss his wedding. It just seemed like a bit of a letdown, really. Why didn't they just explain things to Castle on his wedding day instead of letting Kate think he was dead and look for him for two months? That seemed extra cruel. And we still don't know why Castle was shot or what happened on the mission to cause him to be gone for two months and found floating in the ocean. Hopefully the next couple of episodes address some of that.

But, for now, Kate and Rick are happy with the answers they have and that Rick didn't do anything horrible while he was gone.  Hopefully that stays the case.

In other news, the show hasn't been officially renewed and Stana Katic hasn't re-signed yet, either. I hope both those things happen soon! This fan wants to see another season for sure.

Did you watch last night? What did you think?