Last season we left Castle telling Beckett about the insight his doctor friend had found into her mother’s murder, and several others that occurred around the same time. This episode opened with Castle down at the police department for a photo shoot–complete with sexy “cops”–with Cosmo while Beckett is interviewed for the article the magazine is running about him and his “contributions” to the cases he’s worked with Beckett. She clearly doesn’t want him there, but the police chief wants all the good press he can get for the department, so he insists she play nice. His indulgence of the press extends to letting the journalist ride along with Beckett and her team, including Castle for just this one more case, on the next homicide to come in. It’s a man in a tree who had been strangled and thrown off a building. And on the ride to the morgue, to which Beckett quickly dispatches Castle and the reporter, the coroner-wagon is hijacked and the body stolen.
When the body turns up again with half the organs missing, the evidence points to the victim having been a drug mule. The dealers cut a deal to tell what they know, because they didn’t kill him. The trail eventually leads to a Russian mafia loan shark and poker circle in Chinatown. Castle goes in as a “rich boy looking for a thrill” to see if he can get a photo of the Russian, only to discover an entire table of them. Instead of sticking to the plan, which was get in and get out, he sits down at the table and starts explaining the plot of his “next” novel, hoping one of them will give himself away. Beckett has to go inside to extract him, pretending to be the girlfriend of one of the Russians. After the culprit is arrested, she sends Castle on his way again with another sharp lecture for interfering in her life.
Is this the end of Castle and Beckett? It appears that way as he begins to write, conceding with a melancholy expression that “it’s time.” A timely complaint from his daughter about her sort-of-boyfriend Owen inspires Castle to do the one simple thing he hadn’t thought to already: apologize. Beckett lets him get almost to the door before she tells him to come back the next day. Castle gives us a little smile and walks on out.
Well, they certainly didn’t skimp on the action this episode. This investigation seemed a little more straightforward police leg-work than many of them have been (last season, remember, went through two phases, one of successive suspicions about the same group of people, and one about unconnected motives from several different people). I don’t know if they’re trying to mix things up still, or if the show is trying to be more like a “typical” homicide investigation show.
I felt like this episode was more self-conscious than last season—it made a lot of pop culture references, including one to CSI: “shouldn’t you be listening to music right now?” Castle asks the lab tech trying to lift a print from the inside of a glove, only to have background music start a few seconds later. I don’t necessarily mind this, as I still feel this show has almost farcical elements in it. But it seemed to be another piece of added studio slickness. So did Beckett’s longer hair. She looks prettier with it longer, but I think the shorter cut suits her character better.
This episode convinced me that Beckett’s two under-detectives (I still don’t even know their names, and this is season 2—that’s how cardboard they are) are pretty much the Ambiguously Gay Duo of NYPD. I mean, they are always together; the one who obviously spends too much time working out is always wearing tight muscle shirts, while the smaller one likes snappy suits; they are way too interested in Beckett’s love life, and they are clearly rooting for the handsome, smooth-talking, witty, well-dressing guy over all other contenders. If this show was going to expand into a true ensemble, the beginning of the second season seems a logical time to make that leap, so obviously it’s going to remain the Nathan Fillion show.
Castle’s continuing recklessness with the poker table stunt has me maintaining my earlier prediction, that whenever the show finally ends they’re going to do it by letting him put himself in so much danger that even the mayor can’t see the wisdom in letting him continue to ride along on investigations.
The one part of this episode that I’m not sure what to make of is the very last scene, with Castle’s little smile after Beckett tells him “see you tomorrow.” I can’t figure out if Castle was telling Beckett what he thought she wanted to hear with his apology, or if he was as sincere as he sounded. Basically, was Nathan Fillion trying to smile and ended up smirking by accident, or was the smirk intentional, to say that he just played her? I would like to think he really meant his regret, but his character also has been built up to have self-reflection only when he’s not getting his way, so it’s hard to be sure.
So the second season of Castle didn’t come roaring out of the gates with any clear improvements over the charmingly imperfect first season, but it didn’t suffer any drop in quality or any obvious growing pains, either. As for me, I’m just happy to have Nathan Fillion back on my TV every Monday and pleased that the rest of it will continue to be at least vaguely entertaining.
I think the acting is the strongest part of the show. Nathan Fillion especially, and Stana Katic are really great. The downfall of the show is the writing. To date, no crime has been particularly compelling. Hopefully the story with Beckett’s mother will be a step in the right direction. Full review of the episode on my blog.
My take on the last scene: I think Castle, who often breezes through life, realized that being true and honest and not flippant, actually wins over people.
I’ve written about the season premiere on my blog and will continue to do so throughout the season.
And I’ll be checking here every week, too.
1337 – I agree that the acting quality is higher than the writing. Nathan Fillion proves over and over that he can carry a show on his shoulders–he is 90% of the reason I watch this show. Beckett has grown on me. I also think the episodes are uneven in terms of how funny they are vs. how painful the humor attempts are. Some of the crimes have been interesting, but when the main focus of the show is the characters of Castle and Beckett and not the crimes, the crimes by necessity get sidelined.
Scott – I like your take. That is what I would LIKE to think he meant, it’s just that to me smile registered as being a bit self-satisfied. Which may not have been the intent at all and simply a trick of the light. But I hope you’re right and that was a moment of clarity for him.
Thanks for stopping by, and I look forward to getting your take next week–I’m glad to have another fan of the show to talk about it with!