Castle 6x04: Number One Fan

A woman wakes up in her apartment with her boyfriend dead on the floor and the cops at the door. She bails out the window and takes hostages at a local dentist's office.

She asks specifically for Castle to come down to negotiate because she's a big fan of his work and wants him to clear her name.

Beckett's there, so she gets to help, too.

Although the guys don't appreciate being ordered around by someone who's not their boss anymore.

Turns out the lady is crazy and has killed before, so Castle's in trouble.

And the hostages are getting antsy.

But Castle still believes she's innocent.

And has an epiphany after he's accidentally shot: He knows who the real killer is.

This lawyer bribed a clerk to unseal some court records.

Because this, rich, powerful dude is the woman's father, who put her up for adoption when she was born.

The lawyer is also his son-in-law, and didn't want the woman coming after his wife's inheritance, so he framed her.

After the lawyer confesses, the rich guy convinces the Commish to rehire Beckett, and everyone is happy.

What I Liked
-Sully points out that Castle should be happy he didn't get hobbled.

He's a funny guy, that Sully. I hope they kill him last.

-A meaty chunk falls from Sully's desk and Castle thinks it was once a bagel. Hee-hee.
-Esposito and Ryan give Sully the stink eye for laughing at Castle's bad jokes. He still has a lot to learn.

What I Hated
-Beckett doesn't know what to do with herself since she says she hasn't been unemployed since she was 15. That's not true. She turned in her badge at the end of season four. Albeit for like three days. Which iS probably about as long as she was unemployed this time.
-Pi is still on the show.

I would've sworn that his home planet would've needed him by now.

Final Thoughts
Hey, Lanie got some screen time. She's been on the show less than Pi so far this season.

At the beginning of the episode, Beckett no longer has a job, and Castle doesn't work as a consultant for the police anymore (for reasons that haven't been explained) and yet they both get to hang around the station all the time and solve murders anyway. That seems a bit strange. Not that it really matters, since at the end of the episode she gets her job back and he gets to come back and consult, thereby restoring the status quo after a mere four episodes. I'm beginning to wonder what the point of having her take the job in DC was in the first place. Maybe the writers were friends with TV's Lisa Edelstein and she needed some work.

So that's twice now that Beckett has left the NYPD at the end of a season, only to come back at the beginning of the next one. The show's only been on for five seasons, that's not nearly enough for them to be repeating plot points already. Not that there's any undoing it now, but it would've been nice if they'd given Beckett a good six-episode arc in DC before she got fired. There was no doubt in my mind that she'd be back in New York at some point, but I didn't think it would be so quick and so clean. Detective Beckett is fine, but we've seen her. Unemployed Beckett or Consultant Beckett, or back to law school Beckett could've been fun. Or they could've sucked. TV shows don't really take chances these days.

As for this particular episode, it was way too convoluted for my tastes. The killer unsealed the crazy hostage-taking lady's adoption records so he could frame her for murder, so there was no chance she could come after any inheritance from her wealthy father, who also happened to be the killer's father-in-law. That's pretty complex, which makes it all the more strange that they managed to solve the case in one day. The whole #1 Fan thing was a neat idea, but it was a bit underdeveloped because they had a whole lot of stuff to squeeze in to try to semi-explain the plot. After the initial phone conversation, she could've been any run-of-the-mill hostage taker and it wouldn't have made much difference at all.

Hawaii Five-0 4x04: A ia la aku

Adam and Kono beat up a Yakuza dude.

Back in Hawaii, a bride runs away from her wedding to the scion of a wealthy family and gets in an accident.

Someone boots her off a cliff.

The team investigates a murder at the hotel where the wedding was being held.

When the bride saw the future dead guy, she bolted.

The gun used to kill him came from a small-time punk.

It turns out the dead guy and the bride were brother and sister and ran cons all over Europe, tricking rich dudes out of their money. They got pinched, and the brother just got out of prison.

Chin finds the bride and they medivac her to a hospital.

The family lawyer was behind it all. He ran a background check and was going to blackmail the bride after the wedding. Also, Rebecca De Mornay looks okay for her age.

The lawyer did it all for the money.

After reading the bride's hand-written vows, the groom decides he still loves her, and they get married.

Danny breaks up with Gabby.

Catherine comes home from her first day of work, and McGarrett thinks maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let her work with Billy.

What I Liked
-Adam punches the Yakuza guy in the face after shooting him in the leg. That's cold.
-The other theatre goers and their girlfriends give the guys crap for talking at the movies.

