CASTLE: Recovering From the Climatic Shootings Last Season (2011)

As fans and viewers vividly recall, last season’s finale of CASTLE left us all in shock and in tears over the death of beloved Captain Roy Montgomery and the shooting of Kate Beckett at his funeral.  With Richard Castle’s “I love you” perhaps being the final words Beckett heard, the third season picks-up to find out (1) if  Beckett survives and (2) whether or not she heard Castle’s confession.  Then joining in the ranks to take over the precinct is Penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates, who has no preexisting relationship with any of them and who has a decidedly different view on whether Richard Castle, as a writer, should be allowed to shadow a lead detective into harm’s way on a regular basis.

While attending this year’s Television Critics Association presentation by ABC, CASTLE’s newest cast member Penny Johnson Jerald spoke with press about her controversial new role as Captain Victoria Gates and replacing Ruben Santiago-Hudson as the popular Captain Roy Montgomery.

Penny Johnson Jerald

Who will you be playing on CASTLE this season?
PENNY:  I play Captain Victoria Gates on CASTLE, aka “Sir Iron Gates.”

Can you explain the unusual nickname?
PENNY: You don’t think the name explains itself?  You don’t call me “ma’am” you call me “sir.” And “iron” is because she is by-the-book and nothing will get past her.  So I find that extraordinary.

Had you watched the show before being cast as Captain Victoria Gates?
PENNY: I watched the final 2 episodes of Season 3 prior to meeting the producers because it is just smart to know what you’re in for.  But after I got into it, I actually asked for every episode because if I’m coming onto the set there’s a different rhythm to the show, different people; the show itself, the style of the show is different.  So I’ve been watching every episode since the pilot to see how things change — especially hair!

Your predecessor on the show was rather lax in his approach to Richard Castle.  Is Captain Gates more hard-nosed and how does that play out with Castle, who is “I’ll put my nose where it doesn’t belong” in the series?
PENNY:  Well, hopefully it plays out to be great television because there will be some tension between the two of them. She is not like her predecessor. He had that charm old-player attitude about him, nurturing and warm — the “alright kids, you can do it” attitude.  She’s a bit different.  It’s like, “okay this is the job, you’re going to do it.”  It’s more of a tough-love, if love is in the equation at all.  But it is about pushing them to do their job.

How has it been for you joining an established show and blending in with those who have been there from the start?
PENNY: I definitely believe that you reap what you sow, and I have been fortunate to have been on some incredible television series where people come on as guest arcs and then they come on later as regulars, and I thank god that I’ve been one of those people who welcomed them in with open arms, just being so wonderful and nice and respectful of the fact that they are new ’cause right now that is happening for me.  I’m the new kid on the block and everyone has been great in embracing me and making me feel comfortable — comfortable enough to just do my job and to make mistakes and in “Penny’s book” you don’t make mistakes but it is nice to be comfortable enough to be around people where it is okay to do that.

Then while at Comic-Con in San Diego, Tamala Jones, who plays medical examiner Lanie Parish, shared her insight with the press on what’s next on CASTLE and what lies ahead in the Lanie-Esposito relationship.

Tamala Jones

What can you share about what is upcoming in Lanie’s romantic relationship with Detective Esposito, played by Jon Huertas?
TAMALA:  There’s going to be some drama between Esposito and Lanie, a little hiccup.  You know, in normal relationships, you have those little hiccups in there, but I think it is based on Esposito being sort of a “ladies’ man” and as in seen past episodes, he may be doing an interview at a crime scene and she decides he is not doing his job properly — like he’s eye-balling the body and it’s like Ryan’s got to come over and say, “Hey, dude, what are you doing?”  So I think Lanie just happens to be at one of these crime scenes and sees it, and it doesn’t sit so nice with her.  So that’s some tension there, but at the end of the day, it is a relationship and I think that we’ll end up okay, but there’s some bumpiness this season.

Lanie looks great and she seems to be evolving a bit more, can you talk about that character development?
TAMALA:  Well, I personally thought that Lanie should start looking better now that she has a man.  Sometimes as women, we are just so involved in our work, we don’t care how we look, we just want to get the job done.  But here’s this guy, who’s a hot, handsome Latino, paying her some attention, and I’m like, “Can we get some more lipstick on her?  Give her some Barbie-Doll/super-model hair, and start showing her body a little bit.”  ‘Cause that’s what you’d normally do as a woman when you have someone interested in you.  So I thought it was natural to a degree.  I felt really good about that.

With Ryan and Jenny getting married now, how do you think that’s going to affect the relationship between Esposito and Lanie?
TAMALA:  Again, I think that Lanie’s natural reaction to that is they’ve been dating for awhile and, you know, if you’re friends are getting married and you’re not there yet, you’re like, “What about us possibly?”  And he may not get that ’cause he is a ladies’ man and he may not too comfortable with that and be like, “Let’s talk about this later” and Lanie’s like, “No, we need to talk about it NOW.”  But it’s a great dynamic and I think that may cause some arguments, but nothing too damaging that it could kill the relationship.  I don’t think.

