Castle: Heartbreaker (8x16)

This was the best episode of the whole season. It was Espo-centric and it made me so happy. If only more of this season could have been like this.

Cons:

There was a subplot with Beckett and Castle that I didn't care for. Basically, Beckett has now officially moved back in with Castle, and she finds that Lucy, Castle's weird AI thing, seems to be jealous. Beckett switches the program to a male's voice, named "Linus," at the end, and Linus seems to not like Castle. I guess this plot thread could have been cute, but it detracted from all the much better stuff going on in this episode. I'm super annoyed that Alexis, Martha, Ryan, and Espo all took the news of Beckett and Castle's reconciliation without more than a shrug. I wanted them to get pissed! All the lies, all the weird deceit... I'd be livid if my friends or family members pulled something like that on me. As glad as I am that we can put the stupid separation plot line behind us, it's aggravating how quickly everybody forgot about all the months of idiocy preceding this reunion. This blasé return to the status quo really illustrates how weak and pointless the whole of this season's main storyline has been up to this point.

Pros:

Luckily, that plot thread made up only a very small part of the episode.

The main story involved a murder and an attempted robbery. The robbery matched the MO of a crime committed about ten years before. Turns out, one of the criminals is a woman named Sonia, who Espo had once been engaged to, before he found out she was a criminal and had her arrested. In order to find Sonia's old partner in this crime (aka the likely killer of this new victim), the NYPD lets Sonia out on furlough so she can help. She goes with Espo to a Latino bar to try and track down her partner, a man whose true name she never knew. Later, however, it turns out that this lead doesn't get them anywhere. Sonia is to be brought back to prison. Espo lets his feelings for Sonia get in the way, and he takes her to dinner at his family's house before bringing her back to prison. This was a mistake, since she escapes from Espo's house!

Ryan tries to help Espo find her without telling Beckett, but Espo later takes off on his own, not wanting to get Ryan into trouble. Turns out, Sonia had this recent crime arranged on purpose so that the police would have to ask for her help, so that she could get out and escape. She wanted to get to her father, the real mastermind behind the original crime, so that she could find the location of the gold he had been hiding for her all of these years. Espo follows her and figures it out. Sonia's partner hits Espo on the head and brings him as collateral for them when they collect the gold. Sonia won't let her partner kill Espo once they find the gold, however. Espo encourages Sonia to do what's right and go back to prison and take her rightful punishment. Ryan shows up, having tracked Espo and Sonia to the hiding place of the gold. Sonia goes back to prison, probably adding at least two years to her sentence.

There were so many great things about this main plot. I don't even know where to start.

Sonia and Espo's chemistry was really genuine and believable. You could tell that this woman might just be the one true love of Javier Esposito's life, and yet you also understood why it could never work between them. Talk about tragic! The scene at the end was particularly touching - Javi says that if he could be strong enough to arrest the love of his life, Sonia could be strong enough to endure the remainder of her sentence. Javi admits that when he found out that Sonia was a criminal ten years ago, he came very close to packing his bags and going on the run with her, sacrificing everything he'd ever believed in. But he couldn't go through with it. He would have been giving up who he really was, and he wouldn't have deserved Sonia if he'd done that. Yikes.

On a lighter note, Sonia and Javi had a lot of adorable banter moments. I liked the part at the end when Sonia says "thank God you didn't go bald," and Javi replied: "I was just thinking the same thing about you!" I could really believe them as a couple, which made the impossibility of their situation all the more tragic.

Sonia's motivations were also realistic. Yes, she's a criminal. But she didn't mean for anybody to get hurt. She felt bitter that her two partners in crime were living large and spending the money from their heist, while she had to sit in prison for a decade. It makes sense. She was bitter and lonely and she had a rough childhood. But there was also a great scene where Javi reminded her that this excuse only goes so far. At some point, she has to take responsibility for her own decisions. I felt like this storyline did a great job of showing both sides of the issue - yes, Sonia got an unfair card dealt to her, and that does explain a lot of her illegal activity. It doesn't 100% justify it, but in some ways it becomes understandable. To a point.

Castle and Ryan partner up for a bit in this episode so they can tail Javi and Sonia. I love how Ryan instantly loses all of his maturity when he's hanging around Castle. They use Sonia's ankle monitor to spy on Javi and Sonia's conversations through a hidden mic, and take delight in hearing Javi threaten to chop off one of the bar tender's fingers if he doesn't give him the information he wants. I loved the moment where they both turn to each other and say: "don't tell Beckett" with dead serious voices.

The case itself was actually really intriguing and fun to follow. There were lots of good twists and turns, like when we found out that the victim was in on the robbery, or like when Joey, moniker "Hammerhead," turned out to be part of Sonia's escape plan, rather than a simple man of business as he claimed to have become. The best line with Joey was about how he owned a franchise called "Chicken, Chicken, Chicken," which Ryan pointed out had gone "bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt." Then there was the twist that Sonia's father was Great White, the mastermind behind the original heist of ten years previously. So many good moments that I didn't see coming, but that still made sense once I knew about them.

And then of course there's the Ryan and Esposito bromance. I love these two. Ryan is worried about Javi throughout this whole episode, calling him by his first name pretty much the whole way through. Adorable! When Javi calls him and tells him that Sonia has escaped, Ryan doesn't tell Beckett, instead choosing to help him. Javi doesn't want him to take that risk, but Ryan insists. He's got his partner's back, no matter what. There's this moment when Javi goes off without Ryan and Ryan gets all freaked out, thinking about Javi going in to a dangerous situation without backup. He stops all the action at the precinct and asks for help in figuring out what Javi knew: "Please, it a matter of life and death!"

Also, how adorable was it to meet Espo's family? I love the fact that he has a big family dinner every week, and that Ryan is clearly a regular guest over at Javi's mother's house. Ryan even calls her "Mami," which is too precious for words.

I also loved the moment with Beckett and Esposito. He apologizes for letting his emotions get the better of him, and Beckett admits that she's done the same thing many times. Still, she's a captain now, and she has to suspend him for one week without pay. There's no resentment or anger on a personal level. Beckett even tells Javi that he did the right thing. I love how professional Beckett is. This is the sort of thing I was hoping to see when Beckett became the captain. Hopefully we can focus more on that, and less on LokSat, for the remainder of this season...

But let's not mention such evils here. This episode was great! You know, there's been talk about how this show could go on even if Fillion and Katic both left it, and I thought that idea seemed pretty stupid... however, I'd totally watch the hell out of an Espo-and-Ryan-centric show, at least for a season or two!

9/10