Castle 7-2 - Montreal - Some Answers Along With More Questions

After watching Montreal, the second episode of the seventh season of Castle, I do feel much better about what is going on with the new story tied to Rick that is being introduced.  I still very much dislike the season six finale and I’m honestly not sure what, if anything, will fix that for me.  However that one disappointing episode didn’t ruin the entire show and I’m definitely interested in what is going on.  I still have some issues about how things were set up in the premiere, but this episode does recover some of the backwards steps taken, and I am feeling more positive overall now.

Spoilers for this episode, as well as at least the premiere and possibly finale, are ahead.  There are actually probably more spoilers in this one than I have shared in previous posts about any episode.  You have been warned.  Read at your own risk.

I’m not sure exactly how much time has passed since the end of the premiere, but it doesn’t seem like a long time.  Rick does an interview tied to the release of his two newest books, but the woman conducting the interview is more interested in asking questions about Rick’s disappearance and if his relationship with Kate is still good.  Rick comes up with the idea of offering a reward for information leading to answers about what happened to him.  Captain Gates is less than happy when she discovers that Rick gave out the number of the precinct for the tip line.  Rick’s reaction to hearing that the phones have been ringing off the hook is shockingly hilarious.  

Rick is back for the first time helping Kate and the guys with a new murder, involving the owner of a toy company.  When they go to the office to talk to the employees, Rick quickly gets distracted playing with the different toys.  It doesn’t take long for Kate to discover that the victim had been keeping some kind of secret from everyone before his death.  The case is all right overall, but it isn’t as interesting as what is going on with Rick’s search for answers.  Alexis is helping Rick sort through all the calls, most of which seem to be from crackpots or women desperate to meet Rick.  Martha has started to go out with someone she met in a grief counseling group, and if Rick wouldn’t mind to much, it would help if he would pretend to still be gone.  Martha says that she and her new guy connected over their grief and it would mess things up if he found out that Rick came home.  It sounds like Martha logic.  When Rick gets a mysterious call on his personal cell phone, he decides to meet the caller even though Kate has misgivings.

At first, when Rick meets the guy who called alone, I thought it was fake Jenkins from the premiere.  Once I got a better look at him, I realized it was a different guy.  At first he seems to have information that may be helpful, but it quickly becomes apparent that the guy is one of the crackpots, something he doesn’t want to seem to admit to Kate.  Not long after a couple shows up at the precinct saying they may have information.  They think they found Rick in the background of one of their honeymoon pictures in Montreal.  With some help from Alexis, they figure out that Rick is standing outside a bank, which causes Alexis to suggest the key that Rick had hidden in his jeans when he was found was for a safe deposit box at that bank.

Kate agrees that going to Montreal makes sense in their search for answers, though she says she won’t be able to go until the weekend because of the active case.  Rick thinks he can go alone but Kate doesn’t think that is a good idea.  Alexis agrees with Kate and they decide that Alexis will go with Rick to keep him out of trouble.  They find the bank and Rick comes up with an idea to get into the safe deposit room.  Something seems a little off with the banker that Rick meets with, almost like he knows something.  The key does in fact open a safe deposit box.  Inside the box are envelopes addressed to Kate, Martha, and Alexis in Rick’s handwriting.  Each envelope contains a memory card.  When Rick is back in New York, he takes the one for Kate to her and has her watch it, saying the ones for Martha and Alexis have basically the same message on them.  The card has a video message Rick made during his two month disappearance in which he says that if  Kate is seeing the video then he is probably dead.  He also says that he did not leave on his own to avoid the wedding and says how he loves her, always.  Seeing that video does a lot to help Kate and it clears up once and for all that he was not trying to leave her.

Kate comes up with the idea of seeing if Tori can get any information off the memory card.  Rick decides to stay behind in case Tori finds anything when Kate and the guys head off after a new lead.  Tori has some sort of computer program that can analyze the faint images out a window behind Rick in the video to figure out where it was made.  When the program comes up with a location, Rick decides to head back to Montreal alone to check it out.  Once there, he finds the room where he made the videos and Fake Jenkins turns up again, this time with a gun, saying that Rick shouldn’t be asking questions and trying to figure out what happened.  Fake Jenkins then goes on to say that Rick wanted to forget.  When Rick objects, Fake Jenkins mentions something that happened when Rick was 11, that he hasn’t told anyone else before, claiming that Rick told him as a way to convince himself he really did want to forget. 

