CASTLE recap “Significant Others” & “Under the Influence”

Yes, I’m combining these two episodes, and yes – I have a reason. They weren’t terrible, but I was left feeling… disappointed. I’ll start with last week’s episode, “Significant Others”.

I know when I find nitpicks galore during my live viewing that I’m not fully engaged. First, they decided to shove the boyfriend’s ring in my face… not once, but twice over the course of one scene (HEY, THIS IS A CLUE!!). Numerous incidents followed. While questioning the accountant, he says “I’ve never met her.” then goes on to explain that they’ve talked on the phone and had an appointment the night she died. Okay, technically they never met, but ‘never meeting’ kinda implies to police that you don’t know of the person entirely.

Along with a host of other nits, the main issue I had was the fact that if Rick & Kate had just talked plainly to each other – and not even about serious issues – the whole conflict could’ve been avoided altogether. The Beckett we know wouldn’t be meek enough to go with the flow when Meredith shows up, and Castle should know more about women than he appears to in the episode. Really Rick? You can’t figure out without being told that allowing the ex to stay with you isn’t the right thing to do? *sigh*

I cannot stand manufactured angst, and the Castle/Beckett storyline in “Significant Others” was textbook manipulation. The final nail in its coffin? Blatantly allowing Meredith to push Kate into her insecure space just made Beckett seem dumb. Everything that happened could easily be fixed by this sentence: “Castle, we need to discuss some things seriously.” Frustrating.

Three bright spots: Allan Wasserman’s short scene as Samuel Schuster, schooling the boys on how not to question a suspect; the (deliberate?) shout-out to Doctor Who by naming Jack Wagner’s character “Billy Piper”; and the return of the Smorelette.

Lastly, do NOT mess with their whole coffee thing… again. I mean it writers.

I’ll move along to “Under the Influence” now.

My main issue with this week’s installment is that I was left thinking, “Isn’t this show called Castle?”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Espo a lot – but I need a little Nathan sprinkled in with my Jon. After the first 10 minutes of Castle & Beckett bantering and investigating, it turned into the ‘Espo plays big brother’ show. Again, I dig me some Rysposito – just not an overdose of it.

Speaking of ‘digging’ something, Darius Carson, i.e. MC Thug, was a walking stereotype. He reminded me of the jive talkers from ‘Airplane!’. I did not dig that.

The case was fairly interesting. I have to admit, I thought the social worker was involved until the very end. The opportunity for her to set the boys up with Shane Winters for personal gain would have been a salacious twist.

I honestly don’t have much more to say. I guess I should be glad that they allowed Castle & Beckett to make the collar before they ended the show with a scene between Espo and his new ‘ward’, Joey.

I’m holding out hope that “Death Gone Crazy”, the next episode, will be more palatable for me. Looks like there will be some Castle family stuff, and I’ve been happy with those scenes this season – for the most part. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for some Caskett relationship advancement in the near future as well.

Castle returns Monday January 21, at 10pm Eastern on ABC.