Richard Castle

Richard Castle
Castle character
Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle
First appearance	"Flowers for Your Grave"
Created by	Andrew W. Marlowe
Portrayed by	Nathan Fillion
Information
Nickname(s)	"Rick" "Castle"
Gender	Male
Occupation	Best-selling author[1]
Family	Martha Rodgers (mother)
Children	Alexis Castle
Ex-wives	Meredith Castle Gina Cowell

Richard Edgar "Rick" Castle (born Richard Alexander Rodgers^[2]) is a fictional character portrayed by Nathan Fillion in the ABC crime series Castle.

Character

Family life

Castle is the father of Alexis Castle and the son of Martha Rodgers (who lives with him). Castle's birth name is Richard Alexander Rodgers, but he changed it to Richard Edgar Castle when he became a writer (Edgar in honor of Edgar Allan Poe).^[2] Fillion describes the family dynamic as unconventional because Castle is "mothered by his... daughter, [then]... turns around and mothers his own mother".^[3] As a child, he never knew who his father was—reasoning that he never missed having a father as he never had anything to miss, and it allowed him to imagine that his father could be anyone he wished—and was looked after by a nanny who spent most of her time watching daytime television, with One Life to Live as the inspiration to write his first novel. He also claims to have been kicked out of all of New York's finer academic institutions at least once,^[4] and to have picked up speed reading while spending his days as a child in the New York Public Library.^[5]

Castle has been married and divorced twice. His first wife was Alexis' mother, Meredith, an impulsive, free-spirited actress. She and Richard occasionally meet for a sexual liaison, causing Richard to refer to her metaphorically as a "deep-fried twinkie" (something that is a treat on occasion, but to have it every day would kill you) when she contemplated moving back to New York. His second wife was Gina Cowell,^[6] his publisher, a role she continues after their divorce.^[7] Castle and Gina became involved again, briefly, when she spent a summer with him in the Hamptons supervising his second Nikki Heat novel, but they soon ended their relationship.

Castle has sole custody of his daughter, Alexis. As a result of his own experiences being raised by a nanny, he insisted on raising her himself, made easier by the fact that he works from his large loft apartment. Alexis is quite mature and responsible compared to her father and in some sense parents him and herself. Richard takes great care to look after her well-being, but also behaves like a surrogate sibling in some ways.

Castle also plays regular poker games with fellow authors James Patterson, Stephen J. Cannell, Michael Connelly, and Dennis Lehane.

Writing career

Castle is an author of mystery fiction, with 26 bestsellers. His first novel, In a Hail of Bullets, accrued at least 21 rejections before being accepted by a publisher (he keeps the first rejection letter he received framed on his office wall as motivation)^[8] and winning the Nom DePlume Society's Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature.^[9] His most popular works are a series starring "Derrick Storm"; Gathering Storm, Unholy Storm, Storm's Last Stand, Storm Season, Storm Rising, Storm Warning, and Storm's Break and in the pilot episode, Castle attends a party for the release of the final book in the Storm series, Stormfall, which ends with the surprise death of Derrick Storm, Castle having become bored with the character. He later reads from the novel before a book-signing. Patterson and Cannell both disagree with the decision to kill off Storm, with Cannell commenting that he could have crippled Storm instead, so that he could revisit the character if he changed his mind. Castle's other books include Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, Hell Hath No Fury, A Skull at Springtime, At Dusk We Die, When It Comes to Slaughter, and A Rose for Everafter.^[10] By his own admission, his early works—Death of a Prom Queen, Flowers For Your Grave, and Hell Hath No Fury—are of poor quality; he points to Hell Hath No Fury in particular, with its plotline of "angry Wiccans out for blood" as being a low point in his career.

After using his friendship with the Mayor to get partnered with NYPD detective Kate Beckett under the pretense of conducting research for a new character, Castle plans a new series of novels starring a new character, a detective based on Beckett. He soon names Beckett's literary alter-ego "Nikki Heat", much to her embarrassment.^[11] Beckett takes umbrage at the name, regarding it a "stripper name", and insists that Castle change it, despite his proposing the book titles Summer Heat, Heat Wave, and In Heat. Ultimately, he sticks with the name, and the first novel in the series, Heat Wave, is released to much critical acclaim, with talk in the third season of a movie adaptation. The title of his second Nikki Heat novel, Naked Heat, once again displeases Beckett.

