Castle, "The Human Factor": Guns, Badges, and Zinfandel

"The Human Factor."

Yes. Just...yes. After a brief departure down mediocrity lane, Castle comes back with this little nugget of joy. I mean, was it a flawless diamond? No. But that's okay, because that's not what I expect from Castle anyway, and I enjoyed the figs out of it.

So, because I have to talk about it, I'll start with what I loved and then move into the fascinating little dilemma Beckett has been dropped into. Because that's what I do here apparently: talk endlessly about Beckett while not getting back to Sherlock despite best intentions.

But before I get to a drawn out, angst-filled analysis of Beckett, all I want to do is just mention some of the stuff that made me happy. Starting with this:

god, I love how they light Castle's apartment
I know no one's apartment is actually lit like this (except possibly my bedroom thanks to the gold floodlight located two inches from the window), but it doesn't even matter, because everything about it looks so warm and calm and lovely

And this:

endless replay value, right here

I'll be the first to admit, I approach Castle with a consistent, burning desire to see Buffy s6 v2: On the General Misery and Extended Free-Fall of Kate Beckett, NYPD, but a) I know that is never going to happen, for reasons I've largely already discussed, and b) that doesn't mean I don't love scenes like the ones represented above.

There's something great about the idea of this fully grown man-child in sweats and a hoodie huddled on his floor at six or seven in the morning playing the equivalent of tanks, battleships, and duckies in the tub within (intentional) earshot of the woman he plans to continue sleeping with. While Castle's more childlike tendencies have been a source of irritation for me in the past (see: late s4, which I will probably one day devote a post to), scenes like this remind me of the great joviality with which he approaches life, which is part of what attracted me to him to begin with. Further, they help to reinforce the notion put forth by Montgomery forever ago, that Castle really does bring out the best in Beckett, that he allows her to experience the careless, uncomplicated joy which she deserves but I'm not entirely sure she bothered to engage in often after her mother's death, before she met Castle. The "Rise of the Machines" moment was hilarious just on its basis, but part of what makes it so fun for me is the fact that Beckett is able to let go of that intensely serious and devoted cop mentality -- which so often underscores her characterization, and which was, to some degree, exaggerated this episode for the purpose of building its climax -- to think up and execute something as ridiculous as a midnight Terminator attack.

I could read into this scene further, ramble for another six hundred words about what I think this says about Beckett, but I'm not going to do that (at least, not here, right now), because ultimately the only thing I want to say about this scene is that I loved it because I loved to see Beckett so happy, and Castle so charmingly gullible. The thought of Beckett strategically placing Castle's toys in the bedroom and smuggling the controller in with her to bed is also just an extremely amusing one, and I wanted to mention it.

What's funny is that the other portion of the episode that I loved does have to do with Beckett's intensely serious and devoted cop mentality. Or, to be more general, just her intensity in the episode as a whole.

This takedown. Ugh, just perfection.

I think the reason behind Beckett's badassery this episode was just as transparent as the reason behind the idyllic opening in "Still" -- it was done to showcase Beckett's skill as a detective, her physical competence, her extreme sharpness, and the strength of her control, confidence, and collectedness, regardless of her situation (whether it be facing off with the friggin' Attorney General, taking on a suspect in the box, or shooting down a drone). This was done in order to expose how far below her abilities she's working as an NYPD detective, to allow us to see immediately the potential that Stack reads in her.

But I enjoyed these plot elements immensely, regardless of the obvious intention behind them, because those intense qualities which Beckett exemplifies and Stana Katic plays up so well are the things which initially got me so interested and invested with her. Because Beckett is nothing if not intense, powerful, and in command. She's a badass, straight up, and this episode catered to how much I enjoy seeing that quality in her, and so strongly at that.

there's no question she owns this crime scene the second she shows up; those suits leave practically the instant she arrives because she wields her authority with such ease and confidence that all they can do is slink away in the face of her; there's a reason Stack notices her so immediately

look at her facing off with the AG without any real hesitation or care shown toward who she's talking to; her brusque "Fine" isn't even slightly respectful, and she treats him much as the same as any other mook getting in the way of her investigation; badass
I'd venture to speculate that the job opportunity with the AG was offered at least in part because the AG probably hasn't talked to too many people who are so willing to be this on-the-level with him, and he probably hung up his phone miffed but impressed with this cop he'd called to cow but who'd promptly cowed him instead

