ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 6, episode 12 review: Did a wedding date overshadow James Brolin?

James Brolin returned to “Castle” last night for “Deep Cover,” which was an hour that continues to really add layer after layer to the complicated man known as Jackson Hunt. What did we learn? Mostly that he is a man who has no problem throwing his family into the line of fire, at least in that it helps him to ensure that he gets the job done.

Let it be said that by no means do we believe that Castle is going to understand Jackson’s actions more as he gets older, which is the sort of nonsense that he tried to spread to his son after he shot a man nicknamed “Gemini” multiple times in completing his mission. This is a man who likes killing, but gets away with it just because it is his job to do so. He’s also a man whose interest in his family is probably only about a 3 or 4 out of 10. There is probably some love there, but there is more love that is present for other things. He took a big risk in allowing both Martha and Beckett to find out who he is, since that would suddenly take away from the world that he has successfully created for himself.

James Brolin of course gives a great performance in this part, but we actually cannot really say that there are too many more Jackson appearances that we need. Are any of them from here on out really going to be that different from each other? Personally, we find it doubtful. He will probably just show up, act like a jerk again, and then leave. The odds of something different actually going down at this point are pretty low.

The bigger news in some ways to us now is that Castle and Beckett seem to finally have their wedding date, and it’s ironically just what we were hoping for: September. We feel like it’s a better way to start a season 7 than end season 6, mostly because there’s all sorts of stuff like a honeymoon that can be better explored. Plus, it ensures that people will still watch at the start of next season, and not just tune out when it happens in May.

All in all, a very good episode. Not our favorite of the entire season, but at least a solid return for Brolin and an episode that pushed the overall story. Grade: B+.

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