Season 8 Episode 18 - "Backstabber" Review

‘Castle’ : Fight or Flight

By Lisa Caputo

2016-04-18

Hayley finds herself at the center of the team’s latest investigation while Castle and Beckett rally everyone to stand behind her and clear her name

At its core, Castle has always been a story about love, friendship, partnership, and family. While the romantic will they/won’t they relationship between Castle and Beckett, one that soon broke the traditional TV barriers by seeing them commit to one another and answer that question mid-series, has always been the central focus of the story, there have always been many other relationships that have formed the heart and soul of the series. While finding the love of his life in Beckett, Castle also found a sense of friendship and comradery that he had never had before, true partnerships and a sense of an extended family along with his own mother and daughter. Over the years, we have said goodbye to some of those family members, most notably Captain Montgomery and Captain Gates, while also welcoming new members along the way, including the character of Hayley during this current season. This family has protected one another, fought for one another, and risked their lives for one another, something that has long been the greatest element outside of the Caskett love story that has resonated with the fans. On Monday, the newest member of the Castle story discovered just how strong that sense of family truly is.

Penned by Robert Bella, his second episode as one of this season’s newest solo writers, and directed by the extremely talented Jessica Yu, also her second episode of Castle this season, Monday’s “Backstabber” found Hayley unknowingly thrust into the center of the NYPD team’s latest investigation after a favour she agreed to do for an old MI6 colleague went horribly awry. While her first instinct after learning that her connection to their victim would ultimately be discovered was to make a run for it, she was soon convinced by Alexis to stay and fight alongside Castle and Beckett to help solve the case and clear her name. It was an interesting and twisted case that allowed everyone to work together, from Castle and Beckett to their NYPD partners Ryan and Esposito to Castle’s PI team of Hayley and Alexis. The two investigative teams worked well together to combine their strengths and get the job done, all while showcasing that sense of family amongst them all that Hayley had just started to believe she could be a part of.

In many ways, this episode allowed the audience to see the entire team at their very best; Ryan and Esposito working Ned over with great teamwork during their interrogation scene, Castle and Beckett working together to help protect Hayley while breaking down the details of the case, Alexis and Castle working from the PI office with Hayley to get a break in the case, and the whole NYPD team, including Lanie, doing their usual best to use their resources and track down the truth. And the team allowed Hayley to break the rules as well, knowing how important this investigation was to her, something they have all done themselves in the past. Even when Hayley used some interesting tactics to get to their first suspect-turned witness, Ned, Captain Beckett stood beside her and gave her a pass, knowing she would have done exactly the same thing to get to the truth no matter the cost. Meanwhile, despite the guys and Lanie ragging on Castle a bit in the early part of the episode, trying to downplay his vital role on their team, we soon got to see Castle once again using his out-of-the-box investigative tactics and his random knowledge, from “Nikki Heat” research of course, help break the case wide open as he was able to track down Carla with just a few details about her corset.

While the heart and soul of the episode was most certainly the sense of family and the sense of protectiveness everyone showed in their efforts to help Hayley in her time of need and give her the support and strength to fight to clear her name, the pulse of the episode seemed to be the deep relationships she has built with both Alexis and Castle. It was Alexis who convinced Hayley to stay and fight for her freedom, and who convinced her to turn to Castle and Beckett for help doing so. This scene between Molly Quinn and Toks Olagundoye was truly powerful and emotional, a spotlight for each of them to showcase this remarkable friendship their characters have formed over the season. The conviction in Alexis’ voice as she held Hayley back from leaving, almost trying to will her to stay even while her heart was breaking for her friend, and the look of pain and fear in Hayley’s eyes as she struggled between her fight or flight instincts, ultimately opting to fight thanks to Alexis, those moments of pure and true emotion were thanks to Quinn and Olagundoye, both of whom have delivered time after time this season when given the opportunity to work together and showcase the friendship between their characters.

