Castle: “Recoil” (Season 5, Episode 13)

Broadcast date: Monday, Feb. 4th, 2013

Castle is at its best when the characters trade barbs with each other, while they are running out of time to catch a murderer and the motives of the murderer are believable. Although the character banter was missing from this episode, it was still very good. The return of Senator Bracken causes a lot of tension for Beckett, while Castle adopts his serious face for the entire episode and his mother and daughter are absent. The intent is to focus on Beckett and create a strong performance for Stana Katic, who has one of the strongest female roles on TV. When a girl turns up burnt beyond recognition, but is identified thanks to a dental implant, the trail leads to Bracken (Jack Coleman, who played HRG in Heroes). Beckett wants this man dead so bad, she’s willing to suppress evidence and let a criminal escape who is targeting Bracken for harm. As the show develops and Beckett is forced to make a choice, she gains an unwanted ally. There are many different ways the story could have gone, so the direction taken must indicate how the season arc w ill play out with Bracken – we know he’ll show up again for the finale. But we’ve also seen his weak spot: his need to create presidential-like moments to advance his career.

The climactic moment of the show was a little hard to swallow, however. This is where a car bomb is detonated to take out Bracken. There were several problems with how this was staged. For instance, the guy detonating the bomb is way too close to the car when doing so; Beckett is much too far away to be able to reach the scene and move Bracken far enough away from the bomb without getting hurt; the bomb is detonated while Bracken is still outside the car – in fact if you look at the scene closely, he’s walked past the car door when Beckett tackles him. Also, where is the Secret Service? This guy is a senator, after all. Another case of really poor writing leading to an unbelievable sequence. The rest of the episode was good, but the writers really need to buckle down – these poorly defined moments that are being written for the sake of the plot are terrible…