They're going to go to the special hell.

What I Hated
-Chin rides his motorcycle without a helmet. Sure, his hair looks awesome, but that's dangerous.

Always wear your brain bucket, kids.

-They brought Gabby back just to have Danny break up with her. I hate the relationship nonsense on this show so very much. And what the heck happened to Leilani?

Final Thoughts
How in the damn hell did the girl's brother get ahead of her on the road? She ran away from the wedding and then burned rubber out of there without evening taking off her dress. And what was his plan if she hadn't driven off into the middle of nowhere and wrecked? A head-on collision? It makes no sense.

Sometimes these shows blur together, but I think this may be the second time that they've done an episode where the wife had a secret past as a conwoman and her old partner wanted a cut of the action. It's a really common trope at this point, though, so I can't be sure. It's kinda lame either way.

Still not caring much about what happens to Adam and Kono. The only way they can get me to care is if they can get Sang involved somehow. It wouldn't be too hard. He *was* a snakehead, and they *are* in Hong Kong after all.

So much bullshit relationship drama this week. This show is becoming Grey's Anatomy. I suppose they managed two of the three Bs...

Men like boobs.

but that doesn't make up for all the whiny drivel. Witty banter is great. Whiny banter sucks. Also, the whole "I don't want to be the guy who holds back her career" thing is way overdone. If you love someone, it's okay to be a little selfish and say you'd like 'em to stick around. Love is rare, and you shouldn't let it go so easily.

Hawaii Five-0 4x03: Ka 'oia'i'o ma loko

A sexy lady in her underwear slices fruit for her husband.

Then three guys in masks break in and shoot them both.

McGarrett gets called away from a tender moment with his lady.

Danny's upset that this baby is now an orphan.

The first suspect is the dead guy's degenerate brother. He sold the code to the security system to some guy.

The only thing missing is a scrimshaw with a symbol for a defunct secret society on it.

Chin's old pal Jerry explains a conspiracy theory surrounding the society and the Rings of the Medici.

McGarrett asks Catherine for one last favour before she retires.

She cracks a code that tells them where the rings are: Hidden in a statue of Kamehameha.

Bad guys figured it out first and replaced the statue with a fake.

But they don't have the key, which was actually on loan to a museum.

After a short chase, Danno does some booking.

And Jerry becomes Lord of the Rings.

Meanwhile, Catherine's retiring and taking a job with her old boyfriend. Danny tells Steve he's an idiot for letting her do it.

Which is true, because Billy surprises her with cake, and cake is the key to a woman's pants.

She looks so handsome at her retirement ceremony.

Billy thinks so, too, which makes Steve jealous.

What I Liked
-Max and McGarrett are BFFs.

I smell M&M slash fiction.

-The black sheep brother celebrates his new wealth by doing two chicks at the same time. That's the right way to do it.
-McGarrett just winds up and whacks the statue with a crowbar. Good thing it wasn't the real one.

What I Hated
-Baby crying as its parents are silently murdered outside. It's been done way too often.

No one's listening. It's so sad.

-Some extremely low-res and dark video is enough for facial recognition. Their magic computers are pretty good.
-A motorcycle from the History of Motorcycles exhibit at the museum had gas in it for some reason. Also, Danny managed to magically teleport outside while McGarrett was chasing the guy who took the bike. That whole scene was just ludicrous.


Final Thoughts
No Kono and Adam shenanigans in this episode. I can't say that I missed them.

Danno got to book someone for the first time this season, but it doesn't count because he stole McGarrett's line and said it to himself.

It was good to see Jorge Garcia getting some more work. I always liked him on Lost, and I was planning to watch Alcatraz, but then it got cancelled. That's two former Lost cast members so far this season. It's probably not terribly difficult to convince them to head back to Hawaii for a couple weeks. My guess is they'll bring in Dominic Monaghan as a murderous psycopath next.

Doing the whole Hawaiian National Treasure thing was a bit strange, and it didn't seem like that had enough time to do what they wanted to do. The boring subplot about Catherine's retirement ate up valuable treasure-seeking time.

That subplot kinda wrecked the episode for me, actually. I don't really give a crap about Catherine and Steve's relationship, so I really don't care if an ex-boyfriend steals her away from him. Which is bound to happen to at least some extent. It always does. Danny even mentioned it while they were driving. It can't not happen, now. And when it does happen, I won't care. Unless Michelle Borth is in a bikini, relationship stuff is not part of the three Bs and is therefore redundant. That goes for everyone else's relationship nonsense, too.