Castle Season 8 Episode 3 is a difficult one to watch because it’s trying hard to be something it isn’t: Castle Season 2, 3 or 4. The entire point of the Castle Season 8 two-part premiere was to facilitate this reset, and while there are moments that reminds viewers of the show’s golden past, that’s the problem. It reminds us that writer Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Captain Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) moved beyond this point three seasons ago. It doesn’t help that the reason we are being put in this position is completely illogical. (Not sure what I’m talking about? See my review of Castle Season 8 Episode 2, “XX”). Again, this is a Castle “PhDead” review. I’m not going to make you go through all of that again by doing a straight recap.
The Setup
Of course, some of you may be reading this review because you didn’t get past the episode’s first five minutes and want to see if it’s worth bothering to see the rest. This season, the new showrunners Alexi Hawley and Terance Paul Winter seem to be all about viewers seeing the actual murder enacted. Not that it didn’t happen before, but it wasn’t the norm for Castle. The murder in Castle “XY”was cold and graphic. This one is just stupid. Really? Someone is able to take a run towards the victim (while holding a flashlight no less) and hit him with such force that he was impaled onto the conveniently sharpened broken tree branch sticking out of the trunk? The laws of physics say no go! (Especially when we find out the killer is this little whip of a college girl!)
However, badly planned murders are the least of the episode’s worries. The real issue is this whole Castle and Beckett reset story. Castle wakes up in his empty bedroom looking dejected, wanders out into the living room, and lights up like a kid at Christmas because of a package sitting on the table. What’s got him all excited is a “home operating system” named Lucy. This ruse manages to bring to mind the brilliant Spike Jonze film Her. I’m sure it’s the intention, as one aspect of that film is that Theo (Joaquin Phoenix) can’t understand why his marriage fell apart and why he and his wife keep unintentionally hurting each other.
Unfortunately the name “Lucy” also brings up the inane movie Lucy. Both films featured Scarlett Johansson, which goes to show you that a good actress can’t fix a bad script. Although the idea of this “home operating system” may have been to evoke some of the good vibes felt about the Jonze movie, the ridiculous plot moves that brought us to this point, and that will continue on in “PhDead,” definitely are more reminiscent of Lucy. Plus, it’s hard to take Castle’s heartbreak very seriously when the sight of a new toy makes him all aglow. Some would say he should be more angry than heartbroken to begin with, but that’s because they are trying to apply logic to a story that has none.
The next scene is the one that where many viewers gave up and turned the channel. (I swear that at the end of it I heard at least a half million TVs being clicked over to NBC’s Blindspot. ) Beckett is in the gym beating up a heavy bag being held by Vikram Singh (Sunkrish Bala) – that AG analyst whom started all this mess (well, he’s the character in the story responsible). Yes, Beckett looks tough and awesome; she’s all hot and sweaty, and then, in a response to “can’t she hit any harder than that,” lands a kick to the bag so hard that it knocks Vikram over. Woo. Hoo. Then comes the bombshell. She helps him up and they walk over to her locker. Normally, I wouldn’t put anyone through this kind of trauma again, but a picture’s worth a thousand words and you don’t want to read that much about this:
Here is a perfect example of what I said earlier: Good acting can not save bad writing. I’ll even give Bala a pass on his performance here, because, really, how could anyone say the things he has to say with any conviction? Katic is hitting all the right emotional tones – but the things she’s saying ring false – because for the character we’ve watched over the last seven seasons they are false. All the choices she’s making – her willingness to go do this on her own and “blowing up her marriage to get justice for Rachel” – are from the Beckett we knew in Seasons 3 and 4. We also have seen her evolve way beyond this. In terms of the Beckett’s character arc, it makes no sense. It’s merely a forced-upon-her plot that Hawley and Winter have used to take a sledgehammer to the show.
