Friday, November 2, 2012

Castle 5x05: Probable Cause


There's been a murder. A woman arrives home to find that her roommate has been killed, had a weird symbol carved into her forehead, and been casually affixed to the ceiling with barbed wire. It's a tad grisly to say the least. There are no fingerprints at the crime scene, no signs of a struggle, or really any evidence of any kind other than the body. The woman's roommate mentions she had a boyfriend, but no one's ever seen him. At any rate, whoever killed her took his time and cleaned up after himself. He also drugged her so she wouldn't struggle, and wore gloves to keep from leaving anything behind. However, CSU finds some prints on the outside of the door frame, and they're a match to one Richard Castle.

The face of a killer.

At first, no one believes that he could possibly be the killer, and they just think he accidentally contaminated the crime scene. They even have another suspect: The dead woman's boss was seen at her apartment on the night of the murder. Then the bombshell drops. They find a single earring at the scene and trace it to an expensive jewelry store. The store sends over the surveillance tape from the date of the purchase, and a man who looks surprisingly like Castle was there. They search his house and find a blood-spattered shirt and a bag filled with barbed wire.

Things aren't looking good for our hero.

Castle gets locked up while the rest of the team searches for the real killer. But, the evidence keeps mounting. There are financial records, emails, and even a story outline about a man who commits the perfect murder. At the end of the day, Beckett goes home and cries on Lanie's shoulder, and Castle is left alone to stew in the lockup. And, that's where everything goes off the rails. While he's locked up, Castle gets a visit from Jerry Tyson, the notorious 3X Killer.

The face of an *actual* killer.

The last time he was on the show was two years ago when he left Castle and Ryan for dead and fled into the night. Now he's back, and he's pissed off that Castle foiled his plan to fake his death and get the police off his trail. So, he's been scheming and spying, and now he's finally going to get revenge. When the District Attorney files murder charges, Castle will be taken to central booking where Tyson has a couple goons waiting to kill him. Everyone believes Castle when he tells them what's happening, but Tyson has magically erased all video evidence of his arrival. And without evidence, there's no way to delay his transfer. Two cops show up to take him away, and that could be the end of Mr. Castle. But, moments later, two more cops show up to take him away. Castle knows a lot of guys, and he's managed to escape. Beckett tracks him down at the library, where he's figured out how Tyson made it look like he bought the jewelry: He used a lookalike.

Honestly, I don't see the resemblance.

The lookalike thought he was working on a reality show and that Tyson was the producer. The team follows the lead to an empty building in Northern Manhattan where they find all the evidence they need to clear Castle and implicate Tyson. It's all just a little too easy. On the way back to the station, Castle and Beckett are stopped by an opening lift bridge and their car is rammed from behind. Tyson is an angry man, and he's there to do some killing. He grabs Beckett and plans to kill her while Castle watches, but Castle gets her gun and shoots him until he falls off the bridge. Beckett thinks he's dead, but Castle believes Tyson set the whole thing up so he could fake his death. I'm guessing he'll be back in a year or two.

On the home front, Alexis is doing what all TV daughters do when they go off to college: Only visiting when she's out of food and clean clothes.

But he still loves her.

What I Liked
-While they're walking back from the morgue, Beckett is engrossed in a file, and Castle takes her hand and sticks a coffee cup in it so she won't have to look up. Subtle, but funny. Of course, they screw it up between shots as the cup goes from being grasped by the handle to sitting in her palm.
-Esposito busts on Ryan for knowing where a high-end piece of jewelry came from. I do so much enjoy when balls are busted. Not in a literal sense, of course.
-While he's hiding in the library, Castle wears a nondescript blue baseball cap. It's the most cliched disguise there is, and exactly the kind of thing he should wear when he's trying to go incognito. Although, I have to say that I've never seen one in real life.
-Fake Bono.

Fake Gaga and Fake Jack sold separately.

What I Hated
-Most of the plot. It fell into the implausible genius trap.

Final Thoughts
The first problem with shows that deal with characters who meticulously planned something out is that there just isn't enough time to show how the plan came together, and if you don't show that, the whole thing's basically magic. Tyson somehow managed to disable all the video cameras in the police station without leaving any evidence and make it so that no one would be within earshot of Castle. While not impossible, that's so improbable that it needs an explanation. Simply saying "I'm too smart for that" isn't enough.

The second problem is that these so-called meticulous plans frequently involve a lot of luck and incredible leaps in logic. The entire plan in this episode would've been ruined if Castle had made or received a phone call, or even used the internet when he was supposed to be committing the murder. Plus, it only worked at all because both Castle and the dead woman were alone for the weekend. It could've been years before something like that happened. Heck, the entire planned hinged on Castle and Beckett -both of whom have excellent aim- not shooting Tyson in the face when they had the chance. Meticulous plans by psychotic geniuses should be foolproof, not so easily foiled that months of work can go down the drain because someone decides to order a pizza.

I guess they have to add some drama every now and then, but I watch this show because it's the fun, goofy cop show, not for implausible plots to frame the main character. It's called "Castle" for goodness' sake. He was never in any danger of getting killed or going to prison.

No comments:

Post a Comment