The Graveyard Shift

Archive for the ‘Castle Reviews’ Category

Take a good look at the photo above. Notice Castle’s WTF expression? Someone must’ve snapped this shot at the precise moment he first saw the script for this two-parter nonsense called Linchpin.

As always, I know the reviews will be mixed. Die-hard shippers will be swooning and loving every bit of eye contact and remotely romantic conversations between Beckett and Castle, while others, especially newer viewers, will be wondering how this show remains at the top of the ratings. For that matter, some are actually wondering if Castle should see another season. I know, I know. But I’m simply repeating what I’m reading and hearing, from a whole lot of people.

Wait, I think I hear those people outside. Hold on, let me take a quick look down the street…

See… And every single person out there used to love this show!

Anyway, for me, this two-part episode was the worst episode to date. Sure, the acting was good, but the story???? You know, good acting and great characters can only hold up bad stories and weak writing for so long.

Personally, I think the folks at Castle are taking us for granted. They know they’ve captured a large core group of fans and no longer seem to care enough about them to feed them a decent meal. And they’re not even so much as dangling a bone in front of potential new viewers.

Anyway, I was pretty disappointed with this episode. In fact, for the first time, I wanted to turn the dial. Had it not been for having to watch in order to complete this review and recap, I would have done just that. I’m sure Cupcake Wars, a documentary about earthworms, or an old episode of Leave It To Beaver was on somewhere. Anything would have been better than sitting through this one.

I certainly hope they deliver next week.

Melanie, it’s all yours.

Melanie Atkins

Last week, I wasn’t too pleased with Pandora, the first segment of this two part “event”, and ever since, I’ve been worried if Linchpin would bother me as much. The sneak peeks made me think not, but who knows for sure until the show airs? Sometimes, the sneak peeks show the best parts of the show, and the rest of it doesn’t live up to the hype. This time, however… it did, to a degree. I thought as a whole the show was much better. Andrew Marlowe, the show’s creator wrote this one, and it held together much better for me, even if the concept was a bit farfetched.

If you saw Pandora, you know it ended with a cliffhanger: Kate and Rick inside her car as it is pushed off the dock into the Hudson River. Their struggle to free themselves had me on the edge of my seat, even though I’d seen the previews and knew they survived. We didn’t actually see them escape, but flashes of light inside the car told us Rick had found the gun and shot through Kate’s seatbelt and the window, allowing them to get out. Implausible? Certainly. But with all the insane stuff that went on last week, this was mild… and I bought it.

Sophia, the CIA agent in charge of the case and Rick’s former muse, throws them off the case once they’re on dry land and back at CIA headquarters, and they head back to the precinct.

Kate is still extremely jealous of Sophia, and we soon learn that Rick did indeed sleep with the CIA agent way back when. Kate doesn’t take that information well. And to top it off, Alexis hears part of Kate and Rick’s conversation while interning in the morgue. Oops! Later, of course, she confronts her father. I loved one of her lines: “And I thought the dead bodies were going to be the grossest part.”

Sophia sneaks into Rick’s office and surprises him. Despite what she said to Kate and Rick after they were fished out of the river, she wants them on the case… and she gives him information. She also finds Rick’s murder board, complete with info on Kate’s mom’s case and Kate’s shooting, and she asks Rick, “Does she know?” (referring to Kate, of course). He doesn’t answer. Instead, he turns off the display. She smiles and says, “You always did like to play with dynamite. Just be careful it doesn’t blow up in your face.” Yeah, right. That secret is explosive, and one day…

Yet I digress. Back to the story. Sophia gives Rick Blakeny’s bank account numbers, a key piece of evidence the man killed at the pier last week was after when he was shot in front of Kate and Rick right before they went into the water. (Deep breath).

Kate’s green eyed monster rears its ugly head again, but she still jumps at the chance to dive back into the investigation. They find Blakeny’s hidey-hole and learn he has predicted WWIII thanks to a linchpin — a ten-year-old girl, the daughter of a Chinese finance minister — that will ruin our country’s economy and send us spiraling into chaos. (I know, right?)

Gage, the man the CIA targeted last week, kidnaps Kate and Rick at Blakeny’s place, then Sophia and her goons grab them all. Holy cluster of stars, Batman. It’s wild, but still more cohesive than last week… I swear!

