Castle: For Better or Worse – A Good Cop/Bad Cop Review

Castle: For better or worse

 

Well, it finally happened. Melanie ventured over to the dark side this week, resulting in the reversal of our roles. See for yourself, if you dare. Tread lightly, though, because her claws and fangs are showing, and she’s out for blood!

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Melanie Atkins

Last week, I was the good cop. I loved Veritas, while Lee hated it. That actually happens quite often, as many of you know. This week, however, I cannot be the good cop, because I despised For Better or Worse. Except for the delightful scenes at the beginning filled with wedding prep and a stumbling block that should’ve been easily removed, plus the touching scene between Martha and Kate near the end, I want to erase the entire show from my brain.

Andrew Marlowe said in a TV Guide interview I just read that they’re setting up a “new mythology” for season seven. I don’t care. I wanted the wedding they led us to believe would finally happen. We’ve struggled through six years of stumbling blocks, some of them stupid, some of them not… and now to have to endure a season finale filled with more of them — most of which seemed totally contrived — I feel cheated. I’m angry. I want to scream. The horrific way the episode ended was just the icing on my I-hate-you-Andrew-Marlowe cake. If I hadn’t been in a hotel room watching a TV I do not own, I might have thrown something through it.

Marlowe had better fix this ASAP when the new season opens, or he’s going to lose viewers. Kate and Rick might be fictional people, but Castle fans have invested a heck of a lot of time and energy in following this show, and we want a payoff, not a rip-off. That’s happened to me too many times before with other shows, thanks to bad writing and poor story-making decisions. I did not expect such a debacle from Marlowe. He says in the interview that we should trust him, that we’ll eventually get our happy ending, and yet after last night’s tragic fiasco of the wedding that never happened… I’ll believe it when I see it. We, as loyal viewers, deserve better.

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Lee Lofland

Is it safe for me to come inside? Is Melanie gone? Yes?

It’s not that I don’t trust you guys, but I think I’ll draw my weapon and clear the room before I begin.

Okay, she’s definitely gone. So let’s begin my part of this, shall we say, bad cop/bad cop review.

First of all, and I know this will come as a shock, but I liked this episode. Well, I liked parts of it. Sure there were a few goofy things relating to police procedure, like Beckett driving her police car around the countryside for a couple of days while in a jurisdiction other than her own.

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Not to mention the entire trip was unrelated to an NYPD case. Then she parks the car on a dirt road, in plain view, within binocular range of a mobster hideout.

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And no one spots it, even though the mafia dude is supposedly smart enough to elude the local police and FBI for a very long time. Yeah, right.

Still, I thought “Kit Kat” did another nice job of acting this week. She was even convincing when she used a Slim Jim to open a locked door on her husband’s truck. If you’ll recall, Esposito also used one of these devices in an earlier episode—Under Fire.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with breaking into locked vehicles, here’s a quick lesson.

Slim Jims are most effective on older model vehicles, since most modern car doors unlock electronically. Still, a person with lots of practice and skill can use a Slim Jim to gain entry to almost any car.

Slim Jim with rubber grip

Cut-outs are used for hooking various lock parts

In the old days we all carried a Slim Jim in our patrol cars, and we unlocked several cars each week for the unfortunate folks who’d locked their keys inside. Then, when cars moved away from the manual locks to electric, the risk of damaging electrical systems caused most police agencies to abandon the service. Well, that and the number of officers who managed to get the devices firmly stuck inside car doors.

By the way, carrying a Slim Jim around in your car, along with a screwdriver or two could be considered as “possession of burglary tools.”

Got it? Good. Let’s move on to more interesting parts of the show. Like when Castle saw the “head” roll onto the barn floor? His expression? Well, that’s a face only a mother could love, bless his heart.

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Then there was the cameo appearance of the folks from Duck Dynasty.

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Still, as funny as some parts of the show were, it was a bit of a chore to sit through hurdle after hurdle after hurdle that prevented the happy couple from walking down the aisle. It was total BS, and a slap in the face to Castle fans who’ve waiting to see a wedding for what seems like hundred years—a hundred years of stupid excuses, subtle hints, and goofy writing.

Speaking of writing, this episode seemed like it was intended for a kid’s show, not for the gazillion Castle fans who deserve much better than what those behind the Castle keyboards offered this week.

For me, though, I enjoyed the humorous parts of the episode. However, if I learn that 3XK is behind Castle’s apparent abduction/crashed and burning car, well, I’m done. I believe I’ll have to leave the reviews to Melanie.

But, at least Beckett was held hostage again this week. We do have that bit of normalcy to help get us through the tough times.

Anyway, it was a funny episode in part, but a huge disappointment otherwise. And it was kind of cool to see the bad cop side of Melanie. What a beast!

See you next season…maybe.

 

 

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