Kill Shot 

A case involving a sniper brings back memories for Beckett of her own shooting.

Director:

David Barrett (as David M. Barrett)

Writers:

Andrew W. Marlowe (created by), Alexi Hawley

Stars:

Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Nathan Fillion	...	Richard Castle
Stana Katic	...	Kate Beckett
Susan Sullivan	...	Martha Rodgers
Jon Huertas	...	Javier Esposito
Seamus Dever	...	Kevin Ryan
Tamala Jones	...	Lanie Parish
Molly C. Quinn	...	Alexis Castle (as Molly Quinn)
Penny Johnson Jerald	...	Captain Victoria Gates
Michael Dorn	...	Dr. Carter Burke
Scott Michael Campbell	...	Lee Travis
Troy Winbush	...	Marcus Ford
Mandy June Turpin	...	Caire Travis
Tony Elias	...	Chris Nunez
Karissa Vacker	...	Emily Reese
Christina Ferraro	...	Sarah Vasquez

Storyline

Shortly after killing a kindergarten teacher about to marry, a sniper kills a lawyer on a Manhattan street, without an apparent link. Esposito's sharp-shooter training proves handy for the case and to help Becket deal with the rekindled trauma of her near-fatal shooting. With help from his daughter's art course, Castle works out the only clues left at the distant sniper hideouts, cuttings from Renaissance paintings. Each alludes to the next murder site. After a third target survives, Castle works out a superficial point in common and postulates a tragic motive.

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Plot Keywords:

ladder | gunshot | helping someone | rescue | shot to death | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2011 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Raleigh Studios - 5300 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Beacon Pictures, Experimental Pictures, ABC Studios

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

Katic and Huertas won a PRISM award in the mental health category for their portrayal of PTSD.

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Goofs

The rifle shown at 4:32 is a Remington 700 in AICS stock. It is a bolt action rifle which does not eject the spent casing after each shot. At 11:33, they find a spent case that was left behind. Unless a shooter was planning a follow up shot, he would have just left the spent case in the rifle.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Julie: So have you picked a place yet?
Sarah Vasquez: I'd love to do it at the Botanical Gardens, but Chris thinks it's too expensive.
Julie: It's your wedding. It's supposed to cost a fortune.
Sarah Vasquez: I know! You only get married once!

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Soundtracks

Castle Theme
Written by Robert Duncan

User Reviews

Minus the comedy

I have mixed feelings about this "Castle" segment, not a jump-the-shark outing but clearly a departure from the series' various premises. The IMDb leads off with "Comedy" among the show's genres, but by design there were zero yocks this time out.

Also missing in action are Castle's family, his mom & daughter who add so much life to the series, probably a calculated scripting ploy. Instead we have intense, quite melodramatic focus on Beckett and her life-sapping neuroses recovering from a near-death shooting, and having to hunt a sniper on the loose in Manhattan.

Stana Katic carries the story -she looks different (careful makeup & hairdo work to achieve the effect) and her acting is strong. I was surprised to see that Jon Huertas was elevated in effect to the male lead -Fillion was present and doing his thing, but faded into the background a bit as Huertas asserted himself and literally saved the day.

There's nothing wrong with trying for a serious tone in a series like this, and I particularly appreciated the strong scenes of Katic and her shrink, which pointed towards further examination of the depths of Beckett's character (especially her mania for resolving the case of her mother's killing) in the future.

But eliminating of the banter, romantic innuendo, light touch and self-mocking tone that has made "Castle" a fan favorite was a mistake in my opinion. It would be like tacking on a late '40s entry in the Nick & Nora theatrical THIN MAN series done in classic film noir fashion -one could imagine William Powell pulling it off (just as Dick Powell proved to be an unlikely but memorable film noir hero), but what a horrible idea that would have been!

One more criticism: if the writers are serious about getting serious, I wish they would take the time to beef up or spotlight Penny Johnson Jerald's character. She is merely functional, barking out orders and presenting a strong facade, but this is purely 1-dimensional. Obviously her "24" role of the president's wife was a career peak, but more significantly it permitted her the chance for bravura acting, shading and creating a villain of Shakespearean depth. To waste her in a token "tough-talking boss" walk-through is ridiculous.