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Castle - Sleeper -Review: "Really?"

Apr 23, 2015

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A boat. The sun. The jungle. A friend. A Trophy. A gun. A bullet. A hand. A man. A camouflaged Castle. And he’s awake.

This week’s “Castle” has the man diving back into the events that interrupted his wedding day and had him missing for two months, when recurring dreams surface his conscious self. “Sleeper” was enjoyable, but I think I loved the idea of this episode more than I loved the episode itself, and I had higher expectations for it and for the entire mythology.

“Babe, it’s not like you were partying in Thailand. You have the best excuse ever. You were saving the world.” -Beckett

Okay, I have to disagree with Beckett on this one, it’s definitely not the best excuse, but at least it’s an excuse or at least an attempt at one. I didn’t mind having to wait 20 episodes, to get some answers; we waited for years to get some about Johanna Beckett. But this mythology, everything surrounding Castle’s disappearance, definitely wasn’t on the same level, as thought out, as the mythology surrounding Beckett mother’s murder. And while some might have thought the development on her story was too slow, I liked that we got to discover it meticulously, piece by piece. We got to discover, Castle’s whereabouts piece by piece alright, but they just shoved everything in this episode. Probably in case the show doesn’t get its eight season.

I think the episode was well thought out, and really enjoyed the plot of Castle trying to find the meaning behind his dream, and piecing it together. The interactions between the characters were great, but I just can’t feel satisfied with “Sleeper” because of the reason for his disappearance. It was just too much crazy to accept. Honestly, I’m still not sure I understand the reason behind it. Terrorists? Al Qaeda? A Russian assassin? I mean, really?

As I’ve mentioned before, I loved the idea of the recurring dream, which had Castle whimpering in his sleep for a week, before a concerned Kate sends him off to get help, from the therapist who had helped her through her issues after the shooting. It’s the therapist that helped her get to Castle, get to where she is, and I found it incredibly fitting. I’m glad they brought back Dr. Burke for it, and not just any therapist.

“I’ve tried to put it behind me, but it haunts me. Not a day goes by that I don’t wonder where I was, what I saw, what I did.” – Castle

While Castle was skeptical, at first, about diving back in, about disrupting the balance of his currently perfect life (how long is this going to last? Am I right?), once he starts thinking about it, he can’t stop. He needs answers. Even when Dr. Burke tells him to takes things slow, not to rush anything; even when he tells him not to take everything too literally because sometimes, dreams are just figments of our imagination, and Castle has an incredibly active one, Castle goes at it, head on.

“I was in Thailand, getting shot at, with Chuck Norris?” –Castle

His mind is creating a narrative, but he’s certain that his dreams are actual memories. The team, even though they’re skeptical, and assume he’s picking out plot points from action movies he’s seen, help him out. They chase after his leads, dedicate resources, even if they are only “grasping at straws,” because they’re a team, they love each other, and that’s what they do. They support each other, even if they feel things don’t add up.

“For my money, your story about the missing two months never added up. It still doesn’t.” –Esposito

Even if Esposito is acting somewhat like an *ss, I have to agree with him. It just doesn’t add up. “Sleeper,” for me, just cemented the fact that they had no idea what they were going to do when they had Castle abducted, on his wedding day. Espo feels the need to address how messed up his story is, and honestly who wouldn’t? His delivery was a bit harsh, but he’s still just looking out for Beckett, and despite his reservations, he helps Castle out, helps him to identify the man from his dreams. Compiling a file on the people who have the same military tattoo Castle saw in his dream, Esposito helps Castle in identifying his Chuck Norris lookalike, Jeff Powers. (Jack Bauer anyone?)

Castle and Beckett following up on the lead, and going to the man’s place of residence, leads to this episodes funniest bit. It was simple, yet hilarious.

“Castle, what are you doing?” -Beckett
“It’s okay, he knows me. Jeff Powers? It’s Rick Castle, from Thailand.” -Castle


They find Jeff Powers shot in his own apartment, a bullet in his skull, and missing teeth. He was tortured by a Russian Assassin, who has two dozen assassinations on his belt. The identification of Ilya Golovkin causes Beckett to send her husband home. He was involved in something big and it’s dangerous, so he can’t be investigating anymore. (Now who’s calling the kettle black, Beckett?)

She’s putting his safety before his feelings and no amount of arguing will make her change her mind. Unphased, she’s willing to send him home in with LT in handcuffs, so he indulges her. We were also gifted with a little bit of acting from LT. Don’t think I didn’t see your eyebrows wiggle when Beckett mentioned handcuffs. It was great.

