Castle: "Target"

By Michael Seese

What a gritty, emotion-wringing episode! Of course, given the plot, could it be anything but? Still, it was nice found a way to let Castle maintain a little bit of his trademark humor.

Martha: "My heart is never wrong."
Castle: "What about your first marriage? And your second?"

Beckett: "Do you want a coffee?"
Castle: "No thanks. My adrenaline will suffice."
 
The latter came after Castle's tête-à-tête with Stevens, the "wheel man." Personally, I'm glad they had Castle go medieval on his heinie. (Off-screen, of course.) It's what any father would want to do. And since in other situations Castle has been less than macho -- the bar fight in "Headhunters" comes to mind -- I thought it was good to see his other side. Or, as he stated:

Beckett: "I didn't think you had that side to you."
Castle: "When it comes to the people I love, I do."

Director Bill Roe employed a visual trick the show has used before: sepia. When Castle and Beckett met with Agent Harris, the room was awash in a light brown tone, giving everything a warm glow, which contrasted nicely with the chill of the scene. I would point out that the interview with Sara's parents involved no such visual effect.

Naturally, the funniest lines came before Castle found out that Alexis had been kidnapped:

Castle: "Well, it was acceptance until you started applying your fiendish logic."

Castle: "He was hiding in plain sight. A foreign agent in deep cover, on a special reconnaissance mission."
Beckett: "Why would he shoot up a van?"
Castle: "Maybe Jack Bauer was driving it."

Castle: "Though by definition, science fiction is not science."
Esposito: "It has the word in it."
Castle: "It's...that's an excellent point."

This was not an episode for "looks."

If I may pat myself (and my wife) on the back, our predictions were pretty spot-on.

Last week, I said that Beckett's line, "Castle, you don't need to see this," would refer to a blood-soaked jacket. OK, so it was a blood-soaked floor of the van...close enough. I did, however, say that this revelation would be at the very end of part 1. So call me 50/50. This week, when we found out that Hasim possessed an arsenal that rivals Ted Nugent's, my wife said, "He was probably paid by her family to protect her." She nailed it. Then at the end, when Alexis ran out to the roof, I said, "She's probably in Europe." And to be 100% honest, in my mind I thought, "Paris." Though as I've said elsewhere in this blog, I kind of have Paris on the brain right now.

So here is my prediction for this week: Sara's parents were behind the kidnapping. We'll see if I'm any percentage of correct on that one.

We're definitely looking forward to "Hunt."

Feel free to share your thoughts. 

What happens when Castle learns that Alexis was really the "Target."  Click to tweet.