Then there’s the other plot point that is just one continuous Jedi mind trick. Beckett keeps talking about leaving Rick as a way to “keep him safe.” The last episode kept saying it, and the faulty logic continues. How on earth does leaving Rick alone in their apartment with no clue about what’s happening keep him safe? The last episode showed everyone just how well that worked out. The killers hunted him down, kidnapped him, and tried to torture him to get information on Beckett. Beckett came to recuse him. So, now, because she’s left him, does she think these killers are going to think she no longer cares about him, just like that? Does she think they won’t try to use him as leverage against her? It’s creating the same situation as before: Castle won’t be on guard because he doesn’t know what’s going on. I don’t know if it’s worse that they’re making Beckett this dumb or that they think the audience is.
The showrunners aren’t shy about saying they’ve dumped this plot on the show, as opposed to creating something that grows out of the story that’s been building steadily over the years. This is what Hawley said to The Hollywood Reporter
“The reality is they’ve really been together since season five. The wedding was last season, but as a couple they’ve been together and happy for several seasons now. For us we thought, ‘Let’s throw an obstacle in their way.’ (…) Happily married is awesome, but it’s also not a value add in terms of dynamics. So we really came into it going, ‘What can we do to make this thing feel new again?’ “
New?! Did he really say this would make it feel new? Yes. If there’s one thing a reset does not do, it’s that.
I could get into and spend a lot of time discussing all the different ways being happily married has its own “value add” in creating interesting dynamics and “obstacles,” but I want to stick with reviewing this episode. The one comment I will say is that when your idea of an interesting dynamic involves fraternity parties, you will likely have a problem understanding that marriage has challenges far more intriguing than beer pong.
What’s Wrong With These Pictures?
There were a number of things throughout the episode that were troublesome beyond the root issue of the entire situation feeling like it’s built on false pretenses. Let’s take a quick look at those areas.
Caskett:
Here’s another Hawley quote about the Castle and Beckett breakup, this time from Us Magazine
“We’re using this to actually put the spark back in, and the stakes back in, which give us the fun and the juice… Obviously there’s some heartbreak in it as well, but it makes it much more emotionally impactful every week, because there are stakes now.”
Alexis Castle:
- Castle using his daughter as guy bait – a guy that could be a possible killer at that – was so far away from the loving responsible parent he used to be! Alexis is not trained in “undercover work” and has no real experience in it. And yet, here we are.
- Detectives Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Javier Esposito (Jon Huertas) have no problem with Castle bringing Alexis with him to investigate a crime scene. Never mind that they aren’t even supposed to be working with Castle, but then they don’t even blink that Alexis is there. Seriously?
- They continue to try and make Alexis more like Beckett. The references Alexis makes about S&M have a sexually teasing vibe similar to the one Beckett has, in particular it reminded me of the Season 2 episode, “The Mistress Always Spanks Twice.” The problem is Alexis is talking to her father!
- Overall, the Alexis and Castle pairing continues to feel icky. There’s no getting away from the fact that Castle’s partner in crime-solving was the woman he wanted to sleep with and eventually married. Every time they link Alexis and Castle together this way that undertone of sexuality is there. Blowing bubbles with cigar-shaped bubble wands doesn’t change it.
More Spoon-feeding of Plot Devices:
Beckett: What? Do you think I’m gonna be stuck at the office just because I’m captain?
Being that it’s been the role of the 12 precinct captain to be “stuck at the office” and not out in the field for the last seven seasons, it’s a reasonable assumption for them to make – as it is for viewers. Doing so would be sticking to the rules of the Castle universe. It’s those rules that make it hard to believe that Beckett would ever want the job in the first place. However, this season the writers couldn’t care less. It was far easier to change the job description the title has demonstrated for seven seasons than to think creatively about a position that would be a legitimate promotion and a fit for the character.
Chad Gomez Creasey is the writer of this episode and tweeted this last night as “PhDead” aired on the west coast.
See?! Don’t expect to see Beckett behind that captain’s desk often. #Castle
– Chad Gomez Creasey (@chadgcreasey) October 6, 2015
Yes, we see alright. Being that Creasy isn’t the showrunner, the choice to toss out the show’s history can’t be blamed on him, but this attitude that’s displayed about causally breaking continuity for plot reasons is yet another example about how little respect is held for the show and its characters’ history.
