Castle - Kill Switch - Review: "Anybody hungry?"

“Kill switch” moved the focus from the newlyweds to Ryan and Esposito, but mostly Esposito. It was a good episode, enjoyable, but wasn’t as great as the last few. Fact of TV, not all episodes are created equal. It didn’t help that, for the life of me, I can’t find it in my heart to care for the Esplanie of it all. Maybe it would have been tenser, more emotion filled, if I didn’t, for a fact, know that nothing would happen to a member of the fantastic four.

The episode was a mix of “Cops and Robbers” and “Under Fire,” only the character development, the emotional aspect of the episode can’t compare to these two. I didn’t feel like I did during both these episodes, when the characters outside the situation truly made me feel like they wanted them out. This kind of just felt like another day at the office. I just can’t see the spark, that little twinkle with Lanie that makes me want to root for Esposito to get out, for her, like I did with Jenny and Ryan in “Under Fire” or Beckett and Castle in “Cops and Robbers.”

To truly be an awesome episode, it has to be both case and characters and one of those parts was missing. The case was great, surprising at every turn, I loved it. The episode starts point blank with the case, no fragment of the Castle home life. The investigation begins in the park, with Beckett and Castle, walking up to the body, a fatal gunshot to the head, talking about how this walk is different from all the others we've witnessed. The writers and producers have got to know by now much we yearn for the continuity, and the Season 2 reference about Turner and Hooch was great. It somehow brings more life to the characters, because if we remember, so should they.

“Yeah, but you still remind me a little of Hooch.” - Beckett

This season has been about breaking the mold, and although the hostage situation has already been done on the show, it’s still not the typical case of the week with a victim, an investigation, a suspect, a red herring and the culprit. The victim is an investigator in the healthcare division for a federal company. Castle once again senses a conspiracy and his surprisingly plausible theory being that the convicted hacker is a whistleblower, therefore possibly in danger. Esposito and Ryan, on route to his residence, spot him, and Esposito follows him inside the Subway where it quickly escalades into a hostage situation when the suspect sees the badge and abruptly pulls the emergency breaks.

For some time, the NYPD is capable of watching the seen unfold through a feed, the captor and the hostages don’t know is there. It takes a turn for the worst when Jared Stone reveals the bomb-vest, with his hand on the switch, ready to detonate if he lets go. Lanie, Beckett, Castle, Tory, Gates and Ryan do what they can to help Esposito out, to try and make sense of what’s happening, though, as I previously stated, I couldn’t feel the urgency of the situation.

Jared Stone, throughout the episode, seems to be getting sicker and sicker, experiencing flu-like symptoms, though it was clearly noticeable, like the characters, I didn’t give it any particular meaning other than he was stressed out of his mind, rookie mistake. His demands make the NYPD turn in circles, trying to understand what’s really at state, but it’s really just a plan to stall. I was genuinely and gladly surprised when it was revealed that all he really wanted was to expose the passengers to his strain of the flu, to start an epidemic.

It wasn’t actually his making; he was being set up, by the victim’s greedy boss, in the worst kind of insider trading, willing to sacrifice millions, to make some easy money on the vaccines they would need.

“Who you think of in that moment, it has weight. Don’t trade what’s real for something that isn’t. I’ll see you around, Javi.” -Marissa

Esposito was without his team in there, but he wasn’t alone. He was paired with a Transit Cop, and the chemistry between the two was pretty good, better than some, and in the end it’s the both of them that tackle Jared and secure the detonator. Their storyline though, seems over, and with that seems like their story is over, their bonding pointless. Anyone care to explain what the Marissa quote means, because I'm not to sure I see what she meant by, "something that isn't real"?

Ryan and Esposito talked about kids, about being a father, about how Espo’s ready to move, to take the next step in hisrelationship, one Lanie’s not quite ready to take. I'm not ready for them to take that step either. One at a time guys!

The second callback to the past happened at the end of the episode, and I’m a sucker for them, when Castle invites them all to the Old Haunt for drinks, ending the episode with a touch of light humor, always appreciated.

“Come on, we’ll take the subway. Too soon?” -Castle

Was I too hard on this one?
Esplanie shippers, anyone out there?