CASTLE’s Seamus Dever Teases a Ryan-Centric Episode, ‘3XK’ and a Hookup

There’s a lot happening on CASTLE this season.

In addition to the upcoming serial killer storyline, CASTLE star Seamus Dever (Ryan) tells me that viewers will finally be getting a Ryan-centric episode very soon. Also, a long-awaited hookup is about to go down.

Oh yes, Dever knows how to tease things well. Check it out…

First of all, I have to say that CASTLE has been really fantastic this season.
Seamus Dever: Thank you! Didn’t you like last episode? It was really good, wasn’t it? We have a lot of fun. My mother-in-law kept telling everybody that it was her favorite CASTLE episode and I think that means something because she watches them like a hawk. [Laughs]

Yes, you had some great stuff with Ryan’s partner, Esposito, and his repeated injuries.
SD: The neck brace thing was so much fun to play with, because it was all about throwing stones at Esposito. All of us were doing it. We were finding ways of hurting him and making him suffer. So schadenfreude. [Laughs]

The promo for tonight’s episode looks fantastic. What will Ryan be up to in the hour?
SD: Ryan’s contribution is coming up with a theory — and I think it was actually used in the promo — of the “galaxy of Greg.” This is our tip to GREY’S ANATOMY. This is our GREY’S ANATOMY murder episode. So there’s all this talk about McDreamy and McSteamy and all those things. And Castle has an inordinate amount of knowledge of GREY’S ANATOMY.

Of course he does.
SD: [Laughs] Yeah. And we sort of explore that, there’s a murder connected to a hospital. The murder scene is at the beginning of a funeral, it’s a hilarious scene at a Jewish temple. There’s all these things at the very beginning, there’s all these fun characters. John Kassir, who is the voice of the Crypt Keeper, he’s in the very beginning. I remember watching him growing up, he was a very funny guy, so to get to work with him in the first part of the episode [was cool]. There’s a lot of good things going on, so tune in.

Will Ryan and Esposito be getting into trouble together anytime soon?
SD: It’s sort of one of those things where we’re waiting to see what happens, but it’s really hard to say. What they were talking about was that Ryan and Esposito would eventually have a B-storyline or a B-murder that they were pursuing. I don’t know if we could ever get that far away from the formula we set up with CASTLE — I shouldn’t say formula, the template — but it would be fun. Jon [Huertas (Esposito)] and I welcome the opportunity to do anything and develop these characters. I know there’s a very interesting thing that happens with Esposito in a couple of episodes. And actually Lanie [as well]. So that’s coming down the pipeline, that’s been talked about for a long time. And we’re going to see some more of Ryan. We’re going to see a Ryan-centric episode sometime this season. I’m not sure when, but it’s coming, I promise.

Wait, the Lanie and Esposito thing is actually happening?
SD: [Laughs] It’s one of those things that, yeah, I don’t know how it’s going to happen, but something is going to happen. And I’m not just teasing — I don’t know. It’s coming down the pipeline in a couple episodes. I think it’s in episode 2×11 that something happens. I don’t know what. Nobody tells us these things, they say, something’s going to happen. And I go, okay, I guess I’ll read about it.

Poor Ryan, though. Everyone at the station is coupling up around him! He has a girlfriend, but still…
SD: I think that will be fun to play with: the idea of [Esposito] putting his attention on somebody else. I think that would be a very interesting way of playing it. It’s not that I’m jealous or anything, but it’s like, “Hey, I thought we were going to hang out tonight, we were going to play video games. What are you doing, we were going to play ‘Halo’! What do you mean you have a date? Since when?” I think that would be a lot of fun. Conflict is sort of the essence of drama. The more conflict, the better.

And this Ryan-centric episode that you teased — do you have any idea of what you want it to be about?
SD: Oh yeah. I’d like to explore something about his past. We never meet anyone that Ryan knows — he’s sort of a blank slate as far as that [is concerned]. Fans that read ‘The Ryan Report,’ the blog online, they get to know more about Ryan than we actually get to see on the episode, so there’s so many things we can explore. My hope is that there is a reason we haven’t explored Ryan. There’s something about his past he doesn’t want to bring up, there’s something about his days being in the narcotics division that he’s not proud of. Some sort of interesting flaw that’s there. I think that would be fun. Something with his family, where they didn’t approve of him being a cop. Something to justify why we’ve never [gone into] Ryan’s past before. And of course having Jenny [Ryan’s girlfriend, played by Dever’s real-life wife, Juliana Dever] come back. That’s the other thing, too.

I think it would be nice for fans to get a glimpse of what makes Ryan, Ryan.
SD: Them and me both.

Is it difficult for you as an actor not having those key background details? Or are you making your own assumptions about him until they tell you otherwise?
SD: You always make assumptions and choices as an actor based on what you think something might be. So yeah, regardless of what has been shown on screen, there’s always some choice or something I’ve written in my character’s biography. But it is what it is. They’re going to let you know what they want you to [portray]. You sort of have to go along with it. So in my mind, Ryan does all these things, but we’ll see. [Laughs]

One thing we do know for sure is that CASTLE will be tackling a serial killer in an upcoming episode. What can you tease about that?
SD: Oh yeah! That’s going to be a really good episode, “3XK.” It’s probably the most suspense we’ve had since the Dana Delany episodes and then, prior to that,  the episode called “Sucker Punch.” We get to deal with this serial killer who is really well matched to Castle. We introduce this character and something interesting happens to Ryan at the end of the episode. There’s some things there that we get to explore that we don’t get to do all the time on Castle.

And this thing that happens with Ryan, is it physical?
SD: It’s something physical. It’s something physical that happens with Ryan and that’s all I can say.

The Dana Delany episodes were fantastic, so I can’t wait to see it.
SD: This will satisfy all those people who want us to get back to the suspense. With CASTLE we’re flexible with genres, which is a great blessing that we can do some more suspenseful, some funnier, some more romantic or dramatic. We probably have the most flexible show on television [in that sense]. Our fans will go with us that way or this way or another way. It’s amazing we’ve been allowed to do that.

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So, CASTLE fans, what are you most excited about?

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