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'Castle' - 'Boom!' Recap
by Kona Gallagher, posted Mar 30th 2010 1:45AM
(S01E18) As much as this episode veered into "bad buddy cop movie" territory several times, it was definitely a fun hour of television. In fact, after watching last week's episode, and now this, I could definitely see 'Castle' spawning a successful made-for-TV-movie franchise at some point. This storyline was a perfectly-contained movie, and it goes to further prove what the actual 'Heat Wave' novel showed us: these characters can thrive in stand-alone stories.
As Jane mentioned last week, Dana Delany is great as Agent Shaw, and I loved seeing her outside of her increasingly ridiculous role on 'Desperate Housewives,' although it was nice to see her and her 'DH' hubby, Nathan Fillion, reunited -- especially because I'm pretty sure it was more his role on that show, and less his cult status from 'Firefly' that got Fillion the 'Castle' gig in the first place.
I can't say it was a surprise that Beckett survived the explosion, but it would have been nice if the situation would have been taken a little bit more seriously. I love the barbs and Castle's general goofiness, but instead of Beckett and Castle acting out a scene from 'It Happened One Night,' it would have been nicer if we had seen something real.
It's great that Beckett is a tough cop and she keeps on going with the case after nearly getting blown to bits and losing everything she owns. But spending a moment or two on her just being completely rattled would have gone a long way. Having her be so calm, cool, and collected just struck me as false, and made me less invested in the storyline.
Also not completely surprising is the fact that the killer had been writing manuscripts detailing fictionalized versions of all of his crimes. What I did find surprising and immensely interesting about that is the fact that he had been doing it long before Nikki Heat came along. One of the very first episodes was about a killer obsessed with Castle's work, so it was nice to see this go in a slightly different direction. 'Heat Wave' was a trigger for this guy's madness, but it wasn't the cause. He'd been doing this for quite a long time.
While 'Castle' can be predictable at times, it is better than most procedurals at keeping me guessing when it comes to the crime of the week. They somehow manage to pack in the twists and turns without making it seem too gimmicky. With that said, I would have loved it if they had gone a little further with this: I'm glad they didn't kill Agent Shaw, because that actually would have been pretty predictable. What would have been great is if he had killed the entire FBI team.
When Beckett and Castle went into the other building to rescue Shaw without telling the FBI team what they suspected and what their plans were, it was highly reckless. Dunn believed that Kate was lying to him when she said that the team wasn't in the building any longer. Instead of playing around, he should have just said, "I don't believe you," and pressed the button. Now that would have been a boom.
We're not talking about Ryan and Esposito dying here -- they could have totally done that and maintained the same show, with one exception: Beckett's bad decision leading to that many law-enforcement deaths could have had a lasting effect on her character that carried on throughout the rest of the season, at least. Instead, we get another case, all tied up in a neat little bow. As fun as this was to watch, I can't get over the idea that it was a missed opportunity.
What do you think? Should they have gone further, or do you like the ending just the way it is?
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