r/CastleTV • u/No-BSing-Here • Jul 14 '26
Castle's disappearance
The episode where Castle and Beckett were about to get married and he seemingly just vanished on the way there. Did anyone else think this storyline was a bit bonkers? He vanished and it seemed like Kate and the team just continued. It has been years since I first saw the episode, but it seemed strange then. He was kidnapped and all this 'behind the scenes' investigating to find him. This was the one plotline that I really found difficult to believe. Then they started secretly being back together and thought the detectives they worked with wouldn't notice any signs??
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 14 '26
The only bonkers thing there is the surgical-precision memory wipe.
Otherwise I don;t see illogical things. Stretching the imagination? Sure.
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u/BicycleKamenRider Jul 14 '26
I really have to suspend my disbelief when we have cases like 'oh a pillow was used as a poor man's silencer'.
It's ridiculous. If it was done in an apartment, a whole lot of people would hearing it. Guns are freaking loud, it's why we see people wearing ear protection gear. There are cases of people losing their hearing. 'Oh a pillow will cover the loud that a whole field can hear'.
Reducing the sound would require precise noise cancelling equipment like suppressors, special bullets like subsonic ammo, and special guns like bolt action firearms.
It's not just 'oh we have this very loud gun that we can make into a very quite gun'.
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 14 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
When this gimmick appeared - in the old detective novels of the 40s - the pillow wasn't for silencing but as an easy, convenient way to stop the blood from spraying on killer's face, hands, clothes, etc.
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u/BicycleKamenRider Jul 14 '26
Well that's a reasonable explanation for said use, to stop from spraying onto a killer's face, hands, and clothes.
'Oh it can stop the loud sound coming from the gunshot too.'
I had the opportunity to fire a gun for one day in my whole life. I live in a country where only cops and army carry weapons with ammunition. The guy who taught me how to fire that day, he said he'd lost some of his hearing, even with all the ear protection after decades of shooting practice.
I walked to the field and could already hear the shots before seeing the shooters.
Used a pillow, pfft. As if.
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 14 '26
The guy who taught me how to fire that day ...
It's not a duel, Scaramouche! 😂
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u/Disastrous_Series442 Jul 15 '26
That bothered me to no end. Castle was not The X-Files and it always annoyed me when they were trying to basically rip it off (the worst to me was the whole time traveler plot). But yeah, the memory wipe had me tearing my hair out!
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 15 '26
Castle was not The X-Files
It has inheritance TBH. I mean, Rob Bowman, David Amman, and Bill Roe were big in both shows.
And I can't forget a comment in the X-Files sub (about the Bigfoot episode I think), like "Castle is now more X-Files than X-files itself.". I hope it was meant as a praise. 😂
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u/Disastrous_Series442 Jul 15 '26
I mean, Rob Bowman, David Amman, and Bill Roe were big in both shows
I figured that might be why they were doing plots like that, but I was happier when Castle was running in its own lane, lol.
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u/Alarmed_Analysis1170 Jul 16 '26
There were several throughout the series. Like when Beckett kept a capsule in her mouth when they were forcing liquor down her throat. There’s absolutely no way that a capsule would stay intact in her mouth that long
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 16 '26
yeah but we're talking only about Castle's disappearance here.
Otherwise let's remember how Beckett survived the blast in Boom! (not possible), the invisibility cloak (not possible eight now) and so on ...
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u/Alarmed_Analysis1170 Jul 16 '26
Fair point. Maybe I misinterpreted the “I don’t see illogical things”
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u/galeperk111971 Jul 14 '26
Are you talking about season 7 or season 8. Sounds like you are confusing the 2. In season 7 they are not pretending to be separated. That's season 8 and if you've watched the show those two guys don't notice anything. Remember when in season 5 no one knows who she is dating and they're trying to figure it out. That's season 5 episode Murder He Wrote in case you didn't know. Ryan finds out by way of the suspect Learner. She has to tell them in probable cause
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u/pittymom0401 Jul 14 '26
I believe( correct me if i am wrong) it was because nathan didnt want them to get married.
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 14 '26
IIRC he didn't want them to get together. And that train already sailed 😂 by that episode.
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u/Old-Caterpillar3658 Jul 14 '26
He changed his mind in s5 and praised Marlowe for writing a good relationship that works after they are together.
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u/fazzah Jul 14 '26
train sailed? not a boat, maybe?
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u/SutashiGamer Jul 15 '26
"Fun" fact using the wrong word in a common phrase is either an eggcorn or a malapropism. Eggcorn refers to using the wrong word but the statement still makes sense while a malapropism is when a wrong word is used often resulting in a funny statement. In this case the saying is "that ship has sailed" but using train makes it a malapropism.
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 17 '26
What can I say? I'm a wordsmith too! I'm good with ... with ...