And Castle’s “Just for the record. Extremely bitter.” was perfectly delivered by Nathan Fillion.

“I don’t need you to protect me. I’m not a kid anymore. I’m not afraid to hear the truth. Why not let me in?” - Alexis

“Sleeper” had a family dynamic which I absolutely adored, including a concerned mother, a supportive wife and a matured daughter. It was actually what I loved the most about this episode, how everyone was there for him. It felt true to the earlier Castle family moments all while including Kate.

Martha’s motherly side shone throw this episode and it was great to see a more serious side to her character.. She was concerned about her son’s lack of sleep, concerned when he became too obsessed. She had her concerns when he starting digging into his abduction and she goes to the precinct to speak with Kate, concerned that if he chose to forget, there must have been a reason. But Kate understands Castle, understands the obsession that can drive him. She understands the need for answers and convinces Martha it’s going to be okay, that she’s there for him and that she won’t let him fall.

I loved Alexis (and Molly Quinn) in this episode, always loved the bond she shares with her father. Alexis waking up Beckett, worried her father is becoming a bit obsessive about Thailand, and wanting someone to watch over him was all kinds of cute, and its moments like this one that make me happy she hasn’t moved out of the loft yet.

The episode touched into Castle’s insecurities about what happened during these 2 months, and Alexis wants to be there for him, wants to be seen an adult, as someone he can confide, who doesn’t need to be shielded from the truth because it might hurt. This leads to a touching heart to heart between father and daughter, and I’m not sure I mentioned it but, I love their relationship. It’s easy to see how deeply she cares for her father.


Alone, Castle, following a money trail from Jeff Power’s file, (sloppy guys!) finds himself in an Indian Café, faced by the man shot, bleeding out and dying, from his dreams. Jeff Powers was his handler, but Balal is not a spy. The man, an exchange student and friend of Castle’s from 11th grade, is an Al Qaeda defector, with whom Castle had consulted with about terrorism, for his first Derrick Storm Novel. Someone he had completely forgot existed.

The sequence about the Debate Trophy had lead Castle to Philippe Bartlett, instead of Balal, the real person he had shared the trophy with. “Castle” was always on the verge of not being believable, (invisibility cloak, anyone?) but this plot was just beyond ridiculous. They went to the point that they altered his memories, because erasing them wasn’t enough, they had to go in his brain and change his actual memories. Really? What is this a sci-fi movie? This episode was just too out there for me.

The reason they had to interrupt the Caskett wedding was because Balal, after a leak was discovered, needed someone he could trust, someone he knew that was too prominent to sweep under the table and forget about. They were on a ticking time bomb type schedule and needed Balal’s intel, needed Castle, to save tens of thousands of lives. Once again, really?

I loved that Castle punched fake Jenkins for making him miss his wedding day. It was unexpected, but still totally called for and it somehow felt satisfying. He has some leverage now that he knows they can’t kill him.

“Still a lot of unanswered questions though. Like how did I get shot? Why was I gone for two months? But I know enough.” - Castle

Castle and Beckett’s end conversation acknowledged the fact that the mythology is still shredded in mystery, and while some questions were answered, many still remain. The main one for me stays: Why did he want to forget the two months? Saving the world doesn’t seem like something he’d want to forget, it feels like something he would like to brag about. This though, I feel, could still only be a narrative the people who abducted him created so he would stop digging around...

“Castle, this is completely different. Whatever happened to you, you already knew the truth and you decided that you didn’t want to remember it anymore. And as much as we want to know what the answers are, if you decided that, then there had to have been a reason.” – Beckett (in Montreal)



I didn’t hate this episode, I liked it, but I would have loved to have loved it. How about you guys?

31 comments:

  1. Agree with this assessment. This storyline was just not compelling enough for me. It felt like it was new mythology for the sake of new mythology. I wanted it to be darker. I wanted Castle to be completely torn between being seriously, over-the-top obsessed about finding out what happened and being absolutely terrified about what the clues told him it might be. It should have gnawed at him, changed him a little - maybe even to the point of straining his relationship with Beckett. I wanted it to tie somehow (even remotely) to a piece of the Castle backstory we already knew. Instead, it was a COTW that just happened to involve Castle and his bizarre adventure we knew nothing about when the show started - and then it was over. I completely missed the normal Castle satisfaction of justice I feel at the end of the show. Three-quarters of the entire explanation was narrated in the span of about five minutes. The writers could have made more of this whole thing at other times through the season, drawn it out and made it much more interesting. Maybe some clue here or there that implied his "worst-case scenario," perhaps that he was forced to do something unthinkable. It just seemed like this was a safe story that wouldn't have to go any further if it didn't need to.

