Castle: Kill Switch (7x08)

Esposito-centric episode! Yes! Some days I think this show should just be about Espo and Ryan. As much as I love Castle and Beckett, most of my favorite episodes of this show, ever, have been ones that focus on one or both of the Ryan and Espo pair. Let us begin with a brief look at the plot.

Basically, the team is investigating the murder of a man who died in the park. Esposito and Ryan go to track down someone they think might be involved. As Ryan waits in the car, Espo follows this man into a subway car. Once in the subway, Espo is horrified to find that the man (Jared) has a bomb strapped to his chest. The rest of the team and a very worried Lanie have to figure out what's going on, while Espo tries to keep Jared from setting the bomb off. He also makes friends with another cop on the subway car by the name of Marisa.

Slowly, pieces start to fall into place. Jared only has one demand for the police - he wants his girlfriend, Erin, to be released from prison. Later he asks for her to be taken to a specific location. Ryan discovers that Jared seems to be following very specific instructions, like he's acting on behalf of somebody else. In the end, everything becomes clear: Jared was passionate about freeing Erin, and he fell in with someone on the internet who told him to use the bomb to get people's attention. Turns out, Jared was being used as a tool to disseminate a deadly strain of the H5N1 virus to the people. That way, the people with the antidote could make a lot of money. The real bad guy is apprehended.

Inside the subway car, Espo and Marisa manage to subdue Jared and stop him from blowing everybody up. Ryan and the rest of the team joyfully reunite with Javi. Lanie is particularly relieved to see that he's okay. It looks like these two might be getting pretty serious!

If I were to have any complaints, it would be that we haven't really seen much of Lanie and Espo's relationship leading up to this. Like, it would have made more of an impact if we could have seen how close they were getting prior to this episode. But that's a small thing.

Also, the actual reasoning behind the suicide bomber, and the whole thing with the flu virus... it got a bit convoluted. I always think it's best to go simple with episodes like this. Some of the twists and turns probably could have been cut down.

But, mostly, I just loved having this episode to focus on Javier Esposito.

There's the bromance, of course. Ryan was so upset when he realized that Javi was in trouble, and I loved the hug between them at the end. Very nice. Castle and Beckett had some adorably concerned reactions, too. I love how Beckett called them "Kevin" and "Javi" in this episode, instead of by their last names. She feels how personal this situation has become for all of them.

Marisa was an amazing guest character. I want her to come back and be part of the show. She and Javi had some great chemistry. I don't mean romantically, or anything. They just seemed to click as a duo really well. This episode did a good job of balancing Marisa's character. We didn't learn everything about her and thus get overloaded with exposition, but we learned enough to feel like we knew her, and be invested in her safety.

Despite my complaint about Lanie and Javi, I ultimately do really like them together. I hope that they can find happiness together. I'd love to have some more Javi-centric episodes that dealt with their relationship in more detail. Lanie and Beckett's friendship got a bit of attention here, which was lovely. They're sweet together.

This episode had a fair amount of suspense, and the pacing was excellent. All of the scenes on the subway car, especially, were really good and intense.

Castle didn't have much to do in this episode, but he did finish things off with a couple of terrible puns. He says he'll take everyone out to drinks, and suggests they take the subway. Then, he says - "too soon?" And makes a pun about a "token" of his apology. He then asks "am I on the wrong 'track' here?" Oh, Castle. This is why I love you.

8/10