May 18, 2014

Castle: For Better or Worse (6x23)

"If the promos are anything to go by, next week's finale will be a fun, lighthearted wedding episode." - A quote from last week's review.

Uh... so I guess I was mislead by the promos? Sort of? This episode did not do what I expected it to, at all. I'll do a plot summary before I discuss how I feel about all of this.

So, it's getting close to Castle and Beckett's wedding day. They go to get their marriage license signed, and discover that Beckett is already married! Years ago she went to a drive-through chapel with a guy named Rogan O'Leary, and it turns out that the marriage is still binding. While Alexis and Martha hold down the fort and keep the wedding plans in full swing, Beckett goes to chase down this Rogan guy to get him to sign divorce papers. When she finds him, he won't sign the papers until she steals his ex-girlfriend's garage door opener. Beckett does this, but before Rogan can sign the papers, he gets kidnapped!

Castle joins Beckett as they try to investigate what happened with Rogan. Eventually, they discover that Rogan had taken pictures off of a stripper's phone, which implicated some important men in compromising situations. Rogan needed the garage door opener to get to his ex's computer, where some of these pictures were. Castle and Beckett find Rogan, but they also discover that one of the pictures with the stripper is of a mob boss who has been in hiding for years - Rogan unwittingly pissed off a very important and dangerous man!

Rogan, Castle, and Beckett are all tied up, but just when it seems hopeless, Castle has an idea. He says the computer is at Rogan's place, and the mob guys go over there, with their prisoners in tow. Inside are the men that Rogan had paid to steal the stripper's cellphone, waiting for their money. Beckett tells them to take in the gangster and collect the reward as payment. After all of this is finally sorted out, Rogan signs the divorce papers.

Meanwhile, things keep going wrong with the wedding back home. They lose the venue, and then Beckett's dress gets ruined... however, it all works out as Beckett is able to wear her mother's dress., and they find a new place. Beckett eagerly awaits Castle's arrival so they can finally get married.

As Castle is driving to his wedding, he is run off the road by a mysterious car. Beckett receives a phone call and rushes out to the scene, to see Castle's car up in flames.

Uhh... complaints? Yes. Lots of complaints.

This entire episode seemed to fit exactly what I wanted. Castle and Beckett want to get married, and hijinks ensue. It's silly, it's over the top, it's exactly what the doctor ordered... and then at the end, Castle... dies? Or is presumed dead? What the hell kind of twist is that? See, what's bothering me about this is that they didn't need to pull this twist. We all would have been happy to see a sweet sappy wedding montage. After the years of waiting, we should have gotten a happy ending for these two characters. But instead, they're throwing in an inappropriate twist just to gather excitement for next season. It's beyond unnecessary. It's insulting.

Also, even though the whole "Beckett has a surprise husband" thing made for a lot of great jokes, it's still a little stupid. She worked for the FBI, for God's sake. Nobody ever did a basic background check on her and learned she was married? That's so unbelievable.

However, I do want to talk about the good stuff in here. If this episode had ended with a happy wedding, then I would have given it a thumbs up. Yeah, there were weak things here or there, and not every joke hit its mark, but it was satisfying most of the way through. Honestly, it's just the twist ending that's making this episode a hard one to love.

I liked the stuff with Alexis and Martha planning the wedding. It was really sweet to see Alexis getting so involved. It's her way of welcoming Beckett into the family.

Also, I liked the joke of everyone calling Rogan Beckett's husband over and over again. She was getting so sick of it, but I appreciated the way Castle was able to see the humor of the situation, instead of getting all angry.

Even as everything about their wedding fell apart around them, Beckett and Castle continued to go strong as a couple. One of my favorite things about these two is that there haven't been any useless detours in their relationship since they got engaged. They love each other, they trust each other, and they want to be together for the rest of their lives. I loved what Castle said about their love story, and the way these obstacles are what make them so strong. Very sweet.

I think I'm going to stop there... I was very disappointed in the twist at the end of this episode. It felt contrived and stupid and insulting to the viewers. However, before that final moment, I was enjoying myself quite a bit!

6.5/10

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