Recap: An art museum curator is found dead, a valuable art piece is stolen, and a sexy "recovery" specialist helps with the case. Castle and Beckett dance around each other and act like teenagers, and the thief and murderer turns out to be one of the co-owners of the piece of art in the first place.
Sounds pretty ridiculous right? It was; not to say I didn't enjoy the episode. The case felt like a good old Season 2 case full of twists and frivolity. Unfortunately, so did Castle and Beckett. I was beating my head on the desk by the end of the episode. Castle was giving Beckett every opportunity and reason to say something and she didn't, Beckett fumbled around, conciously giving him every reason to pursue other options. We know she remembers him saying that he loves her, it's like the whole thing is some elaborate test. We put up with all this in Season 2 and we remember how that ended, although I did like the slightly vulnerable look on Beckett's face when she asked Castle about going for a cheeseburger. I thought it was a nice touch. However, it does reinforce my earlier comment about acting like teenagers. It was all, "You didn't go with her, would you maybe want to go with me?" Beckett was acting like some schoolgirl asking for her first date, all unsure of herself hoping he'll say yes.
Now that I got my main problem with the episode out of the way, let me hit some bullet points of what stood out to me:
GatesWatch - Seemed mostly back to normal after last week, but didn't have a lot to do. I'm going to continue reserving judgement on her character.
FamilyWatch - There's got to be a better name for this, suggestions on the back of a postcard. Wait, was that too British?
Castle's family again takes a back seat, though the interaction with Martha was wonderful. Martha and Castle's relationship is just so wonderfully different from the usual mother/son relationships we see on television. They're more like two friends ribbing each other. Now correct me if I'm wrong but was this the first episode with no Alexis at all?
Highlight of the Episode - Has to be the dual conversations between Castle/Martha and Beckett/Klingon Psychiatrist. (If you hadn't noticed yet, it's Michael Dorn aka Worf from Star Trek. Or if, like me, you're a fan of the Fallout video games, Marcus the Super Mutant from Fallout 2 and New Vegas.) Yes, it's a well worn cliche, but they did do it very well and justified its use. For all that it's a continuation of the teenage behaviour between these two, you can also see that there's something with Beckett's reluctance. Unfortunately, I feel like we've been steadfastly not told what it is, which is frankly frustrating. If we're having some kind of reset, tell us why. Despite all this, I still quite liked the scene, because it was played well by the actors and fit into the context of the episode well. It makes me so darn conflicted.
Honourable mention must go to the poor guy stuck in the elevator surrounded by armed police officers. It just made me giggle.
And now I'll hand it over to you guys. What did you think?
I loved it. Way better than last weeks episode by far.
ReplyDeleteConfused Castle was cute and it was great when he was juggling the coffee mugs. Showing he's still got his childish side. Also loved Beckett's minor freak out, and haha Castle pretending to choke Beckett cracked me up. Still really looking forward to the 7th episode. I hope I haven't set the bar for it too high.
Dakota
Interestingly enough, I take the opposite opinion of Alris on this one. I liked the case and while there were season two elements to it (which is fine by me, I liked season two), all of those were neatly subverted by one thing:
ReplyDeleteCastle gets a bill at the end.
They've pulled a lot of zany things on this show, some zanier than others, but Castle getting that museum bill just made me laugh and laugh because finally, finally one of his antics has a consequence other than temporarily letting the murderer get away. Plus, his sadface at the end was just hilarious to me.
The dual conversations was where I was like, "Okay, okay, TV show. You're cute. I GET IT ALREADY."
As far as Kate goes, I didn't have a problem with her actions in this episode at all, and thought they made a lot of sense. Did I cringe when she went after the recovery specialist? A little, but Kate's put herself in a difficult place with not lying to Castle, so I could see her doing some passive aggressive sabotaging. I thought her actions and reactions, with not wanting to get in the way of Castle if he truly wanted something but also wanting him to not fail her test...well, I thought that was all very realistic and well-played by Ms. Katic.
I do wonder when precisely she spit in wardrobe's coffee or kicked their puppies, but that's another theory for another time.
All of that said, was the recovery specialist on meth? Because it felt to me like she was out-talking Lorelai Gilmore, and that, my friends, takes skill. Or, like I said, meth.
But that was a fantastic, well-written, well-acted episode that wonderfully showed at least Beckett's quagmire of a place for the season. Really wish we'd see a little more about Castle and his off-the-clock investigating and maybe how that's affecting him, but you can't always get what you want.
I liked this better than last week's episode, too. Possibly because the entire premise wasn't based on an unspeakably stupid statement of "law". Or maybe because I have a dirty mind so I just kept snickering every time they said "Fist".
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely curious about this wardrobe conspiracy. Maybe you should add a "WardrobeWatch," Alris. ;-)
ReplyDeleteMore seriously, I thought the episode was fun. Nothing extraordinary though. It was a bit too predictable and/or on the nose sometimes.
As for the relationship stuff, I didn't find that Castle and Beckett acted like teenagers much. Both their reactions to situations and each other seemed valid to me, and they handled it relatively well, I thought.
What bothers me more about it, is that we're at that point in S4. Their "in limbo" status gets a little annoying at times to me. I hope we hear something again about the Tron Poster soon.
Oh and, I liked Martha there as well. :)
Apparently the wardrobe person for Castle was tweeting during the episode and making Beckett look a little more severe and uninviting than usual was intentional. I'm thinking he also got a lot of heat for the tie, so we probably won't see that ensemble again. On the one hand, I now feel bad for my "spit in the coffee" comment, but on the other...
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I guess I just prefer a little more subtlety in wardrobe decisions.
Like young!Olivia wearing a shirt with red, yellow, and blue hearts on it. :)
I'm fine with more severe and uninviting, but...does it have to be ugly too? ;)
ReplyDeleteI also thought she maybe was wearing lots of long sleeved clothes and turtlenecks because she got shot in the chest not that long ago.
That's a good point - she had open chest surgery - that surely would result in long-term scarring, and 6 weeks of painful movement?
ReplyDeleteAw, I kind of liked the tie. Guess I go for the severe and uninviting look.
ReplyDelete