‘Castle’ Review: “What Lies Beneath”
Devika Syal ’18 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
Copy Edited by: Brooke Hoppe ‘17
Johnson had been posing as Jimmy “Two Guns” to sneak into City Hall and get financial information, apparently sent by his priest — a blind man who turns out to be not so blind — who mismanaged some money and needs things to be fixed. Along the way, Johnson discovers major embezzlement and wants to expose Deputy Chief Stephen Reed (Ryan Devlin) who appears to be responsible for Johnson’s death. So Ryan and Espo, team up with Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Alexis Castle (Molly Quinn) create an elaborate set up in the church to catch Reed. And guess what? Reed wasn’t the murderer.
The storyline may have lacked, but the characters made up for it. There are pros and cons that come with Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) being Captain. Con: We don’t see her as much on the field since her work takes place in an office. Pro: Ryan and Espo have had more screen time in the past four episodes than they have in a long time.
There was one moment of comedy that was completely overlooked in the show but was absolutely hilarious. At one point in the episode Castle awkwardly hugs Espo, and it’s revealed later that he was using the hug to plant a tracking chip on Espo’s jacket collar. When Espo finds out, he throws the chip somewhere into the distance only for Castle to say, “You know I can find that, right?” As far as comedy goes, this one-liner was subtle and was pushed aside so that the actual dialogue could continue, but the genuine delivery of the line made it worthy of pausing the episode for a few seconds to laugh about it.
This brings us to the best part of the episode. Towards the beginning, Martha Rodgers (Susan Sullivan) visits Beckett at the precinct and lets Beckett know that no matter what she’s going through, Castle will always be by her side. Instead of being the angry mother-in-law, Martha gave Beckett the one thing she needed right now: a hug.
Next week’s episode promises to be a strange one, with more attention being directed towards the Caskett storyline, hopefully leading to a quick reconciliation.
You can watch Castle, Mondays, 10/9c, on ABC.
Episode Grade: B
Good review. This new secondary plot of finding Bracken’s drug partner is terrible. It insults the intelligence of the audience. The show runners have missed what the viewers wanted from the early seasons. The want witty banter between Castle and Beckett, not slapstick from Fillion. They wanted two fine actors working together on the set not some faux intimacy over the phone or using Skype. The work suffers.
I hate the Bracken story. Kill it and let it be dead. Who cares? Does anyone care? They made that a long drawn out story and she got him. Why do this? Why do writers think they can wring more out of these storylines. Get some new ones! I did enjoy this episode anyway, even though your review is spot on. Dumb ending and so quick too. Lazy writing.
Pathetic!