Not quite Forensic Linguistics (or maybe it is?)

[oloriel]

So we were watching Castle yesterday. Surprisingly enough, German TV is for once reasonably close to the original run, so we're actually in Season 4. Woo hoo.

Anyway, it was the episode with the Bank Robbery that Feels Fishy. Something beyond the bank robbery felt fishy to me.


Potential Spoilers ahead.

So at some point during the bank robbery, this guy panics "because he is thinking of his family". Castle tries to talk him down and succeeds. He asks for the guy's name, who says it's Sal Martino.
He then asks about the beloved family and learns that Sal has a son.
"What's his name," Castle asks.
"Connor," Sal says.

"Connor", says I, "that's odd. Connor's not the sort of name you'd expect for the son of someone called Sal Martino."

Then I told myself not to be a bloody bigot. Sure, it wasn't the first name that'd come to mind, but maybe Sal's wife was Scottish or Irish or something. Perfectly possible, after all. On a TV series where you aren't likely to learn more about random people's background you'd expect something more straightforward, but... never mind. Ok, Connor son of Sal. I'll go with the flow for the moment.

Of course, later on it is revealed that Sal isn't who he seems to be, and his "real" name is Ron, and he actually does have a son named Connor.

At this point, it starts bugging me because

A) would someone who plans a hush-up bank robbery as meticulously as Sal/Ron use the real name of his son? Particularly if it clashes so badly with his alias?
B) why didn't Castle, who is a writer after all, pick up on that? He figured out everything else quick enough.

Of course, the reply to A) might be that Sal/Ron didn't really need to worry: Should someone actually go "Huh? Connor? That's an odd choice of name for a guy named Sal Martino!", he could always play the righteous indignation card: "What are you, some kind of goddamn racist?" Which people would be scared of, so they'd keep their surprise to themselves if they noticed.

The thing is, that still shouldn't prevent B) from happening. Moreover, PC concerns wouldn't stop a foot-in-mouth fellow like Castle from talking, let alone thinking. And for fuck's sake, he's a writer. If he wrote about a guy named Sal Martino, he'd know better than to give him a son named Connor. If he wrote about a kid named Connor, he'd give Connor a father called Robert or Brian or Kevin.
Or Ronald.
But not Sal.
So we're back at Why didn't Castle pick up on that? Oh sure, he was a hostage at the time. But he still figured out what was going on in the SDB room. He figured out about the C-4. He realised that C-4 wouldn't blow up randomly. He repeatedly came up with excuses for breaking the bank robbers' rules. He managed to morse information out to Beckett, for heaven's sake! And he wouldn't be given pause by Connor son of Sal?

Beyond that, if a day later Connor's mom in Ithaca reports the abduction of her son, and that makes the news, wouldn't that sort of compromise the whole hush-up thing even if nobody wondered about Sal's son Connor at the time? Unless Sal/Ron was planning for Trapper John to kill Castle. I mean, he was there when Castle figured out most of what was going on. So he could've guessed that Castle was kind of endangering his plans. And... nothing?

Huh.


Anyone else have that problem? Or am I linguistically hypersensitive?
(Rhetoric question. I know I'm linguistically hypersensitive. OR MAYBE EVERYONE ELSE IS HYPOSENSITIVE! [/fëanor])

Comments

[eruannath.livejournal.com]

Wow. I would've never thought of this and elaborate an in-depth analysis XD. I salute you! Maybe you would make a great detective.

[barbardin.livejournal.com]

Haha.. ich dachte gerade auch: Die könntest der Star in einem Numbers-Spinoff werden. Jemand, der Kriminalfälle anhand von Linguistik löst, statt mit Mathe. ;)

[conuly]

Connor is a pretty popular name in the USA for that age-group of kids. Irish-inspired names are pretty popular in all ethnic groups, in fact. That's why Aiden and its derivatives (Jaden, Caden, Hayden) have become so popular, although Hayden of course had help. And there's a LOT of people in NYC who are half Irish, half Italian. My niece's kindergarten (sorry, got confused there) teacher was surprised at MY surprise when she said she was Irish. "What did you think?" Gosh, I thought that the last name Ferragano was an Italian name. Which it is, it's her dad's name. If the mom picked the kid's first name....

You can check out the popularity of the name Connor over time here. So yes, it makes since both that he wouldn't think to use a fake name for his kid AND that he'd think that Connor is a reasonable first name for the son of a guy named Sal in the first place.

What really bugs about that episode is that they use this whole convoluted safety deposit box and priest scheme to communicate with the aunt instead of, I don't know, email.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Ok, I guess it works then!
(I figured that Sal might have an Italian wife, but it seemed a bit too much background implication for a character you'll never see again. Although if that's such a frequent combination in NYC, I guess it isn't too much, after all ^^)

The entire episode is oddly constructed, I think. I do get the non-e-mail business, because Agnes looked pretty old - between 70 and 80 - and while I have no idea how things are in the US, over here it's probably easier to come up with a convoluted safety deposit box scheme than to teach granny how to use e-mails. Plus, e-mail accounts are more easily hackable than bank safe deposit boxes, on the whole? I dunno, I'm ok with that.

No, what bugs me (aside from the Connor thing which you've cleared up):
- Presumably, Agnes knows that she has to keep the letters secret. She's getting the letters from the SDB where Father What's-his-name puts them. So there's nobody to talk to about the letters. So how did Ron find out about the SDB scheme by bugging her flat? Does she read the letters out loud? Ok, I guess she might, she's an old lonely lady after all. But still.

- So Ron has come up with a likewise convoluted scheme to steal the original letters from the bank to get the address, and to cover that up, the whole "robbery". Now while he misses out on the part where Castle reveals that he managed to get a glimps into the SDB vault AND morses the information out to Beckett - lucky, that - he should still have picked up on Castle figuring out too much too fast. And... nothing? No tipping off Trapper John or anything? Ok, he doesn't give a damn about Trapper John and his crew, obviously, but what if they got arrested before he got a chance to blow 'em up? It's all potentially endangering his "disappearance".
And if he doesn't want anyone to know that HE's behind the bank robbery (which is how he gets the address), why on the other hand does he let his ex-wife see him AND live? Wouldn't it have been smarter to, I dunno, pick up Connor after school or something?
And why did the wife only disappear to Ithaca instead of FAR FAR AWAY if she can only contact her mother via letters, anyway?
Ok, he's arrogant and over-confident, but still, after all those precautions - hiring mercenaries, planning the fake robbery, making sure the mercenaries all die so the case is closed once the hostages are freed AND there's nobody who could point at him... but it still seems sloppy. Sure, in general he can expect that police will treat the two cases as in no way related, but why not make sure that there are no links whatsoever?

I dunno. I guess it works as long as you go with "he didn't know" and "he didn't expect", but it still feels surprisinly short-sighted for a man who goes to such expenses in the first place. *headscratch*