We know, objectively, that Beckett is going to survive because (pick all that apply): she and Castle haven’t proclaimed their love for each other, they haven’t slept together, she hasn’t discovered the truth behind her mother’s murder, and the show isn’t produced by Joss Whedon.
We also know because The producer has said that this 2-parter involves Castle at Beckett’s place, and Beckett at Castle’s. So she obviously survives and stays with Castle (in Mom’s room) while her place is being…reconstructed.
Spoilering my speculation on how part two will resolve:
I think Dana Delaney is allied with the killer. When they talked about how she miraculously solved a case at 25, I started to wonder if maybe she and a partner teamed up. He gets to make kills and get away with it, and she gets to solve cases and get famous.
What really solidified the theory is when she placed a call to “her kids” just as they were pulling up to the Conrad’s apartment, saying she was almost done. Immediately, the bad guy calls Beckett. I think that call was actually tipping him off that they’d arrived, and to begin the performance.
Motive for targeting Nikki Heat? Best guess is that it’s just nice and high profile, sure to make all the papers.
This is really just an application of the Harry Hamlin theory. When we first started watching Veronica Mars, my wife pegged him as the season’s killer within two episodes, just because he was the biggest name. The biggest guest star is always the surprise bad guy.
[tongue in cheek]Unless she recurs because Castle and Kate have to visit her in prison to ask for her advice on other serial killer cases, a la ‘Silence of the lambs’.[/tic]
Great second half conclusion. Dana Delaney really made this show pop. Castle and Beckett need a strong character to play off.
No surprise that Beckett survived. It’s so predictable that I don’t consider it a spoiler. There wouldn’t be a show without her. The way she saved herself from the explosion wasn’t very original. It’s has to be a trope. But, I can’t think of any other way that’s believable.
They seem to be pushing the Beckett/Castle romance a little fast. If they ever get together, the show is over. Somehow, they got to keep the tease working without losing the audience.
And is it just me, or is Dana Delaney looking a bit ragged these days? Also, I thought the way she was taken unawares in her SUV was pretty lame, considering how savvy her character is supposed to be.
Still a good episode, though. Especially Castle’s line about “I was aiming for his head!”
That plus the super-database pinpointing of the killer’s final hiding place made it seem like they were having to fast-track the case to get all of the story told. In terms of the investigation it probably would have made more sense to have extended out to a third episode, but in terms of story arc it was better as two.
The super-database thing was rather stupid: You can semi-fuzzily tell at most that there are two generic pylon shapes in the distance. There’s millions of cases of dual pylons in the world. If they’d resolved the picture down to something more than two blurry somethings, sure, but leaving them as smudges was just stupid.
Turek - The only thing that I can thnk of is when Beckett is sitting naked in the bathtub, knees drawn up to her chest. It reminded me a lot of River in the box she was carted in on.
The abuse of technology annoyed me a little in the moment, but I realized later that that was kind of the point – the FBI was supposed to be all golly-gee-whiz-bang totally fantasy even for a working cop like Beckett. It was sort of refrigerator logic in reverse.
The way she saved herself from the explosion wasn’t very original. It’s has to be a trope. But, I can’t think of any other way that’s believable.