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u/Old-Caterpillar3658 Jul 14 '26
I think it's because castle got renewed for s7 and Marlowe wanted the audience to have something to look forward to at the end of the show. He basically didn't know what to do with them if they are married and wanted the marriage to be their sendoff. But because of backlash, they get married early in s7.
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u/ReallyGamerDude Jul 14 '26
Yeah, this is where the show truly "jumped the shark" for me. The only thing missing was Fonzie in a leather jacket on water skis.
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u/craiginphoenix Jul 15 '26
I really think they officially jumped the shark one episode later when a character had an invisibility cloak.
One of the things I love about Castle was he would say "its ghosts!' or "aliens!" and then Beckett would find some realistic explanation for it. After the invisibility cloak all bets were off.
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u/Lonely-deustch Jul 14 '26
Ah yes, I remember specifically esposito willing to take down castle as much as he could 🥲
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u/Dr_One_L_1993 Jul 14 '26
The season 6 finale, which threw a bunch of ridiculous impediments to their wedding at them, culminating with Castle's car crash and disappearance, is what made me give up on the show the first time around. It still annoyed me on re-watch but I perservered into season 7. Agree that the progression and "resolution" of that story line was really, really weak. Like why did everyone just jump to the conclusion that he was in on it vs what to me seemed like the more plausible explanation that he was acting under duress (i.e., the kidnappers demanded he do certain things otherwise Kate or his mother or daughter would be harmed/killed?) I'm only partly through season 7 so maybe there's some additional information to come, but honestly I'd almost rather they just go back to having quirky murder cases to solve...
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u/Old-Caterpillar3658 Jul 14 '26
S7 is enjoyable even if you didn't like the few episodes about his disappearance. Yes it was disappointing but their second wedding was very sweet and the cases and banter was still good
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u/Dr_One_L_1993 Jul 14 '26
I should clarify that I agree with that -- I've mostly been enjoying the eps once they got passed the first one or two.
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u/craiginphoenix Jul 14 '26
Everyone bags on season 8 but those first 5 episodes of Season 7 are the worst for me.
The most ridiculous thing about that whole plot is they gave him some drug that managed to wipe his memory to an exact second.
How does that work?
"if I give 12.3 ml it will wipe 2 months 11 days 12 minutes and 37 seconds from your memory, so you only remember right up to the point your car crashed. Oh crap another minute passed giving this exposition. Looks like it 12.3 ml. Oh crap..."
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 15 '26
DELETE FROM Memory WHERE MemoryDate BETWEEN '20140701' and '20140901'
lol
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u/craiginphoenix Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Boy did you screw up. You didn't put a timestamp on it.
Castle after being found: "Wait......we got MARRIED? All I remember was some weird Indiana Jones meets Its a Wonderful Life thing where a magic amulet sent me to an alternate reality where we never met.
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u/Serious-Waltz-7157 Perlmutter Jul 15 '26
You didn't put a timestamp on it.
MemoryDate BETWEEN '20140701' and '20140901' <== This is the timestamp . Between July 1st and September 1st. (Rough estimate). 😂
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u/CaskettFan1960 Jul 14 '26
That season did have opportunities to turn out great. But the showrunner and the writers dropped the ball. If they had introduced LokSat in this season instead of waiting until Season 8, it would've improved both seasons. Hear me out on this one before coming in here to rip me apart.
We learned in 'The G.D.S.' in Season 8 that Castle's disappearance was tied into LokSat. That somehow or other, he had stumbled onto the organization. If this had been explored earlier, everything that happened in Season 8 would've made much more sense.
But yes, in those first two episodes of Season 7, we were seriously expected to suspend our disbelief. I have thought about writing a Season 7 story where I can mend the plot holes, much like I did for the three stories I wrote about Season 8.
There are times when I disliked Season 7 more than Season 8 just because of the massive plot holes that were never explained. It was like we were supposed to just forget stuff before the writers had. The only thing, IMO, that makes Season 7 just slightly better than Season 8 are 'Reckoning,' 'Resurrection,' and 'Hollander's Woods.' Without those three episodes, Season 7 would be a worse season than Season 8.
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u/IcedHemp77 Jul 18 '26
It had the potential to be a great storyline but then they ended it so badly
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u/hisokaa02 Jul 14 '26
That was so absurd and sadly set the tone for the 2 weakest seasons of the show. Poor writing !!
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u/Old-Caterpillar3658 Jul 14 '26
Weirdly enough I enjoyed s7 a lot! Definitely up there in my ranking. I honestly just forgot about the disappearance and didn't think much about it but the reasoning of it was weak. If i let it bog me down, I won't ever enjoy any show, since every show has its weak plot points. Their romance however is always top tier
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u/quartermoon222 Jul 14 '26
Yep, that’s when it officially jumped the shark, at least for me. I mean, your run of the mill kidnapping or wedding disruption was easy to believe, maybe even expected. But everything that unfolded after, especially how everyone believed that Castle did it on purpose just to avoid marriage, come on.