Then Gage is found dead in an interrogation room — meaning a mole has to be in Sophia’s CIA unit. They narrow it down to Martin Danberg, her right hand guy, but he escapes.

Rick soon comes up with a way to find out who the linchpin — the little girl — is, and Sophia says, “You’re a genius!” and kisses his cheek. The pained look on Kate’s face spells heartbreak, but she doesn’t say a word. Rick wanders off to get coffee while they wait on the computer to work, and Kate and Sophia have a heart to heart.

“You like him,” Kate says… a statement, not a question.

Sophia looks at her. “I did. Once.”

Then Kate asks what happened… and Sophia says she and Rick had a flash fire of passion after a slow build up — with no real foundation for a relationship — then nothing. She wishes they’d never slept together, that they’d just kept that longing… then maybe what they had wouldn’t have burned itself out. Kate looks thoughtful, but doesn’t say anything.

Not long after Rick returns, they learn who the girl is and locate her in New York, with her father at a trade conference, and they go after her. Only, Sophia turns on them and holds them hostage.

Danberg isn’t the mole; she is. And she’s Russian. Hmm…

Just as she prepares to shoot Rick and Kate, she gives Rick a hint about the father he never knew — was he a CIA agent? — by saying, “Your father would be very proud.” But before she can elaborate, another agent takes her out. Rick is too stunned by her revelation to move. Kate and the CIA agent save the girl… the country, and the world. No WWIII, at least not today.

I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted!

The CIA apparently pulled Kate’s car out of the river, and the agent who brings her the keys tells her it’s “better than new”. Yeah, right. Not if it’s been in the Hudson. Maybe they replaced it, but otherwise, I sure as heck wouldn’t want to drive it. Would you?

Rick asks Kate, “Do you think she (Sophia) was telling the truth about my father? I mean, that would explain why he completely disappeared.”

“I think that Sophia told a lot of lies,” Kate replies. “Must be tough finding out she’s a traitor after you based Clara Strike on her and all.”

“Well, Clara started off as Sophia, but she ended up being more like you. Smart, fierce, kind. I think that’s why I was drawn to you… as a muse.”

Aw… finally a little Caskett goodness. I’m not as turned off this week as I was last Monday, but I still wanted more in the romance department. The show as a whole was much more compelling, however, and it held my attention. Last week I couldn’t stop yawning.

Next week’s episode, Once Upon a Crime, looks like a funny one. I love those.

Lee Lofland

Where do I begin? Let’s see… Well, you already know how I feel about the episode as a whole, so I think I’ll just go straight for the throat.

I’ve started a sort of running joke on my Facebook page about Beckett getting kidnapped as often as she does. And not only does she get abducted at the drop of a hat, she also loses her gun to a crook at least as often as kids take their Flintstone vitamins—once a day. This scenario has become a part of the Castle-boilerplate-script, and it’s not only getting old, it’s absolutely ridiculous. How many cops would still be on the job if they allowed themselves to be kidnapped once a week? Furthermore, how many times will viewers watch Beckett get kidnapped before saying enough is enough? At least we know why the mayor allows Castle to tag along with Beckett…to protect her hind parts from impending doom and certain destruction. She’s a walking disaster, which, by the way, is a far cry from the Beckett we saw in earlier seasons. And I miss that Beckett. Please bring her back and get rid of the horror-movie-Beckett we have now. You know, the teenage girl who flees from the cabin in the woods, falls down, and is ALWAYS caught by the bad guy serial killer.

The whole car floating aimlessly to the center of the earth (exactly how deep is the Hudson at the spot beside the docks, anyway—two or three hundred miles?), and then have Castle shoot Beckett’s PREDICTABLY stuck seatbelt…was just plain stupid. What part did he shoot, anyway? Certainly not the buckle that was against her flesh. Who knows and who cares at this point. And what about that bright muzzle flash? Underwater? I know a road flare will burn underwater, but it’s nowhere near as bright as the flashes we saw last night.

And then Beckett drowns (lungs fill with water and she’s unconscious) so Castle shoots out the car window, hauls her limp, lifeless body from the depths of the deepest, darkest ocean to the surface, where the two of them calmly and merrily enjoy a nice cup of coffee and happily discuss the details of the case. No hospital visit. No doctor. No paleness from the lack of oxygen to her body and brain. Nothing but smiles, perfect makeup, and a cup of coffee. I’m sure everyone who’s just emptied the equivalent of a bathtub full of water from their lungs would immediately go for dumping more liquid into their body. That’d certainly be my first choice.