Once back home, Rick shares what he learned and is troubled by the thought of what he would have done that he would want to forget.  Alexis suggests that he had just seen something while Martha basically says maybe it would be best to let it go.  That night, Kate reassures Rick that she is not going anywhere while pointing out that they both need a little more time to readjust before getting married.  She also points out that Rick must have had a reason for wanting to forget.

There are a few answers provided during this episode, the most important coming in the video Rick made for Kate that makes it clear he was not trying to leave her and what happened was out of his control.  I’m glad that Rick made that video since it does a lot to help Kate with her concerns with what has been going on.  We also now know that for at least part of the time, Rick was in Montreal, though that doesn’t explain why he had antibodies to Dengue fever in his system when he was found.  It also doesn’t explain how he ended up in the dinghy. 

Personally, I don’t trust Fake Jenkins.  He is already a known liar who sounded very convincing in the premiere when he gave his story to Kate.  Too many things about his story don’t fully make sense, including the fact that he has a gun pulled on Rick.  The hint about what happened when Rick was 11 was supposed to be the proof Rick left behind to convince his future self to stop looking for answers, so the gun seems to be overkill.  I really don’t see Rick, even if he wanted to forget, being all right with the idea of Fake Jenkins threatening to shoot him.  I’m not that convinced that Fake Jenkins is telling the truth. 

If Rick wanted to forget something from the missing two months, that still doesn’t explain how he was shot, why he had the Dengue fever antibodies, not to mention how and why he ended up in dinghy floating on the ocean for days or why stuff was planted in the tent.  If the memory loss was Rick’s idea, then why wasn’t a better cover story concocted that didn’t raise as many questions?  It does seem odd that Rick doesn’t seem to be questioning if he can trust what Fake Jenkins said, probably because of the mention of the childhood incident.  Even with that, I think it is possible Fake Jenkins is lying.  It doesn’t mean that Rick willingly shared that story.  Some kind of drugs, like a truth serum, or hypnosis could have been used to get the information. 

While Rick may say he will deal with not knowing, I don’t think that will last.  He may manage for a little while, but the need to finish the story will become stronger and he will be back to looking for answers.  I also think that Rick, before he lost the memory of those two months, would have known fully well when he said he wanted to forget that he wouldn’t just give up.  If he truly wanted to forget, then why didn’t he do something else to try to convince his future self, like maybe leave himself a video or letter.  By the way, I think Rick made the videos without Fake Jenkins and whoever else was involved knowing and managed to get them in the safety deposit box.  It doesn’t make sense that they would have let him make the videos, leave them somewhere safe, or keep the key. 

After I thought about things from the premiere more, it seemed like there were more holes in the evidence discovered that pointed to Rick being behind his own disappearance.  Certain little things here and there that don’t fully fit.  Normally Kate is able to pick up on those things, though I can see why she didn’t notice those things as fast in this case since she is clearly more emotionally involved.  It would have been nice if it came out during the episode that Kate had started to pick up on the odd things, but that didn’t really happen.  Kate and Lanie have another little talk which is nice.  Esposito has a new ring tone on his phone thanks to Lanie that I found funny once I realized what it was.  Evidently the two of them have definitely gotten back together officially. 

There is a nice scene with Ryan and Esposito at the toy company office in which Ryan acts like Rick, picking up the various toys while he shares worries about being able to afford everything for the baby.  Overall, the episode has a good mix of humor with the more serious moments.  I liked Alexis in the episode.  She has shown an ability to point out useful things in the past.  She has shown that she has a bit of the same interesting in mysteries that her father has in previous seasons - that was mostly missing last season.  To me, it fits and makes sense that she comes up with useful ideas again and that she wants to go with Rick.  I really like that she and Kate are in agreement with Rick not going to Montreal alone.  His declaration that he is a grown man and doesn’t need permission followed by basically begging for permission is really funny.

