Oh my. A nice twist ending on occasion is a good thing. Even better is two twist endings. That’s what we had this week from a very interesting case that started out in the most grisly of ways. I’m pretty immune to the blood and gore of crime-time TV — years of Japanese horror films has made blood and guts just another color on the story pallet for me. But a nail gun to the face? That gives me the wiggins.
The one thing I was sure of as the case got rolling was that Damian (Jason Wiles) didn’t kill his wife. It just seemed too obvious. And as the evidence mounted, that thought only increased. The fact that none of the evidence was actually damning carried a fair bit of weight as well. Despite that, I was still holding out hope that he did do it, because I liked where the possibility was heading as far as Castle and Beckett were concerned.
Still, hopes aside, I was on ex-husband Simon (Tom Irwin) right away. Those suspicions only increased when it was revealed that Damian wouldn’t get anything in a divorce. I wasn’t buying Simon’s story that he and Victoria were going to get back together. But I was on board with the idea that he had his eye on her money. I didn’t catch on to Amber (Alicia Coppola) until she appeared on Simon’s doorstep. That was a solid twist, but nothing compared with the one yet to come.
They sold the cold case murder very well when Castle told Detective Salazar (Efrain Figueroa) that Damian and Rutheford weren’t friends. It really felt like their final meeting was just Castle tying up loose ends. The big reveal that Castle had uncovered Damian’s plot to kill his father was a complete surprise. And a very welcome one. Nice case of the week all around.
And on top of all of the whodunit fun, this was a very interesting week for the Castle/Beckett interplay. All of those things that are so charming and interesting about Castle quickly became annoying (and a hindrance) once his blinders went up. Beckett was right that, “If it was anybody else…”, but it all came together beautifully when Beckett told Damian that she believes in Castle. There may be issues with how the romantic relationship of Castle and Beckett has been handled over the course of the series, but the friendship they share has been handled very well.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 16, 2011 @ 02:00 EST5EDT
See, I disagree.
Castle is the only procedural-with-two-leads-in-a-will-they-won’t-they-relationship that I still care an inkling about.
Fingers crossed they don’t blow it.
Bones was okay in season 3 too. It was the hallucination followed by back to square one that was the beginning of the end.
I also care- A LOT!
I thought this was a well-balanced episode. I didn’t know how the writer was going to keep it equal with both Castle and Beckett since they were on opposite sides but it was well handled. In the end, both lost and both won.
I also thought it was the ex-husband. And aside from Jason Wiles, he was the best known actor.
Bonus for the “Mom and Dad are fighting.” “Who’s winning?”
I haven’t disliked the Josh subplot as much as you have. I did hate the Gina plot because all it did was reinforce what we already knew about Castle, that if he can’t be with the one he loves, he loves the one he’s with. But I think this is where the Josh plot pays out because it enables us to see that Castle cares about Beckett and that Beckett is starting to be torn between the guy who is around and who she can trust (if not romantically), and the guy who is off saving the world. It also gives us a chance to see Beckett caring about Castle as a person who means something to her instead of just a horndog. I liked Beckett saying she believed in Castle and Castle believed in him. That’s the kind of trust that builds a solid relationship instead of a break-up/make-up one.
Did the idea for the nail gun come from Nathan Fillion’s vid PG Porn? (on youtube, I think)
On a side note, it seems that once again my name is too popular and I’m not longer distict (you should have seen how bad it was in Catholic school) so I’m going to have to make a modification to keep my identity.
— Kate K.