When The Bough Breaks

Muna Khan: When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall

There have been an estimated 1,300 deaths and human rights group say more than 10,000 people are detained by authorities but the protests continue—and they’re still trying to keep them peaceful. News of protestors being armed notwithstanding (and I’ll get to that in a minute), organizers have been smart to keep their demonstrations peaceful as it’s garnered them more support from those who may have been sitting on the fence. With so little independent reporting from the ground, it’s difficult to ascertain the numbers of people taking up arms. We know that people are buying smuggled weapons, we know that soldiers are defecting (but we don’t know how many), we hear of tension in the military, and we know that protestors have engaged in fights against the army—this was reported from Rastan, Hama and Jisr Al Shaghour near Turkey. How is present-day Syria anything but civil war? At worse, it could turn into a full-blown sectarian one as witnessed in Lebanon and Iraq—though to give protestors credit, slogans call for unity. But the fissures for sectarian divide can always be fanned, and this is a scenario the Assad regime is likely to employ as it favors them. This would be a disaster as it has the potential of extending to other parts of the region—imagine a regional Sunni militia versus Shiite militia battling it in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Palestine.

Review: Castle - When the Bough Breaks

But in the end, the excuse of, "hey, my publishing house is going to just dump sacks with dollar signs printed on the front of them on my doorstep so I can make a Scrooge McDuck-like swimming pool out of gold, so screw that British agent and his gadgets," kind of works for me. However, all things being equal, if Castle had gotten the same offer and he had been following around, say, Esposito instead of Beckett, I feel like maybe the prestige of writing the British spy series may With that said, they may have tried to make this episode a little too complicated. Between the job at the apartment, the job at the hospital, and the affair with the husband, it just seemed like there were too many pieces in place. Plus, even though we found out that the victim and Dr. Talbot were having an affair, it still doesn't explain why she would have a posed photo of Mrs.Talbot with Zane in the first place, other than the fact that it provided a very convenient clue for the detectives. Having had a baby in a New York City hospital, I know how seriously they take security there, so switching babies wouldn't exactly be the easiest proposition. Especially because he would have not only had to change the babies' bands, but the mothers' corresponding bands as well, which is a much dicier proposition. However, that's very nit-picky, and the overall idea of a doctor switching his sick infant with a healthy one is a good one-- albeit terrifying. Kona Gallagher

That's not exactly true, but it made me realize that we're both wrong. The baby has a bracelet and an anklet that have both his/her name, but in big letters on top, it has the mother's name. Plus, there's a number that corresponds to the mother's bracelet that is attached to the mother's medical file. I had to recite the number off of my bracelet any time they would bring the baby back to me, to make sure we all had the right one.

You're right that is very nit-picky. This is a TV show where the mayor pulls strings so that a writer can constantly be following the NYPD with the purpose of writing a book (and in between solves the murders, sits in interrogations, and assists in arresting criminals). If you can accept the premise of the show there should be no problem believing babies can switched. jake

Yeah I agree with you. The quality of the writing was impeccable, definitely on the level of season finale. This is probably one of my favorite episodes, maybe even their best one yet, I think. Though they leaned a little more on the Beckett-Castle relationship, they really had a great balance of all the elements that make Castle such a fun show to watch.