Castle Season 5 (including Spoilers)

[Greg Cox]

Question: When Alexis dialed her dad at the end, with the bad guy's cell phone, wouldn't she have had to dial the country code to make a call from Paris to New York? How did she make an international call if she didn't now she was out of the country?

 

[Christopher]

As I recall, Alexis first tried dialing his number, which didn't go through, and then switched to using Skype, which I gather is some sort of online videophone service. Maybe with Skype you don't need an international code.

(Ohh, look at us... two professional science-fiction authors struggling to keep up with present-day technology. )

 

[FPAlpha]

As I recall, Alexis first tried dialing his number, which didn't go through, and then switched to using Skype, which I gather is some sort of online videophone service. Maybe with Skype you don't need an international code.

(Ohh, look at us... two professional science-fiction authors struggling to keep up with present-day technology. )

Not using Skype but having installed it for my dad i can say that with Skype it's basically a chatprogram you can use with text, voice or video. You log in and then you can contact anyone you have in your list of Skype contacts (provided they have the program running at the same time of course). This works because it's an internet based program and uses Voice over IP protocols (my dad uses it sometimes to call me in Germany because it's much cheaper than using regular telephone).

It's also making sense to try it that way for Alexis because she can assume that her dad is keeping all modes of communication open in case she can contact him (and because of the internet connection/cell tower location it's also dead easy for law enforcement to track her position).

 

[Greg Cox]

As I recall, Alexis first tried dialing his number, which didn't go through, and then switched to using Skype, which I gather is some sort of online videophone service. Maybe with Skype you don't need an international code.

(Ohh, look at us... two professional science-fiction authors struggling to keep up with present-day technology. )

It's not just us. John Ordover and I were debating this very issue just last night.

 

[Sheep]

As I recall, Alexis first tried dialing his number, which didn't go through, and then switched to using Skype, which I gather is some sort of online videophone service. Maybe with Skype you don't need an international code.

(Ohh, look at us... two professional science-fiction authors struggling to keep up with present-day technology. )

Thank goodness I wasn't the only one wondering about this. Thankfully the writers (apparently) didn't screw up this detail by having Alexis direct dial Castle.

 

[Vendikarr]

As I recall, Alexis first tried dialing his number, which didn't go through, and then switched to using Skype, which I gather is some sort of online videophone service. Maybe with Skype you don't need an international code.

(Ohh, look at us... two professional science-fiction authors struggling to keep up with present-day technology. )

As far as I know Skype isn't a standard app on phones, so she was very lucky that the kidnapper had it installed. Otherwise she would have to log into the app store and download it.

And of course she remembered her login and password so she could get her contact list to come up and dial her father. My kids never remember login and password after they have been keyed into their phone and saved.

 

[Forbin]

My new laptop has Skype on it, and i have no clue what to do with it. I don't even talk on the phone that much these days.

 

[Neroon]

I think she tried dialing 9-1-1 first. Then she got through on Skype, and told Castle it didn't work for some reason. That was the first clue,

Spoiler: about Alexis call

albeit a subtle one, that she was not in the US, which the audience did yet not know at that point in the show.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I loved that they let Castle go so dark in the search for his daughter that he "reasoned" the farmhouse location from the driver.

I hated that part, because it reinforced the dangerous lie that torture is actually effective at getting useful information out of interrogation subjects. There are countless interrogation experts who agree that that's just not true, that there are far more reliable ways, involving making a connection with the subject, winning their trust, offering them positive incentives to talk. Torture generally makes it harder, not easier, to get reliable intelligence.

While I agree with everything you say and regret the decision to allow Castle to use torture (it's understandable that a man in Castle's position would do it to save his daughter, but Kate should have prevented it, even with the Captain essentially giving them carte blanche), I don't think it's unbelievable in this case that the guy would instantly give up the correct information. He's not a soldier, spy, or true believer, he's just a petty criminal turned hired gun, and since he presumably already got paid for his part he doesn't have any reason to show his former employers any loyalty, especially after taking a bullet for his troubles. I think once Castle established that he was going to cross a line the police wouldn't, that was enough for him to spill the beans.

Granted, you run the risk of him saying anything his interrogator wants just to prevent further torture, but at that point it was basically that or nothing, so Castle weighed the risk of getting false information.

Well for all you know, Rick just poked his belly where he was shot. Wouldn't necessarily call it 'torture' since the dude was already in a lot of pain and scared shitless even before that point - basically it's like when you ask your buddy where you're going and he keeps going "it's a secret man!" and it isn't until you annoy the hell out of him or keep poking him or something that he goes "Alright alright already we're going to a frat party!" or something.

Guy was probably scared that Castle WOULD do something nasty instead of just poking him. Or he hit him in the nuts...