With the premiere, while I felt better about where things were going by the end, there were things that I didn’t like about it.  With this episode, I feel even better than I did after the premiere.  Yes there are still a lot of unanswered questions, including a few new ones, but there has been a little bit of progress and the most important thing has been made clear to Kate - that Rick didn’t intend to miss the wedding.  I do think this stuff will come up again, though I’m not thinking it will be brought up in every episode.  I do think that the story has recovered a few of the steps back that were taken with the premiere.  From the short teaser at the end of the episode, it looks like the next one will be one of the sillier type of cases that Rick loves - along the lines of him thinking the killer is a zombie or that there is a vampire running around the city.

Recent episodes of Castle can be watched online at the ABC website.  I think they usually show up there a day after they air.  From when I looked before, the website will only have an episode available to watch for a limited amount of time. 

The Story of Johanna Beckett

Johanna Beckett is the mother of Kate Beckett, one of the main characters in the television series Castle, which is now in season six. Johanna was murdered several years before the beginning of the series, so she has never actually been seen alive during the show. Despite that, her influence has still been felt. Things about Johanna and her murder have slowly been shared, a little at a time, over the course of the series. It has been an important part of the show without being the main focus. I have liked how the story has been told slowly, over six years and I think it was handled well.

Some of what I discuss will be spoilers for people who haven’t been watching Castle - or are just a few episodes behind - including the episode Veritas that aired on May 5, 2014. Read at your own risk.

The murder of her mother has really shaped who Kate is. She was in college, planning to become a lawyer, when her mother was stabbed. It was ruled a random act, and the case was never solved. Kate changed her career focus, eventually becoming a homicide detective for the New York police force. She has given many others the answers and closure she didn’t get. Kate tried to solve her mother’s murder, but was unable to. She finally moved on, deciding she couldn’t find the killer after trying to almost consumed her. She found a way to deal with her mother’s killer never being caught. Then Richard Castle came into her life.

Shortly after Rick started to shadow Kate, she told him about her mother’s murder. She also told him not to poke around in the case and that she would be through with him if he did. Rick went along with that for a while, but he ended up digging into Johanna’s murder. He brought in one of his contacts in, and they uncovered something new. Kate was furious when Rick told her, and their developing friendship and work relationship seemed to be over. That is how the first season ended. By the end of the first episode of season two, Kate accepts Rick’s apology and the two got back to working together.

From that point on, new things tied to Johanna’s murder pop up from time to time. Kate is blind sided when she is told that a victim in a new murder investigation was killed by the same person who killed Johanna. Kate, with Rick’s help, discovers the identity of the hit man who killed Johanna. Unfortunately, he takes Rick hostage, and Kate is forced to shoot him before finding out who hired him. Rick feels guilty for that and plans to leave, but Kate stops him. She wants to find and arrest the person responsible for her mother’s death, and she wants Rick there when it happens. That is a big change from when she told him to stay out of it.

The next potential break comes when John Raglan, the detective who investigated Johanna’s murder, contacts Kate, wanting to talk. Kate takes Rick to the meeting, but just when Raglan was going to say something, he is shot by a sniper. Kate, Rick, Ryan, and Esposito discover that Raglan and his partner Gary McCallister had been kidnaping members of the mob for ransom several years before Johanna’s murder. One of the kidnaping attempts went wrong, leaving an undercover FBI agent dead. The intended kidnaping target, Joe Pulgatti, was then framed for the murder. Seven years later, Johanna took up Pulgatti’s case, working to file an appeal. She was getting dangerously close to discovering the truth about the murder and who the dirty cops were when she was killed. When Kate talks to McCallister, he insists that someone else he refers to as the dragon hired the hitman that killed Johanna. He points the finger at drug lord Vulcan Simmons to try to hide his own involvement in what happened. While Vulcan was twisted and evil, he actually wasn’t involved in Johanna’s death.