It has been suggested that Castle's interest in death, murder, and the macabre may be the result of a childhood trauma. When Beckett confronts him about it, Castle avoids the question. However, as soon as he tells the story, he admits it is fictional and that it's "[his] job to make stuff up". Later, he admits to his daughter that one of the reasons he writes is to try to understand how criminals could do the things they do. He was under consideration for a deal to write three novels revolving around an unnamed British spy but rejected the offer, allegedly because his publisher wanted three more Nikki Heat novels and offered him more money, but secretly because accepting would have ended his collaboration with Beckett.

Real-world novels

As a promotion for the show, "Richard Castle's" book Heat Wave was released in hardcover by Hyperion on September 29, 2009 and debuted at #26 on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[12] In its fourth week on the list, Heat Wave broke into the top 10 as #6.^[1] Heat Wave was released in paperback on July 27, 2010 and debuted at #34 on The New York Times best seller Paperback Mass-Market list.^[13] The novel features a fictionalized version of the already fictional Richard Castle, named "Jameson Rook", who enters into a partnership with Heat that mirrors Castle's working relationship with Beckett. The second novel, Naked Heat, was released September 28, 2010, and debuted at #7 on The New York Times Best Seller list.^[14] As with Heat Wave, ABC released a series of early chapters of Naked Heat online.^[15] The third Nikki Heat novel, Heat Rises, was released on September 20, 2011.^[16] A graphic novel featuring Derrick Storm titled Deadly Storm, written by Brian Michael Bendis and Kelly Sue DeConnick, with art by Lan Medina, will be published by Marvel Comics on September 28, 2011.^{[17][dated info]} Hyperion intends to publish three original Derrick Storm eBook novellas. The current schedule is for A Brewing Storm to be published in May 2012 and two additional publications in July and August respectively.^[18]

Police consulting

In the pilot episode of the eponymous Castle, Castle is consulted by Detective Beckett of the NYPD when two victims are murdered in the style of two deaths portrayed in Castle's novels. Though Beckett wants Castle's access to the case limited, Castle repeatedly defies her instructions in order to see the handiwork of his copycat. Unsatisfied with what he considers a boring resolution to the case, Castle convinces Beckett to continue the investigation, and winds up discovering deeper layers to the crime; while the murders initially appeared to have been committed by the mentally ill client of a social worker who was one of the victims, Castle notes that the murderer did not duplicate the crimes exactly, eliminating the possibility that he was a deranged fan, realizing that the killer was actually the social worker's brother attempting to frame her client so that he could inherit his father's money after his death (his father suffering from terminal cancer). By the end of the pilot, Castle enters into a working relationship with Beckett under the pretense of conducting research for his new series of "Nikki Heat" novels.

This relationship is often strained by Castle's luck in personally encountering the suspects, and sneaking in behind breaching teams even after Beckett has ordered him to remain behind, his attempts to follow them once allowing a suspect a chance to escape (although in Castle's defense this was merely because his ex-wife called him on his cell phone during the stake-out rather than any mistakes on his part). Despite this, Castle's familiarity with numerous obscure subjects has allowed him to continue working with Detective Beckett on what are classified as "unusual" homicides, Castle often being able to provide further assistance and information about the current case due to his wide range of contacts assembled during his writing career—including a CIA agent who was actually willing to break Agency protocol by telling Castle and Beckett that their current victim was not a CIA agent despite Agency policy being to deny any requests about agent identification—and the research he has carried out during that time. Although he is a proficient marksman (a fact he keeps hidden until Beckett made a wager with him on the practice range), he works the cases wholly unarmed. While his status as a consultant generally allows him to participate in the 'fun' parts of detective work without worrying about the more tedious details- such as allowing him to avoid doing paperwork-, and has allowed the team to use him in situations where the criminals request no police involvement, such as when a non-cop was required to drop off a ransom, Castle still requires official police authority to request information from various sources, and is not allowed to question witnesses professionally on his own.

