Castle: Watershed

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.

Castle: "Always"

By Michael Seese

OK, so perhaps (contrary to my previous estimate) it could take us two weeks to watch the season finale of "Castle." But it was worth the wait. There were a lot of fine, fine elements in this episode.

The folks who have spent years wondering when Castle and Beckett would get together now have their answer. I thought it was both set up and implemented well. (More on that later.) But I will state for the record that I have concerns about where it will go. In my opinion, "Moonlighting" essentially jumped the shark when Maddie and Dave consummated their relationship. So we shall see...

They reused the same technique as in a previous episode (the name and most of the plot escape me; the important point is the episode begins with Castle and Beckett in an alley, pointing guns at each other), starting out with a cliffhanger (in this instance, literally) and then flashing back to get us up to that point. I'm glad that they didn't end the season with Beckett clinging to the ledge. As I've stated before, unless the writers are planning to kill her, we know she will be rescued. So it really isn't a suspenseful element.

But I thought they staged her rescue well. She called out to Castle and heard (or thought she heard) his voice. When brought back up, she imagined it was him before Ryan came into view. Then the sea of officers parted to reveal...Captain Gates.

As has been the case in a number of previous episodes, the director really paid attention to the lighting. When the gang was planning their next move -- which Castle wanted to short-circuit -- there was dramatic side lighting, with his face in half light, half shadow. Also, near the end, when Beckett and Esposito were getting chewed out by the captain, the entire room was bathed in a sepia glow. In real life, I've noticed that the sky takes on a yellow-brown hue when a rain shower approaches near sunset; and sure enough, Beckett left the precinct and walked through a driving rain at night. As an aside, I thought it was funny that Esposito handed over his firearm, but walked out with two ammo clips on his belt.

One nitpick: a thief breaks into Captain Montgomery's house, his wife shoots him, and Castle and Beckett find out by tracing a phone call? What, did she forget the numbers 9-1-1? 

Of course there were plenty of "looks." I think the best was near the beginning when Castle asked Beckett to join him for a double feature. "Actually, I'd love to," she said, smiling. Then he displayed a dreamy smile.

OK, so back to "the moment." I thought the entire scene where Castle expressed his feeling for Beckett was simply great. Great dialogue ("You've already known that; you've known it for a year), great emotion, great impact. I wasn't sure whether they could top it and the end. But they did with a beautiful simplicity:

Castle: "What do you want?"
Beckett: "You."

So what did you think of "Always?" Please share your thoughts.

Until next season...

Castle: "Undead Again"

I know this is pre-anticlimactic, I guess, considering that the season finale already has aired. But we just got around watching "Undead Again." I'm sure it won't take two more weeks to watch and review "Always." So bear with me.

This was a fun episode. Of course, like "Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind" and "Heroes And Villains" -- not to mention every episode of "Scooby-Doo" -- you knew it was not a real zombie. Castle even acknowledged as much when he answered Ryan, "No. You know what I do believe in? Driving Beckett crazy." But still, you want to go along for the ride to see how they're going to take a zombie killer caught on tape and turn it into a real murderer. If I may boast, I picked the killer right away. Tom just seemed like the obvious choice. (Actually, though, I have to admit that I noticed he had blue eyes, just like the still-image close up of the walking dead.) And finally there was a character -- Tom's fiancée Greta -- who actually had a New York accent.

The scene where Castle and Beckett first encounter the zombies was just superb. As I said above, you knew it wasn't real. But it didn't matter. (For the record, zombie walking is a true phenomenon; a Yahoo search yields 63,000,000 hits, the first of which is www.zombiewalk.com)

Likewise, you just knew that "zombie Kyle" was going to come to life in the morgue. It was still great.

Plus, the running gag with Castle and Alexis playing laser tag -- especially the fact that she rappeled down into the living room -- was just a nice addition to the show. I hope they touch on it again at some point in the future, because it was a good father-daughter moment.

In short, "Undead Again" was another of the type of episodes which makes Castle a great show.

I think my two favorite lines were "pants-wetting terror" and (Castle, to his mother) "You will pay for your treachery." And, kudos for the cultural reference to World War Z.

Naturally, I must cite the looks:

- Castle's overall look as he listened to Charlie's frantic 911 call.
- Castle's excitement when they first saw the face of zombie Kyle on the video, along with the disbelief on the part of Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan. (The random high five when Castle proclaimed, "Our killer's a zombie!" was precious.)
- Beckett's confused recognition when Castle told the M.E. who is not Lanie (character name: Sidney Perlmutter) "I will treasure the special moments we've shared."

Feel free to share your thoughts, and check back soon for a review of "Always."