Castle: Season 7, Episode 23: Hollander’s Woods

     Another finale. I pay a lot of attention to a lot of shows, but I don’t think I would’ve recognized season finale season without these reviews. Everything is ending! This was a very appropriate finale for this season though. Since Beckett brought Senator Bracken to justice and Castle finally arranged the death of the Triple Killer (3XK was such an awesome name), there’s a bit of a void when it comes to long term and overarching storylines. They needed to hit us with a few new things to make this season feel complete and they did not disappoint.

They’ve mentioned Beckett taking the Captain’s Exam before, but it came to a head here. Her exemplary performance as a detective has not only shown that she would make a competent captain, but she was even asked to run for state senate, albeit in extremely dramatic fashion. They closed the episode out by provoking the viewers thoughts about this development and even questioned what Castle is going to do about inspiration if she accepts. Everyone has thrown their names in the hat for what supporting roles they could have in her new career. Alexis, who is thinking about her long term ambitions, even vowed to help run her campaign. This is definitely a development that could very much alter the course and tone of this show in drastic ways.

The other interesting thing is the the story of how Castle got into mystery writing in the first place. This was a good replacement for closing out a longterm story on a finale. This was something that was never discussed before, but there was a really good explanation for that. Castle didn’t want to discuss it, because he thought he would be crazy. It was a good way to show him fighting off his inner demons and didn’t feel forced even though it was kind of just thrown in there. Castle over forty years old, so of course he has pieces of his past that we don’t know about. I think the 3XK episode or even the reveal of his missing two months may have made a better finisher here, but I suppose they needed the extra space for the emotional ender and Beckett’s story.

By the way, Castle totally killed a guy! I’ve been searching my memory and I don’t think he’s ever directly taken a life before. Certainly not while having a knife to his throat or even where the blood could get on him. That has to have some serious consequences going into the next season. He finally has a taste of what his wife goes through all the time and that should create an interesting dynamic. I could even see it opening a rift between the two of them because of how unclean he may feel after.

The award ceremony was beautiful. I like it when they show real life authors on the show. They’ve had the late great Stephen J. Cannell, Wes Craven, James Patterson, Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, who they brought back for his intro speech this time. Heck, Richard Castle himself is even an actual real life author now. You can find his six Nikki Heat novels on actual bookstore shelves these days along with three Derrick Storm Novellas and a Marvel Comics graphic novel. Knowing all of that in combination with how optimistic this finale was (opposed to the usual bleak cliffhangers) makes one feel good about this franchise and television entertainment in general. I’m glad to see the whole gang moving to bigger and better things. I just wish they had given more attention to Ryan and Esposito’s “manniversary.”

Jonathan Jones

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.