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  2. What was most apparent to me in this episode was that this storyline was a complete fuck-up.


    That being said, I knew this episode would be good for the most part because Castle consistently lifts its game for important episodes.


    But still, this episode should have aired around January if the creative team were serious about it. The delay was probably due to the fact that the creative team needed time to figure out how to dig themselves out of the crevasse they'd created.. Castle is among the worst series on television when it comes to progressing long running arcs. The Johanna Beckett and 3XK arcs, and indeed the couple's eventual relationship, all took incredible amounts of time to reach closure.


    For me, the episode was good because the acting performances were solid and the answers we got at least show some potential allow for deeper exploration. The trouble is, in the world of the creative team, an ETA for a solid conclusion would be around 4 years away.

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  3. I generally agree. "Really?" was pretty much my reaction as well. I was hoping fo something I haven't seen plenty of times before. I still hope there's a lot more to the story.

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  4. Agree, this was a new mythology for the sake of a new mythology, and their explanation was way too rushed. I think they tried to give us satisfaction by having Castle state he was okay with not knowing everything, but it just didn't cut it. The punch in the nose was a little satisfying, but never to the point of all the other mythologies. Maybe, if they reopen this box later, then they can manage to salvage the storyline but for now... they've screwed it up.


    I totally agree with what you said the episode should have been like. With a darker and fairly more obsessed Castle. They touched on these issues, but only in surface because they wanted to rush everything in this episode. Do you think they'll try to revisit it if there is, in fact, an eight season?

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  5. Yeah I would have loved the episode (or I think I would have) if the storyline about Castle wasn't so... I don't even know how to describe it.


    They had no idea what they were doing about Castle's abduction and if this was their pan all along, then shame on them.... But I actually like the fact that 3XK and Johanna Beckett took time to close, and I think they do better when they stretch it out. Do you think they had stretched it too much? Though I'm pretty sure "Castle" isn't getting another 4 years. ;)

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  6. I have finally found someone who liked the episode and explanation. I was satisfied with the reasoning behind everything and everything that happened. I do think that its not the end of it that there's more to be revealed and that will probably happen in the finale that will fill in more of the blanks and give us more answers.
    I hope we get a season 8 and we can delve into it a bit more. I liked how Martha and Alexis were included a bit more as I feel they haven't been getting a lot of screen time over the past season or two.

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  7. Loved the family dynamics...didn't love the plot. Perhaps some more will be cleared up in finale. If not, maybe in Season 8. Or maybe this mythology is so screwed up, we bury it in Thailand and go a different direction next season. Still a Castle lover!

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  8. Spot on, Jimmy. I believe this whole storyline came about when they decided they *had* to have a S6 cliffhanger, but had no idea how to end it. Then, when they came up with something, they didn't know how to push it forward and so, left it open ended until they could figure something out. I'm not even sure they know what to do with it now. And you're right, they do tend to drop a storyline for a long time before picking it back up.

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  9. I liked the episode, I just didn't love it. I vaguely remember in season one, when Castle and Beckett had to were protective glasses and blue coveralls when in the morgue because, that's how they do in real life, and having them search through missing persons by hand, with the actual files, what a long way they've come... And it just seemed to me they were pulling this storyline from thin air. I still have hope they can salvage it though, if they find a way to make everything fit, and tie it with a bow at the end. ;) Hopeful for an 8th season.


    I loved having Martha and Alexis in this episode, and looks like we'll be getting a lot more Alexis in next week's!

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  10. Same here. I don't think the finale will have anything to do with Thailand, just with what happened to Rick when he was a kid, but maybe the two tie together, who knows!


    Always a Castle lover. ;)

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  11. Enjoyed your reivew. I think my basic problem with this episode is that it should have been an EVENT episode and it wasn't. My suspension of disbelief bone was perfectly happy until they got to the mind wiping part. It just seemed ridiculous overkill for the situation. Add to that...the CIA kidnaps Richard Castle because a really important guy will only talk to him, and Daddy Castle isn't involved, aware, watching Castle's back? It just wasn't a purely satisfying episode for me.

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  12. Hahaha, your comment made me laugh, but it's Castle that wanted to forget and not them that wanted him to forget their technologies or portals or whatever got him to Thailand in record time! ;)

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  13. True, I hadn't seen that! How she shifts the role onto Kate and accepts it. This episode was a lot about how Kate fits into their family and I loved it! But I don't know if it can beat the dynamic between Alexis and Castle (I'm a sucker for these two together!). Alexis was just a great asset to this episode overall I think!