Beckett, cool as a friggin' cucumber thrown out in an Arctic winter
Castle only serves to underline how cool she is in the scene, in everything from his retrieval of her second piece (which she has no reaction to), to his extremely uncool way of firing (please, like you shot that dummy drone down, Castle), to his "That was so awesome!" reaction
(sidenote: Beckett, what's up with the trench? it looks like it's 83 degrees outside and you're dressed for a rainstorm; that plus the wild hair does make you look cool, but if I didn't know better I'd accuse you of pulling a Sherlock)

Beckett is just cool in this episode. Period. There were so many moments in this episode I had to rewind and watch again, just to appreciate Beckett being Beckett. This is the reason (or, a large reason) I love Castle, for the types of scenes "Human Factor" has me practically tripping over. In short, while I could poke a hundred holes in this episode, I have absolutely no desire to do so, because between all of the things already mentioned, all I really took from it was no small amount of joy. And that's not even mentioning the ending (oh, the ending), the life dilemma Beckett is left considering when the curtains fall for the week -- which is exactly what I'm going to talk about now: Stack and his offer.

"Where do you see yourself five years from now?"

I'll admit, another of my weaknesses when it comes to my perception of characters is that I always tend to view them by their past, and, consequently, I think of them as only viewing themselves through their past. I think it's possible that Beckett was doing just this, and so the act of Stack asking such a simple question as "Where do you see yourself five years from now?" immediately threw both of us spinning, probably down similar thought paths: Where does Beckett see herself in the near and distant future? If she's not interested in climbing the ladder (as Castle seems to think, given his plotline in Heat Rises, which I loosely consider canonical), then will she still be a detective five years from now? Ten? Twenty? Will the little team she's built for herself stay together, or will Esposito eventually move on to bigger and better things, and will Ryan eventually move to a safer position on the force, given his family? If Gates moves up and out, will she still remain the 12ths resident bulldog under a new captain (or captains), catching evil-doers until one of them eventually succeeds in doing her in?

Beckett went into the NYPD because of her mother, because she felt a deep-seated need to gain closure for herself and for everyone like her, to make sure no one has to suffer with unanswered questions as she did. It's been well over a decade since Beckett committed her life to this path, and in that time she's finally been able to gain the answers she sought for all those years, yet she's found herself utterly unable to enact any justice on the man she knows is responsible. Beckett expressed a lot of rage early on in the show over the idea that she would find the man responsible for her mother's murder, and she would have to "watch him cut a deal," but she's not even been able to get that. Bracken is above accusation or prosecution. Further, for the most part, the only results of her crusade have been a lot of deaths and near deaths (from her having to kill Dick Coonan (after his threat to kill Castle) to Hal Lockwood nearly killing both the detectives she's responsible for (Esposito and Ryan) to Montgomery's death to Beckett herself getting gunned down at his funeral). This must at least to some degree cast her career as a detective under black light, given how steep the toll has been for so little a result. I'll make a point of saying that I doubt she views the whole of her career this way, given how much she believes in the work she does and how strongly she adheres to the identity it imparts, but the thing about Stack's offer is that it allows her to do much the same thing she's doing now, just away from an environment filled with so many ghosts and bad memories, and with decidedly higher stakes.

Castle, in the typical fashion of TV shows, unwittingly encapsulates Beckett's frame of mind through his little comment, "Where one person might see roses another may see a chance to move on from an old life and onto a new one." Stack's offer is an opportunity for her to move on, to officially close the chapter on this extremely violent and volatile part of her life, which is something she's expressed a desire to do several times throughout the show. And here, at least, her out has arrived, and she's now standing at a crossroads.

I'd venture to guess that part of the reason Beckett is shown to be so happy with Castle in this episode is to impress upon us the joy that she has managed to find in her life, and at that, a simple, uncomplicated joy, with all the comfort and warmth that comes with being in an apartment so bathed in soft, golden light. Because while her quest has led to a lot of pain, it's also led to the development of a found family in the form of the precinct and her relationship with Castle. Stack's life is one of "total autonomy," that of the lone wolf. I think if Beckett didn't feel any attachment to the precinct, her team, or to Castle, she would've taken that job right there in that room, without need for a second conversation, but since she does she now she has to make a choice: give up the team and the reputation she's built within the NYPD, move away from the city she's lived the vast majority of her life within, and make the decision to once and for all let her mother's case (and Bracken) go in the pursuit of something new.

