ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 7, episode 17 review: Does an insecure Beckett make for good TV?

It has been a while since we have had new episodes of “Castle”, but tonight it’s back and we are hoping to have some sort of movement on the “why was Castle missing for 2 months” story. We suspect they are saving that for the finale, but it’d be nice if they just threw us a bone! Just let us know that this story isn’t forgotten.

When Beckett learns that an old friend of hers from the academy is being promoted to captain she starts to feel like she is falling behind. Castle tries to compare her situation to another author (Patterson) that he always feels two steps behind, but it doesn’t seem to make her feel any better. Although she doesn’t regret leaving the job in Washington, she still feels like she should be further ahead in her career then she is.

When the head of a Hong Kong task force (Zhang) ends up working on a case with her, Beckett starts fangirling a bit over some of the amazing things Zhang has accomplished (while also managing to balance a family), but it quickly changes as Beckett starts feeling left behind on her own case. Beckett can’t help but compare herself to Zhang and it only gets worse when Beckett and Zhang go out for girls night (at the local gun range) and Zhang schools her in everything.

Eventually Beckett realizes that Zhang doesn’t really have the perfect, put together life that she thinks she does after she goes rogue on the case. She reveals that she doesn’t have balance over her life between work and home and Beckett feels a little bit better about herself. In return she later makes Castle feel better about himself and his rivalry with Patterson.

The case of the week was only so-so for us, but it was great to see super cop Beckett to be thrown off a little and question herself. It’s always great when we see Beckett out of her comfort zone, makes for juicy storylines and gives Stana Katic a chance to shine. Episode grade: B

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