Of course, as always, Beckett storms into a private apartment without a search warrant. In real life, people, cops must obtain either a search warrant or permission from the home/business owner/renter to enter a dwelling or business. The exception to that rule is when someone’s life or evidence of a crime is immediate danger. A landlord may not give permission to search the home of his/her tenant. Neither of these apply to many of Beckett’s searches.

Sure, an officer could go in without the proper paperwork, but all evidence seized would be deemed inadmissible in court. And certainly, since this search involved saving the world from total destruction, an officer would probably want to use whatever evidence she found. Wouldn’t it be a shame to have to let the “Destroyer Of The World” go free because Beckett couldn’t use “the bomb” she found because she entered the guy’s apartment illegally. Oops…

- The CIA guy (possibly the end-of-the-world guy) grabs a hostage in front of a dozen armed cops and agents. He’s clearly standing where the officers could easily hit him with approximately 7,000 rounds of hollowpoint ammunition, but no one fired a shot and he gets away. What do you think would have happened in real life? CIA and cops on one hand. Guy who’s going to end the world on other hand. And all that stands in the way is one civilian. Hmm…

- Okay, how many of you did not know that Sophia was going to be the “bad guy?” Again, we called it early on, during the first episode.  Another yawner for me.

- Wasn’t that an impressive search of the terrain that helped locate the little girl/Linchpin? But, for this show that far out stuff sort of worked. So I didn’t mind it so much.

- The Chinese official and family arrived and entered the building unescorted by bodyguards. This guy was a world financial leader. A VID (very important dude). The fictional NYPD must’ve missed the A&E special about the Secret Service that aired not too long ago. Foreign officials are often assigned a team of Secret Service agents who’s duty is to protect the VID’s against men who openly take their time and point guns at little girls in public buildings.

- I loved how CIA officials allow Castle to tag along during a mission that could mean the “end of the earth as we know it.” No vest, no gun, and no believability.

- I think this is the point where Beckett and Castle are abducted once again.

- Why did Sophia stand there talking to Castle and Beckett for such a long period of time? You’d think someone who was trying to end the world would have just popped off a couple of quick rounds and moved on. But noooo…..

Okay, there wasn’t a lot of good in this episode, and not wanting to be all negative I’ll say this…Alexis was nice and cute and sweet. And, thankfully, we didn’t hear much from Lanie. I say they fast forward and make Alexis the M.E. Why not? Everything else seems to be coming from LaLa Land.

Sorry, Shippers. I did not like this episode at all. I’m still a fan, but I’m very, very concerned. In fact, I’m losing interest. Bored. Watching with one eye open and one eye closed. Please, Castle writers…please bring back the good old days!

Before we get into this review and recap, I have to say that I’m SO glad Beckett was never my partner. I mean, how many times during her career has she been kidnapped by the bad guys? (Remember the freezer? And how could we forget the old man-eating-tiger-in-the-basement trick involving Beckett and Espo). And, as they say on those annoying infomercials…But wait! This week she was abducted by both good and bad guys, in the same episode.

I’m beginning to think Beckett’s a pretty big liability for the NYPD. The big brass in the department must be aware of her and her troubles. Think about it. She’s the target for an assassin, her apartment was blown to bits, she’s kidnapped at least a couple of times a week, she places a civilian in jeopardy every day (he’s kidnapped even more often than Beckett), all her cases are solved by a civilian mystery writer, someone takes her gun from her two or three times a month, and now, after seeing the preview for next week, she’s going to lose her police car. Would you keep this employee on the payroll? And she wears crazy-tall high heels while tromping around crime scenes. Did you see the shoes she wore to the house of the female murder victim? Holy cow! They looked like stilts.

Anyway…Melanie, please take over before I put a stop to this by leaping out of my office window. Yep, this episode has nearly driven me to that point!

Melanie Atkins

Bodies flying out of windows and disappearing from the morgue. Rogue CIA agents. A major threat to national security. This Castle episode had it all. Too much of it, really. Just… no. To keep my mind off the over the top plot, I focused on another threat and potential blowup. The threat to Kate. This one irked me almost as much, but I hung in there.

