Um. What a terrible finale. Sorry... but this was just not good. I know that this was a version of the episode that they had prepared in case they got cancelled. I was expecting a fully rounded ending. Instead, we got what I assume was the originally planned cliffhanger, with an insultingly brief epilogue tagged on to the end to wrap things up with a pretty bow. I'm not happy.
Cons:
This didn't feel like a finale in any measurable way. It barely felt like the end to a season, much less the end of a show that's been airing for eight seasons. I've made no secret of my distaste for the LokSat plot, and the wrap-up was no better than the buildup. In short: Castle gets kidnapped by LokSat's right hand man, and is given a truth serum that forces him to give up the identities of everybody else who knows the truth about LokSat. Beckett and Castle had just revealed the truth to Ryan, Espo, Alexis, and Martha, which means that these four are in danger along with Beckett, Vikram, and Haley. Luckily, Ryan and Espo save Castle from dying, and Beckett realizes that LokSat was actually Mason Wood, the guy Castle had met in LA, who headed the Great Detective's Society. Beckett and Castle defeat him, and all seems well. But then at the last second Caleb Brown, who they all thought was dead, shows up and shoots them both. Beckett manages to kill him, and then she and Castle seemingly succumb to their wounds, holding hands. Flash forward to seven years later, and they're both fine, and they have three kids.
Okay... where to even start with this? The big shocking reveals in this episode were utterly lackluster and nonsensical. If Mason Wood had been a character that we'd seen in more than one other episode, maybe the reveal that he was LokSat would have packed more of a punch. As it was, this reveal was even more of a disappointment than the final reveal of Red John from The Mentalist. And then the Caleb Brown fake-out... there was no attempt to explain why Caleb wanted to come after them after having faked his death. Was he supposed to be the real LokSat? And if so, why risk his life to take out Castle and Beckett, when they thought that they had already defeated LokSat? It made no sense, and it was a cheap way to cause a panic in the last two minutes.
It seems pretty clear to me that the original intent was to end the episode with Castle and Beckett both getting shot and bleeding out on the floor. Next season would have opened up with Castle alive and Beckett sadly dead. The alternate ending should have been an actually restructured episode, with Castle and Beckett's final showdown with LokSat being more epic, and then a normal, happy ending with a cheesy epilogue could have been fine. Instead, we got the cliffhanger, and then a twenty second flash-forward. Literally. I mean, it was cute to see the little kids, and see that Castle and Beckett stayed together and stayed happy, but... what an insultingly brief glimpse into their future.
Honestly, the illogical and unexciting ending to the LokSat plot thread, and to the episode as a whole, is not even the most disappointing part of this finale to me. It's the utter lack of closure for the majority of our characters.
This episode had virtually no focus on Esposito, Ryan, Martha, Alexis, Haley, or Lanie. Vikram was actually the only secondary character to get a little arc in the episode. He said he wanted to quit once they caught LokSat, but then changed his mind, because he doesn't want to live a normal and boring life. Why does Vikram, of all people, get to have an emotional arc? Let's go through these characters and talk about how insulting their sendoffs really were.
Alexis. Is she still teaching that ESL class that we learned about earlier in the season? Is she planning on going to more school, or is she going to keep up the PI business with Haley? I don't know. No closure. No significant moment with her father, or her grandmother, or with Beckett, or even with Haley.
Haley. She was awkwardly introduced and shoved in to the narrative with very little success this season, but the one successful element of her inclusion, her relationship with Alexis, got no attention whatsoever this week.
Martha. She had just written a book. Was it successful? What's next for her? I guess we'll never know.
Lanie. Probably the most insulting treatment of a character in this finale. She basically got a freakin' cameo, and nothing more. She showed up towards the end to tell Beckett she's happy she's okay. Does she ever find somebody to be with? Obviously Javi wasn't right for her, and I'd be fine with her ending up single if not for the fact that she's expressed a desire for companionship. We leave her character in total stasis, with no forward motion, or fulfilled goals, or anything.
Finally, Ryan and Esposito. Does Espo go on to become sergeant when an opening comes up? Does Ryan ever pass the test and move up in his career as well? Does Javi find a girl to settle down with? Do they stay partners? God. I cannot believe these two didn't get more to do in the last episode ever. What a disappointing way to bow out. We didn't even get a hint of their bromance or really anything special in their relationship with each other, or even their relationships with Castle and Beckett. Did Ryan and Esposito even share any screen time with Castle in this whole episode when nobody was being shot at? If so, it was brief.
