castle finale: 'Did I say that I need you, did I say that I want you? Oh, if I didn't, I'm a fool.'
I haven’t written an ep reaction in a long while, but since everyone and their dog is doing a Castle finale post, well, let me hop on the bandwagon. (caps courtesy of rawr_caps- I did the combining, tho, as you can prob tell by the amateurish blends, lol)
Mother and I watched Knockdown today. At the end of it, when Beckett talks about how she’s going to set her fanclub on Lockwood, I was like, ‘Wow, they like dark!Beckett, don’t they? Not that I think it’s bad, precisely, he’s a killer, she’s trying to solve a crime, but still…she’s the law and she’s arranging to get a guy beat up?’ And mother wondered, ‘Why doesn’t she tell him that whoever hired him will probably arrange to get him killed in prison so he can’t reveal his employer and he may as well tell her what she wants to know to save himself?’
I do wonder why the boss wasn’t worried. I know they only killed Raglan when he had a change of heart, but Lockwood goes to prison and nobody worries if he might be cutting a deal to save his own hide by giving up the head of the conspiracy?
(also in Knockdown, mother and I were very confused why Ryan and Esposito got kidnapped- it didn’t seem like they were getting anywhere with the case but suddenly the baddie grabs them ‘coz he’s worried? And whatever happened with the fingerprint they got off that nutty lady’s arm?)
Back to the finale! Here is a non-spoilery cap of epic prettiness, my fave from this whole ep:
* Castle seems rather overcome with emotion for something that should be commonplace and well-known to him. Ryan’s casual about ‘Beckett’s weekly pilgrimage’, it’s not a secret, so why Castle’s all of a sudden looking so stricken puzzles me. He’s around Beckett all the time, he has to know when she’s going to visit the guy so it’s not like the news blindsided him and made him wibbly without notice.
* Aww, I liked Beckett’s banter with the guard:
‘Special today is serial arsonist…perhaps I can interest you in an armed robber covered with arm tatts and protesting his innocence?’
‘You know, I think I’ll just take my usual, Kyle Lockwood’
‘Excellent choice, madame.’
I thought it was foreshadowing his death while Lockwood escapes, but I didn’t see him being the inside guy. Shame.
* Hmm. Why did Beckett visit Lockwood every week instead of McAllister? He seems more of a weak link than the trained psycho killer.
* Do you think Castle’s a bit taken-aback by Beckett’s positive attitude? He was trying to offer her sympathy and she’s all ‘this is exactly what I wanted’- a guy dying? Kinda cold, y/n?
I mean, from her pov, McAllister’s a dirty cop and involved in a conspiracy that revolves around her mom’s death, but still. I’m not saying she needs to mourn him, but it just seemed a bit callous.
* I don’t ship it, but these two are standing awfully close. JS.
* ’Whoever hired you can’t hide from me.’
OMG. *eyeroll* ILU, Beckett, but the melodrama is a bit OTT. I honestly don’t know what she’s trying to accomplish. Like with Knockdown when she throws the dude into the glass (and actually shatters the glass, wtf? Come on now), it bugs me when she lets people provoke her.
* I love the way they shot the break-out. The random slo-mo, the coloring, the sound fading in and out, the occasional static, it’s all very well-done.
* Okay, I don’t ship it (I SWEAR I DON'T, forget everything you know about me and my wrong wrong ships), but all the eye-contact between Beckett and Lockwood? Crazy tension there.
Like, he looks up through the narrow gap in the stairwell and locks eyes with her? Guh.
HE HAS SUCH PRETTY EYES, OKAY, I CAN’T HELP BEING MESMERIZED.
* Beckett firing at that helicopter was…pretty scary. She wasn’t even thinking of safety considerations. I was like, ‘OMG, WHAT IF IT BLOWS UP AND SHRAPNEL GOES EVERYWHERE AND INNOCENT PEOPLE GET SKEWERED? WHAT IF IT GOES OUT OF CONTROL AND PLUMMETS TO THE GROUND AND SQUISHES A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEDESTRIANS?’ She is damn lucky that didn’t happen.
