By Michael Seese
Nope. Not a sign of the Fonz or water skis.
"Need To Know" felt a lot like your "typical" Castle. Intriguing plot twists, lots and lots of lines and looks, a suspect who is written off and then is revealed to be the killer, and not one--but two--surprises at the end.
I loved the opening scene. Castle and Beckett, lying there, enjoying pillow talk. Then the camera pulls back, and we learn that they're (literally) miles apart, conversing via smart phone. Nice!
Which leads us to a great line / look.
Beckett: "Do you know what my favorite position is?"
Castle raises his head expectantly.
Her answer, of course, was "In person."
I also liked the side story which revealed that Ryan was a closet fan of the 80s teen show, "2 Cool 4 School." It reminded me of Captain Gates, and her obsession with the Gemini Dolls. As I said in that post, it's nice when they fill out the characters, and give them real quirks, those like the rest of us have. (So says the Rick Springfield fan.)
And, that particular schtick gave rise to most of the great lines.
Castle: "A former child star getting the book. Hoisted on his own petard. Hung out to dry."
Ryan: "That was a very nuanced performance."
Ryan: "You know what I don't get?"
Esposito: "You're wearing that hat. There's a lot you don't get."
Castle: "It's like Romeo and Juliet. With a nerdy Romeo."
Esposito: "And a smoking hot Juliet."
And a few one-offs...
Castle: "I don't know if I'm smelling a compost bin, or my daughter's rotting ambition."
Perlmutter: "Mister Castle, you're back. But not by popular demand."
Beckett: "Castle, you're not going to Castle me on this."
Castle: "This place could be teeming with bloodthirsty Cossacks."
IF YOU DON'T WANT THE ULTIMATE SPOILER, STOP READING NOW.
The last scene totally caught me off guard. I didn't see it coming. But once Castle turned serious and told Beckett he wanted to talk about "them," I knew he was going to say he was moving to DC. "I can write from anywhere." Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah...MY BLOG.
Then...
I guess the government shutdown has impacted the AG Office, as they've obviously let their HR department go. That's my snide way of saying my only gripe was that McCord would not have been the one to fire Beckett. But I'll forgive them.
Feel free to share your thoughts on "Need To Know."
By Michael Seese
No sign of the Fonz on water skis, I'm happy to report. I'll admit I feared that Castle's proposal to Beckett spelled the beginning of the end. But if "Valkyrie" is any indication, the show hasn't lost a step.
Usual disclaimer: SPOILERS!
The opening scene was wonderful, funny and touching. The dialog (and looks) careened between the two extremes.
Beckett: "Oh my god! Oh my god! You're proposing!"
Castle: "OK, you're surprised."
Beckett: "Of course I'm surprised. I thought you were breaking up with me."
Castle: "By offering you a ring?"
...
Castle: "Not yes?"
Beckett: "No. Not not yes."
Castle: "You know how this works, right?"
But then Castle's gentle, "If that means when things get difficult we have to figure them out, then I'm wiling to figure them out. Assuming you're willing to figure this out with me."
Another great scene had to be "Mr. C's" introduction to Pi. (Prediction: the latter is a conman.) Castle's face was precious, especially during the exchange:
Pi: "The whole spelling thing stifles creativity."
Castle: "The spelling thing?"
A great standalone line was Castle's comment that his cardboard cut-out is "best with rhetorical questions."
Noteworthy looks:
Ryan's face when Castle (over the phone) said, "You're swaddling that doll right now, aren't you?" And Beckett's closed-mouth "Yeah," when Castle asked, "Would you at least like to know what I found out?"
A few picky things...
The exercise at the beginning, where Beckett ostensibly gets shot? She's a decorated New York City police veteran. She's busted more bad guys than Dirty Harry. And yet, the feds feel compelled to have her complete urban training? In a real urban setting? (And, heck, even I said, "The blonde is with him." After all, it's not as though pretty blondes in blue print dresses randomly hang out in alleys.)
Also, whatever the toxin was, it killed Bronson (the ex-Marine) in a matter of minutes. So why does Castle has 24 hours? Yes, I assume the point was that Bronson had been exposed a day or two before, and he finally, coincidentally succumbed with Castle in the car; but Beckett mentioned only the level in Castle's blood, and not the time differential between the two men's exposure to it. As a writer, I'd say they should have tossed in a quick line referencing the latter.
