Source: castlecaskett.com

Title Clear and Present Danger

Two-Sentence Summary The murder of a pool shark and former MIT student by an unseen force leads Castle to theorize that the killer is the Invisible Man. As the team works to solve the case, Ryan tries to hide his second job as a bouncer at a male strip club and Castle and Beckett try to get romantic.

Favorite Lines
Castle: And you thought Zombie Apocalypse Survival Camp was a waste of time…What?
Beckett: You just kind of make nerdy sexy.
Castle: That’s true.

My Thoughts As much as it pains me to do this (because this was such a great episode), I’m afraid this will be a rather short review. Duty calls at the job that pays the bills, so I’m going to quickly share with you the three most important things I took away from “Clear and Present Danger.” I’ll hopefully be able to expound on these in more depth later tonight and into tomorrow as I respond to your comments, so please share all of your thoughts with me and feel free to discuss amongst yourselves this thoroughly entertaining episode.

1. This episode was smooth. “Clear and Present Danger” was a great transition episode from the darker and more mythology-heavy first two episodes of this season into the usual tone most Castle fans know and love. I know the new mystery of Castle’s disappearance is a divisive one (I happen to love it), but I think it’s safe to say that this episode did a nice job of reminding us that this new mythology exists but also allowing life to go on for us as viewers and for the characters, too. Castle’s disappearance was brought up in a surprising but realistic way (with the focus on how that disappearance has impacted their intimacy), which was a nice way to still include this new layer while opening the door for a little more lighthearted fun than the previous episodes allowed for.

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Source: http://www.tvfanatic.com

Title Montreal

Two-Sentence Summary As Castle and Beckett attempt to return to a normal life after his disappearance, they investigate the murder of a toy company CEO who went undercover to prove his toys were being used to smuggle drugs. However, things are still far from normal for Castle, who is given some disturbing new clues about his disappearance and memory loss.

Favorite Line “It’s Canada. How risky could it be? And need I remind you, I’m a grown man. I don’t need to ask your permission. That being said—please?” (Castle)

My Thoughts After last week’s question-filled season premiere, I was concerned that Castle would want to take the focus off show’s newest overarching mystery and instead return to its typical procedural format, with just a few mentions here and there of what had happened before the inevitable sweeps week episode that pushes it to the forefront again. Thankfully, “Montreal” proved that my worries were unfounded, at least for this week. There was none of the tonal whiplash that Castle can sometimes have after “important” episodes, and I think a lot of that came from the way this show directly addressed the concept of being unable to return to normalcy after the events of “Driven.”

Was I particularly interested in the case of the week? No, but I don’t think I was supposed to be. This could become a problem if a divide between Castle and his mystery and Beckett and her job continues, but, for this episode at least, the case worked more as a symbol of normalcy than an actual case. It allowed for moments where Castle could be his playful self (the Big moment on the piano), and it allowed Castle a chance to offer his theories again after everyone voiced that they missed them. But it ultimately was a case that felt much less important than the larger mystery surrounding Castle, and it was supposed to. It represented a life that Castle wanted to embrace without hesitation before discovering that the questions about what happened to him won’t let him simply focus on trying to have a normal life. In the same way, we as viewers can’t just focus on the “normal” cases while we know there’s still a more important mystery out there.

It’s even harder to focus on anything but the mystery surrounding Castle’s lost two months when it’s allowing the actors to do such great work. Last week was Stana Katic’s turn to shine, and she had plenty of wonderful moments in “Montreal,” too. But this episode belonged to Nathan Fillion. When he’s given good dramatic material to work with, he tugs at my heartstrings like no other actor on television.

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Title Veritas

Two-Sentence Summary When Beckett is framed for the murder of Vulcan Simmons, she knows the final showdown with Senator Bracken is looming. With her career and her life on the line, she finds assistance in her quest to finally bring Bracken to justice from two unlikely sources: her mother and Captain Montgomery.

