Castle S7 Ep17 – Hong Kong Hustle

It’s Asian Female Guest Star from Star Trek Night, featuring Hoshi Sato and Keiko O’Brien!

Tonight’s case is that of a murdered ex-con named Henry Graham, found dead in a park at midnight. Despite his record, everyone says he was a stand-up guy – including Chief Inspector Zhang of the Hong Kong police, who heard her friend was in trouble and arrived just in time to find him at the crime scene, dead.

Beckett suddenly feels like she’s an underachiever.

At first, Zhang (played by the lovely Linda Park of Enterprise, uh, fame) seems like she’s perfect, such that Beckett is driven almost to teenager levels of insecurity. She’s the head of an international organized crime task force, married to a movie star, with two adorable kids, she’s gorgeous, and she’s an excellent shot. All of this makes Beckett wonder if she’s settling for less than her potential by staying a homicide detective. But of course, Zhang reveals to Beckett later on in the case that her perfect life is falling apart at the seams.

But back to the case. Henry was a regular customer at the Jade Temple, a Chinese restaurant run by Mimi Tan (Rosalind Chao, of Deep Space Nine fame). It turns out he patronized that establishment in order to spend time with one of the workers, an illegal immigrant named Suyin who was basically in indentured servitude to Mimi. Henry made a deal with Mimi to take down one of her business rivals in exchange for Suyin’s freedom. But one of Suyin’s fellow workers and close friends didn’t want Henry to take Suyin away from her, so she told Suyin not to meet Henry in the park that night and killed him.

I have no idea how believable it is that a Chief Inspector from Hong Kong would be allowed to cooperate in an NYPD investigation that her task force has nothing to do with, but it was fun to see Zhang and Beckett work together. Thankfully Beckett’s insecurity wasn’t overplayed. I did think it was a liiiittle ridiculous that Zhang apparently took out everyone in the boxing gym without taking any punches herself. There were maybe ten guys around her before they cut away to Beckett’s arrival. I’m as much a fan of a kickass heroine as the next person, but really?

It’s much better when the super cops are on the same page, not competing, right?

It’s very in-character for Beckett to wonder if she should be doing more or doing something different with her life and career. We’ll have to see how that plays out in the rest of the season. To me, a decision on Beckett’s part to move on from the precinct would be a good way to end the show at the end of this season. But I sort of doubt ABC is going to let this show end yet. Anyway, it’s good to know that, whatever Beckett decides, she’s not planning on leaving Castle behind this time.

Next week’s episode looks to be an intense, Ryan-centric case. I’ll be watching! What about you?