Castle: What Lies Beneath – A Good Cop/Bad Cop Review
“It’s my pony, you can’t pet it.” Castle.
Melanie Atkins
I’m still not thrilled with the direction the powers-that-be have taken Kate, and by default, Rick, this season, but I enjoyed this episode much more than I did the first three. Last week, the entire setup seemed forced and everyone came off as uncomfortable, but this week the episode flowed and made me laugh out loud. One of the new writers, Barry O. Brien, penned this one, and he did a bang up job of bringing back some of the old Castle magic.
After the obligatory murder scene, Kate attempts to make coffee at the precinct using the espresso machine Rick gave the homicide crew years ago. Her attempt fails (or she suddenly can’t stand the taste — an interesting possibility brought up by two of my staunchest Facebook friends), and she pours it out just in time for Martha to walk in and confront Kate about her the state of her marriage. Kate sticks to her guns, but she’s obviously not happy about it… and Martha’s hug nearly makes her break down. “Be honest with yourself, and be honest with your husband” — the woman’s final sage words of advice — really seem to hit home and also set the theme for the show: Lies. Lies that break up marraiges, and lies that end relationships.
Rick, of course, manages to get involved in the case of the week so he can get close to Kate. This at least gives them a little time together, even if Kate does continue to lie by omission and to keep Rick at arm’s length. Having him in such close proximity seems to shake her up, and I like that. Her secret investigation into LOKSAT needs to end and she needs to come clean with Rick so she can go back home where she belongs. Just sayin’.
In addition to still being upset with Kate, her lies, and her unecessary obsession, I’m confused as to why Alexis is working with Rick in his PI business rather than going to college. Has she graduated? Dropped out? Or is she simply taking a break? If she has graduated, then why doesn’t she have a real job? What’s the deal? I get that she wants to support her father during Kate’s absence, and I like seeing more of her, but a little explanation would be nice.
Much of the show’s humor this week comes from the interaction between Esposito and Ryan, with Rick thrown in on occasion to add even more hilarity. Sheer brilliance. I loved when they checked out the 12-step Pathological Liars Anonymous meeting (“My name is Steve.” “Thanks, Bob.”) then confronted the blind priest who turned out to be more of a con man than a man of God. The priest’s attempt to escape after being questioned cracked me up. I haven’t laughed so hard during a Castle episode in ages. So freaking funny.
Kate didn’t get on my nerves nearly as much this week as she did in the last episode, but I still want her to come home. Her working with Rick but not touching or kissing him is so unnatural, even if she is working to solve the LOKSAT mystery. Rick’s determination to win her back has gotten under her skin, but apparently not enough for her to stop her search and move back to the loft. Please note: The same FB friends who questioned Kate’s sudden aversion to coffee also questioned her being tired enough at one point to lie down on the couch in her office… and I have to wonder if the two events are meant to foreshadow an upcoming twist.
But I digress…
I love how the writers brought us full circle with the delightful Caskett scene near the end when Rick makes Kate a cup of espresso adorned with a cute little foam heart. She loves it — and she did not pour it out. Hmm. Such a sweet moment. But why didn’t she kiss him or at least give him a hug in return? Is she afraid that if she does, her resolve with crumble and she’ll give in and stop her investigation? Maybe. I hope so.
Rick and Martha threatened Kate’s boundaries in this episode, and I love it. Someone needs to wake her up and pull her back from the brink before she destroys everything she’s worked so hard to build since before she and Rick found their always.
Bring on next week’s episode. I hope it’s as well written as this one.
I agree with Melanie. This episode was a bit better than the garbage we’d been subjected to during the past shows. However, Alexis’ sudden and totally unexpected skills as a super PI is a jolt to the system and I do not like it. Not at all. Actually, the character has always been a bit odd, but now she’s a bizarre sore thumb that desperately needs rescuing from the pit of unbelievability. She’s become almost as annoying as Pi, her former boyfriend.
Beckett. Disgusting turn of events for what used to be a cool character and, unfortunately, there’s only one solution to the madness. #killBeckett.
But, I’m thinking there’s a reason she’s seen poured onto the couch and that her tastebuds are screwy (the coffee scene). Could it be that Alexis might soon have a little brother to play with when she’s not busy saving her childlike dad from himself? If so, the pitter-pattering of tiny Castle feet could be enough to send Beckett over the edge of the failing-character-cliff her toenails are now clutching.
Think about it, how could she go off on secret missions to find everyone and anyone who possibly wronged her mother—the kids on the playground who wouldn’t let her play freeze tag, a dime store clerk who once overcharged her for gum, the company that made the ugly lipstick color that clashed with all of her best outfits, and, of course, the evil meanies who wanted her dead. It’s an old storyline. It’s tired. It’s a dead horse that no longer requires beating. So yeah, #killBeckett.
Lanie… Well, at least she didn’t mention lividity this week. Instead, she went even stupider with her time of death prediction when she said, “The wound suggests he was shot between 8 and 11 last night.” WTF???? Did the bloody hole in the victim’s shirt whisper something in Lanie’s ear? Perhaps the wound said, through gurgling and gasping breaths, “This is not…gasp…real science…gurgle…but I just happened to be looking at the clock on the wall when the bullet caused me to appear. The clock was a little blurry—gunshots can do that, you know, but it looked like I arrived…oh, somewhere between 8 and 11.” Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Look, if merely glancing at a wound is all that’s needed to determine a time of death (TOD), then why the need for fancy testing methods, equipment, training, and science? For starters, Lanie couldn’t see the wound. Instead, she made her voodooish prediction based upon a small hole in a piece of cloth. Believe me, unexamined wounds do not have the capability of “suggesting” anything even remotely related to time-telling.
Lanie went on to say that evidence showed the murderer “snuck into” the church and killed the guy while he was praying. I know I was certainly impressed when ACME Forensics and Voodoo developed and manufactured “sneak detectors.” Otherwise, it would be impossible to know the methods and walking styles bad guys use when entering buildings. Next week I guess she’ll tell us, “Evidence shows the killer walked boldly and proudly to the victim’s door where he angrily turned the doorknob. Then he stepped lively to the center of the room and happily fired three shots at the lackidasical victim who fell loudly to the floor. I know this to be so because her wounds suggested it.”
Speaking of bad guys and killers, how was it the wife/killer could locate and zero-in on her target through the nearly-opaque stained glass? After all, her shot was pretty darn accurate considering there was no way she could see her doomed spouse.
Beckett announced this to Ryan and Esposito – “Lanie called. There are no usable prints from the crime scene, and no hits off ballistics.”
I’m guessing the NYPD’s budget no longer allows for the employment of CSI techs and scientists, since the city’s medical examiner now dusts, lifts, and compares all prints at crime scenes. She also conducts tests on firearms and ammunition. This comes as no surprise. She’s a Jill of All Trades. For example, I often see her at the motor pool changing the oil in patrol cars. She sometimes works a shift or two on the garbage trucks and at NASA where she’s the go-to person for new rocket design. Brain surgery? No problem for Super Lanie. Rumor has that she even plans to someday perform an actual autopsy, but that’s just too strange, even for fiction.
Anyway, I said the show was better than the disasters we saw in the past two episodes, but I didn’t say it was good. Fortunately, for us, Ryan and Esposito are still plugging along. They’re the only drop of glue that’s holding this mess together. Unfortunately, the writers are now taking them down the road to promotion. I guess another shark paddled by and they thought it, too, needed jumping.
#collegeforAlexis
#sergeantRyan
#sergeantEspo
#wakeupCastlethisisanightmare
#talkingwounds
#sneakdetectorsrock
#Lanieforpresident