The flash-forward was insulting and pandering, but it would have been okay if we'd seen more than just Castle and Beckett and their kids. What about Beckett's career? Her character has always been about her work, and the nobility of it. Does she become a senator? Keep acting as a captain of the precinct? I cannot believe that this show ended and I don't even know what became of Kate Beckett's career. I guess this is better than killing her off, which would have been the ending if they'd been stupid enough to renew this show.
Oh, and another thing? In that flash-forward, Castle and Beckett were goofing off in their home with their kids, which is fine or whatever, but there was no hint of Alexis or Martha anywhere. I hate the weird absence of a relationship between Alexis and Beckett as portrayed over this past season. Beckett and Castle can have all the babies they want, but if Alexis isn't a part of that family dynamic... It just makes me sick.
Pros:
Really, there are only a few small things to say about this finale in the "pros" section.
Of all the secondary characters, I actually didn't mind Haley's role in events. Not for what we learned about her individually, but for the fact that she actually stepped up and was integral to the A-plot. It was rather sweet to see her loyalty to Castle play out. She protects him and Beckett in their quest to find LokSat, and later she takes on the sacred task of protecting Alexis and Martha for Castle. Castle says he doesn't trust anybody else with the job. I did like that element.
Espo and Ryan were tragically underutilized, but at least we got to see them be total bad-asses one last time. The scene where they rescued Castle from LokSat's right hand man was pretty awesome. Their loyalty to Castle and Beckett was implicit, even if it really should have gotten more attention.
Despite not getting enough attention on Beckett's career and future, I loved the moment when she talked about how Castle supported her and knew how important her job was to her. He understands the sacrifices she has to make. That felt like a good way to wrap up one of the emotional journeys of the whole show - Beckett used to take stupid risks in her quest for answers about her dead mother, and Castle used to try to stop her from putting herself in danger. Now, Beckett has other priorities, and Castle understands that her job is dangerous, and he has to respect her for who she is.
And, finally, there's the acting. This season's A-plot is not nearly good enough to stand on its own two legs. The plot holes and lackluster motivations of the villains meant that even when the actors were pulling out all the stops acting-wise, I would just sort of shrug. But in this finale, Nathan Fillion did make me feel a connection to the story for perhaps the very first time. When he was under the truth serum and was forced to give up all his loved ones, I got choked up. They built up the tension, too. First, he revealed that Haley knew about LokSat. Then Ryan and Espo. Then Martha. Then... Alexis. I appreciated that, even though it was just a small thing. Alexis should have been the most heartbreaking betrayal for Castle to make, even if it was unintentional.
Ugh. I hate that I hated this finale so much. I wasn't expecting it to feel so utterly underwhelming. This finale didn't make me angry in the way that the How I Met Your Mother finale did, because with Castle I stopped caring about these characters a while ago. I wish it weren't true, but this season I've been running on fumes. Only the loyalty of several years of good television kept me going until the end. I'm really glad it's over, even if the ending came a year too late.
This final episode, if you hadn't guessed, gets low marks from me.
4.5/10
I must end with a discussion of the show as a whole. Another way in which this finale wasn't as terrible as How I Met Your Mother is that the finale doesn't ruin the whole show for me. I can think back fondly to earlier seasons and plot lines and not find those plot lines tainted by the awful last season. In fact, if I cut out Season Eight altogether, the score for the show as a whole goes up. But I guess I have to include it, huh? Castle has always been a nice break from the more bleak procedural dramas out there. Its balance of humor and drama has, for the most part, been quite excellent. I appreciate the strong female characters, ranging from Beckett, a woman in the prime of her life and her career who learns to open up her heart, to Martha, an older woman who proves she still has a lot to offer, to Alexis, a girl and then a young woman just starting out on the journey of life. The relationship between Castle and Beckett was (discounting this last season) a well-portrayed TV relationship. I always admired how when they finally got together after seasons of will-they-won't-they, the show managed to maintain that fun, flirty dynamic between them. Ryan and Esposito have one of my favorite TV bromances, and that's saying a lot. This show has never been one of my all-time favorites, but I don't regret the time I spent with these characters. Looking back over eight years, I have a larger amount of fond memories than I do bad ones. As a whole, Castle gets...
7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!