Last night's episode of Castle received a bit more attention that most Castle episodes from ABC's promotions department, but "Heartbreaker" didn't quite deliver. Even though he's been writing for television for decades, Barry O'Brien's script was pretty bland and predictable and director Tom Wright didn't have much to work with.
The hour's opening scene depicting the murder of an armored truck driver, with the ensuing gunshot cueing a cut to the loft where Rick and Kate were celebrating a reunion of sorts now that their relationship is back on and they are both sharing a single roof. Some delicious looking kebabs give way to an incoming murder investigation, but not before what was perhaps the episode's best one-liner, courtesy of Rick:
To you. My love, my heart, my bride.
Onto the crime scene where Esposito recognises a blue paste consisting of gelatin and perfume which he first saw in a gold heist nearly a decade earlier. That crime had gone all but unsolved, with the only arrest made being Sonia Ruiz, played by the episode's primary guest star, Angelica Celaya.
Sonya was serving jail time but was 3 months away from parole. Things got predictable very rapidly from then on as Kate talked Sonya into helping the NYPD solve the crime. Predictably she made a fuss about her temporary freedom, predictably she escaped supervision, and predictably she tracked down the location of the gold she was after while on the run. The one, albeit mediocre twist came when it was revealed that her father was the ringleader from the heist 9 years earlier and Sonya was hoping to get his share of the loot before he died.
The episode's widely advertised point of difference was that Sonya was Esposito's ex fiancée. Again, some more predictable stuff happened: she was let loose undercover under Esposito's supervision, she betrayed Esposito again - just like we learned she did 9 years earlier, and of course the love - or lust - between the pair looked as if it had never waned.
Despite the predictable stuff, I thought Angelica Celaya outshone the entire main cast with her performance as Sonya. Castle is no stranger to the odd appearance of exes, and while, thankfully, Sonya wasn't suddenly proven innocent or granted early release, Angelica Celaya made the character quite watchable in the end, and held her own against the excellent Darby Stanchfield who pops up occasionally as Meredith. Sonya was the primary source of comedic relief throughout, especially for Rick and Ryan, and it was somewhat satisfying to see Esposito on the receiving end of the niggling banter for a change.
Of all the lead characters, it's Esposito who receives the least development beyond his job as a detective so it was an unexpected silver lining to see his close-knit family share a meal with him and Sonya, along with a bit of background about the time he and Sonya were a thing. I was hoping for more though, and it's a shame the episode didn't deliver beyond that.
Lastly, it was nice to see Martha and Alexis share a glass of wine alongside Kate but their appearance seemed to be a "gotta fit them in somewhere" type of arrangement. I would have rather seen Lanie's reaction to hearing Esposito was working with an ex-fiancée - that would have added much more value. Lucy, the AI Rick had installed, felt a bit tacky but it didn't do any damage thankfully. Maybe I'm a tad biassed because I wouldn't mind her helping me out at home with the odd jobs.
In all, aside from Angelica Celaya's performance, everything else in this episode was pretty flat. Coming off the back of one of the season's best episodes last week I was hoping for much more. There just wasn't enough in the script for anyone to really sink their teeth into this week, and even though this cast have produced something from nothing on multiple occasions, last night wasn't their night.
Thanks as always for reading! Don't forget to share your thoughts in the comments below. Next week's episode may or may not feature Aladdin which could be interesting. Either way I hope it's better than this week's episode. You can check out the episode promo, promotional photos and press release here.