It's an extremely interesting dilemma for me to consider an answer to. By moving away, Beckett will have a chance to fully realize that part of her that is an intensely devoted cop, but in doing so she will become a lone wolf, traveling around the country (and, possibly, elsewhere) for her cases. She will lose her found family, and she will more than likely end up losing her ability to have these quiet nights on Castle's couch with a glass of Zinfandel and a fire warming her back. She will, to some degree, become someone like Jordan Shaw ("Tick, Tick, Tick..."/"Boom"), sacrificing depth, stasis, and stability in her relationship with Castle for meaning in her work. Gone will be the days of their shared, uncomplicated joy.

On the other hand, by remaining a detective, she potentially dooms herself to living the same life she's been living all these years for many, many more, to stagnating in the position she achieved so early in her career (as we know she's the youngest women in the NYPD to make detective), since she has no desire to become the paper pusher that a higher position in the force would demand. She loves her life as a cop, and she believes in it, but after twenty years of doing the same thing, when she, as Stack points out, is capable of achieving so much more? More to the point, by remaining in New York, by remaining in such close proximity to Bracken and to so many private hells, does she risk once again being brought to the precipice, and will she this time find herself swallowed by it -- or worse, will she lose anyone else inside it, or die herself? After all, her leverage over Bracken is only precarious at best, and if something new was to surface in the case, it's possible that her safety may once again be called into question, and she may not be so lucky as to survive a second time.

Neither are the best of paths, though because of the nature of the show, I already know she will opt to remain a detective. Frankly, I hope this is the case, because if she were to leave, getting her position back wouldn't be nearly so easy as it was for someone like Elliot Reid in Scrubs, if possible at all, and I would be annoyed by the fakeness of it if she were to quit, move out, and move up, then return after a period and reintegrate without much difficulty. I would be surprised if her leaving didn't trigger movement from Ryan at least (who, if I remember, has recently aired concerns given his wife and expected child), and that would more than likely domino Esposito into moving on as well. If Beckett were to accept Stack's offer, it would utterly shatter the format the show has been built on, and while I can see them going that route (e.g., at the end of this season's finale, she says she is taking the job and moving, and over the summer between seasons she builds her new life in DC; in the s6 premiere we open with her alone in some starkly decorated apartment, staring at her silent phone, waiting maybe for some word from Castle, with whom her relationship has become extremely strained, and when it rings she gets excited but quickly deflates upon realizing that it's the AG...and so on), I can't for a moment see them keeping such a drastic change in how the show is written. I can't think of any show that could truly pull that off (*maybe* Buffy, post s7), and I can't imagine that Castle would attempt to.

But despite the logic with which I of course must approach plotlines like this, I'm enjoying turning over Stack's offer, because I think, as with her mother's death and a bullet to the heart, it represents for Beckett at least the potential for a massive change in her life and how she chooses to define herself. It may not be the change I necessarily want to see, but that doesn't make it any less significant for either of us to consider.

Seriously, though, Beckett, just stay in New York.
Just shoot Bracken in the face.
Fall down the precipice.
Shatter the mirror.
You know you want to.

"Recoil": Of Monsters and Mirrors

I feel somewhat bad about continuing to put off part three of my Sherlock cameras/characters case study, but I can justify this because a) I still really want to talk about Beckett, b) those Sherlock posts take an exorbitant amount of time to put together and c) this is my blog, and I can do whatever I want because no one is reading this anyway.

So "Recoil" then, finally. I keep talking about this episode without actually talking about it, and the truth is, I hadn't actually seen it since initial viewing. I know I'm going to continue mentioning it, so it was time I give it a second look, try to reevaluate my opinions and see if they've changed. And the truth is, they have, but they haven't.

"Recoil" really does present an extremely interesting scenario. I'll be straight here: on realizing the premise, I was ecstatic. I thought that this would be the episode in which Beckett, finally, begins backsliding, starts to go dark and becomes, in essence, well, s1 Jordan. I paused several times to imagine possible paths Beckett could take, the consequences that would befall her once she began following one. It occurred to me that she might choose the path of the righteous and the just, but I just didn't want to believe she would, so when she did I was crushingly disappointed. Honestly, I was devastated. I was so disappointed in her, I couldn't move from my couch for a full twenty minutes after it ended, staring in disbelief at my frozen screen. I couldn't stop asking her why, couldn't figure out what could possibly motivate her to be so...morally spotless and annoyingly incorruptible. I quickly started to blame the writers for not being brave, for choosing once again to not allow Beckett to follow a darker, more interesting arc, and while part of me still believes that, the rest of me has come to realize something very important about Beckett that I had managed, up until very recently really, to blind myself to.

