Castle: The Greater Good (6x19)

Wow, an episode focused on Captain Gates. Not something I would have expected, but I really, really, enjoyed it. Let's talk about the plot.

So, the case of the week was rather interesting. It was about a Wall Street broker.  He used to live in Venezuela, but he got out of a lower class situation and started making big money. Then, he got caught with drugs, and the Attorney's office offers him a deal – he starts spying on his boss so that he won't be turned in for drug charges.

Enter Elizabeth, Captain Gates' sister. She works for the Attorney's office and is planning this big case against the victim's boss. The death of the victim is really problematic for the case. Eventually, it turns out that Elizabeth's fellow Attorney's office worker had drugs planted on him, in order to force him to be their inside man. She was responsible for his death.

Along the way, we see tensions between Gates and her sister. Apparently, in a case years earlier, Gates had done her job and turned someone in, even though it compromised Elizabeth's case at the time. In this particular case, it seems like history is repeating itself, as Gates doesn't know how long she can keep information secret from the press or from the other brokers, as she looks in to this murder. However, it turns out that Gates and the team save Elizabeth from a huge failure by uncovering the truth of this case.

In a little subplot, Castle and Beckett try to decide who to invite to their wedding. They both have very, very long lists, and they work on trying to narrow them down. In the end, they try to decide on who they absolutely need to be there, in order to be happy. Both of them come up with only one name: their spouse-to-be. Of course, Castle reasons, he'll have to invite Alexis and his mother, and Beckett will have to invite her father and her aunt. Oh and then Ryan and Espo. And Gates. And Lanie. As the episode ends, their list grows once more!

Let's start with some negative aspects of the episode?

I put a question mark, because I honestly can't think of anything I didn't love. I suppose I could always use more Ryan and Espo, and I often times miss Alexis when she's not around (Oh my GOD, by the way, I totally met Molly Quinn on the street the other day and shook her hand. I was too flustered to stop and ask for a picture).

However, for the most part this episode was a winner. For one, I love the idea of focusing on Captain Gates. Some of the best, most memorable episodes of Castle have been the ones that focused on a different character. Like, that one where Ryan was undercover? Loved it! Episodes focusing on Alexis' life? I eat that stuff up! And even though Captain Gates had never been a character I was particularly drawn to or felt the need to know more about, once I saw this episode I totally fell in love with her.

It was so touching to see her softer side, as she reminisced about a happier past, in which she and her sister were very close. The fact that she opened up to Beckett was also unexpected, but lovely to behold. We see that Gates won’t compromise her ethics, even if it is for what her sister might consider "the greater good." In the end, they patch things up between them, but if a similar scenario arose again,  I know that both Gates and her sister would do their jobs to the best of their ability, even if they got in each other's way.

Beckett and Castle's little subplot was painfully sweet, but to be honest, that can be nice sometimes. When they both wrote “You” on their wedding lists, I had the biggest smile on my face. Sometimes, you don't need big relationship crises and drama to fuel an audience's interest in a couple. Sometimes, you just need to see two people working together and planning a life together, and to know that these two people will support and care for each other. With Beckett and Castle, we get that.

9/10