Another example of spoon-feeding happens when Beckett gets a chance to speak to her best friend, medical examiner Lanie Parish (Tamala Jones). This happens because Esposito prompts Lanie to go talk to Beckett as she’s leaving the crime scene. Now, why Lanie would even need this prompt to go check in on the best friend that didn’t call her back the night before is part of another issue, but let’s finish up with this one first.
Lanie: Girl, please, Castle is a grown-a** man and he knows that you love him very much. I’m sure he’s okay.
How does Castle know Beckett loves him very much? She just walked out on their marriage to “take some space.” This little Lanie and Beckett moment is about trying to tell the audience it’s all going to be fine. Lanie doesn’t even know why Beckett has left – no one does. Normally, Lanie would be asking questions, but again, that wouldn’t be convenient to this concocted plot the showrunners have going on.
Peter Pan and the Lost Boys:
There are a few things about this case that were troublesome to me, and it took me a bit to be able to isolate what it was. There’s an undercurrent of misogyny going on that I honestly can’t ever remember seeing on Castle before. It seems like all of the female characters are shone in either a sexual, crazy, or pathetic light, even when they’re strong and in positions of power.
- We’ve got this older dean of the university sleeping with a young student which gets him his scholarship. This is a situation that if reversed would be calling the victim a slut and gold-digger and the dean a “dirty old man.” What we get is nothing about the victim, and that the dean is this pathetic and desperate woman leaving lipstick messages on the guy’s mirror.
- Then we’ve got the professor who is running a secret study for the Army based on the Stanford Prison Experiment. Now that experiment had nothing to do with what our professor’s study was doing. She’s supposedly working on “extracting secrets from unwilling subjects” – again, not on her own, but for the U.S. military (which doesn’t say much about the U.S. military, but that’s a common Castle theme). Castle gets to swagger around and talk down to this woman and put her in handcuffs without any actual evidence. Even Beckett says that if Castle says the woman is a suspect, there must be something to it. There’s nothing to it. She has nothing to do with the murder; she just provides information.
- The actual killer is this small young college student who didn’t get a scholarship because it went to the victim. Due to the situation of the experiment, after she helps him escape, she “snaps” and, defying all laws of physics, impales him on a tree branch.
- Beckett has walked out on Castle and is now “obsessed” with getting justice for Rachel and the team, even more so than she was for getting justice for her mother! Remember, she made that deal with Bracken to stay away from the case in order to protect herself, Castle, and all the people she cared about. She had her priorities straight. It’s not until Bracken slips up and an opportunity presents itself that she and Castle together work on bringing him down. Not this time.
- I’ve already mentioned sexy Alexis being used by her dad.
Meanwhile, the initial suspect who the victim turned in for hazing is a wise-cracking, ‘cool’ guy who makes fun of Ryan and Esposito’s attempt to turn their 40 -something selves into young college students. Later, we find out that the hazing guy actually made “amends” to the victim by getting him an apartment to “do some studying,” so there’s this “see, he’s not so bad” attitude about the guy whose hazing antics got a pledge sent to the hospital. (Did I mention that this entire case makes little sense?) With Alexis playing Wendy to Castle’s Peter Pan, what this episode needed to balance it was a Captain Hook, not a Captain Beckett.
The Wrap Up
After watching Castle Season 8 Episode 3 I felt…numb. Were there occassional moments that made me smile? Yes, but they would be immediately followed by the reality of the storyline. I’d realize that I was smiling because the bit reminded me of something from the early seasons, not because of what was actually happening in the current situation.
Despite reading all of the various interviews about their reasoning for splitting up Castle and Beckett, seeing this reset put into action made it painfully real. It left me with the hollow sense that there’s only thing that’s going to fix this show. Castle wakes up at the end of an episode and hears Beckett in the shower just like the infamous scene from the 1978 season of Dallas. You know the one: Pam Ewing wakes up and finds out that the death of her husband, Bobby, which was the focus of that entire season, was all just a bad dream. For Castle, it would be that Beckett never left.