“Now I'm protecting the man who murdered my mother.” - Kate Beckett

And that is, Kate Beckett is not Jordan Cavanaugh.

"No witnesses. I pull this trigger, I get off in self-defense." - Jordan Cavanaugh
not pictured: Kate Beckett

This is a hard pill for me to swallow. It always has been. I desperately, more than anything, want Beckett to be Jordan, only worse. I want her to do the things Jordan did and almost did, I want her to be the loosest of loose cannons, free-falling from a place of moral superiority and do-goodery to the bottom of the pit, covered in somebody else's blood and liking it. "Recoil" was impossible for me to choke down up until an hour ago, because in that episode's premise I could see my dreams coming true, and yet they didn't. I think it's very, very possible that the reason Beckett is not Jordan is because of how popular Castle is, that it's advertised as more a comedy than a drama, that character progression as black as an unlit basement for the lead character would probably drastically impact the show's demographic, and I'm not, for two seconds, going to live under the delusion that this isn't something which impacts how the show is written. And while I hate this, I need to accept it, and, having more or less accepted it, I need to look at Beckett on her level -- without Jordan's shadow passing over her -- because doing so reveals some things which do make her more interesting to me, and can make her not-being-Jordan-ness matter less.

"Recoil" throws Beckett into an extremely delicate moral position, one in which any decision she makes is going to result in heavy consequences, and while everyone has on opinion on what course she should take (including me), no one can make the choice for her. Beckett connects very, very deeply with her identity as a cop -- we know this because in many episodes, not just "Recoil," she can be found making statements like "I'm a cop. This is my responsibility." and believing it as she says it -- yet her life since 1999 has been utterly driven and directed by a deep-seated need for revenge, justice, and closure over her mother's murder. By s5, Beckett more or less has found the answers she's sought for well over a decade, but has found no relief in them, and she has to live every day not only with the emotional and physical bullet wounds resulting from her pursuit, but with the knowledge that the man responsible for them is safe, sound, and viewed more or less favorably by the general population (including her boss) instead of as the monster she knows him to be. We know she wants Bracken dead, and Bracken knows it too, because she's told him so point blank, multiple times. And not only do they know it, but everyone else within Beckett's circle knows or at least suspects it too -- Castle has even seen her letter to Bracken, in which she "dotted the 'i' on 'kill' with a little heart." Yet, when Beckett is placed in a situation in which she can finally act as executioner, not only doesn't she choose to do so, but Bracken chooses to remain under her dubious protection (because, let's be real, if Bracken had wanted to, he very easily could have found a hundred justifiable reasons to get his case reassigned to a different detective; in fact, he's a senator; he wouldn't even have needed to explain himself).

How does Gates and the aid not feel that tension?

Bracken's not an idiot -- he's completely aware of Beckett's position; that by becoming his bodyguard, she in affect holds his life in her hands. But he chooses to let her keep that power, and he chooses to take every opportunity to remind her that she has it, pointing out from the get-go that him being in the crosshairs "must be a dream come true" for her. And I think he does this precisely because he's not an idiot. I think he drew the same conclusion about Beckett that I've been forced to accept, that she's too moral of a being to allow herself to be ruled by the flash heat desire for revenge, and that this driving need of hers for revenge would in fact, paradoxically, serve as his ultimate protection (at least, in this instance).

I came to this conclusion because his decision reminds me a lot of two characters who made a similar, strategic choice in the Crossing Jordan episodes "Ockham's Razor" (2.10) and "Jump, Push, Fall" (4.21) --which I am now going to spoil in minor ways, so be warned. In "Ockham's" we see Dr. Ben Hothorne, Garret's bitter rival, decide to murder his wife within Garret's jurisdiction. Garret eventually comes to realize that Hothorne did this "because he knew I hated him, that I would go out of my way to believe [in his innocence] because I hated him." And this is exactly what Garret does (at least until he figures this logic out). He refuses to accept that Hothorne is guilty because he can't help but suspect his reasons for coming to this conclusion -- if he truly believes him guilty, or if he just wants it to be so. In "Jump," Jack Slokum (Ph.D., M.D., J.D.) makes a similar gamble: in his witch hunt to bring down Garret, he employs Jordan as his partner, Jordan who considers Garret her closest, most trustworthy friend. Garret, on learning this, points out that it's "smart" because "that way, he can't be accused of railroading me." Slokum enlists Jordan because he knows she will choose to pursue the truth, despite of, and, perhaps, because of, the position she's been placed in -- between loyalty to her friend and loyalty to her moral convictions (because Jordan so outspokenly serves the truth for the victims she speaks for).

