Castle Review: I, Witness (Season 7 Episode 13)

Castle’s new found job as a P.I. isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. In “I, Witness,” he takes on a pretty classic cheating spouse case.

He hesitates to take a case like that, showing his moral character but also perhaps foreshadowing that something bad will happen. But since the client is an old friend, he accepts the challenge.

Within minutes, Castle’s excellent P.I. work leads him to solve the case and get proof that Eva’s husband is cheating. In fact, it’s almost too easy.

The opening credits haven’t even rolled.

As Castle heads to Eva’s to take her the incriminating photos of her husband, he sees her dead body being dragged away. I nearly forgot to mention that Eva is played by Brianna Brown, whose characters almost always seems to get killed off.

We all know Castle doesn’t always make the best decisions, but he makes some pretty terrible ones after seeing her body dragged off. He runs after the killer then chases after the car, on foot. In the dark. Only when he gets into his own car and starts driving does he call Beckett, but the reception is bad. So what does Castle do when he sees the car he was after on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere? He gets out and looks around with nothing but a flashlight.

Of course, the cops don’t believe him later, especially since there’s no dead body and no real evidence. Even the audience starts to question Castle’s credibility — remember how he disappeared for a couple of months and still doesn’t remember a thing? I couldn’t help but think maybe Castle was losing it.

But if there’s one person that doesn’t waiver in her faith in Castle, it’s Beckett. When Ryan asks Beckett if she believes his theory, she tells him something that nearly sums up the entire series:

Beckett: I believe he’s been right too many times not to consider it.

Castle also feels guilty, believing he had a part in his friend’s murder by taking her case to begin with.  But it turns out that Eva’s body is found and the whole thing is an elaborate hoax gone wrong. It’s actually pretty genius, especially since the whole episode gives a nod to Hitchcock films. And yes, the P.I. scenes still have a musical backdrop of the old films for a nice, artistic touch.

What’s nice about this episode is that is moves us from some of the lighter episodes into something a bit more serious, which I believe it was time for. And hold on to your hats, because it looks like we’ve got more intense episodes coming up with a villain we’ve seen more than a few times.

What did you think of this episode? Are you enjoying Castle’s role as a P.I., or are you ready for that to wrap up? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and be sure to give a rating all your own!

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Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.

Ashley Bissette Sumerel

Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.