Castle 3.15 “The Final Nail” Review

Oh, my goodness, there’s so much to talk about regarding last night’s ‘The Final Nail’that I don’t even know where to start.

I’ll be the first to admit that I wasn’t expecting this episode to be this brilliant. It’s a general rule in most shows, I believe, to have those so called ‘filler’episodes in which their sole function is to build a bridge to a really explosive episode. Since we had ‘Knockdown’just a couple of weeks ago and the highly anticipated two-parter is scheduled to air next week, I figured that ‘The Final Nail’would be a somewhat light or non-substantial episode, intended to fill the gap until ‘Setup’.

Boy, was I wrong! Because what we witnessed last night had nothing light about it. It was an intense — and tense — hour in which we dove head first into Castle’s past for the first time in three seasons.

Finally.

We all know Nathan Fillion is a brilliant actor. Those of you who have seen his work in Firefly know firsthand just how brilliant he can be when given a chance. I love Castle to death, but I always felt that, most of the time, Richard Castle was being portrayed as a two-dimensional character and that Nathan’s talent wasn’t being used to its full potential with the material they were giving him. Sure, we have an occasional powerful episode, but those really intense and emotional scenes were given to Stana Katic. Just to be clear, I am not complaining here at all. You all know how much of a fangirl I can be when it comes to Stana’s performance. But it just felt like things weren’t exactly fair when it came to good, powerful material on Castle.

That changed last night. Because we finally got a glimpse at Castle’s past and it just confirmed what we already knew: the character of Richard Castle is more complex than we all thought and that tiny glimpse just made me even more curious to know just what he was like before he became a bestselling novelist.

This week’s case dealt with the murder of a woman, who happened to be Castle’s old school friend’s wife. Castle obviously defended his friend fiercely, which caused his biggest fight with Beckett yet. Damian Westlake (played by Jason Wiles) had been a sort of mentor for Castle when he was in boarding school as a teenager. Castle revealed to Beckett that he went away to study when he was 14 and he felt incredibly homesick and lonely then. He started writing and Damien was the one who encouraged him to pursue a career and was the first one to tell him he had a real talent. If it hadn’t been for Damian, Castle wouldn’t be who he is now. That was a really emotional scene and it was great to see Castle’s vulnerable side. Kudos to Nathan on that one because he made me tear up a bit.

This storyline was very reminiscent of an earlier plot when Beckett’s old mentor betrayed her in 3.03 ‘Under the Gun’. This time we got to see a complete role reversal and Beckett was absolutely sure that Damian was guilty. They butted heads throughout the episode, but the one thing we got from this whole debacle was how deep their connection and trust goes. As much as Kate was convinced that Castle’s friend was the murderer, you could tell that it was killing her to see her partner suffer through this. During the scene that she confronts Damian when he was released after he alibied out, she flat out tells him that she believes he is a cold-blooded killer. However, Castle believes in him and she believes in her partner, so she wants to believe Damian. That right there showed that her trust in Castle goes beyond simple friendship and partnership.

Now, the only thing I wasn’t too fond of was how the case was resolved. The ex-husband’s girlfriend? Seriously? She appeared for all of five seconds in the beginning of the episode and I had a hard time remembering who she was. It would have been much more believable if Damien had actually been the killer or had hired someone to do his dirty work. The only payoff was that they discovered he was guilty of his father’s murder twenty years back, so he wasn’t the perfect hero Castle made him out to be.

The last few scenes — when he tells Damian that they found out about what he had done to inherit his father’s fortune and the one where he watches his friend being arrested and taken away by the police — were heartbreaking. It was great to see that Kate was there for him and was willing to comfort him and be his friend. I doubt anything even remotely close to this — their trust, friendship and mutual comfort — could have happened a year ago.

‘The Final Nail’was an emotional rollercoaster for Castle and this was the first time in a while that it wasn’t about their romantic relationship — or lack there of.

It was all about friendship and I think that’s exactly what’s going to pave the way for their romantic relationship to happen. To be honest, I want them to get together as much as any shipper, but I am not in a hurry anymore. The Powers That Be are doing a remarkable job of keeping things interesting while Castle and Beckett keep dancing around each other. As long as they keep things progressing like this, I am totally cool with it.

Other things worth mentioning:

• Esposito’s ‘Mom and dad are fighting’was downright hilarious.
• Martha’s insights were, as always, spot on.
• I absolutely loved that we got more Alexis time and especially that she teamed up with her dad to help him solve Damien’s dad’s murder.
• Beckett accidentally speaking with the suspect’s accent.
• Castle and Beckett’s synch during that scene by the elevator. I am sure thousands of shippers turned into a puddle of goo after that moment.
• Beckett’s support of Castle after they worked out their differences.
• Beckett taking Castle out for a drink after his friend was arrested.

I know there are probably a lot that I forgot to comment about, so please, feel free to point it out to me. All in all, ‘The Final Nail’was a pretty solid episode.

A-