Castle Review: Sleeper (Season 7 Episode 20)
On this week’s episode of Castle, “Sleeper,” we finally find out what happened when Castle disappeared on his wedding day, and everything wraps up in a nice, neat little package.
While the news that Castle saved so many lives as a results of his kidnapping is satisfying, the fact that such a significant storyline was wrapped up this quickly is disappointing. If it was going to wrap up that easily (okay, not that easily, since there are casualties along the way), then it should have happened earlier in the season.
Instead, the audience was led to believe that this as something big and something that would affect the series going forward. So when we finally find out the answer, only to have it wrapped up so fast, we can’t help but feel a little bit cheated. Though there are still some questions left unanswered, there aren’t enough to make me think there’s more to this story.
The whole thing also comes out of left field. The mystery doesn’t come from stories we’ve been invested in over the past several seasons, but instead come from a new character — an old high-school friend of Castle’s.
It feels as thought the writers didn’t have an idea of what they planned to do with the disappearance when they originally wrote it, and finally realized that they had to come up with some sort of answer. Perhaps the rushing comes from the fact that no one knows yet if the show will be renewed for an eighth season.
I certainly can’t imagine how the writers cope with writing the end of a season without knowing if that’s the last one or not. It means the finale won’t be leaving us with any major cliffhangers this season, but it also means we won’t have the kind of series finale (if it ends) that would end the show properly.
The good news is that if the series does end this season, we at least got answers to Castle’s disappearance — no matter how underwhelming the reveal happened to be.
What did you think of Castle Season 7 Episode 20? Do you think more time should have been devoted to this story line, or are you happy with the answers we were given? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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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.
4 comments
“The whole thing also comes out of left field. The mystery doesn’t come from stories we’ve been invested in over the past several seasons, but instead come from a new character — an old high-school friend of Castle’s.
It feels as thought the writers didn’t have an idea of what they planned to do with the disappearance when they originally wrote it, and finally realized that they had to come up with some sort of answer. ”
THIS. That’s exactly the problem and exactly what it feels like.
Faster, better, more interesting way would have been to get Castle’s dad involved in the disappearance explanation and possibly him having a part in it as he did when Alexis was kidnapped.
This was an insult to those of us who have faithfully watched the show since the start! The only character who was on point here was Esposito who, thankfully said he never believed this story from the start. To imagine someone like the Beckett character would be given lines like ” of course it wasn’t your fault you missed the wedding you were saving the world” just makes me ill!
If this is the best the writers can do perhaps it’s time to end the series.
There are still unexplained portions of the story. If it all played out as described in the episode, Castle would have been there and back fairly quickly. As they didn’t have time for alternate ideas before the terror attack, it seems like maybe a week would have been enough to complete the actions. There’s also the unexplained bullet injury that was healed, the trip to Montreal, and it does fit a little to nicely into the dreams he was having.
It’s already confirmed that the CIA was able to erase and implant memories (the Debate co-champion for example) so what’s to say any of it’s real. It may have just been a pre-planned story that they knew Castle would believe once he found out, in case he ever went looking for an answer.
I expect there will be more to the story, assuming we get a Season 8.
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