Castle: Montreal (7x02)

I really liked one thread of this episode, and really couldn't care less about the other one. Let's take a look.

Castle is looking for answers about his disappearance. He goes on TV to promote his new books, and while on the air says he'll offer a $250,000 prize to anyone who has concrete information about where he was during his missing months.

A case pops up, and Castle is relieved to be working on something he might be able to actually solve. The case involves a toy company executive who disguised himself as a janitor to learn about his company, and uncover a secret drug ring within it. All of this was made possible when his dog chewed on one of the company's toys and died, due to being poisoned with the drugs hidden inside.

While Beckett works on the case, Castle and Alexis continue trying to solve the mystery of Castle's disappearance. Most people calling in with information don't have anything useful - one guy even has an alien abduction theory. However, Castle and Alexis are able to follow a lead up to Montreal, where Castle is able to find a safe deposit box in a bank, to match the key that was found on his person when he reappeared. Inside the deposit box are three memory cards with videos on them, one each for Beckett, Martha, and Alexis. Each contains a similar video - Castle, telling them that he loves them and he's sorry he can't tell them more.

Using hints from the video, and the amazing technology available at the NYPD, Castle is able to find out where in Montreal the video was taken. He goes back to that place, and comes across a man - the same man who lied about his identity in last week's episode and then disappeared. He tells Castle that Castle asked to forget what happened. Castle doesn't believe it at first, but then the man tells Castle that he knows what happened to Castle when he was a kid - the real reason he became a mystery writer. Castle is mystified, because he hasn't told anyone that. The man said that Castle told him the story in case Castle tried to come back and learn what happened - it's proof that Castle himself asked to forget.

Castle is confused by his decision to forget, and says he can't just let it go. Martha, Alexis, and Beckett all try to persuade him to do just that. Castle asks Beckett to marry him right away, but Beckett says that neither of them are ready. They should wait one month, just to get their feet back under them after all they've been through.

Oh - random subplot things I should mention - it looks like Esposito and Lanie are back together. Castle's disappearance reminded them that life is too short to waste time. Also, Martha has started seeing someone who she met at grief counselling, but the man doesn't know that Castle is back from the dead, essentially, so Martha wants him to hide when the man comes over.

So, I shall start with my one major complaint: I didn't care about the case of the week. I mean, seriously, we have a much more interesting mystery right in front of us! We all want to know what happened to Castle! The case of the week wasn't terrible by any means, but it was certainly not all that interesting. There were no big shockers about who the killer was, and the twists within it weren't all that gripping. Again - nothing wrong, but nothing particularly right, either.

I also felt a bit insulted by the Espo and Lanie thing. I think these two characters are important enough that we should have seen their journey back to one another. Instead, it's tossed in as a side-note, and then treated as a joke for most of the episode. It would be cool to get a Lanie-centric episode one of these days. I would really love to see that.

But let's look at the good side of all this - the parts of the episode that focus on Castle's amnesia were excellent. The story built up to a nice climax, which surprised me in its intensity. The idea that Castle chose to forget whatever happened is not one I would have considered, but it certainly makes things interesting. They're doing a good job with Beckett and Castle's relationship, too. Obviously they love each other, and yet things aren't that simple. Beckett was really traumatized by what Castle put her through, and it's not as though Castle has had an easy time of it either. I'm excited to see how they're going to build back up to that strong relationship we all know and love.

I'll leave it there. My concern is that they're going to ignore the problem of Castle's amnesia until mid-season, giving us some bland case-of-the-week episodes in between. I wish we could just keep up with the A-plot stuff!

7.5/10