This cyber-themed episode really should have been in Season One or Two. A serial killer using an Instagram-like service called Snappamatic to get revenge, because he was bullied isn’t exactly “modern.” It’s like the writers just discovered photo sharing and 3D printers and wanted to show off these cool, “new” technologies, but instead ended up looking like the out of touch, older relative who is still amazed by CDs.
Every technological reveal in this episode is played with wide-eyed amazement. You mean someone can be anonymous on the Internet? Wow! A machine that make objects from a digital file? You don’t say! It’s weird, because Castle usually has super cyber sleuth Tory doing some pretty insane, cutting edge stuff, but in this episode Castle is blown away by a portable 3D printer. Considering he’s a rich, gadget-obsessed nerd, does anyone out there think Rick didn’t already have a 3D printer at home?
Then we get to the plot, itself. The bullied kid who becomes a killer is unfortunately a fact of life in the modern world, as time and time again the perpetrators of school shootings are revealed to be kids who were relentlessly bullied and finally “snapped.” But a bullied kid who becomes a genius serial killer struck me as a little absurd. A school shooting spree is one thing, but a systematic, technologically advanced campaign of revenge against spoiled cyber celebs—the police and tech entrepreneur was pushing it, for me. That said, I’m not a psychologist and I’m not saying it won’t or can’t happen. Just that, as a viewer, it seemed farfetched.
When it became clear that killer Adam Lane was murdering people not only for revenge, but also to create a legacy for himself—an online legend that will live forever—the wheels really came off this bus. While yes, Beckett’s interrogation worked, Lane’s selfish motive was entirely built on a semi-myth about the Internet. He would have a legacy! His crimes would live forever, etc., etc. Well, sort of.
While it’s damn near impossible to scrub oneself from the Web to any degree of completion, the constant stream of new, shiny things to look at means that the general public has the memory span of a goldfish. Combine that with whatever scrubbing law enforcement is able to do, and Lane would likely become just another sad Wikipedia entry.