For more news and reviews about Castle Season 8 and other shows you can follow me on Twitter.
[Photo credit: Mitch Haaseth/ABC]
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If you hate it so much…why do you continue to watch and review? May I add–review horribly! Like MANY others, I will stay with this show till the wheels fall off!
Rude, and totally wrong. A REAL fan can (ad MANY are) terribly disappointed in this turn of events. And the review is very good at what she does. If YOU don’t like it, don’t read her stuff. Sheesh.
She’s reviewing it because it’s her job. I don’t think she hates it, she’s just analyzing the storyline with logic, something the writers should be doing.
And the wheels fell off back in the season 6 finale.
So you are an expert at reviews , well write one. Joy does a great job, just cause you dont agree with her, it is no reason to be ignorant, and may I add horribly so. I have been with the show since 1×01, and I feel the same way right now that Joy, and a LOT of other fans do. So please try to be a bit more respectful.
Ya it felt off we had to deal with will they won’t they for many seasons and the were only just married there’s plenty of stuff you can write for a couple and that boxing seem felt strange like it felt like messing up her marriage was no big deal
Actually, I thought the writers were using the boxing as a sign of her trying to burn off anger – and sexual tension – because she’s not with Castle. ;) That’s partly what made having Mr. Analyst their so disturbing for me. I didn’t like that he got to witness her like that. Then we find out that he’s her new partner and I really got angry. It’s stupid that she’s trusting this guy so completely.
Ah I am happy to have found your reviews Joy and as always–very good. I can not believe we have yet another reset and another set of show runners asking us to be patient and trust them. Well I can not do either anymore.
These writers are adults (I assume) and most of us know you can never go back. So why are they? To bring the spark back? Uh well had they not interrupted Caskett every chance they got we might have been able to see a fun, sexy and feisty married couple who also worked cases together.
After 8-2 I simply can not tolerate the very selfish, I am woman hear me roar KB. In just a few minutes the writers have made KB a hated character and Castle a sad pathetic man trying to win his wife back! Geez–just typing it out makes my skin crawl.
You all mentioned his anger and coldness and he was and he said–“I have seen this before”. Sorry–right now I wish he would get really angry and put a clock on her or cut her loose and get a dog.
What is even worse is KB saying 8-3–“I hope I have not hurt him to much”. Seriously? What would she expect from a man who is her husband and loves her to be? Happy?
In one of the many interviews these show runners have done they have said this is at least a 3rd of the season if not all.
Before some snarky commenter tells me to stop watching–after 8-3 I have deleted it from my DVR. I simply can not do this yet again.
But I will continue to read your writings Joy…..
Exactly!
Thanks for the review and especially the parts about Alexis and selling out her character for cheap jokes. I would also add that even though his wife suddenly left him without any obvious reason, the writers felt it good that Alexis doesn’t have a word about it – as if it were absolutely normal. I’m sad that any relationship between Alexis and Beckett is considered as non-existent and non-important by the writers.
Ahhh, I agree with you 110%! Thank-you for putting it so eloquently! I am SO disappointed in this season…I have been a CRAZY, Castle fangirl for years, but this has me ready to leave…in fact, I’m not watching it this season after the breakup, only reading recaps and reviews… I’ll come back when AH and TPW get their heads out of their bums and put Caskett back together where they belong.
Joy, I agree with your review 100 %, it was painful to watch 8×02, and now this crap passing for Castle is just awful. You are right, what is missing is they took the heart out of the show , for no good reason. Lots of us watched it for the love story, not the crimes, not just NF or SK, but both of them together as RC and KB. Being in the same scene, but not being together, doesnt count. This is old ground that wont grow anything new. Thanks for the review. I am sad, but glad I am not the only one who is hating this “reboot” .