Although Beckett must often step in to stop him becoming carried away with his theories of what happened when they threaten to obscure the search for the facts—such as when he speculated that a surgeon had been killed for his involvement in an organ-smuggling ring before they discovered that he was wanted for plastic surgery he had performed for someone in witness protection—his writing career has given him a knack for noting minor details in the situations they investigate, such as when he noted that rent for a victim's apartment would have been paid for after her death. Although initially portrayed as relatively jocular and slightly immature about his role in investigations, such as having a bulletproof vest made up for himself that says "WRITER" rather than "POLICE" so he can participate in raids, Castle has demonstrated significant character depth as the series progresses. This was shown most keenly in "Sucker Punch", when, while attempting to catch the killer responsible for the death of Beckett's mother over a decade ago, Castle willingly donated $100,000 of his own money to set up a fake hit to try to lure the killer out so that he could be caught, subsequently offering to terminate his partnership with Beckett after she was forced to shoot the real killer (who was revealed to be a contract assassin who would not disclose the identity of the person who hired him) in order to save his life, although Beckett rejected the offer on the grounds that Castle made her hard job more fun.

In season 3's "Nikki Heat", Castle is upset when B-movie actress Natalie Rhodes is cast as Nikki, thinking she is not right for the role. When Rhodes comes onto a case to observe Beckett, Castle is further insulted that she has not read the actual book, he is considered unimportant to the film and Beckett likes having Natalie around. However, as the case goes on, Rhodes begins to copy Beckett's mannerisms and outfits, complete with brunette wig, annoying Beckett while Castle begins to like her more. At one point, Rhodes kisses Castle, making it clear she wants to sleep with him to feel the character more but Castle turns her down, telling Beckett that sleeping with the actress playing the fictional version of her is "way too meta".

In "Knockdown", Castle helps Beckett in catching her mother's killer. When Martha says that he has written 22 books before meeting Beckett but he did not have to go to police station every day, Castle replied by saying that it is not about the books anymore. Castle and Beckett finally kiss as a ploy to distract a guard, though their reactions imply that they both felt something.

Since then, despite Beckett's relationship, they have begun spending increasing amounts of time together, with Castle even admitting he is jealous when Beckett agrees to help another writer with his book. In the final episode of Season 3, "Knockout", Castle finally admits his feelings to Beckett after she is shot while delivering a eulogy at Roy Montgomery's funeral after Montgomery sacrificed himself to atone for his role in the death of Beckett's mother, but she claims amnesia after she has recovered from the shooting, refusing the possibility of a relationship while her mother's real killer still walks free.

Also, in season 4, Castle is contacted by a shadowy figure who says that he is a friend of Roy Montgomery and that he has been charged with protecting Beckett in his stead. Castle learns that Montgomery knew who ordered Beckett's mother's death; he had been the one who found out about the kidnappings and offered not to go to the police if Montgomery, Raglan and MacAllister gave him the money they made from the ransoms which has been estimated at several millions of dollars. According to the man, this person has grown powerful enough for the revelation to destroy him. Montgomery had kept files that, should they be revealed would harm the killer and others. The deal was that Montgomery's family and Beckett would be safe if he wanted the files kept secret. Upon his death, he had sent the files to the mysterious man and had charged him with upholding the deal. The only other condition was that Beckett couldn't go near the case or else the deal was off. Castle says that he will keep her reined in. He tells only his mother this information and confides in her as to the deal he made. Martha wants Castle to tell Beckett the truth, but Castle tells her that he can't because Beckett will be killed by the people behind her mother's murder if she keeps digging and that he has to protect her.

