BWW Recap: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless CASTLE

"Some mysteries aren't meant to be solved."

Those are tough words for crime novelist Richard Castle to hear, especially when his own disappearance is the mystery in question.

The second episode of Season 7 begins to scratch the surface of Castle's whereabouts when he was supposed to be marrying and honeymooning with the love of his life, Kate Beckett. The search leads him to Montreal, the title of this episode, but, as Kate observes about this week's murder case, every answer leads to more questions.

Despite Castle's disappearance and their desire to find answers, he and Beckett and company are back to business as usual with their weekly murder investigation. This time the vic is a toy company CEO found in the river.

Meanwhile, during a TV interview, it's suggested that perhaps Castle's disappearance was a publicity stunt to increase flagging book sales. To combat that theory, Castle offers a hefty reward for information that will help him figure out his own mystery, and gives out the precinct's phone number as a tip line. When a furious Captain Gates dresses down Castle because the phones are ringing off the hook in response to his offer and it's tying up the precinct, Castle gives the captain a big smooch on the lips. Lucky Captain!

They investigate the toy company CEO's murder, which begins to mirror the theory Beckett and others were so quick to believe on last week's episode regarding Castle's vanishing act. Castle's reward offer pays off when they get a tip that Castle was in Montreal six weeks before. Beckett can't get away for a flight to the Great White North, but doesn't want Castle to go alone because it could be dangerous. "It's Canada," Castle quips. "How risky can it be?" Alexis jumps at the chance to babysit her father, which leads to a daddy-daughter trip to Canada and to a safe deposit box. What they find there leads Castle into a confrontation in which a misleading character from last week tells him to stop trying so hard to figure things out, and "they" went to great lengths, at Castle's request, to ensure he remembered nothing from his lost months, which of course confuses Castle---and us---even more.

By the final scene, Castle is ready to move on and put this all behind him, suggesting that the best way to do this would be for he and Beckett to marry immediately so they can begin their life together. But Beckett demurs, knowing that a quickie wedding and playing house won't close the distance Castle's own personal mystery has put between them. Of course Kate's right---this whole conversation takes place while the two of them are in bed fully clothed. You can't more distant than that.

It makes sense that the CASTLE writers would choose to give viewers another mystery that could take seasons to solve---the thread of Beckett's mother's murder ran through the first six seasons, sparking milestones in the Castle-Beckett relationship. The first time Beckett really got angry with Castle it was because he looked into the file on her mother's murder. The first time Castle told Beckett he loved her was after she got shot for getting too close to the truth about her mother's murder. And the thing that ultimately brought Beckett to the realization of what in life was really important to her was after she lost everything in her dogged quest to learn the truth about---say it with me---her mother's murder.

But once Beckett solved that mystery last season, the show's underscore was no more, so a new running mystery is called for. Richard Castle disappearing for a few months and having something happen to him so horrific that he goes all Jim Carrey/Kate Winslet and begs for the eternal sunshine of a spotless mind ? There's your new seasons-long mystery.

What are your thoughts? What happened to Castle? Will he and Beckett ever again end up in bed with their clothes off? And what could be so awful that you'd want it erased from your memory? Let us know your thoughts below.

Photo Credit: Colleen Hayes | ABC

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