ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 8, episode 3 review: Are Castle, Beckett closer to coming back together?
After last week’s episode of “Castle,” there was a mass panic among the fan base, and deservedly so. Is it the end for Castle and Beckett?
At the beginning of “PhDead,” it pained us greatly to hear words like “breakup” and “split,” and it made us feel as though this was going to be a while before this particular story was over. We still do not buy the whole “Beckett is investigating the case solo to protect Castle” argument, since they are experienced working together for one, and she is also working with someone else now in Vikram whose history dates back merely to some time in Washington DC.
We don’t want to punish this episode for the crimes of the former, since there was some particularly entertaining stuff here. Castle went undercover as a professor in order to figure out how a student was killed, and the results led him to some interesting places. First, we had him getting hammered at a frat party for information while Alexis was undercover as an “angel.” Then, the two uncovered a secret prison that was an experiment by a psychology professor, one who he allegedly was sleeping with. Then, it turned out that this said affair was with the Dean of all people. When will people at Hudson University learn?
Ultimately, the killer was revealed at the end of the episode to be one of the people taking part in the prison experiment, who actually came back to the prison in order to try and reflect suspicion. The moral of this story seems to be fairly simple: Don’t take part in crazy prison experiments. It almost never ends well.
We want to finish by going back to the Castle / Beckett story, since we had a reminder near the end of the hour that she does still love him, and this is really all about her. The show is dangling that thread with secret conversations, and having Beckett reach out to an old contact back from when she was tracking down Vulcan Simmons. She’s continuing on with it because she knows no other way. We may disagree with that, but at least the storytelling is consistent. “PhDead” may continue to frustrate us from a relationship standpoint, but the main case was solid enough and we did have a nice moment between Caskett in prison, funny as that is to write. Grade: B-.
If you want to get some other “Castle” news, including a preview for the next episode, head over to the link here! Also, you can sign up now if you want some other TV news on just about everything we cover, sent right to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ABC.)
tansey
October 13, 2015 @ 3:17 am
I agree with the comments – watching Castle is becoming a chore. I don’t want to miss the storyline, however watching last week and now tonight is almost painful. And the storyline seems as though it was written by newbie writers that are ignoring the terrific past shows. I always looked forward to my Monday evenings with Castle…now…not so much. The writers better get their ducks in a row or none of the fans will be saddened when Castle is cancelled.
John Monaghan
October 10, 2015 @ 8:35 pm
These guys are supposed to be experienced people that took over why are they hell bent on making sure that this show gets cancelled with there crap writing and embarrassing storylines Because if ABC don’t cancell it the Actors will probably walk away because of it!
Kai Archie
October 7, 2015 @ 3:28 am
So much in this episode that makes no sense. Why is Beckett doing her detectives’ jobs – interviewing witnesses, visiting the crime scene – instead of her own job as captain? Previous captains did not do this. How did that very small woman manage to impale a bigger man on a tree branch? The premise of this season – that Beckett leaves Castle to “protect” him while she works on someone else’s case is ridiculous. It’s not like the bad guys are going to assume that there’s no value in threatening Castle & Alexis &Martha just because Beckett &Castle aren’t living together. I’m beginning to think this show has jumped the shark.
Jim45
October 6, 2015 @ 7:57 pm
Fillion and Katic continue to deliver when they are given the chance. The bow tie sequence and the jail cell bit were well done. They know how to underplay each other. The show needs lots of that sort of action to pull itself out of the hole it’s in. The presence of Haley, Vikrim and Alexis all detract from that possibility by taking minutes from Caskett.
dalke_2000
October 6, 2015 @ 7:23 pm
Beckett’s arguments makes zero sense. She knows that Castle can take care of himself and that it’s better for the two of them to work together. She knows that there are people with better training and resources looking for the shadowy villain. And she really doesn’t have much emotional stake in this case to explain the obsession she’s showing. It’s like she got everything out of life she wanted and then decided to just throw it all out the window. It doesn’t make her noble and misguided, as I’m sure the writers are trying to do, it makes her selfish and nuts.
The show has been in decline for the last few seasons and this start makes things far worst. Remember when they solved murders and threw in funny and clever moments? Yeah, they should do that again.
Valerie Arnold
October 6, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
I totally agree with Charles about Castle fan base I was a Castle fan till this episode I feel that the new shownrunner. Is trying to end the Castle with they bad,bad,bad writer.
Charles Neale
October 6, 2015 @ 11:20 am
Also after watching the promo for episode for Castle thinks lying in a marriage is a betrayel so will Beckett still keep lying I will wait on your next review .
Charles Neale
October 6, 2015 @ 10:50 am
I have not watched this episode yet was waiting on your review. I have also been following twitter and have noticed that only Old man Winter,Creasy and Castle ABC are hyping the show and this episode. This tells me that they are trying to get the fans back on board with this bad move they created.I will not watch again ad I am sure some other fans won’t until they get Caskett back together faily quickly or Castle divorces her for all her lies.