TV Review: CASTLE – Season 4 – “The Limey”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON / Contributing Writer

Posted: April 4th, 2012 / 01:28 AM

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly Quinn, Tamala Jones, Seamus Deaver, Jon Huertas, Penny Johnson Jerald
Writer: Elizabeth Davis
Director: Bill Roe
Network: ABC, Monday nights, 10 p.m.
Original Telecast: April 2, 2012

Now, I get it. The producers of CASTLE are busy throwing a massive monkey wrench into the whole Castle/Beckett couple thing to ratchet up the drama for the next six weeks so that they can have a massively explosive season finale/cliffhanger and they still won’t let Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) get together even after that because they’re still stuck in the whole relationship equals “happily ever after” nonsense which means they’d actually have to come up with some plausible mysteries for a change. Which is why we have “The Limey,” in this case Detective Inspector Colin Hunt (Brett Tucker) of Scotland Yard.

We first see Hunt searching the motel room and body of a dead young woman, then cut to Lanie Parish (Tamala Jones) and Beckett having a heart to heart about Beckett and Castle, of the “why the heck aren’t you telling him how you feel?” variety. It was kind of fun that Beckett is surprised that folks have figured out there’s a thing between the two of them.

Beckett, of course, doesn’t realize that Castle overheard her tell a suspect in the last episode, “47 Seconds” that she remembers his confession of love when she got shot during last year’s season finale. Castle, who is unquestionably acting like an idiot, has assumed that because Beckett told him she didn’t remember anything means that she doesn’t feel the same for him, and hence the distance between the two that is worrying Beckett.

But then there’s the call, and Castle comes roaring up to the crime scene in his sports car with a cute blonde flight attendant in tow. As mentioned previously, he is unquestionably acting like an idiot. But the investigation begins nonetheless and the man seen at the motel (whom we’ve already seen) turns out to be Hunt, who has come over from London to help the victim, an English model who has been acting very strangely since her boyfriend was murdered in Uganda a year or so before.

So, naturally, the investigation leads to a British diplomat and a fancy party, with Beckett in a really hot formal gown and Hunt all but drooling down her cleavage. The idea is to get the diplomat’s prints because they were able to lift a partial off the corpse, which Beckett does by stealing his business card case. Yes. That is illegal and probably wouldn’t stand up even long enough to cast aside said diplomat’s immunity, which apparently can be done when said diplomat is a murder suspect.

Which isn’t helped when it turns out that a clue left by the model is the number for a diplomatic pouch (or in this case, crate) and there’s a big discussion about how NYPD can’t legally touch it and still have the search count as evidence. But, gee, isn’t it cool that Hunt isn’t NYPD? I’m still not sure how his illegal search gets around that part of things, but what the heck. Turns out the diplomat is smuggling missiles into Uganda, which is why the model got killed.

Here’s the problem – when you’re inappropriately putting up barriers to the central relationship of the show (and the key word here is inappropriately), the rest of the show suffers. Yes, CASTLE‘s weakest part has always been the mystery. But when the friendship between Castle and Beckett is working and growing, you don’t care. The show is really about them. It’s not about what they’re investigating, except occasionally when that has an impact on them personally, such as in the ongoing story line about the murder of Beckett’s mother. This ridiculous and artificial thing currently going on doesn’t make sense, especially Castle’s buffoonish behavior with the latest Sweet Young Thing. Okay, there is some legitimacy to wondering whether the other feels the same, but having set things up the way they did with Beckett lying about what she remembered, this is pointless and annoying.

It’s fair enough to want something big for the season finale of CASTLE – and certainly finally getting Beckett and Castle together would qualify. But given the friendship they set up, it could still be dramatic and fun without all this split them up angst that’s going on now.

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