As usual, I'm going to start with the positives ...
General Beckman!!!
If you have no idea what this means, you are dead to me, dead to Geek Furious and dead to all that is right with this world.
If you DO know what I'm talking about, you were probably just as excited as I was when Bonita Friedericy appeared in Monday's episode.
Like me, however, that might have been all you were excited about during 'After Hours'. Because it pretty much stunk.
Season 5 has been terrific thus far, with very few complaints -- so I'm not going to get too angry here. Although, that's two straight clunkers. The Beckett-Castle relationship has been fun and done well in the early going here, but I could have done without the ridiculous fighting and the ridiculous counseling from the witness/bad guy. So lame, unoriginal and tired.
Also lame ... the crap with Castle's mom and Beckett's dad. Puke. And who didn't see them bonding throughout the episode over the disappearance of their children? If those two end up as an item at any point this season, I'm going to give that episode a 0 out of 100.
And for those who were genuinely surprised by the twist of who killed Father McMurtry, apparently you haven't watched much television before. Because there is one rule in TV: If you recognize a guest star (and that guy has been in every damn show in the world), then you know he's not just there to play some stupid small-bit part in the episode.That dude wouldn't have taken that role as simply a witness on the run -- there had to be more to it than that and there was.
Three more problems: it doesn't matter that the cell phone was locked. All phones, even when locked, have an emergency call option on the screen that does not require the password to be used. So although I enjoyed that little sequence with Castle and the phone, it made no sense. Another thing that bothered me was that there were essentially no good lines/dialogue whatsoever. I usually list a tone of good quotes below, but there were no good options this time.
Also, Castle essentially handed over Beckett on a silver platter to Mickey Dolan. Dolan read Castle like a book, figuring out where Beckett and Leo were hiding. Castle should have turned away from Dolan, not enabling him to get a read on him like that.
Turns out chivalry is dead, after all.
QUOTE OF NOTE:
--BECKETT: "Dude, where's the car?"
RANDOM RAMBLING:
--Ah, the old fake-an-injury bit works every time.
THE SCORE: 54 out of 100