Since the police department has been ripped apart with the loss of their captain and now there’s a new captain coming on board and there might be tension between Castle and Beckett due to his declaration when he thought she was dying, is that really going to effect Lanie’s world — the family that she works amongst and loves and trusts are going to start falling apart?
TAMALA:  I think it will.  If Beckett does survive — ’cause we still don’t know — but if she does survive (and I’m hoping that she does!) and now you have this new person who doesn’t have any connections with the Mayor and she does not care who Castle is, I think it is going to be a nice dynamic to see that “you just can’t do what you want to do because you’re a celebrity writer.”  That’s how Penny’s character is — and she’s amazing!  That woman — I’ve admired her strength in her character.  As women, we’d be like “no, that’s okay.”  Not Penny.  She is strong.  She’s like, “Don’t mess with me.”  So I think that the audience will love her, but not like her at the same time.  It’s like, “I love you, but I don’t like you.”  She’s awesome!  And she really does a great job in creating this new character.

But doesn’t it make Lanie feel a bit unsettled, like she doesn’t know what’s going on with everybody else now that the dynamic has changed from what it was before?
TAMALA:  I’m not sure they are going to play off that.  I think once Lanie meets her there might be a stare-down kind of thing happening ’cause Lanie too is a strong person and, again, she really didn’t have a strong relationship with Roy Montgomery, and so this new woman coming in trying to run things, I don’t think Lanie is going to be so quick to lay down under her rules.  But I don’t think the new dynamic will affect her as much as it will the other people.

We’ve seen a lot of development of Ryan and Esposito’s friendship, but we haven’t really seen any personal friendship between Lanie and Beckett.  Would you like to see that happen?
TAMALA:  I would like to see Lanie and Beckett hang out a little bit more.  Like maybe — and I suggested this to Andrew [Marlowe] too — maybe a girl’s night out and maybe find out that Lanie has a gun. I don’t know, I was just trying to figure out things to pitch to him.  Hopefully, he takes it under consideration.

Would you like to see Lanie more involved in the police action on the show?
TAMALA:  I thought Lanie should have a gun because the Captain [Montgomery] is now gone and there’s killers out there trying to kill her best friend and I’m hoping [Beckett] does survive, because if she does, I’d try to protect her as well as myself.  So that’s why I suggested it to him and whether Andrew decides to go with it, that’s fabulous.  If not, he’ll have some other way of showing that.  I’m just excited!

Finally, also at Comic-Con, while chatting with the press, executive producer Laurie Zaks also shared some candid thoughts on the upcoming third season of CASTLE.

Laurie Zaks

Can you talk a bit about where this season starts?
LAURIE:  We just pick-up exactly where we left off — at the hospital and Beckett’s on a stretcher, she’s holding on to life and Castle’s running up in the back.  And she looks pretty good — but Stana could not look bad!  Even once they dirtied her up, she just never look bad.  She looked rather angelic actually.  But I can’t tell you anymore after that.  It does take off — it begins exactly where the season finale left and by the end of the episode, a lot of questions will be answered.

Can you tell us when we’ll see Josh again?
LAURIE:  Josh is in the first episode.  We all like Victor Webster, who plays Josh.  He’s a great guy.  But he’s very tall!  There is some — Josh and Castle definitely have a few things to say to each other.

An altercation perhaps?
LAURIE:  Yes, and Esposito is right there!  He’s a tough little guy!  But then so is Jon.

Are you ready to embrace having the Castle-Beckett relationship go a bit further this season?
LAURIE:  Yeah, I think it will evolve in its natural course.  There are certain reveals in the premiere episode that will dictate how the relationship goes.  That’s all I can say!

So you cannot say if Beckett remembers the “I love you”?
LAURE:  I cannot.  [laughter]

Will fans be happy?
LAURIE:  Yeah, but it depends on what fan you are.  Again, all those questions will be answered.  I think it’s satisfying — really satisfying.  You’ll meet the new captain in the first episode, and she’s lovely. It’s Penny Johnson Jerald, who was in 24.  It’s interesting because it opens up a whole new dynamic in the relationships on the show because now — Beckett is very strong woman and she’s going up against another strong woman who really doesn’t want any of her attitude. So it’s a whole new dynamic there.  I actually thought Montgomery was a little lax with Beckett, so this is good. But we miss Ruben.

Was it actually necessary to kill off Captain Montgomery to bring a new dynamic to the show?
LAURIE:  I think if was more about the story telling and where the story telling was.  It just evolved that way.  But what comes out of that — because we did kill off the character — it does shake up the show because there is a whole new dynamic.  I mean, it wasn’t like a decision, “Let’s shake up the show. Let’s kill an actor.”  It wasn’t bad contract negotiations or anything.  It was all part of — as the story of Beckett’s mom evolved and that whole mythology evolved, it just led that way, that was the only thing that could happen.  Will Beall, who wrote all those mother-centric episodes, he really was the one who came up with it.  He wrote a brilliant mythology.

That mythology feels like it is coming to a close, is it over now?
LAURIE:  No, it’s not coming to a close.  Remember, somebody is out there.  The person who hired all these guys.  The premiere episode will start answering a lot of questions and that storyline will continue.

To hear more from Nathan Fillion, Molly Quinn and Jon Huertas about their experiences on CASTLE and what they hope to see this season, be sure to check out these video interviews:

To see exactly what the fate of Kate Beckett is and repercussions of Richard Castle’s confession, be sure to catch CASTLE’s third season premier on Monday, September 19th at 10:00 p.m. on ABC.

Link to fun candid photos from the CASTLE press room at Comic-Con HERE.

Where to find part 1 of this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2011/09/19/captain-victoria-gates-castle-penny-johnson-jerald-interview/

Where to find part 2 of this article:

http://www.thetvaddict.com/2011/09/19/castle-season-4-spoilers/