And IDK anything about bullet trajectories and velocity, but what if her bullets hit someone in the building on the opposite side? JEEZ, WOMAN.
OUT OF CONTROL WILD WOMAN.
* When Esposito points out there was no mention of any third cop in any reports, Beckett says, ‘Just because he’s not mentioned in it doesn’t mean he wasn’t there’. Rather a different Beckett from the usual ‘when you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras’, the Beckett who shoots down all of Castle’s random theories when there’s no proof.
* Montgomery is totally broadcasting his guilt in this scene, but it’s so well-acted that it appears to merely be concern unless you know the whole story. Then it becomes clear he’s worried about how much they’re putting together and with what Lockwood might reveal, hence his ‘shoot to kill’ order.
* Why does Beckett lose her composure when they go check out the helicopters? She asks, ‘What if it was something else? What if there’s another reason?’ and then when Castle asks what she’s thinking, she walks ahead to hide her face from him and speaks in a strangled voice that shows that her emotions are getting the best of her, but IDK why.
* I feel bad for Castle in this ep. Both Jim Beckett and Montgomery put all the pressure on him, the burden of ensuring Beckett’s safety is placed squarely on his shoulders and it’s such a cop-out. They could try being strong and speaking to her but they serve Castle up as the sacrificial goat. Making him feel like it’s his doing whether she lives or dies is entirely unfair. >_< *pets him*
* I did laugh at the father’s line, ‘She cares about you, Rick. And unless you’re a lot dumber than you look, I know you care about her.’ But JFC, what is his deal? First he guilts the guy into believing it’s up to him to save Beckett or else bear the pain of ‘letting her die’, and then he calls him dumb-looking? Please. >:[
* Wow, the baddies are pretty desperate, I mean, paying Riker when they were only going to kill him? $50, 000 is a lot of money to waste like that.
* I’m still confused about a lot of things. Beckett says that the 3rd cop wasn’t the target, he was the one holding his leash. So does that mean that Montgomery arranged the bribe with Riker (and his death) and orchestrated Lockwood’s escape?! But that doesn’t make sense ‘coz I didn’t think he had contact with him til later on, so there was no collusion going on and I don’t see him endangering Beckett like that. So this was just a throwaway line, Beckett speculating wildly, is it meant to show her going off the rails ‘coz she’s not even trying to grasp at logic and she’s making the evidence lead where she wants it rather than going where it leads?
* Really really not liking Beckett’s attitude with the boys. They are doing all they can, and yelling at them and disparaging their efforts (which is what telling them to go over work they’ve already done is, implying they weren’t thorough or were slack when they did it) is way uncool.
* Though Ryan saying ‘we want him as bad as you’ was rather ill-advised. This guy’s involved with her mom’s murder, dude, yeah, not thinking you have as much passion to take him down.
* Montgomery offering advice on the 3rd cop is a little…uncomfortable, to say the least. But he talks about the 3rd cop having the resources to hire Koonan, etc. to ‘clean up his mess’- does that mean he did get his hands dirty with that? Because wow, I figured all he did was kidnap baddies, but if it went further than that, I’ve lost a lot of respect for him. UGH. Please tell me it isn’t so?
* LOL, Esposito bringing alcohol into the precinct. *squish*
* I do like when Castle’s specialized knowledge helps on a case. It’s not like he’s superior to the cops (not the way Mentalist portrays Jane, for instance, where even simple feats of reasoning elude the entire team because Jane is the only one allowed to crack a case), but that he has a different skill-set to them.
* I’m really, really creeped out by the way Montgomery’s acting all outraged and on their side as they reveal the cover-up he perpetrated to protect himself.
* The Beckett/Castle fight.
- we knew this ‘stop trying to solve your mom’s murder’ was never going to end well, right?
- what does Castle say at the end of this line, ‘I’ve been working with you for three years, I’m the guy that says “we can move that…”’ what? He spits it out too fast!
- ‘They’re going to kill you. Kate.’ So awkward. The writers make sure that Castle only uses her first name when things are ~srs bznss~ but that delivery was just so obvious it almost felt like Castleknows that he only uses her name when something’s a big deal and plunked it in for good measure to emphasize how important this was, even though it sounded really awkward.