Meanwhile, Hayley’s friendships with both Castle and Alexis seemed to be tested throughout the hour, especially when MI6’s Agent Mallory came calling for her and revealed some information to Castle and a hidden Alexis regarding their newfound friend. What was interesting, though also very true to their characters, was that Alexis seemed to have her moments of doubt, even questioning Hayley to tell them the truth about what Agent Mallory revealed, while Castle never waivered in his faith in her. Alexis has been through a great deal over the years and it seems likely she would have a hard time trusting anyone, even someone who she had a deep bond with, especially when confronted with information that painted Hayley with a much different brush. Yet Castle knew instinctively that Mallory could not be trusted, that his information could easily be skewed to prompt Castle to turn Hayley in, instead choosing to trust in Hayley and protect her the way he has always protected his friends and family no matter the risks involved.

But the episode was also a wonderful journey of growth for Hayley herself, something that gave Olagundoye an opportunity to shine after being absent from the past couple of episodes, and she certainly did not disappoint. Truly, we got to see many sides to her character, both the remnants of who Hayley once was before she became part of the Castle family and who she wanted to be now that she had found a home and a place to belong in the world. Once the truth was revealed about Wes’ supposed death and why Hayley actually left MI6, it became abundantly clear why she had remained so closed off from anyone and everyone for so long. In a way, this part of her story is very much like both Castle and Beckett’s stories; they had all felt abandoned by people they cared for and trusted in the past, shaping who they became before finding one another. And, just as Castle and Beckett changed because of one another and that sense of comradery they found both together and with their family and friends, so too had Hayley changed once she found herself feeling at home and found a sense of belonging amongst them all.

Her similarities to Castle and Beckett also became evident when she learned the truth about Wes being very much alive and behind the murders and the plot to plunge London into darkness as retribution for his former team, and in his mind his entire country, leaving him to be tortured and potentially killed despite his efforts to risk his life for them all. In classic Castle style, Hayley opted to go rogue, perhaps in an effort to bring Wes in and put an end to this ordeal herself, and perhaps also as a means of protecting everyone else from getting involved in a risky takedown. And it was in her darkest hours that she let her true soul be shown, one that pleaded for her life because she had finally found her purpose and finally found a real reason to live, something she even tried to appeal to Wes with, hoping he would let her go and she could get him the help he would need to hopefully find his own purpose in life someday as well and put his past behind him as she had tried to do all season. In the end, despite her deep ties to Wes, she was forced to make a choice, first by choosing justice by confronting him instead of letting him get away, and then by choosing her life, a life that she had only just begun living lately thanks to her friends, over his. As difficult a choice as that had to have been, she did what she had to do to protect herself and protect her newfound family from having their efforts to help her be all for naught.

And while the episode was centered primarily around Hayley and her relationships with the entire team, all of whom went above and beyond the call of duty to protect her and help her, even Captain Beckett who would have had a great deal to lose if she was caught helping a wanted supposed criminal, there were also some wonderful scenes amongst the whole team to close out the episode. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito celebrated the closing of their case and a successful day with a night out together while Castle, Alexis, and Hayley celebrated at the PI office together as well, giving the Castles a chance to spend time with their respective teams before reuniting together at the loft later that night.

That closing scene bookended the episode’s opening scene perfectly with some wonderful Caskett moments. While the opening scene presented a hilarious (and oddly realistic) domestic issue between the Castles after Beckett accused her husband of betraying her in her dreams, this issue was seemingly dropped after the first few scenes of the hour after the guys gave Castle the sound advice that perhaps Beckett’s subconscious had picked up on him hiding something from her and caused her to have such an unfavourable dream about him. And that suggestion came back again in stunning form to close out the episode as Castle greeted Beckett at home at the loft with a single red rose, apologizing to her on behalf of not only his dream self but also his real self as he admitted to having been hiding something from her. But it was more so a surprise he was trying to hide from her until the time was right, something he hilariously admitted he shouldn’t have attempted to do to “the world’s greatest detective… after Batman”. With that, he revealed that he had wanted Beckett to return to something she loved doing, something that was entirely hers from her past, perhaps to get something of herself back after undergoing so many big changes in her life over the past year or so. Thus, he had her old motorcycle restored, all shiny and new, hoping she could regain that part of her past that she had loved so much, even offering that she should take a cross-country tour on it. But Beckett quickly knew that as much as she loved riding that bike, there was something she loved more; Castle. With that, she told her husband that she would not take that trip alone, inviting him to join her in a new adventure together. Perhaps this was a spark of foreshadowing, something that will lead towards the finale when they may make their final ride off into the sunset together, exactly as they should.

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