7x17 - "Hong Kong Hustle" Review

‘Castle’ : What Matters Most

By Lisa Caputo

2015-03-16

Beckett is forced to work alongside a seemingly better version of herself and learns that things are not always as they appear

This seventh season of Castle has been touted as being largely centered on the titular character, but after a lengthy two-week hiatus, the focus certainly turned more so to Beckett’s character instead, bringing with it a thought-provoking and insightful commentary regarding where Castle and Beckett may be heading as they turn the corner into the final stretch of episodes for the season. With hints scattered through much of this season that the couple may be ready to start a family of their own and more recently that Beckett may be growing anxious to take the next step in her career as well, Monday’s episode set the spotlight on exactly those elements, perhaps setting the stage for the next chapter in Beckett’s professional life as well as hers and Castle’s personal lives.

Penned by the remarkably talented Chad Gomez Creasey, in his first solo effort for Castle, and directed by the extremely busy and brilliant Jann Turner, Monday’s “Hong Kong Hustle” found Beckett beginning to truly take stock of her own life and where she was versus where she had believed she would be at this point in her life. While there have been signs of this all season, something that seems sensible following her closing her mother’s murder case and marrying the love of her life, this latest installment put a great deal of focus on this topic. After finding out that one of her former colleagues had risen up the ranks as a newly-appointed Captain, Beckett began to question how she seemingly let herself fall behind in her career. Despite Castle’s best efforts to support Beckett and help her feel the sense of accomplishment and self-fulfilment that she should have with everything she’s achieved and become in her life, there was still a sense of doubt and longing within her.

When their latest case forced Beckett to work alongside Inspector Zhang, truly Hong Kong’s finest and most accomplished member of the force, Beckett immediately felt the pangs of envy and insecurity. With a seemingly perfect career and personal life, Zhang was, in a sense, everything Beckett felt she should be at this point in her life; a highly accomplished and respected professional, a mother to two beautiful children, and a perfect wife to her movie-star husband. As Beckett herself lamented early on in the episode, “she’s just like me, only better.”

The episode was most certainly an interesting one, combining both lighthearted comedy with some truly thought-provoking moments and meaningful drama as well. There were some great moments outside of the Beckett/Zhang storyline, such as Ryan giving Castle marriage advice with Esposito hilariously nodding silently in agreement, or the entire team bringing Zhang into the fold as one of their own to solve the case together. Even still, the focus of the episode and the source of many of the highlight as such was the storyline between Beckett and Zhang, something that also spawned some great moments between Castle and Beckett as well, especially as Beckett very clearly came to realize her own insecurities while Castle did his best to offer her a dose of self-confidence as only he could.

The interesting element here was that while we have seen Beckett become overly competitive in situations like these in the past, trying to prove her worth or prove that she was truly smarter or more competent than whomever she was comparing herself to, that really was not the case within this episode. Zhang was more so someone she admired, someone she felt she should be more like, someone she felt was living the life she should be leading, and someone who was able to balance family and career in a way that Beckett had always doubted she could. Rather than compete with Zhang, Beckett opted to learn more about her, perhaps learn from her, and get some insight into how she could perhaps go about moving forward in her own life and career to make the most of it just as Zhang had.

But, just as it almost always is, Zhang’s perfect life was not exactly as it seemed on paper. In fact, the woman who seemingly had it all truly had very little. She was admittedly a terrible wife and extremely absent mother, focusing almost solely on her career and leaving behind what really mattered in her life. In a truly moving scene between lead Stana Katic and guest star Linda Park, Zhang painfully told a shocked Beckett that there was nothing perfect at all about her life. But the death of her longtime friend, their victim, had opened her eyes to the fact that she had pushed aside everything that meant anything to her in order to advance her own career, something that now pushed her past any professional limits to ensure that she would find justice for him. In that moment, it was Beckett herself that proved that she was the stronger and much more secure of the two, taking the lead to protect Zhang and get their investigation back on track. Perhaps it also opened Beckett’s eyes to the fact that she had a pretty perfect life herself, even if it was still a work in progress.

With that, the entire team joined forces to find their killer. It was fantastic to see every one of them using their strengths to add something to the investigation, eventually putting the final pieces together to get the justice and closure that Zhang needed to move on. With the death of her friend now avenged, a death she felt she should have been there to prevent, Zhang returned home to pick up the pieces of her fractured life and forge ahead into a life of more meaning. Thus, despite Beckett wanting to get to know Zhang better in order to learn something from her, it was Beckett herself that perhaps taught Zhang the most important lesson of all; success means nothing if you are missing the right people to share it with.

Back at the loft later that night, Castle asked Beckett what mountain she wanted to climb next in her life, going back to quote Beckett quoting Zhang from earlier in the episode. Beckett simply smiled at her husband and told him she had not decided yet. As much as she loved her job, she was ready for a new challenge in her life, explaining to Castle that it was likely how he felt when he opted to kill off his Derrick Storm character so he could embark on a new story to tell. Even still, she assured Castle that she would never compromise who she was nor leave behind what really mattered, holding tightly onto his hand to emphasize that he was what mattered most to her. Castle replied with wise words of love and support, words that affirmed that no matter what path Beckett may choose to take in her professional life, he would always be there right beside her, telling Beckett, “You cannot leave behind what is always at your side.” Truer words have never been spoken.