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  14. Glad you enjoyed. Not sure of what you mean by an "Event Episode" though.
    The mind altering potion It seems overkill for know, and I hope once all answers are uncovered it will make more sense. But from what we know right now, it makes no sense that Castle would choose to forget it. Maybe he was involved and we just don't know yet... Is Castle's dad CIA too? Can't remember...

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  15. By Event Episode I mean for the story to be bigger, more important. This ep felt like a regular case. And considering the audience had been waiting most of the season for it I wanted/expected it to have, at least, the same level of intensity as the first ep back from the season finale. Castle was obsessive but not intense/driven. He wanted the answers but he was really calm and collected. Moments like his reaction to Espo saying his story was dubious and Castle's goofy 'he won't mind he knows me' kept the episode from developing 'Event' type energy. It was just a case.


    Most of those reveals are in the ep when Castle went to France to get Alexis. There were also implications in earlier seasons that his father being in the CIA is why Castle was able to get a useful connection to interview in research for one of his Derek Storm novels.

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  16. They're trying to forget the abduction? What! The Dynamic Duo, who never stop, never quit, keep digging for the truth regardless of the consequences, stopped, quit, gave up!! WTF!! This is heresy, this doesn't break Castle Canon, it obliterates it. Six years of carefully crafted Castle and Beckett mythology got flushed down the toilet. A major tenet on which this series was built has been shattered. Is this the final farewell to the fans from AWM & CO. Wow.

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  17. P.S. This looked like a bum rush for the exit door.

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  18. AWM & CO had the entire season to work on this storyline to make it some what more palpable and it never occurred to them .

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  19. I think they tried to explain why Castle and Beckett didn't look into it. (And I put the quote at the end of the review.) That it wasn't that they didn't know, Castle knew at one point, and he made the informed decision to forget about it. I can understand the logic behind that.

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  20. True, I agree the episode was some missing intensity. Some Reckoning intensity would have been great. You're absolutely right...


    I remembered Castle senior was a spy, I just couldn't recall if he was CIA, or MI6 or Special Forces or whatever. But I do remember now in Linchpin (I think) them mentioning Castle connection to the CIA through his father.

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  21. But it's not the same thing. It's in their DNA as you say that they find the truth. It's in Castle's DNA to want to know the story and in Beckett's to want justice. But the fact that he knew the story, and chose not to remember is why they're not continuing their search... because he KNEW. He knew the story and if HE chose to forget, then why would he go against what he decided. It would make no sense. Do you get me?


    Or maybe we'll just have to agree to disagree, because I don't think it;s the same thing. They didn't quit, they chose to listen to Castle, listen to the Castle who knew the truth and didn't want to remember. It's not giving up...

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  22. Actually the US gov't does have hyper sonic planes. That could have dropped Rick in Thailand within 4 hours after leaving New York.

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  23. i did not know that ;)

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  24. There are no working hypersonic planes. X-51 was an unmanned scramjet test program, ended in 2013 and even those were not "planes", as they were launched from a bomber and destroyed on landing. Not even an actually working, manned prototype has ever been built.

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  25. Working Hyper planes have been around since 2000 Do not let this public version fool you!

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  26. I would be grateful for a link.

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  27. For someone who continued to dig into Beckett's mom's murder after her adamant objections, to suddenly have a crisis of conscience and or loss of constitution is contrary to six years of character construction. It fits this episode, but this episode only. And I don't want to get started on Beckett's meek submission. It's time to ask the writers,who are these two people.

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  28. I had predicted CIA, but I had also predicted that Castle's father would be involved, so I was half right.

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  29. Great review. I think in a way this episode was meant to be far-fetched in how the pieces came together where Castle's disappearance is concerned I don't necessarily believe that Bilal and Jenkins were honest with Castle and just fed him a bunch of bull in order to cover up the real truth as to where he was and what he did. So for me, while it may have given Castle and Beckett some closure, I think his disappearance goes much deeper and his dreams.and people he met have a different meaning than what we saw.

    I could be wrong but it makes sense to me.

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  30. I was iffy about this mythology to begin with (from the premiere) and this episode just proved that it is total crap. I haven't been watching this season regularly, but I caught this episode just to check out if what is behind Castle's disappearance but all of this was too much to digest. It really did feel like the writers had nothing planned after last season's finale and the premiere and just made up this completely ridiculous storyline. Once again, too much to digest.

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  31. Very nice review. It was good to get some answers but the answers were totally out of left field. Very wacky, all tied up in a nice bow. Bizarre. I also thought Espo was very harsh in dealing with Castle. I thought he would have been a little more sensitive considering his friend lost two months of his life.

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