In 'Dial M for Mayor', a mysterious conspiracy is uncovered that was attempting to force Mayor Weldon, Castle's close friend, out of office. The attempt to smear him for embezzlement backfired when a young woman named Laura Cambridge discovered the fact and she was killed. During the case, the mysterious man once again contacts Castle and asks to meet. When they do, he helps him solve the case. However, he later reveals that the conspiracy aimed at the Mayor would have forced Castle out of the 12th Precinct because no one would force Captain Gates to retain him. The man said that they needed Castle to remain at Beckett's side because he was the only one able to keep her away from her mother's case. Castle promises that he will uphold his end of the deal to keep Beckett away from the case.

In "Pandora" and Linchpin", the investigation of a murder leads Castle and Beckett to reunite with Sophia Turner, a CIA operative he based a major character on. Beckett shows some jealousy at how the two are close and Turner tells Beckett that after she and Rick became involved, it was the beginning of the end of their partnership. The trio work together to stop a plot that could escalate into World War III. However, Sophia turns out to not only be part of the plot but is actually a KGB mole who infiltrated the CIA only to be left on her own when the Soviet Union collapsed. Holding Beckett and Castle at gunpoint, she hints that Castle's father was in the CIA and that was why he gained access years ago. She is killed by a true CIA agent as Beckett and Castle help stop the plot. While mourning Sophia, Castle admits to Beckett that she was much truer to the character he created.

In "47 Seconds", Beckett reveals to a suspect that she remembered every second of being shot, not realizing that Castle was watching behind the glass mirror. As a result, although Castle tried to hide it, he has started to become distant with her, much to Beckett's confusion, concluding that she never mentioned her memory of the event because she didn't return his feelings and didn't want to create an awkward situation.

In the season 4 finale, Castle is concerned when a murder case is connected to the conspiracy behind Beckett's mother and is told by the mystery man that Beckett's life is in danger if she investigates. After failing to warn her off subtly, Castle confesses to Beckett how he's been protecting her and she's outraged over him making decisions for her. He confronts her over how he knows she remembers his declaration of love and they both decide they're done. After nearly dying in a confrontation with the killer and quitting the police force, Beckett comes to Castle's apartment, telling him she could only think of him as they kiss.

Novels by Richard Castle

Derrick Storm novels^[19]

• Deadly Storm
• Storm Season
• A Calm Before The Storm
• Storm's Break
• Storm Warning
• Unholy Storm
• Gathering Storm
• Storm Rising
• Driving Storm
• Storm's Last Stand
• Storm Fall (Final Derrick Storm novel)
• Storm Approaching (The chronology of this novel is unknown)^[20]

Nikki Heat novels

• Heat Wave (ISBN 978-1-4013-2382-0)^[1][12]
• Naked Heat (ISBN 978-1-4013-2402-5)
• Heat Rises (ISBN 978-1-4013-2443-8)
• Frozen Heat (ISBN 978-14013-2444-5)

Other novels

• In a Hail of Bullets (winner of the Nom DePlume Society's Tom Straw Award for Mystery Literature)^[9]
• Death of a Prom Queen
• Flowers For Your Grave
• Hell Hath No Fury
• A Skull at Springtime
• At Dusk We Die
• When It Comes to Slaughter
• A Rose for Everafter^[10]
• Dead Man's Chest
• Bullets and Bracelets
• Kissed and Killed
• One Bullet, One Heart

Development

According to Fillion, the character's name "Rick Castle" was intended to sound "like you're saying "Rick Asshole.""^[21] The actor also describes Castle as "a bit of a douche" with "a bit of a Peter Pan syndrome" stemming from a lack of a "real male adult role model in his life".^[21][22]

Marlowe explained that he designed Castle's character as one that presents a "storytelling point of view" as a counterpoint to Beckett's evidence-based police work.^[23] On casting Fillion to fill the role, Marlowe described Castle as "the right vehicle for the right personality".^[24] He also acknowledged the similarity between the Castle/Beckett relationship and the Booth/Brennan relationship of Bones.^[25]

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Castle (TV series)

• Official website
• Castle at the Internet Movie Database
• Castle at TV.com
• Richard Castle on Castle Wiki, an external wiki
• Heat Wave @ ABC.com
• Heat Wave @ Amazon.com