Castle season 5 continues on Monday, March 25 with an episode called “The Wild Rover” that is sure to become an instant favorite with fans of one Detective Kevin Ryan. BuddyTV spoke exclusively with Seamus Dever about what will happen to Ryan when a case from his past as a narcotics cop comes back to haunt him.
I can’t even tell you how excited I am for this episode. What can you say about the story and what will be happening to Ryan in this one?
Seamus Dever: I’ve been told by people is that it is a really good episode. What’s amazing to me as an actor who has been playing a character for so long is being able to surprise people with what we can do. I used to a lot of dark material as a guest star in other shows and on soap operas and those types of things. So a lot of this was wanting to show people that they think they know Ryan, but they really don’t.
This episode has been years in the making. Terrence Paul Winter and I have been talking about this since the very beginning of Castle. We just brainstormed and talked about Ryan’s past as a narcotics cop and stuff that he doesn’t share with people. It was all about surprises. You know, you have mild-mannered Ryan wearing these suits, but the truth was he used to have to do some heinous crap. His story is pretty dark and you realize that the people he used to hang out with weren’t happy-go-lucky people. A lot of this was about surprising people.
I am basically carrying the show, because there’s a lot of Ryan in. There’s not a lot of Castle and Beckett in this episode. They turn into sort of supporting players. Hopefully the audience buys that Ryan’s big enough to follow through this rabbit-hole and get tested and they will come out on the other side with him.
Is Ryan mostly working alone in this episode or will he get help from any of his friends?
Seamus Dever: There’s only so much you can do with the others, because Ryan has to go back undercover with the Irish Mafia. Particularly Esposito is helpful, because he has to sort of extract Ryan out of this situation. There’s a great scene we got to do that is a great reflection of an episode that we did in the second season called “Den of Thieves” where Ryan had to go help Esposito. It was nice that, three years later, we are sort of mimicking that same dynamic and this time the roles are switched. It was a fun thing for Jon and I to recognize; that the same scene we played earlier, we are doing again with the roles switched. So fans should really look out for that scene when it airs.
How is Esposito affected by what’s happening to Ryan?
Seamus Dever: I think a lot of it was very personal for Esposito, you know this is his partner and there’s only so much he can do to help Ryan do the right thing.
It’s great to see that your wife will be joining you again as Ryan’s wife in the episode. How does the case complicate their relationship?
Seamus Dever: Jenny and Ryan are working toward parenthood; that’s their goal. They’ve been working towards having a kid and then Jenny shows up at the precinct one day to bring Ryan lunch and a woman from Ryan’s past shows up out of nowhere and kisses him in the middle of the precinct. Then we subsequently realize that there’s a lot in his past that he’s never shared. Who is this person that this other woman thinks Ryan is? So poor Jenny is forced to deal with this past and all the secrets that Ryan had that he didn’t share with her because it would probably have scared the hell out of her.
Now it’s time for Ryan to sort of tie up some loose ends from his past, do the right thing and help out this woman from his past and also to finish the job that was left unfinished years ago. But he has to go undercover to do it and that scares Jenny a lot. There’s only so much that she can know and a lot he can’t tell her and a lot of risks that he’s going to have to take. Jenny is left wondering “is he safe?”, “is he going to run off with this other woman?” and there’s a lot of tests Ryan has to go through in this episode and a lot of tests that Jenny has to go through in this episode.
I got to work a lot with my wife Juliana, who plays Jenny. I look forward to fans seeing her work in this one because I think it’s some of her best work.
Will we see effects from this episode continue to affect Ryan after it’s all over?
Seamus Dever: On our show, we do a lot of stand-alone stuff. I think Ryan earns respect from Beckett, Castle and Esposito because he gets to be a little bit of a badass. I think Ryan is pretty happy about who he is and it’s not like now he has to be this tough guy in front of all of his friends. He’s happy about being a smart, clever person who dresses very natty every day at work. There’s a little bit of a carry-over, but not much, we go right back into the next episode and start fresh.
How does this episode rank in terms of your favorites?
Seamus Dever: It’s up there; it’s definitely high up in my opinion.
What do you think now that you’ve heard more about Monday’s episode of Castle from Seamus Dever? Are you excited to see Ryan get to be a bit of a badass?
Castle airs on Monday nights at 10pm on ABC.
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(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
