Castle: Target & Hunt

Twenty-four hours later, I am still thinking about the excellent Castle two part episode that started with Target and ended last night with Hunt.  If you haven't watched both episodes, stop reading right here, and get thee to the ABC website where both episodes are available free of charge for your viewing pleasure. 

This post assumes that you've seen both episodes and are familiar with Castle. 

These two episodes and the episode before last, Recoil, show exactly how much more room this show has to run -- miles and miles -- despite the fact Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) are together eliminating the will they or won't they tension. Castle is no Moonlighting.  The storytelling remains great. 

Didn't you love it when Castle was upset about Hunt wrecking his $200 phone and Hunt pointed out that Castle had forgotten about the suitcase lying on the ground with $3 million in it? It was almost like Hunt was telling him to put on a sweater before he went outside or he would regret it when he got cold. Such a dad comment.

By the same token, Castle's behavior to get Alexis back didn't shock me. His character has been consistent throughout about his love for his daughter. We knew he'd do anything to get her back even before he said it and then did it. 

It even showed how emotionally tied up he was when he missed the double cross cues as they were heading into the forest above. If this had been another case he would have predicted such a plot twist right about that point in the story.

Today I had three friends call me because they needed to talk about these two episodes. All of us admitted we cried at several points during Hunt - when his father told him about giving him the Casino Royale book which made Castle want to be a writer, when Castle and Alexis got away and when the Casino Royale book arrived back in New York, signaling that Castle's Dad, Josh Brolin was all right.

And I loved the nods to other shows - the "I am your father" from Star Wars and Volkoff being the Russian bad guy just as he was in the spy series, Chuck. 

I can't wait to see what else they have in store for us this season.