By the final episode of the third season, the dragon seems to be trying to get rid of loose ends, including anyone connected to Johanna’s murder. McCallister, who has been in jail, is killed by the same man who killed Raglan. The killer then is sent after Kate, who is more determined than ever to track down who is responsible for her mom’s death. It turns out that a third cop had been involved in the mob kidnaping ring and that someone else more powerful learned about it - the dragon. Instead of turning in the cops, the dragon took the money from the ransoms. I was shocked when it came out that the third cop was Roy Montgomery, the captain of the 12th precinct and Kate’s supervisor. Roy was just a rookie when all of that happened, and he then focused on trying to make up for what had happened. He had evidence that he had been using for years to keep Kate safe from the dragon. He sent the evidence to a friend, Michael Smith, before making a stand, giving up his life to protect Kate. Unfortunately that didn’t stop the dragon from having Kate shot.

During the first episode of season four, Smith contacts Rick, explaining that there is information that can keep Kate safe, but only if she stops pushing to solve her mother’s murder. Rick reluctantly agrees to get her to back off. Things went back to mostly normal between Rick and Kate, though each of them were keeping things from the other. In the final episode of that season, another murder puts Kate back on the trail of Cole Maddox, the man who shot her. Rick tries to get her to back off again after being contacted by Smith, but she is determined to get Maddox even though she is in grave danger. Rick decides to end things when she won’t stop. She is almost killed again, but that makes Kate realize her feelings for Rick and she acts on them by the end of the episode.

Season five picks up with Rick and Kate being happily together, though worried for Kate’s safety. They decide to act and they find Smith after he has been beaten by Maddox for the file. Maddox is killed in his attempt to get the last remaining copy, the file seems to be destroyed as well and Smith dies in the hospital. Ryan shows up with all the little bits that are left of the file and he, Esposito, Rick, and Kate try to piece together enough to figure out who the dragon is. They are successful and figure out that the dragon is senator William Bracken who just happens to be in New York. Bracken used the money from the mob kidnapings to fund his first political campaign. Kate goes and confronts him, bluffing through the meeting, making him believe that she has a copy of the file that will go public if she or anyone she cares about is hurt. They come to an uneasy truce, though Kate tells the others that she will still get justice for her mother.

Kate and Bracken meet again later in season five when he is back in New York for a political event and is linked to a murder. At first, Kate sees him as a suspect, but she learns that someone has threatened him instead. Kate is forced to work to protect him and even save his life, causing Bracken to say that he owes her a debt. Nothing else happens until later in season six when Kate encounters Vulcan Simmons again and is almost killed on his orders. A female hired killer saves Kate, saying only that Lazarus didn’t want her dead. That makes Kate believe that Bracken is Lazarus. The believe is enforced when Kate learns that Vulcan has ties to a group that is funneling money into political campaigns. Kate is more convinced when she sees Bracken announcing that he has formed a committee to explore running for president. She remains focused on trying to find some kind of evidence to take Bracken down without letting him know what she is up to.

Kate and Rick spend six weeks on what they call their project, following Jason Marks, someone they believe will lead to evidence that will take down Bracken. Marks turns up as a murder victim, soon followed by Vulcan. When evidence points to Kate, it is clear that she is being set up for Vulcan’s murder, so she and Rick plan to go on the run. Smith turns up alive, talking about a tape there is supposed to be of Bracken admitting to having people murdered. Bracken shows up, along with two goons, and talks about how he is responsible for all the good things in Kate’s life because he had her mother killed. Talk about having a screw loose. Anyway, Bracken claims he is too smart to kill Kate himself, so he leaves his goons behind to handle it, but they underestimate Kate. She takes them out even though she is drugged and injured.

While passed out, Kate remembers the first time she met Montgomery. That memory convinces her that her mother had the tape and hid it where Kate or her dad could find it. Kate and Rick go through Johanna’s things, only to be arrested by IA who has been after Kate since the evidence turned up linking her to Vulcan’s murder. At the precinct, Kate is feeling like she failed when she notices the elephants on her desk and something clicks. They had been Johanna’s originally. Kate manages to open some sort of compartment in them and out falls the tape. Captain Gates, who has been filled in by Ryan and Esposito, plays the tape with the IA cops listening. Bracken and Montgomery are on the tape. Not only does Bracken admit to having people killed in the past, he talks about having Johanna killed too if she doesn’t stop poking around. Kate is then able to go to Washington, D.C. and finally arrest Bracken.