And a comment I've made before...
Since the show is named "Castle," I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're not going to kill him off. (Plus, right now IMDB lists four more episodes.) So unless Richard Edgar Alexander Rogers Castle will appear only in a hospital bed, or heaven...
Will a valkyrie be taking Castle to Valhalla? Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
So we FINALLY got around to watching the season finale of Castle. (Cut me some slack...I had to get "Eiffel" to Paris, then we went to Florida, then there was T-ball, and finally, I mangled my thumb last week.) And after all that, I thought "Watershed" was...
Just OK.
I suppose my main problem stemmed from what I perceived to be "faux" drama. In the previews, they showed the scene where Castle discovers Beckett's airplane boarding pass, and she confesses that she flew to D.C. for the interview. "If you take this job, that's the end of our relationship," he sniffs.
Excuse me? You, Richard Castle, write for a living. The last time I checked, there are authors living in the nation's capital. Or, if you don't want to relocate, fly out on Wednesday, stay a few days, then fly her back to New York for the weekend. Heck, you're amazingly rich...fly down every morning, and back to New York at night. The point being, people DO make long-distance relationships work. Admittedly, as my wife pointed out, it would end their working partnership. But still, I thought he was a little too much the drama queen. (The fact that Beckett violated his trust by not telling him...that's another issue.)
I recognized (did you??) that they ended the episode sitting on a swing set, just as Beckett did at end of last year's season finale. Just in case you didn't (by some weird chance) watch it yet, I won't say / spoil anything, other than to admit that the ending caught us both off-guard. It will be interesting to see how they resolve it. Though I had worried that "Always" represented the beginning of the end (a Jump The Shark moment), I thought this season was pretty strong. But once again I am concerned...
On the whole, there wasn't a lot of humor in this episode. I thought the best (and to be honest, only) noteworthy line was:
Esposito: "Crystal Sky. That name's so fake, it sounds like something out of your book."
So what did you think of "Watershed?" Share your thoughts, if you still remember.
Did Castle and Beckett reach a "Watershed" moment? Click to tweet.
By Michael Seese
Some things never change. The Castle season premiere was last Monday. We watched it last night. Maybe we'll get to this week's episode before next week.
I'll admit that I had feared the season ending Castle-Beckett hookup would be a jump-the-shark moment. We'll have to wait and see. But I did enjoy "After The Storm."
I thought the opening five minutes were great television. It started with the awkward morning-after conversation. Then it moved to slapstick when Castle and Beckett literally fell off the bed. (And was that an elephant behind them? What is an elephant doing in Castle's bedroom?) Castle's discomfort was hilarious as he tried to shoo his mother out of the bedroom. Then, his dodge of the flying pillow was perfectly timed.
Down in the kitchen, I loved his hangover conversation, which rose and fell in volume as he tried to cover Beckett's escape sounds. Her panicked look for her brassiere had me in stitches. And it all ended with him nearly shouting, "Experience this in its fullness, untrammeled by relief from over-the-counter pain relievers." We watched that scene twice.
Plotwise, good and intense. The music which played as Beckett walked through the hall in her search for Bracken was perfect. And I thought the scene in the kitchen played out brilliantly. Perhaps I'm making a big assumption here, but it seems to me as though the writers wanted to put this story arc away -- rather than have Beckett always looking over her shoulder -- but leave it open enough to revisit.
One more kudo: visually, I thought the scene where Castle and Beckett were reflected in the television showing Bracken campaigning was a neat idea.
OK, one plot faux pas: why did Castle and Beckett have to search for Michael Smith? Why didn't they just take the photo to Mrs. Montgomery and ask, "Who is this?"
And finally, the "looks." The aforementioned first five minutes was one long exercise in looks, especially Beckett's glare from the closet. And the whole thing ended with Castle's happy realization as the elevator doors closed and Beckett said, "I'm pretty sure I'll think of something to do" during her suspension.
So, very good episode. But I'll keep looking for fins in the water.
What did you think of "After The Storm?" Feel free to share your thoughts.
