Castle: The Human Factor and Watershed

E: You may have noticed that we skipped last week’s penultimate episode of Castle, season 4.  Sorry about that, folks!  But because last week’s episode kicked into a gear the whole “where is this relationship headed” dilemma set in motion by The Squab and the Quail, I figure it’d be a good idea to must a little chatter about that in with our normal sized recap (and potentially king-sized grumbling fit) of this week’s season finale.

M: It may be without C, however, as she is dealing with the end of the school year craziness. And my big sis neglected to mention that we missed the episode before that as well, but we have a legit excuse for that one… because the episode centered around a bomb threat, they didn’t air it here in Boston. Because, you know, we’re not “strong” enough to watch a TV show involving a bomb.

E: Idiots.  But hey, at least it was just a clip show.  They probably did us a favor.

M: But I digress, let’s get back to Castle and Beckett.

E: Sigh.  I guess.  I hate it when shows pull this kind of crap.

Castle Review: “The Lives of Others”

C: Episode 5×19, “The Lives of Others”, might not have had anything to do with the remarkable German film of the same name, but it was — to put it mildly — inspired by the movies. To be specific, Hitchcock movies.

E: To be more specific, one of my favorite movies ever — Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the Jimmy Stewart/Grace Kelly masterpiece about a photo-journalist laid up with a leg in a cast, who becomes a little too entranced with lives of his neighbors.

M: His neighbor Raymond “Perry Mason” Burr, no less. And where Hitchcock is one of my all time favorites, I was ecstatic at what they chose for the show’s 100th episode. Let’s get to it!

Castle Review: “The Wild Rover”

M: A big episode for Wonder Twin #2, aka Ryan, aka some other Irish name that I keep wanting to call Finnick Odair.

E: Oh, because it’s very similar, actually.

M: Exactly. Okay, it was Fenton O’Connell. No, I couldn’t remember that, and yes, I had to search about 15 web sites before finding even one that mentioned it. It was only a pivotal part of the episode, why the heck would other recappers mention that?

Castle Review: “Hunt”

C: No. No-no-no-no-no. You cannot do this to me. No! No no no! That’s Robin Scherbatsky, summing up my reaction to this episode. Guys… did Castle just jump the shark?

E: Er, no?  I will agree, though, it was a very disappointing conclusion to last week’s rather thrilling kidnapping episode.

M: As you guys know, I was out of town last week, and not only missed doing the recap with you guys, but didn’t see any TV. So I watched the two back to back, and while it was a disappointing second half, I didn’t think it was as bad as C is making it out to seem. It was HORRIBLY predictable, though.

Castle Review: “Target”

C: If you read us often, you’ll probably be expecting exclamations of horror at yet another serious episode – and Alexis Endangerment of all things. Yet somehow, I’m not horrified. In fact, it was a pretty well-written episode.

E: You’ll be more surprised to hear I’m not horrified either.  Maybe it’s because they don’t overplay the Alexis Endangerment card.  Maybe because I just don’t have any damn idea what’s going on.

C: Ha! Fair enough. It was a pretty confusing plotline.

E: Not necessarily in a bad way.  We just – have very few clues to go on, so far. To start the episode, we watch a young guy stand in an alley, facing down a charging van.  He shoots, emptying round after round into the van, which keeps coming.  He doesn’t turn away.  He loses the game of chicken.