Of course, Bracken's decision doesn't completely parallel those of Hothorne or Slokum, but I believe the analogy can still be drawn: Beckett can't let Bracken die on her watch despite her overwhelming wish that he would, because if she gives in, and he does, then that makes her as much a monster as he is. I think Bracken had the arrogance (and the cajones) to bet his life that this is the moral dilemma Beckett would find herself ensnared within -- and she is. Letting him die would betray both the person she's set out to be (a morally righteous officer of the law) and the person(s) for whom she works (the victim, and, by extension, her mother).

I think that this is something which is recognized by everyone on Beckett's team, especially Castle, which is interesting, given his fears in "After the Storm." I'd venture to posit that it's because of her actions in "Storm" that Castle, throughout "Recoil," never shows any true concern that Beckett is going to let Bracken die. We know from previous episodes that Castle has in the past been concerned over her ability to retain her humanity, yet here he makes no attempt to call her off the case, in a situation where Beckett could so easily (and nearly does) bring about an extremely fatal end to her greatest enemy without the threat of detection or legal ramifications. I can't believe that this is because he wants Bracken to die himself, because, again, of his actions in "Storm." More to the point, I can't for a second imagine that he's okay with Beckett living with blood on her hands, that he would be able to stand by and allow her to lose herself in such a dark decision. Castle does nothing to prevent her in her course simply because he believes in her, for the same reason Bracken does, even after he sees her playfully psychotic heart in the 'i' of 'kill,' even after she admits to having almost burned the letter and letting their shooter go.

This quality is at once what makes Beckett so interesting and so frustrating to me. She seems to be caught in a flux, struggling in times of moral conflict to orient herself between what she wants and what she can live with. She's long since decided who she is, long since invested in her identity as a cop, yet when her darker impulses flash to the surface, that faith in herself almost seems to evaporate. This is why she has a history of seeking independent counsel (as her current shrink is at least her second), why she finds herself running to the breakroom, terrified that she's going to lose herself off a precipice, why she tells Castle, "I've gotta make this right. I've gotta save Bracken's life." Throughout the episode, she's presented with opportunities to indirectly kill Bracken, opportunities which increase in their potential effectiveness even while costing progressively less from her to see realized (at first, she must decide to destroy evidence, then to let McManus go; by the end, all she has to do is literally, as Castle points out, stand there and watch). But as the episode progresses, we see her faith in herself steadily increase, until she makes the choice to risk her own life to save Bracken's, by shielding him from the bomb with her body.

It's hard for me to understand the strength of Beckett's moral convictions sometimes, and I think this is a sentiment shared by her team. Esposito wonders at her ability to work the case, remarking to Ryan on several occasions that he would have let Bracken die. Castle tells Bracken he wouldn't have done what Beckett did, that he would have "stood there and watched." And I? I sat on my couch, knees to my chest, begging her aloud and often to let him die. But I think what this opinion fails to realize is the thing that Ryan quietly reminds Esposito, the thing which Beckett struggles with the most: that she has to live with it once it's done. For someone like Beckett, who's constructed her selfhood on the strength and sincerity with which she believes in truth and justice and rightness, having to live with herself after making such a call would probably trigger an extreme crisis of faith.

Of course, this is precisely why I did (and do) want her to kill him, because seeing Beckett experience such a thing would provide me so much mental fodder that I would probably literally gain several pounds. I want more than anything for her to struggle with her (professed) rage and grief, over the death of her mother and over the near loss of her own life, and lose; for her then to have to look at herself in Jordan's mirror, and, perhaps, want to shatter it too.

I don't know that I'll ever see this wish granted, but I don't think I'll ever stop hoping for it (though, if I'm honest with myself, I know this will likely never come to pass), because the stronger the steel, the more satisfying it is to see it finally crack. "Recoil" does an excellent job of showing us the strength of Beckett's internal, moral steel, which I appreciate now more than I did yesterday, so now I can only hope that's it's merely a set-up for her eventual fall from grace.

You know you want to, Beckett.