In what world is poking someone in a bullet wound NOT considered "torture" or "nasty"? Jesus. You seriously think it's no different from poking your buddy in his non-wounded stomach to get him to go to a party?

C'mon this is Castle we're talking about - he's got a dark side that's also inspired by comic books, movies and tv shows - BUT he's also got a light side that's inspired by the same thing. He's driven but he probably has it in his head that this is "Liam Neeson" moment where he uses all the skills he learned at Beckett's side to save his daughter, just like a character from one of his novels.

I think the purpose behind showing the torture in this case is to contrast it with the lengths

Spoiler: Next episode

Castle's spy father will be willing to go in the next episode to complete his "mission," whatever that may be. Castle will see the ultimate extension of his dark side and realize what he's done and that he doesn't want to go down that road again and become like his father.

 

[Neroon]

In case anyone is on Twitter.... according to the Castle FB page:

Molly Quinn will be live-tweeting tonight's episode East Coast. Follow her @MollyQuinn93 #SaveAlexis

 

[Admiral_Young]

This episode is beautifully shot and the score is amazing so far.

 

[Neroon]

Agreed.... except for their green-screen technique needs some fine-tuning

 

[Christopher]

While I agree with everything you say and regret the decision to allow Castle to use torture (it's understandable that a man in Castle's position would do it to save his daughter, but Kate should have prevented it, even with the Captain essentially giving them carte blanche), I don't think it's unbelievable in this case that the guy would instantly give up the correct information. He's not a soldier, spy, or true believer, he's just a petty criminal turned hired gun, and since he presumably already got paid for his part he doesn't have any reason to show his former employers any loyalty, especially after taking a bullet for his troubles. I think once Castle established that he was going to cross a line the police wouldn't, that was enough for him to spill the beans.

But the reasons why torture is unreliable have nothing to do with the courage or training of the victim or their ability to resist pain. On the contrary, one of the main reasons is that torture victims will readily lie just to make the pain stop. It's not about being truthful, just about saying what you think the torturer wants to hear. And another main reason is neurological: the trauma of torture actually impairs the brain's ability to recall and report information accurately. So if you need to extract, say, a phone number or an address or the time a bomb is set to go off, then even if the victim isn't lying, they might get a number wrong, or simply be unable to remember a crucial detail, because of the trauma you put them through.

If anything, both of those strike me as things that would be more true with someone who wasn't a mentally disciplined soldier or agent.

 

[Admiral_Young]

This episode has been excellent so far! Rick's dad!!!! Well that was worth waiting for. I really enjoyed this, and like I mentioned before thought it was beautifully shot and the score as usual was great. Some great acting moments...and the "Casino Royale" thing at the end was perfect. I guess this means we're going back on hiatus?

 

[Neroon]

Next episode isn't for three weeks? Wonder why.

Anyway... that was a great 2-parter overall, and a very good concluding part. Too often part 1 builds up wonderfully and part 2 ends up being less so. But tonight... they nailed it

 

[Locutus of Bored]

While I agree with everything you say and regret the decision to allow Castle to use torture (it's understandable that a man in Castle's position would do it to save his daughter, but Kate should have prevented it, even with the Captain essentially giving them carte blanche), I don't think it's unbelievable in this case that the guy would instantly give up the correct information. He's not a soldier, spy, or true believer, he's just a petty criminal turned hired gun, and since he presumably already got paid for his part he doesn't have any reason to show his former employers any loyalty, especially after taking a bullet for his troubles. I think once Castle established that he was going to cross a line the police wouldn't, that was enough for him to spill the beans.

But the reasons why torture is unreliable have nothing to do with the courage or training of the victim or their ability to resist pain. On the contrary, one of the main reasons is that torture victims will readily lie just to make the pain stop. It's not about being truthful, just about saying what you think the torturer wants to hear.

No kidding? You mean that thing I said in the very next paragraph of the post you quoted but which you oddly chose to omit here? Thanks for the lecture on the thing I already said, though.

 

[Admiral_Young]

They usually do this after a sweeps month...I wonder how the ratings are going to be for tonight.

 

[TimmyWl]

It was a good episode. There were some cliches but I liked how the whole off the grid thing got addressed. Castle knew his limits and it did not help that the professional he hired backstabbed him. Josh Brolin was kind of cool in that small role. I did not expect that exploding radio thing. It's nice to know that even with the whole off the grid and the mentioned "Taken" - the writers do know the characters.

 

[cardinal biggles]

^That was James Brolin; Josh is his son.

 

[Aragorn]

Agreed.... except for their green-screen technique needs some fine-tuning

I entered this thread to mention that. Seen it done horribly on other ABC shows too.

The Castle double was pretty distracting too.

Funny how a modest cable show like Covert Affairs can actually go to different countries but big network shows can't (or won't).