Have to say that was a pretty brutal review. While I wish I were a Castle writer myself so I could serve up all the things the fans have hoped and wished to see over the course of this show, I am willing to see this Season out in full. WHY? Because I have a history with the show and love it’s cast. The new showrunners fell into the unfortunate distain of Castle viewers are completely still feeling the remnants of the 6X23 episode that Marlowe wrote. That started all of this. I really do see the route that Terrance and Alexi are trying to go. I want to see where Caskett is at by the Winter break…8×08???? The newer scripts can be changed if this turns out to be more of a disaster than was thought. My main issue is that the writers at this point know exactly what the fans want to see. Just give it to them already. Don’t make the storylines so complicated with this disappearance and that disappearance. Go back to less case and more personal interactions that these new Showrunners actually said they would do. I have always watched Castle because it is so darn entertaining and whether I like things or not, I will continue to do so.
This is as bad as than 6×23 – and very much it’s own thing. Marlowe left them a perfect setup with 7×23 – one with many possible avenues. Sure, senator wasn’t my favorite, but they also gave the captain out and the questioning of if she were pregnant. We go to see a strong Castle and Beckett partnership in a way we haven’t before – with her helping him with his past. He left a good set up.
To be fair though, it feels like the issues that created 6×23 are likely the same ones that have led to this current mess. To me it certainly feels like the Moonlighting downward spiral – where the strange writing choices were later explained to be because of BTS drama. Only time will time. :)
I have seen the episode while forwarding it mostly. It was terrible and I agree with everything you say, which happens less, I always have something of mine to say, lol
You know, except the Alexis part, which would be bad any time, this episode could have been an awesome episode if they would have been together but Beckett would be kind of cutting off a bit again. I mean, if Beckett would have been doing her investigation, telling Castle about investigation, but not what she’s doing and them rather being down in relationship, not separated. I mean, the Beckett smiling part when she went to that party where Castle was drinking, jail part, Castle trying to come into the investigation part, everything really. But separation does the opposite and makes it awful
Wow, Harvey! I totally agree with you! (And we know how rarely that happens! :D) If the storyline had in 8×1 and 8×2 had ended up with Castle and Beckett trying to make it look like a breakup for the sake of the investigation this could have been (minus the Alexis stuff) a fun episode.
Castle had to end eventually. I just feel sorry for the cast who have to get a year older and pass on some potential pilots and scripts that could have been good for them. Maybe it will benefit Alexis but the rest are in their prime (even you Martha!) and could have gone out on a better note than this is leaving. I bailed after episode 2 and went to Blindspot (not bad, worth the change).
I agree. The illogical changes are good for Molly Quinn’s career but not so much for the others. I’ve switched over to Blindspot too.
Excellent review. A very disappointing turn of events for this show.
Excellent review of the episode and the season. If it wasn’t for those few times that Fillion and Katic work together it would be a total loss and I’d be watching Whitechaple live on PBS. Castle, the show, is going to die from the sadness of the audience who knows what might have been. Keep up the good work.
I expect that the fan backlash factor will show up in the viewership numbers quickly after the next few ‘fun’ episodes. If the separation lasts beyond the extended hiatus and into the February sweeps period, Castle and Beckett will have been separated for a longer period of time than they have actually been married which is pretty ridiculous. The story that seems to be unfolding is the strangest TV marriage in recent memory. Hawley’s comment “What can we do to make this thing feel new again? “ doesn’t justify what has been presented so far to viewers, but it is definitely a new approach . In 8×3, viewers discover that none of the precinct team members know why Kate walked out on her marriage besides “to take some space”. While Beckett knows that Castle is hurt by her actions, she refuses to talk about it. I doubt that fans will have much patience with this story line given what has been forthcoming from the upcoming promos. After three episodes, viewers still have not seen Beckett working from her new office which would exemplify her promotion.I suspect that before the fall hiatus, we will find out that both Castle and Beckett have secrets with each other (rather than one-sided secrets as they are now).