The episode begins with Rick learning that Alexis is interning with Lanie in the morgue (holy voodoo forensics, Batman!), and he fears that having his daughter show up at crime scenes will cramp his style and disturb the amazing synergy between him and Kate. That’s not all that disturbs it, but I digress. Rick tries to talk Alexis out of continuing the internship, but to no avail.

Once the body disappears from the morgue (I’ll let Lee concentrate on the case here — such as it is), Kate and Rick search for the suspect, a man whose alias is Gage. Instead of finding him, however, they find another body — the body of the woman they’d thought he was going after. Then they’re kidnapped and taken to an unknown underground location. Way underground.

Lo and behold, they’re in CIA headquarters. A woman strides up to them… or rather, to Rick, and he immediately recognizes her as Sophia Turner, the CIA agent he shadowed for a time while writing the Derrick Storm books. Kate, of course, has read everything he’s ever written, and she pegs the woman as the inspiration for Clara Strike. Meaning… Rick’s had a muse before. Kate’s hackles go up, and she and Sophia square off. Can anyone say green-eyed monster?

Sophia asks for their help, wanting them to continue their hunt for Gage, and Rick jumps to say yes. Kate obviously doesn’t like this, but she has no choice but to go along. Once they’re in the car, however, she confronts Rick, saying, “It’s just that I might’ve been taken aback to find out that you have researched with someone else.”

His answer? “…it was a brief moment, a long time ago” and “Besides, Nikki Heat is a much more complex and nuanced character… and I’m a far more experienced writer. More mature.”

Then she learns he shadowed Sophia for an entire year. That did not sit well.

They don’t have much time to talk about it, because when they go looking for clues to Gage’s whereabouts, they’re grabbed again — this time, by their prey — and he stuffs them into the trunk of a vintage car. The car, of course, doesn’t have a latch inside the trunk. Kate gets them out, however, after learning Rick pressed the panic button the CIA put on his phone before Gage smashed it. Her motivation? “I will not be rescued by your girlfriend.”

His failure to dispute that connotation for Sophia irked me… almost as much as the theory building between Sophia and Rick once he and Kate are picked up by the CIA and whisked back to headquarters does her. I don’t blame her. The very idea that he would interact with another woman like that, after the I love you, gives me hives. I mean, seriously? What the heck are the writers thinking? Kate and Rick should be way past this by now.

That wasn’t the end of the jealousy, though. After the theory building, Rick tells Kate, “We’re all on the same team here” and she says, “No. You’re on her team (meaning Sophia), ’cause the way you look at her, you’re sure as hell not on mine.” Meow!

Again, Rick says nothing… and he even has the gall to stay home the next morning instead of going to the precinct. Aarrgghh! Come on, people. That’s way out of character.

Finally, though, Rick comes up with a new theory, thanks to Martha, and shows up at Kate’s desk eager to tell her about it. She scoffs at him and says, “Shouldn’t you tell Sophia?” Rick answers with, “She’s not my partner. You are.” Well, I guess that’s supposed to placate us. Kate seems to buy into it, but I sure as heck don’t. Can you say lame?

They talk again at the park while looking for yet another man, and Rick offers to answer any question Kate has about Sophia… a great idea, but of course they’re interrupted by the arrival of the person they’re after before she can even ask a question. The man orders them to take him to Pier 32, where he’ll explain about Pandora, a cataclysmic event that will destroy the country as we know it. A scary thought, but one that’s way out there.

He gets out of the car to go inside and someone shoots him… then a car slams into Kate’s Crown Vic, propelling it — and Kate and Rick — into the river. To be continued…

Sigh. I hope the second half of this two part event is more of an event. Ho hum… and enough of the other muses, old girlfriends, etc., okay? Rick’s already said he loves Kate, so get ‘em together already. Too much chase and not enough reward… it’s getting old, people.

Lee Lofland

Okay, I’ve calmed down a bit now. Took a few sips of coffee and hit the play button on a little Beethoven. I’m relaxed. Calm. Shhh….

HEY!!! DID YOU SEE THE GUY FLY OUT THE WINDOW??? He hit the window pane and took all the glass and interior frame with him on the way down. Yet, when Gage the killer looked outside, he was peering through large jagged shards of broken glass.

