Castle S8 Ep14 – The G.D.S.

Congratulations, Castle! This episode returned me to everything I’ve hated about this season! Guess it was too much to hope that the show was back on track now.

Look, it’s Castle, Boss Guy whose name I didn’t bother to remember, and Summer Glau! Oh, and some other people who didn’t even get names.

This week, Castle heads to LA with Alexis and Hayley to see if visiting the Korean restaurant he remembered last week jogs the rest of his memories of his missing time. There’s no mention of what Beckett thinks of this plan, or even what she’s doing, to excuse why she doesn’t even get a moment of screentime. As soon as he arrives, Castle receives an invitation from the Greatest Detective Society, asking for his assistance in solving the murder of one of their members, Philip Ross (I think that’s his name – honestly I stopped caring). Rick’s up against Summer Glau’s character. It’s a contest, you see: whoever solves the mystery gets to be the new member of the GDS. Yay?

So they get some help from Ryan & Espo, because it turns out Ross’s murder is the work of a serial killer who operates on both coasts. And then it turns out that it’s not one killer – it’s two, working together. And then it turns out that one killer is a screenwriter, and the other is the owner of the studio that massacred the Heat Wave movie (for which Castle held a grudge even before he was revealed to be a murderous psycho). But even though Castle solves the murder before Kendall, he decides he doesn’t need a GDS membership. He already works with the greatest detective ever. Aww. That would be a whole lot sweeter if she’d even been MENTIONED before wrapping up the week’s murder mystery. Anyway. He offers his slot to Kendall, and the guy in charge says he’ll be keeping an eye on Castle.

As for the missing time plotline, well. This is where it gets interesting/infuriating. The PI trio find a watch that Castle left at the Korean restaurant, which has a tracking device in it. Then Alexis tracks the tracking device to a former Army Special Forces guy who’s out of the country right now. Hayley tells Alexis it would be safer for her dad if she didn’t pursue that lead. This is where she starts to look suspicious. And indeed, Alexis finds a picture of her with the Army guy. At first, it looks like Hayley might actually be eeeeevil! But no, it’s just that (as she confesses to Rick) she was hired by his father to look after Rick when he went AWOL after returning from Thailand. Rick recorded a message for her to give his future self if he ever started investigating the missing time. What’s the big revelation from the video? Hold onto your hats, folks: he was investigating LOCKSAT! See, his missing time and the conspiracy behind the murders of all of Beckett’s former coworkers are connected! In a way that isn’t explained and I don’t care about! Especially since his past self wants Castle to keep this secret from her, in order to protect her.

This scenario was supposed to be funny, I think.

Okay, writers. There was no Beckett this episode, Ryan & Espo were kind of mean to Lanie (although she got them back properly, at least!), and now it looks like Castle will “have to” lie to protect Beckett, just like she “had to” lie to protect Castle at the beginning of the season. These are all bad things. Plus, this whole GDS thing looks suspiciously like a way to set up an alternate route for Rick to go if Stana Katic doesn’t want to come back next season. And if that happens? You can be sure I for one will no longer be watching.

So we have a week break before the show returns on March 21. Will you be returning with it, or not? Let us know in the comments.