- this reminds me of the Jane/Lisbon scene in the s1 finale, where Jane’s talking about his future demise in his pursuit to get Red John and Lisbon rants at him about considering ‘the people who care about you’. Only that scene was sweet and while Jane was a bit angsty, the shippy side of it went down well. Here, otoh, Beckett throws that back in his face but good.
- ‘What about you, Rick?’ / ‘I’m your partner, I’m your friend.’ / ‘Is that what we are?’ IDEK about this. She def wants him on the defensive, after that outrageous request/demand, but this is an interesting tactic. Instead of going the ‘what would you do if Alexis or Martha was killed?’ route, she challenges him on what their relationship is? Considering Castle’s been openly in love with her for how long now and tried confessing numerous times, it’s a bit odd to think that would faze him. If he was the obstacle to their romance, if she was trying to reach him and he was emotionally unavailable and fobbing her off, then I could understand this, ‘You push me away but now you want to act like you care about me? Well, which is it? What’s going on with us?’ That would make sense. But it’s the exact opposite! So I don’t get her motivations.
- Is she trying to hurt him? She knows he loves her, she wants him to be honest about why he’s so concerned and not use this ‘BFF’ nonsense, and she wants to rub it in or something? That seems cruel and not like her at all. But considering how antagonistic she’s being, that’s the only way I can view this- trying to use his feelings to hurt him. Ouch. If someone can make sense of this in a way that doesn’t make her look mean, let me know. ‘coz this is confusing the heck out of me.
I wonder if it's because she feels betrayed by him- Castle's been in her corner forever, she's gotten used to relying on him, secure in the knowledge that he'll always be there for her (he followed her to another state to help!) and all of a sudden, her world's turned upside down when the one guy she thinks she can count on for support is undermining her. So now she wants to make him feel wretched as well? *shrug* Beckett confuses me.
- I love Castle’s speechlessness at her snidely hostile behavior and the way he firms his lips decisively before stepping forward to meet her challenge. Like, ‘Oh, she wants to know what I feel, well, let’s clear the air. At least while there’s a chance that Josh won’t interrupt!’
- ‘It’s my life, not your personal jungle gym. For the past three years, I’ve been running around with the school’s funniest kid and it’s not enough.’ WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?
- kudos to Castle for putting it out there, the painful truths about the way she ‘crawled into her mother’s murder and didn’t come out’, how her life is based so much around it that without that ongoing search, she doesn’t know who she is, but again, ARGH with the unnecessary and very awkward and clunky ‘Kate’ thrown in there arbitrarily.
* LOL at Beckett’s confusion at Montgomery’s simple, ‘You want Castle gone, he’s gone’. Hehe. She never realized all this time that she wasn’t stuck with Castle, he was kept around ‘coz ‘I saw how good he was for you…you weren’t having any fun until he came along.’ On the one hand, I find that really sweet. Otoh, seriously, a dude in his position with his responsibility allowing a civilian to tag along, not for political purposes (which I bought, totally and completely, that seemed like the kind of thing higher-ups would enforce without consideration for the cops), but because he made Beckett laugh and have a good time…seriously? SERIOUSLY? On the third hand (shut up!), given his guilt over his role in her mom’s death (STILL FUZZY ON THIS, BTW), I guess it makes sense in a way, like he was trying to make up for it by doing what he could to make her life better?
* Oh, god, Montgomery’s goodbye to his family is so painful. ;_; The bright smile he puts on for his girls, the somber face with his wife as he tells her, ‘I love you’ and the way he almost calls out to her… *sniffle* That sassy ‘I know’ is too cute, but you know she’s going to wish she’d said she loved him back as the last words ever exchanged between them.
(when I was a child, I was paranoid that my mother would die in the night and I'd never get to say goodbye. For the longest time, I had to make sure that my last words to her were 'I love you'. To the point where she'd be like 'what's with you?' 'coz we'd've said goodnight/ILU and then she'd come in to remind me about laundry or something and then just as she was exiting, I'd remember my fear and be all panicky and 'I love you, momma!')