Good, that’s out of my system. Now for Lanie…

- She says the 1st disappearing victim had several causes of death—shot, stabbed, choked, and had a pencil jabbed into his neck. And later, at the morgue, she lists several old injuries and odd characteristics about the dead guy—lots of old broken bones, scars, other injuries, and that he had the calloused hands associated with martial arts training. What? I’m sorry, are there special callouses for special circumstances? I mean, can someone tell that callouses on the hands of a farmer are the result of setting fence poles by hand? How about the hands of gardener? Could an M.E. tell those callouses were the result of digging in the soil?

What’s so freakin’ special about the callouses on the hands of someone who’s proficient in, say, Aikido? Well, for starters, I’ve been involved in that sort of thing since my teens (five or six years at least) and I’ll tell you, callouses aren’t a big result of the training. This comment, Lanie, was dumb. Yes, I know you were setting the guy up to be what he was, a tough-guy-secret-agent-killer-sort-of-guy, but it was still dumb.

- How could someone get a body out of a morgue without one of the many people who work there seeing it happen? I won’t even bother to go into that ridiculous notion.

- Beckett and Castle go to the home of woman who’s been murdered by the evil and nearly supernatural “Gage.” (This is the scene where Beckett’s wearing the stilts). The two know that this Gage guy is extremely dangerous and has already killed at least two people. So what does she do first? She squats down beside the body conducting an everyday conversation with Castle. Then, after a minute or two, she tells Castle, who’s unarmed, by the way, to stay with the body (no problem with chain of evidence and custody here, huh?) and she starts off on a slow search of the house…for the madman, psycho killer! NO, no, and no! Make sure the scene is safe and clear before engaging in idle chatter. Killers do hide and sneak up on people.

So what happens next? Of freakin’ course Castle has been captured by the bad guy who literally “pulled the wool over his eyes.”

The show was already ridiculous at this point, so you know what would have been really cool here. The hood should have had the word WRITER printed on it just like Castle’s Kevlar vest. Funny? You know it!

Anyway, this is where Castle and Beckett are kidnapped for the first time in this episode, courtesy of the CIA.

- Here comes Lanie with her new sidekick, Alexis. My thoughts on Alexis in the morgue. Here you go…

I do think, though, that Castle plays the role of a pretty good dad, especially as a single father.

- Lanie says the M.E. almost always beats the uniforms to a murder scene. Hmm…who does she think usually calls the M.E.? THE COPS!

I apologize for shouting, but this episode was…no, I’ll just continue.

Enter the CIA, an outfit that’s not set up to work criminal cases (murder, etc.). They may instigate crimes, but as a rule they don’t investigate them. You will probably never see a CIA on the stand testifying in a B&E case. So, they’ve kidnapped Beckett and Castle and now want them to go after that superhuman Gage guy.

Let’s study on this for a moment.

Okay, we’re back. Did that second or two of silence help? Let’s see. The CIA guy methodically says to Castle and Beckett, “This…is…a…national…security…threat.” He’s talking about the unstoppable killing machine, Gage, who’s already taken out the CIA’s top guy. And before I go on I’d like to ask the CIA folks from this show a question. If Gage was such a threat to the USA, enough so that the entire country could go up in smoke, and if the guy is so unbelievably dangerous, then why in the world did you only send one guy to capture him. And not even a healthy guy at that. The guy they put on the trail was a has been—shot up, broken, cut up, and probably brain damaged from all the injuries he’d received over the years. And, obviously, he wasn’t very good at self-defense. That’s what the CIA chose to send after Terminator?

- How about locating the briefcase/cellphone in the trunk of the old car. Beckett keeps her back to the dark garage, again, knowing that Gage was still out there somewhere, while she opens the case. Guess what…yep, kidnapped again. This time she and Castle are locked inside a car trunk.

I’m not even going to mention all the hocus-pocus gadgetry used in the show. And don’t you just love how there’s always, always, always a camera in the exact spot where it’s needed to identify someone, or to locate a piece of evidence.

But Castle is an inspiration. He’s made me realize that for years we’ve been going about crime-solving in all the wrong ways. We should stop assigning cops to investigate murders, rapes, and robberies. Instead, we need to turn over those duties to the various chapters of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers.

Now those writer-folks really know how to solve a murder.