Castle: "Cops & Robbers"

Hmmmm. A mixed bag this week. First the good...

Overall, I liked the plot. It started out as a bank robbery, then Ryan and Sanchez found the murder. Still, the focus remained on the bank. Then at the end, the four principals worked at lightning speed to resolve it.

There were a few good "looks." Beckett's confusion when Castle called at the beginning to say, "Tell me you need me." And their loving glances when she rescued him. (But Castle should have smacked his mom for butting in. "She was so going to kiss me, mother!")

I knew "Sal" was in on it. I could just tell.

I also enjoyed his "count" at the end. He claims to have saved her life nine times, to her eight reciprocal saves. I wonder if that is accurate, based on the past episodes. (Though it's not like I'm going to ever watch them and find out.) And the line about pulling her from the bathtub was precious.

Now the writer in me takes over...

1. When Beckett went into the bank as an EMT, she should have / would have used an accent. (BTW, why do none of the main characters have New York accents??) Trapper Jack would have recognized her voice.

2. Castle speculated that the robbers needed time, in case they couldn't find the right box. Safe deposit box keys generally have the box number stamped on them. At least mine does. And I think it's a reasonable assumption that most would. Who memorizes his or her safe deposit box number? 

3. Why did the robbers put on masks when the robbery started? They all walked into the bank with them off. So their faces were captured by the bank's DVRs. Though I did like the TV doctor code names.

4. Castle knows Morse Code? Really? Beckett knows Morse Code? Really?

5. Now the big one. Sal didn't need to stage bank robbery. If he had the key, he could have gotten in. Again, based on personal experience, the folks at my bank never ask me to show an ID. I just sign a card. Of course, they know me personally, as I work for the same bank. Nonetheless, unless there were special instructions to only allow "two old people" access to that box, Sal could have shown them the key, asked for them to open the door, and gotten the contents. And if there had been specific instructions about restricting access, the bank manager would have remembered that box 120 was special.

6. Now the other big one. 

• Why did Agnes and her daughter go to all this trouble--the safe deposit box drop--which would have required the daughter to drive in from Ithaca to make the drop?
• If they were exchanging letters via a drop system, why would her address appear on any of the correspondence? It wouldn't have to. Agnes wouldn't even need to know it. So the letters wouldn't have helped Sal, at least not to the degree of pinpointing her.
• Why not stick with the U.S. Mail? It's reasonably secure and, as I referenced in the last point, it's not like they would refuse to deliver the letters TO Agnes if the daughter eliminated the return address.
• If you're going to set up this elaborate "drop system," why not just use the priest? The daughter mails letters to the church, and on a weekly basis Agnes can visit to read and reply.
• For that matter, unless Agnes is completely technophobic, there is this thing now called "email." One's email account is hard to crack into. And even if Sal managed to steal Agnes' password, from what I hear, it's pretty hard to figure out where someone lives from a Hotmail or GMail address.