‘Castle’ season 5, episode 11 review: Esposito plays the hero

After spending so many weeks focusing primarily on the relationship between Castle and Beckett, Monday night’s new “Castle” season 5 episode decided to change course and give us a taste of the man Esposito is, and the troubled kid that he was once.

While the case itself was a relatively routine DJ-is-murdered-by-a-pop-star-orchestrating-a-publicity-stunt-gone-awry storyline (you know, the sort of thing you see on every mystery show at some point), this was the plot that fascinated us a little bit more. Javier grew attached to a teenage kid in Joey, who was in and out of the police station regularly on robbery charges after falling in with a very bad crowd. He tried to win his respect first in order to help solve the case (as he was one of the key people at the scene); and then, he tried to win his respect because he wanted to look out for him.

At the end of the day, the powerful moment came here when Esposito revealed to the kid that he had a pretty checkered past in juvenile hall early on in his life, and it was actually one of his teachers who helped him to turn it around. He wants to be in that role now, and thus he gave him his phone number to call if he ever needed anything. Not only that, but he also made sure that most of the bad people in his life were suddenly gone from his universe.

Is this an episode of “Castle” that most will remember years down the road? Probably not, since it was a standalone hour that was good for just a little escape from the world. With that being said, at least it gave us some great character development, Esposito kicking butt and taking names, and a few funny lines from Ryan.

Want to more about an upcoming Ryan-focused episode? Just click here, and as always share your thoughts on this review below!

Photo: ABC