Castle: Season 7, Episode 20: Sleeper
This was one of those episodes that strays away from the murder of the week formula this show lives off. I love when they highlight a character for an episode as I’ve mentioned before. It finally gave some insight as to where Rick was for those missing months. They went a little far with the whole memory replacement thing, but that’s not the first time this show has pushed the realism limit. There was a blaster pistol before and a surgeon that could make people look exactly like other people. Let’s not forget the time traveler episode. That was one of my favorites.
Anyway, Rick was apparently needed for a secret CIA mission in which a friend from high school was defecting from Al-Qaeda. His contact was murder, so he needed someone he trusted, who was too high profile to murder. He chose Castle and they saved hundreds of people from being killed in a terrorist attack.
I’m not a huge fan of using real life groups in works of fiction, because it reeks of propaganda, but it wasn’t so bad. It’s very easy to create fictional people, places, companies and everything else, why not just make up a terrorist group. It would still be pretty easy to make that into propaganda symbolically, but it wouldn’t be so blatant or obvious. When a real organization is used, even when it’s not trying to be propaganda, it’s taken as such. I’m against acts of terrorism myself, but I don’t like seeing art smothered by someone’s political agenda.
I’m wondering how long this particular show can continue going though. I love these actors and characters, but I can’t help noticing a little bit of repetition in the plot. Something happens to Castle and literally everyone who loves him doubts him. I guess detectives are skeptical by nature, but come on! This guy has been nothing but reliable. His wild theories are rarely the case, but they always get the ball rolling and lead to answers. Give Castle a break and trust him for once! It would be interesting if he went crazy and was completely wrong for once though…
Jonathan Thomas Jones is a speculative fiction author and founder of geekhavenreviews.com. He has been passionate about all things geek for his entire life. See more about him at jonathanthomasjones.com and follow him on twitter @jtgloryjones.
