Narrative Conventions in Castle 5x15 "Target"

I had to write this short essay about narrative conventions for a media class that I am taking, and since I chose Castle, I figured it would be a good thing to post on my blog! I am writing this as if the reader had never seen/heard of Castle, so keep that in mind. Enjoy!

"Target", season 5, episode 15 of Castle, was produced in January 2013 at  Raleigh Studios, Los Angeles. The episode was written by Andrew W. Marlowe and was directed by Bill Roe. This episode of Castle deals with the protagonist (Richard Castle) realizing that his daughter Alexis has been kidnapped. These are two characters that the audience has become attached to, so there is an extreme emotional attachment to this story.           

One often-debated narrative convention within television shows is closure. Many television episodes tell a complete story: beginning, middle, and end. For the most part, each episode is a stand-alone story. This convention comes from the creators of the show balancing "trying to address both experienced and new viewers" (Branston and Stafford 58). This particular episode of Castle, however, challenges this idea of a complete story. The goal of the episode is established early: to rescue Alexis from a mysterious kidnapping. However, this episode violates the convention of the stand-alone story. It is the first of a two-part story arc, so the conclusion will not come until the next episode. "Target" goes further into challenging this convention with its use of suspense. Close to the end of the episode, the viewer is lead to believe that Alexis is about to be found, but a last-minute cliffhanger reveals (both to the audience and the protagonist) that she is not even on the same continent as Castle. For those in the audience expecting the story to be concluded within this episode, the "To Be Continued" title card is even more frustrating.

This convention of closure exists very differently within the plot and the story. In this single episode, the plot is incomplete. It requires a second episode to fulfill the resolution of the conflict that has arisen. The way that television is structured, the viewer is required to wait a week until the airing of the next episode in order to see the conclusion. In the story, the break between episodes has no bearing whatsoever on the characters or their emotional development. The characters do not need to wait a week to discover how this conflict will be solved. The story will have a beginning, middle, and end, it will just take more than one plot to tell the story.

The story of a father trying to rescue his daughter from a kidnapping is not a new idea, as it is most prominently seen in the popular film Taken, starring Liam Neeson. In "Target", there is a scene in which Castle is given a chance to talk to an accomplice in the kidnapping. The viewer is not privy to this conversation, but we do hear off-screen yells of pain from what we assume to be the accomplice. This scene, even to viewers who may not have seen Taken but know its cultural pervasiveness, is an echo of Taken. In both stories, the father will do anything to get his daughter back, even resorting to violence.

Castle is usually a model of narrative conventions in cop shows, but the episode "Target" breaks from this model. It utilizes a cliffhanger in order to emphasize the lack of complete conclusion, and echoes images of the popular movie Taken to heighten emotional involvement. Although "Target" does not present a complete story, the plot is affected by the unanticipated ending.