CASTLE: An Advance Review of the Season 4 Premiere

Castle ended on a shocking note last season with Beckett gunned down by a sniper at Captain Montgomery’s funeral, and Castle admitting his feelings for Beckett, leaving fans to debate the fallout all summer. I’ve just watched the season 4 premiere, “Rise”, and am happy to report that it succeeds at the tricky task of giving plenty of weight to that cliffhanger and launching the story in a new direction.

ABC has certain restrictions about what can be revealed, so forgive me if this review is vague, but believe me when I say you don’t want to be spoiled when it comes to a few plot points. The episode picks up right after the finale with Beckett being rushed to the hospital. The action and emotion during those few minutes is intense. Still grieving for Montgomery, now Lanie, Esposito, Ryan and Castle are faced with losing Beckett. Emotions are running high and reveal both love and anger between different characters, resulting in a very strong opening.

Given that ABC released a billion photos of Beckett back on the job last week, I’ll go ahead and spoil that…Beckett lives! This is a character-driven show, though, so don’t expect business as usual just because she’s back at the precinct. When she returns, after three months on disability, the emotional fallout from the shooting and Montgomery’s involvement in her mother’s death is clear. I was going to single out Stana Katic for her performance in this episode, but that implies a lesser effort from everyone else when the reality is that the entire cast was at the top of their game in this hour. It’s truly become an ensemble effort.

Speaking of the ensemble, there’s a new Captain in charge, Victoria Gates aka Iron Gates played by the formidable Penny Johnson Jerald, and she runs a very different squad than Montgomery did. First of all, “there’s no room for vendettas” on her watch. She’s so tough, Ryan and Esposito are paranoid about her finding out that they’re still trying to follow leads on Beckett’s shooting, even though Gates closed the case for lack of new information. Their paranoia would be amusing if it didn’t seem so real.

Gates also has no love for Castle and is furious when he calls in favors to be allowed to stick around and help Beckett. Her hostility toward him ought to make life at the office interesting this season, especially since Beckett has no intention of dropping her investigation into her mother’s death, despite lack of leads or support from her Captain.

And what of Beckett and Castle? By the end of the episode, their relationship has been challenged by internal and external forces to the extent that looking back over the hour, it’s remarkable how much character development we’ve been given in such a short amount of time. But it’s probably Beckett’s final words that are the most significant.

Castle returns to ABC with all new episodes on Monday, September 19 at 10/9c.