Castle: Cool Boys – A Good Cop/Bad Cop Review
“We’re all killers, Castle, when push comes to shove.” ~ Detective Slaughter
This week’s episode cracked me up. Classic Castle, even with Kate Beckett out of town at a conference—which, of course, I’m sure Lee loved. I laughed aloud too many times to count, beginning when Martha cornered Rick at his PI office to give him advice. What a hoot! And the book she plans to write called Unsolicited Advice? Priceless, because Susan Sullivan, who plays Martha, actually tweets out unsolicited advice on Twitter. On the show, Martha imparts a little sage guidance to help him get “Katherine” back. Loved it.
Enter Ethan Slaughter, the risk-taking rogue cop Adam Baldwyn played so well in Headhunters (episode 4×21). He doesn’t disappoint this time either. He and Nathan were on Firefly together back in the day, and the two of them banter like pros. Kudos to the writers for the continuity between the two episodes and the clever lines they gave both actors. They kept me in stitches with their odd twists, like Slaughter having majored in musical theater. So funny.
I can’t really comment on the case, except to say that Rick stealing Ryan and Esposito’s car with Slaughter handcuffed in the back—and the two cops just letting them go without putting out a BOLO—was absolutely ridiculous. It worked for the storyline, however, even if that would never happen in the real world, and provided us with a lot more laughs.
I loved this episode, including the advice Slaughter gave Rick about going after Kate during Rick’s pensive moment at the end while peering into his wife’s empty office. He’s right. Rick needs to go after her and demand she come home. Thank goodness we’re at the point where that just might happen. Bring on the next two episodes! I can’t wait.
P.S. Don’t let the manipulated promo for next week’s show that ABC aired after this episode fool you. Rick and Kate are NOT getting a divorce (even though Lee wants Kate to go away). I wish the powers-that-be wouldn’t take scenes out of context and switch things around just to mess with our heads. We’ve endured enough angst, thank you very much. Sigh.
I agree with Melanie. This episode was a bit more like the Castle of days gone by—sprinkled with just the right amount of humor without letting the case get in the way. Although, the case itself was a bit far-fetched, it was handled in such a way that it sort of let us suspend reality for a few minutes. However, seeing Castle practically cowering and hiding behind mommy’s skirts and the legs of his daughter when Slaughter entered the scene was foolish. Someone really does need to decide whether or not Castle is a brave man or a total chicken. Having him switch back and forth between the two is irritating. And, I’m really not liking the path Castle has decided to travel—from lying to Ryan and Esposito to working alongside Hayley, a character who serves no purpose and is only a notch or two above the usefulness of Pi (remember him?).
Of course Lanie was Lanie. For the life of me I do not understand why the writers refuse to let this talented actor say something that makes sense. For example, the murder weapon that was so deeply embedded in the dead guy’s neck. “Looks like it was wiped clean,” Lanie said when asked about the possibility of finding fingerprints on it. How on earth would she know at a glance that someone had wiped away fingerprints? And, why would a police detective ask a medical examiner if prints were on the weapon? That’s a job for the crime scene investigators/techs/lab experts, or the detective himself. At least she didn’t give one of her dumb or dumber explanations as to how she arrived at the “between 10 and 2” time of death.
Melanie was also correct when she mentioned Castle stealing Espo’s police car. In real life they’d probably report it and send out an ATL (Attempt To Locate) or BOLO (Be On The Lookout), whichever the department uses in those situations.
The stolen police car thing also brings up another point. Why, if Esposito and Ryan truly wanted to speak with Slaughter, didn’t they have his supervisor simply call him in to the precinct? I know if I wanted to speak to one of our detectives I merely picked up the radio or cell phone and said something like, “Meet me at the PD in ten minutes.” Then, if Slaughter didn’t show after the call they could issue whatever paperwork was appropriate and have him located and picked up through a proper means, including issuing a BOLO. The same goes for Castle. Stealing a police vehicle with a murder suspect inside is a fairly serious offense. But this is TV and it worked for the show, so…
As usual, the murderer was easy to spot early on, so no surprise there. Neither were the scenes featuring Castle moping and all junior-high-boy-puppy-dog-eyed over Beckett. This stuff was old weeks ago. I say get over her and move on. Or, have Hayley face the camera to squirt some sort of deadly gas into our living rooms so we can all be put out of the misery inflicted upon us by this extremely stupid part of the story. The latter would serve two purposes. One, it would end the “Beckett left me” nonsense. Two, it would offer some explanation as to why Hayley is still involved in the show. W.H.Y. is she there? Can anyone explain this person’s role? Is it possible she’s there as an introduction to a character who’ll serve as Castle’s sidekick in a new show after this one totally fizzles out in a few weeks? We’ll see.
Oh, and someone please turn on the lights in future episodes. We can’t see what’s going on. But, maybe that’s a good thing. Perhaps we should also hit the mute button.