At this point, I honestly don’t know if things with Bracken are completely done or not. It wouldn’t surprise me if he tried to pull something else. He did kind of have a look on his face that he was thinking this isn’t done yet. I think the story was handled wonderfully well and like how it seems to be resolved. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if Kate’s dad was shown at the end as well. There really isn’t a need for much else to happen with this particular story. I would be all right if something is mentioned briefly now and then, like an upcoming trial or that Bracken was sentenced. The murder of Johanna has been the longest running story of the series, apart from the story of Rick and Kate’s relationship, even though it wasn’t brought up all the time. If things hadn’t been handled well, the arrest of Bracken could have been anticlimactic or even a let down. Thankfully, that didn’t happen because the story was handled very well. It took fifteen years (and six seasons of the show), but there is finally justice for Johanna and the truth about Bracken is out.

Castle - One of My Favorite Shows

There are a few different tv shows that I watch every week.  With some of them, I don’t really mind if I miss an episode, or two, or three.  There are a few shows that I never miss - thanks to my DVR.  Castle is one of those shows.

I started watching Castle with the very first episode in the spring of 2009 and I haven’t missed an episode.  There are a few that I don’t like as much, but I have seen them all.  I decided to start watching Castle because one of the main characters was being played by Nathan Fillion.  I came to really like him from Firefly, a show that was cancelled much too soon.  I’m still annoyed about that.

** There could be a few spoilers included for people who haven’t seen all the episodes of the show.  You have been warned.  Read at your own risk. **

Castle is a comedy, drama, mystery show that airs on ABC on Monday nights at 10:00 PM.  The show is in syndication now, and a few episodes a day are on TNT during the week.  The first five seasons are available on DVD.  The last few years, during the summer, ABC has aired the show at different times.  The show is about Richard Castle, a successful mystery author, and Katherine Beckett, a homicide detective on the New York city police force.  The first episode has Kate and her team investigating a murder that is a recreation of a murder from one of Rick’s books.  That leads to Kate going to talk to Rick, who is immediately intrigued.  He uses his connections with the mayor to get to shadow Kate as research for a new series of books about a character based on her.  The two have clashed over various things from episode to episode, but they ultimately work well together.

The series is currently in the sixth season and I still love it.  Certain aspects of the show have gotten better over the years.  It isn’t a typical police show because there is a good amount of humor added in to most of the episodes.  The humor is usually provided by Rick and some of his wild theories - time traveling killer, mummy’s curse, ninja assassin, or aliens.  I really like that the show is a bit different and the inclusion of the humor and even silliness at times helps to make the show even more entertaining.  Most episodes can stand alone fairly well while also adding to character development and the ongoing relationship between Rick and Kate.  There are a few longer ongoing stories that pop up every so often and that have had a fairly large impact on the characters.  Most of the time, the episodes that deal with those ongoing stories tend to be more serious in nature, and sometimes, they are even a bit dark. 

While the show features a lot of murder investigations, as well as a few other types of crimes, at its core, Castle is the love story of Rick and Kate.  They met for the first time during the first episode, and their relationship has evolved.  Rick was interested in Kate right from the start, but Kate wasn’t.  She tried to keep her distance, but it didn’t take long for the two of them to get a bit closer and develop a friendship.  That friendship has been tested at times by other relationships or possible breaches of trust, but they have managed to work through all of that. 

In the last episode of season four, Kate finally realized she was ready to try a relationship with Rick and the two of them have been involved since then.  There were a few issues that they worked through and for all of season six, they have been happily engaged.  They have been so happy overall during the current season and their relationship has gotten even stronger.  A few little things have come up, which is to be expected, but now they talk to each other about those things instead of holding them in.  Now we are just days away from the season finale which looks to include the wedding.  If that gets messed up, I will be ever so pissed.  I have dealt with other things in previous seasons that I didn’t like too much, but messing up the wedding will really tick me off.  I love that Rick and Kate are together and that the writers and creator didn’t go the route of having them break up then make up who knows how many times.  I hate when that happens on a show.  I’ve stopped watching other shows when that nonsense started.  I like Rick and Kate together and think the show has only gotten stronger with the change to their relationship.