Favorite Line “It’s over.” (Beckett)

My Thoughts It’s over. With two simple words, the world of Castle changed forever. For months now, I’ve been writing about how I wanted to see the end of the Bracken storyline and the culmination of the Johanna Beckett arc this season. It felt like it was time; it would give Beckett closure before marrying Castle; and the combination of that arc ending and the wedding would lead the show into a new era. I wanted it, but I don’t think I even knew how much I wanted it until I watched it happen last night. And the crazy thing is, as I watched Beckett put the man who murdered her mother in handcuffs, I wasn’t thinking about how good this was for the plot or for the show in general. I was thinking of how good this was for Kate Beckett. I wanted this moment for her. And what a moment it was.

I often write about how much I like emotional moments and character development that feel earned. It certainly doesn’t get more earned than this moment. For over six seasons, we watched Kate Beckett continue to come to terms with her mother’s murder. We saw what that murder did to her; we saw the damage firsthand. We were shown rather than just told about how it affected her to such a degree that it consumed her. We went down the rabbit hole with her every time she battled the pain of first not knowing who the killer was and then knowing but not being able to bring him to justice. We saw the scars her mother’s death left behind, and then we saw the new scars that formed as Beckett herself almost died because of that same man. We saw her battle PTSD because of this; we saw her work every day to overcome the demons brought on by both her mother’s death and her shooting. For six years, we were in the emotional trenches right alongside this character, so when the moment finally came for her to arrest the man who caused her so much pain, we completely understood how much this meant to this character.

I’m sure “Veritas” was an episode that could be enjoyed by casual Castle fans, but, really, this was an episode for the diehards. This was for those of us who first fell in love with Kate Beckett when she told Castle why she wore her mother’s ring and her father’s watch. This was for those of us who cried with her when she had to shoot Dick Coonan and lose another lead in her mom’s case. This was for those of us who sat with open mouths and broken hearts after she was shot. And this was for those of us who cried again when she finally decided that her own life and her own happiness was worth more than vengeance.

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Title Law and Boarder

Two-Sentence Summary The murder of an extreme sports athlete leads Castle and Beckett to a cold case and a cover-up concerning the death of a young boy. As the investigation goes on, Ryan and Esposito fight over who should be Castle’s best man, and Castle and Beckett squabble over her beating him in Scrabble.

Favorite Lines
Beckett: I think catching killers is pretty extreme. And then there’s marrying you.
Castle: Ah yes, I admit I am extreme—extremely handsome.
Beckett: With a high degree of difficulty.

My Thoughts This was another fun, relatively light episode of Castle, following a pattern this show seems to have of calms before the storm that occurs around each season’s finale. While this episode’s case wasn’t terribly interesting, it continued some important thematic trends leading to what looks like another showdown with Bracken next week. And for the first time in a while, I found myself thoroughly entertained by this episode’s wedding subplot, mainly because it incorporated more characters than just Castle and Beckett.

Let’s start with this episode’s case to get the most boring part out of the way. Sometimes Castle hits unique cases like this one out of the park, but this one fell flat for me. Maybe it’s because I don’t care about extreme sports, or maybe it’s because I called who the killer would be the first time we saw him. (He just seemed too smug, and the killer is usually introduced early on—but never as the first suspect.) There seemed to be too many twists for me to wrap my head around: jealous competitors, the Albanian mob, and the brutal death of a child. Part of me is relieved that the end of the season is upon us because that means the cases will actually carry meaning again. This case seemed like one that’s reached for when you’re running out of ideas, but maybe I’m just not that into skateboards and motocross.

The good thing about the case, however, was the way it built on the parallels that have been accumulating this season and even further back about Beckett and Bracken. This was another case that ultimately ended up being about an old murder and a desire for justice. I still feel like this showdown between Beckett and Bracken will be their last (No spoilers in the comments if you know any other details, please!), and the way this murder was ultimately unraveled did nothing to deter me from that line of thinking.

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