Castle: Linchpin (S4.16)

February 21, 2012

My God, but that conclusion made absolute zero sense. I was right about Gage not truly being a bad guy but that didn’t help make the conclusion any more enjoyable. It was designed to do nothing more than shock with twists – however illogical – with absolutely no regard to the reality of the characters (well, as real as the fictional reality of Castle is). In fact, the entire episode played out disturbing similar to a typically bad episode of one of the most hokey and overrated TV shows of the last decade, 24. They even got the “GASP! There’s a mole in the CIA!” cliché in.

Because the writers had clearly planned for it to be Sofia all along, they had the dilemma of making her extremely likeable for the majority of the two parter and then having to turn her quickly. Unfortunately, with the majority of the time spent making her both likeable and a foil for Beckett, they had absolutely no seeds planted for a believable turn and delivering the line in Russia about  the USA not really being her country was absolutely awful. Making things worse was that Beckett and Castle didn’t save themselves, but had to rely on the deux ex machina of Sofia’s set up partner who up until then was nothing but Mr. Exposition saving them at the last moment. That was awful convenient. May as well have just named him Jack Bauer.

On top of everything else, they completely blew off the effects of seeing this woman who Rick once loved killed right before him after revealing she’s a traitor. Aside from the forlorn look Nathan brought to it, there was nothing to even hint how it must’ve torn him up inside. Making it worse was that whole speech at the end about how the character he based upon her was really more like Beckett. Huh?

I really and truly cannot comprehend the complete waste of Sofia’s character. This had a great potential for recurring and her turn as the true villain was hokey and completely unbelieveable, though it was partly because of the great job Jennifer Beals did as Sofia. I was actually rooting for her and Castle to get it on again when she showed up on his couch.

In fact, she was the only thing I enjoyed about the episode. The scene where she gives Castle and Beckett shit and then shows up in Castle’s apartment were fantastic. I really believed there was a long complicated history between them and she had fantastic chemistry with Nathan, to the point where I was thinking I would love to see the prequel show with them in it. I also have to say that Jennifer Beals looked unbelieveably stunning. No way you would guess that she is 50 watching these episodes. She just oozed sex appeal.

Truly, truly awful stuff with the exception of a great performance by Beals as Sofia. Ah well. At least we’re going back to the fun episodes next week. 

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There’s also a lot of positive standard Net recaps of this conclusion. I don’t get it at all. I do think the little bit Sophia dropped about Rick’s father possibly being CIA was an interesting little nugget, however.

I am sensing the same problem with Castle that I caught on to with the X-Files – they clearly have no idea where their main conspiracy storyline is headed and are writing as they go instead of completely mapping them out beforehand. Therefore, they have to throw other stuff in to keep the series going and Rick’s father plotline (an obvious mirror for Beckett’s mother plotline) is “the other stuff.” As with the X-Files, it’s always the one-off episodes that are more entertaining because they’re free of baggage. Like you, it won’t stop me from watching but definitely makes me a bit wary.

The other thing I find surprising that they don’t capitalize on enough is that Castle is a celebrity and that brings certain perks and abilities with it that could be entertaining if used properly in the series. And I don’t mean a book signing scene where Beckett shows up in a super hot dress, either. I mean a long overdue episode set at a comic convention or a mystery writers convention where a fellow mystery writer is murdered and the only others suspects are mystery writers.