Btw, I'm getting Fringe vibes off this- similarities between Montgomery and alt!Broyles, y/y? *wibbles*
* Okay, look, a lot of people squeed over the Esposito/Ryan scene but I’m afraid I can’t. I can’t. Esposito bashing him for no good reason? Taking out his frustration by punching him and hurting him like that? NOT COOL, BRO.
I just rewatched it now and it’s not as bad as I remember- I was so upset the first time- because I think at the end, he didn’t kick Ryan as the guy was staggering away, from the sound, I think he kicked some bottles or other rubbish, so it’s a bit less vicious. BUT STILL. Violence is never the answer. I am seriously disappoint in you right now. *cuddles Ryan*
* ‘Who killed her?’ / ‘I don’t know how, but somehow he figured out what we had done.’
Okay, I was all set to groan at this tired old trope- y’know, where character x has vital info that character y desperately needs, but x keeps babbling on in general terms, ‘he this’, ‘he that’, without ever giving any names or any concrete details. (in Knockdown, I was particularly irritated at the lameness of the convo- talking about CERAMIC CUPS OF COFFEE, FFS. And Scrooge? Chains? WTF, man, you had a confession, spit it the hell out! Or at least write a letter with all the vital info and then ramble on after you’ve handed it over but before they’ve read it, jeez)
But then the saving grace, ‘Give me a name’ / ‘No, I give you a name, I know you, you’ll run straight at him, I might as well shoot you where you stand.’ IT MAKES SENSE. He’s trying to protect her, so he doesn’t divulge the name. So much better than all those times that guys will babble on about nonsense to kill time before they get shot or shanked or set on fire or whatever.
* I have serious issues with the way this played out, though.
- First of all, that Montgomery only called Castle, and that only to get Beckett out of the way.
- Second, that he called Castle to get Beckett out of the way. This scene was so OOC to me, that she crumpled and was crying and ineffectual and let Castle carry her out of harm’s way instead of raging and fighting and running back. I MEAN, COME ON. Castle’s great, but she’s a trained cop, like she couldn’t have fended him off and gotten free! Please!
- Third, how hard would it have been to let Beckett stay hidden in a corner and fire on the guys from the back? Or call in Ryan and Esposito for additional back-up? Even the odds? Montgomery must’ve been super confident he could take out all the guys, but if Lockwood had been smarter, he’d’ve shot Montgomery in the head, and then he couldn’t have taken Lockwood out. AND THEN BECKETT WOULD’VE BEEN SCREWED. As soon as she ran back in, BAM. All that for nothing.
- Fourth, Lockwood is clearly the biggest threat. Montgomery not shooting him first is bizarre, and makes him dying seem more contrived than it already did.
I know that, story-wise, he had to die, according to this mythology they’ve built up and incorporated him in. If he was involved in that conspiracy, the only way for his end to come was a heroic death to save Beckett’s life. This way, he doesn’t live with the guilt and shame, he’s not a rogue on the run, separated from his wife and daughters, they don’t have the horror of realizing what he was capable of, etc.
BUT I just wish the writers hadn’t gone down this path at all. I think it was completely unnecessary and such a slap in the face for the team in general (the boss they looked up to was a crook) and Beckett in particular (her mentor was involved with her mom’s death). His character’s been tarnished beyond repair and worse, it’s affected the way I view past eps.
Castle’s always ranked #1 for re-watchability. The main thing I look for in a show is whether it stands up to repeat viewings, and Castle’s always rocked at this. The humor, the pretty people, the banter and twisty cases, etc. Pretty much flawless. But now it’s like…okay, HP fans, it’s like when you found out Scabbers was Pettigrew. Now when you reread the first few books, it’s all kinds of gross to read about him being in Ron’s pocket, in his bed, just ew. Or Bones fans, you know that whole mind-frak with Zach? Yeah. It alters your view of the first few seasons, you can’t help but see the end for the character and it blots out their portrayal in those early eps where they’re all innocent and endearing and awesome.
