TV Review: CASTLE – Season 4 – “Cops and Robbers”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON / Contributing Writer

Posted: November 1st, 2011 / 08:57 AM

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly Quinn, Tamala Jones, Seamus Deaver, Jon Huertas, Penny Johnson Jerald
Writer: Terence Paul Winter
Director: Bryan Spicer
Network: ABC, Monday nights, 10 p.m.
Original Telecast: October 31, 2011

Those CASTLE fans looking for the usual light-hearted banter, witty repartee and twists and turns aren’t going to like this episode. Because this one is the other side of the series featuring crime fiction author Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and his real-life muse Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) solving crimes together. The show has always featured some heavier, more dramatic episodes – it has to, it would be totally boring otherwise.

And “Cops and Robbers” is one of the more dramatic ones. Castle is hanging out in the bank trying to help his mother Martha (Susan Sullivan) get a loan, when he steps away and calls Beckett just ‘cuz. Only he starts to notice a couple doctors in scrubs with masks and some suspicious bulges in their coats. Sure enough, it’s a hold up and everyone in the bank is taken hostage, including Castle and Martha.

Castle manages to get some information out before the bad guys realize he’s on the phone with the police, and Beckett gets to try her hand at hostage negotiation. Problem is, these guys are pretty hard-core pros who already know the drill. They also seem more interested in the safety deposit boxes than in the cash. Something odd about that.

Then there’s the little old lady who owns the safety deposit box the bad guys wanted (which Castle telegraphs to the cops outside the bank in a rather clever way). She’s dead – murdered in her house. But that’s not as it seems, either. In fact, the twists in this one are almost as much fun as the repartee is usually. Which is saying a lot because the mystery is usually the weakest part of the show.

While not as intense as some of the more emotionally fraught episodes touching on the murder of Beckett’s mother, the drama here is pretty tight, and everything comes together almost smoothly. The big disappointment is that never mind that both Beckett and Castle’s daughter Alexis (Molly Quinn) spend a few really scary moments thinking that Castle and Martha are dead, it’s still not enough to push Beckett over the edge and falling for Castle. We’ll get there, though.

The producers may be milking the will they, won’t they thing for every drop they can get out of it, but I say they may as well get it over and have fun with the relationship part. Can you just imagine Beckett and Castle fighting over the toothbrush while at a crime scene?

In the meantime, episodes like these do make for a richer show overall, which is what keeps me watching week after week.

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