Castle “Knockout” Recap & Review

Beware of spoilers for the May 16 season finale within.

Castle is mostly known as a feel-good police procedural that never gets too dark or gritty. However, that’s not to say the writers can’t turn up the suspense to compete with the likes of Law & Order SVU or Criminal Minds. In the third-season finale, Detective Kate Beckett comes one step closer to discovering who murdered her mother — which also happens to be one of the series’ longstanding story arcs.

Unfortunately, this knowledge comes with a dire, dire price.

“Knockout” begins with Beckett headed to prison to interview a criminal named Hal Lockwood — a criminal that knows who killed Beckett’s mother. To Beckett’s shock, Lockwood is no longer segregated; he’s been moved to the general population. Before she and the rest of the prison staff can stop him, Lockwood murders an inmate and is taken to arraignment for first-degree murder.

At trial, things get even worse: two men disguised as police officers open fire in the courtroom and take Lockwood with them… in a helicopter, no less. Ridiculous as this may seem (and it did come across as a bit farfetched), it does serve a purpose: it illustrates the fact that whoever is working with Lockwood has a lot of money and easy access to impressive resources.

Back at the precinct, Beckett, Captain Montgomery and Detectives Esposito and Ryan determine that Lockwood being transferred to the general population in order to kill the other inmate was nothing but a rouse to get him out of prison and into court, at which point he could be freed. Worst of all, this rouse was made possible by none other than Ryker, a cop who worked at the prison and was paid $50,000 for his trouble.

Too bad he never got to enjoy it. He was shot dead in his own apartment.

Now, where is Castle himself? Surprisingly, Nathan Fillion had much less screen time than normal. This was Stana Katic’s time to shine, plain and simple, and she did a fantastic job. Gone is the smart-ass, too-cool-for-school detective we’ve grown to love over three seasons. In “Knockout”, we see Beckett at her most fiery and vulnerable.

One of the finale’s best scenes is a showdown between her and Castle, where the two finally admit that there’s something growing between the two of them, but neither is ready to admit it. Castle himself is particularly adamant: he chastises Beckett, saying that after kissing and nearly dying in each others’ arms, neither of them speaks a word of it after.

What are they? Friends? Co-workers? Or two people completely in love and scared to death of admitting it?

Obviously Beckett has other things to ponder besides her love life, and she promptly throws Castle out of her apartment. Castle himself finds solace in the most unlikely of places: his dramatic actress of a mother. Claiming that she’s someone who’s “already halfway through the movie,” she implores him to not waste another moment denying how he feels about Beckett.

The cat’s out of the bag, folks: Castle is in love with Beckett and he’s no longer denying it to himself or to the people around him.

It was here that Castle proved just how good a series it is, able to flawlessly incorporate a suspenseful police procedural with a budding relationship (or is that romance?) between its two main characters. Very often, many programs find themselves floundering between two extremes: either all action and no character development, or excessive melodrama that detracts from the actual plot.

Castle is better than that — and this finale proves it.

The episode continues at a breakneck pace, and ends with one of the most devastating revelations in recent memory. To simplify things, I’ll say this: Beckett’s mother, also a detective, came across a case of police corruption so profound, she was killed for it.

Decades before Beckett’s tenure on the NYPD, three detectives were holding mobsters for ransom — millions of dollars’ worth of ransom. Two of the detectives involved had already been identified, but who was the third?

None other than Captain Montgomery, the current captain of the New York Police Department.

In a dark, deserted alley, Captain Montgomery confesses all to Beckett. Earlier, Lockwood had given Montgomery an ultimatum: bring Beckett to a deserted location so he could kill her, or Lockwood would kill Beckett’s family.

Captain Montgomery agrees — but only to a point. Indeed he does lure Beckett to a deserted alley, but only to confess everything to her. But unbeknownst to Beckett, Castle joins them. After he confesses everything, Captain Montgomery tells Castle to get Beckett out of there. She fights, resists, forcing Castle to literally pick her up and drag here away.

Now alone, Captain Montgomery kills Lockwood and his partners — but not before being shot himself. He dies on the scene, with Beckett weeping over his body.

Captain Montgomery is given a police funeral, which sees Castle, Beckett, Esposito, Ryan, Castle’s mother and daughter as well as Montgomery’s wife and daughters in attendance. Earlier, Castle, Beckett, Esposito and Ryan agree to keep Montgomery’s misdeeds a secret.

In her speech, Beckett praises her Captain as a hero and a mentor.

And then, it happens: a sniper opens fire on the funeral and catches Beckett in the chest. Horrified, Castle rushes to her side and pleads with her to stay with him. He also follows this plea with three simple words: “I love you.”

The episode ends on a cliffhanger. Clearly Beckett is going to survive — but at what cost? Will the authorities insist she play dead in order to end attempts on her life? Will she remember what Castle said to her? How will the two of them come to terms with their argument over where they stand as friends, co-workers… or perhaps something more?

In sum, “Knockout” was a stellar episode, and I can hardly wait until season four.