Castle: "Always"

[icepixie]

I think I am actually mad enough to spit nails right now. Anyone have a home improvement project they need a nail gun for? Because I am at your service.

Castle spills his secret with a little, "I was just trying to keep you saaaaaafe!" and Beckett is the one who comes to his door later and apologizes? SERIOUSLY? I couldn't enjoy the poorly-lit (this entire episode was poorly-lit) making out after that, I was so outraged. Just...really? Both of them should've apologized for acting like children and being unable to have a conversation this entire season, but Castle especially. Did he really on just now realize the pressure Beckett had been living under for a year because he didn't tell her she was safe as long as she didn't investigate the case?

Also, she really doesn't ever need to work for the police again after this. Stupid decision after stupid decision after stupid decision. Maybe Gates will do us all a favor and insist the resignation stays, so she and Esposito can open up a private investigation agency, with Castle as occasional investigative help and Ryan as their friend on the force. Because I would watch that show very happily. Next year...I will probably watch to see how they fuck up handle the ensuing Castle/Beckett relationship, but more endless Johanna Beckett conspiracy stuff does not excite me in the least.

The greatest tragedy of this episode: CRIMINAL UNDERUSE OF TAMOH PENIKETT. If you have Helo on your show, you should give him more than five lines!

Comments

[lydiabell]

I was mostly happy with the finale, but I'm pretty grossed out by the realization that this tendency of Castle to make decisions for people "for their own good" is never going to really be addressed. Now, maybe I'm wrong and 5x01 will feature a strong case for why he should have been up front with her, but I'm worried it'll be left at, "well, he did it for a good reason, so it's OK." No it isn't! She's a fucking adult! "It was wrong, but he did it because he couldn't bear losing her," I could live with. But ... I don't know, they did have Beckett yell at him about not treating her like a child, but I really feel like the show was on Castle's side in that argument. Like he was actually right, not just understandable.

Now, oddly, I'm not mad at Ryan for making the decision to go to Gates. Maybe I should be, because it was kind of the same thing -- he overrode Beckett's decision in order to keep her safe. But on the other hand, she is supposed to be a cop, and she was making terrible, terrible decisions from a professional standpoint.

The thing that kills me about all the stupid secret-keeping this year is that absolutely none of it was necessary to set up this payoff. Zero. It still wouldn't have been good even if it had been necessary, but at least I would understand why they made those writing choices. As it is, all the shit that made me mad about this season was pointless, because you could have had all the good stuff about this episode without it.

Edit: also, I have some hope that maybe they will wrap up the JB conspiracy, because now it seems that taking down the conspirators will be the only way for Beckett to be safe. Also, because once you've had your character decide that staying alive and being happy and in love mean more to her than her quest (which I am fine with, for the record -- if I were killed, that's what I'd want for my kid), you might as well take the quest off the narrative table, so to speak.

[icepixie]

I'm pretty grossed out by the realization that this tendency of Castle to make decisions for people "for their own good" is never going to really be addressed.

Yyyyyyep. Ugh.

I don't know, they did have Beckett yell at him about not treating her like a child, but I really feel like the show was on Castle's side in that argument. Like he was actually right, not just understandable.

I agree. It's the main reason (of many) that I hated this episode. This season, really. There never seemed to be any acknowledgement beyond the most superficial that Castle was doing something skeevy.

I agree about Ryan as well. I think it's a case of responding to actions (Beckett and Esposito going in without backup and really, truly going to get killed in the next thirty minutes) versus assumption of actions (Castle thinking, "Well, Beckett will just investigate harder, so I'll keep this from her to keep her safe," not allowing her to make any kind of decision about the issue). One is professional and adult, one is treating an adult like a child.

The thing that kills me about all the stupid secret-keeping this year is that absolutely none of it was necessary to set up this payoff.

THIS! This season was a waste of an entire year. We could've arrived at this point a year ago, because nothing changed in the intervening 365 days.

I would love to see them wrap up the JB conspiracy stuff, but I have no faith that they will. Alas.

[lydiabell]

I think it's a case of responding to actions (Beckett and Esposito going in without backup and really, truly going to get killed in the next thirty minutes) versus assumption of actions (Castle thinking, "Well, Beckett will just investigate harder, so I'll keep this from her to keep her safe," not allowing her to make any kind of decision about the issue).

That makes perfect sense. Yes. Like how Alexis was obviously going to lose her mind about her college acceptances, so it was best for him to keep them from her. AAAARGH. This is not OK. Castle has many fine qualities, but this is not one of them, and I want to see it addressed.

This season was a waste of an entire year. We could've arrived at this point a year ago, because nothing changed in the intervening 365 days.

I'd say midseason, because I think working the sniper case in "Kill Shot" actually made a difference to how Beckett was viewing the world (although they didn't do a great job of following through on it). She'd been working that case thinking, "If I can just find this guy, I'll be OK" and of course she wasn't, she still had to work on her PTSD. I thought there was an interesting parallel to how she keeps thinking that if she just solves her mother's case, she'll be healthy and whole, and how she came to the realization at the end of that ep with Dr. Burke that no, maybe she shouldn't be depending on solving that case and should work on being happy in her life no matter what happens with her mother's killer. So if they'd done that early in the season, and then had the events of this ep (in which, basically, she chooses life and happiness over obsession with her mother's case) at the end of November sweeps, and then started up in early January with the fallout from "Always," that would have totally worked for me. And drop all the secret bullshit because it's stupid and cliched and hurts both characters.

[icepixie]

I guess I could have lived with this coming after "Kill Shot," because I did like her PTSD in that episode, and thought it might get capitalized on. Sadly this was not the case. I also remember being annoyed that she didn't realize she was doing her job badly. I miss the Beckett who agreed with Jordan Shaw taking her off the bombing case in the S2 two-parter. Beckett spiraling into pig-headed incompetence is something I've never been a fan of.

Just...ugh. I so rarely want resets, but I would love this show to reset to S2, just with Castle and Beckett now together. There are so many fun stories they could tell about them adjusting to each other, and still keep the tone of the show light-hearted like it was in the beginning!