Castle 3x22 Review

[iaria]

Knockout

I really enjoyed this finale. There is no way that Beckett is going to die of course but I love hurt/comfort so I am really looking forward to next season and how the show goes forward. (Booth’s shooting on Bones in season three was better done but this show wouldn’t have to work hard to give a better follow up. I’m hoping for something massively better.) Kate dealing with Montgomery’s death and her own injury is going to leave open a lot of need for hurt/comfort with Castle.

• I’m especially excited because the feelings between Castle and Beckett have now moved into the open. There was their tense confrontation in her apartment where they finally brought up the tension between them (even if it wasn’t resolved), Castle and to a lesser extent Kate being forced to confront themselves about how they felt about the other (Kate when Montgomery said he’d get rid of Castle, Castle – basically the whole episode), and of course the end where Castle finally confesses to an injured Kate that he’s in love with her. I loved that moment. I loved her little smile when she fell unconscious. I’ve read that TPTB are actually well aware of how dragging out UST can backfire, specially that they realise the Bones UST situation is not one to emulate, and so I’m really hoping that next season won’t have their relationship backslide. And it’s giving me hope that we might actually get to see start a relationship next season.

• Montgomery being the third cop was completely unexpected but I think it was actually really well done and believable. I was so happy that he didn’t commit suicide which is what I was afraid of when he loaded his gun but which would have felt very wrong. I liked that while he may have been a ‘bad guy’ in the past his actions and motivations in everything he did were understandable.

His love and respect for Beckett were true and while he betrayed her in his silence those feelings were never in doubt. They had Beckett doubt it for a moment but I never doubted for a second that he wouldn’t do what he could to protect her. He made a series of serious mistakes when younger but he was eaten up with guilt and regret and then he devoted his life to being a better person and to helping others.

I feel like the reveal about him being the third cop and how it played out was respectful of him as a character and that made me really happy. He wasn’t a favourite and if I had to chose a character to die he would have been it but I did like him, I loved his relationship with Beckett and his people and I am just so glad that the show didn’t... throw him under the bus and/or make everything about Beckett. This was also his episode.

It didn’t showcase only his faults but instead what was wonderful about him and while the episode revealed his betrayal it wasn’t about the betrayal and how horrible that made him. I’m not explaining it well but I just really adored how they dealt with Montgomery as the third cop. I’m happy he got to go out a hero and that the main gang kept the truth a secret between themselves (how they’ll pull that off I have no idea)

• The scene in the hanger where Beckett pleads with Montgomery and desperately tells him that she forgives him was one of the most moving moments ever on this show. Oh, Kate. I am very glad that Montgomery got to hear that from her, to know that he was forgiven by the person from whom it mattered most and that she loved him, before he died. I hate so much when people die thinking someone hated them when they really loved them.

• The scene in the hanger where Beckett pleads with Montgomery and desperately tells him that she forgives him was one of the most moving moments ever on this show. Oh, Kate. I am very glad that Montgomery got to hear that from her, to know that he was forgiven by the person from whom it mattered most and that she loved him, before he died. I hate so much when people die thinking someone hated them when they really loved them.

• I didn't like Castle dragging a crying/screaming Beckett out of the warehouse because I just don't buy that Castle could force Beckett to go where she didn't want to. There was no way that that could have happened without Beckett allowing it.

• Why didn’t Montgomery have Beckett hiding in the shadows as back-up? He didn’t actually have to die. I mean I did love that scene and how it played out but if Beckett had been laying in wait in the office or elsewhere in the hanger, or if she’d run back before the final shots he could have very well survived. I wonder if he wasn’t committing suicide after all? If he had survived that night how would have things have played out? I doubt the truth could have been kept quiet (I still doubt that Beckett et al can pull it off) so he would have been kicked off the force at the very least in disgrace, possibly charged with something. I wonder if it wasn’t suicide exactly but a chosen death with the knowledge that it was the only way to protect his family? I mean if he survived would the mysterious person in charge continued to target his family? He clearly loved them very much, clearly loved Beckett and I don’t think he would have killed himself just to avoid the truth coming out.

• I loved the courtroom scene, and just afterward. I loved Kate noticing something wrong, that she pushed Castle down and covered him with her body, that even with her hearing wonky she ran out of the courtroom and then there is this little moment that I loved – Kate stumbles out of the courtroom and falls to the floor, she looks over to see another woman cowering on the floor and yells “where” and the woman tells her that they went for the stairs and Beckett staggers up and goes after them.

• I think a better argument Castle could have used against Kate wasn’t her loved ones grief if she died but rather the fact that by pursuing her investigation she was putting the people she cared about at risk.

• Alexis and Martha being at Montgomery’s funeral felt weird to me because in three seasons of the show I can’t actually bring to mind any scenes between them. So they kind of felt... shoved in. Them being there to support Castle and Beckett is probably the reason but it’s not one I particularly like. I can fanwank in a story – that the main characters really had become a tight knit family like we occasional saw including Montgomery, that Martha and Alexis had met his family and they had known each other socially, and been friends – but I wish I had seen that on the show.