Whenever I rewatch eps now, this betrayal is going to be all I see when I look at Montgomery, and his death. It sucks. Castle, I thought you were better than this, the whole 'let's kill off someone cool just for ~drama~ and ratings' schtick. *eyeroll*
* Oh, goooood. ‘I forgive you. I forgive you.’/ ‘This is my spot, Kate. This is where I stand.’ I was shedding tears at this point, ngl. The way he closed his eyes, just absorbing those words, but refusing to give in when he had to make it right, to be worthy of that forgiveness. *wibbles*
* But seriously, after Castle sets her down, she doesn’t have the strength to run back in there? Seriously? Is anyone else finding this utterly ridiculous? Beckett cries and breaks down AFTER the drama is over. After she shoots the guy holding Castle hostage, after she administers CPR long after there’s any chance of his recovery, only then does she get overcome with emotion. It just felt kinda cheesy and cheap to me here.
*Especially the part where she’s sobbing and Castle puts his hand over her mouth and she’s sliding down, I mean, ugh. Please explain.
* The MUSIC, though, my heart, I couldn’t bear it. So angsty and emotional and GUH.
* Lockwood didn’t get suspicious that Montgomery was all ‘you’re not gonna kill her’ with utter certainty? He didn’t make sure the guy wasn’t still holding a weapon on him? What a loser.
* BADASS MONTGOMERY FTW.
* Oh, awfully convenient that there’s been all this shooting, a few pauses in between, and it’s only after Montgomery shoots Lockwood that Beckett finally pulls herself together and runs in. And Castle lets her go. No hand stretched out after her, no panic that maybe a killer might be alive in there and waiting to get her? SO CONTRIVED.
* ‘No one, no one outside this immediate family needs to know about this.’ OMGSQUEE. Beckett calling them a family! *flails* :D
*My bb Ryan is crying. I KNOW, BB, I KNOW. ;_;
* Personally, I was crying throughout the whole funeral, tbh.
* Inappropriate, but I love seeing Beckett in uniform. Such a different character to her police officer in Spirit.
* ‘Captain Montgomery once told me there is no victory, there are only battles. And the best you can hope for is to find a place to make your stand. And if you’re very lucky, you find someone willing to stand with you.’ THE AWESOME QUOTE. THE MEANINGFUL LOOK AT CASTLE. *heart!splodes*
* Okay, I know I sound like a critical witch, but…the shooting? The reactions were awesome- Castle seeing it just before it happened, calling out to her (for the first time this ep, using her first name sounded natural and appropriate), tackling her too late, Lainie being horrified and Esposito holding her back (IS ANYONE LOOKING FOR THE SHOOTER? ALL THESE COPS AND NOBODY DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT?) but the bit that ruins it all for me?
‘Kate. Stay with me, Kate. Don’t leave me, please. Stay with me, okay? I love you. I love you, Kate.’
Okay, so FINALLY he gets it out without Josh cockblocking him, but OMFG, DUDE. You want her to live, you’re begging her to stay with you; now I only know rudimentary First Air (hey, I have a white card, btw, guys, I should be able to take care of wounds and such- LOL, in theory) but if I was that invested in someone living, I’d be ripping off my shirt or some handy material and applying pressure to the wound. AMIRITE? Keep her from bleeding to death? y/n? This is common sense.
But he’s holding her head and making heartfelt declarations instead of doing a bloody thing to help her! At least call an ambulance, dude!
Aside: I feel the same way toward the use of 'Kate' and 'Rick' here as I did with 'Dana' and 'Fox' in X-files. DNW. I like their last names, y'know, Kate and Rick feels like two other people. IDK. I'm weird that way. :P
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On a lighter note, remember my Alexis/Ryan crack!ship? I lol’d ‘coz just after I mentioned it, there was this cast pic that had shippy undertones. And then in an ep just after that, there was this exchange:
Castle: Listen, if I gave you a website, could you have your friends attack, hack and take some pictures down?
Ryan: Will I find naked pictures of you again?
Castle: No, not me. It´s Alexis… For Alexis.
Ryan: This just got awkward.
LOL, IDEK. Universe, you amaze me sometimes. :P
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Vidspam: Hmm, since this is a Castle post, let me post my one and only Castle fanvid.
Click to view