Castle, Beckett...and Josh: A recap of Countdown (and rants about Josh)

By now, anyone who follows me on Twitter probably knows about my obsessiveness with the TV show Castle (seriously though….it has Nathan Fillion AND Stana Katic….what’s not to obsess about?) Anyway I have sent many a tweet discussing how incredible this season has been. Every episode is better than the last so each week I keep nervously asking “can Castle outdo itself this time?” Well this week it DEFINITELY did.

This week’s Castle was the second piece of a dramatic two part event. Now for you non-Castle fans, Castle’s premise is ridiculously easy to understand. Castle is a mystery novelist who helps out at a police station because he is madly in love with a female detective in order to get inspiration for his books. Each episode focuses on a murder/something traumatic that Castle and Detective Kate Beckett must solve. Each episode also deals with Castle and Beckett’s unspoken love for one another. While one might think this would get old after a while, it just doesn’t (probably due to Katic and Fillion’s undeniable chemistry). The reason this week’s episode was SO good was because both Castle elements (the dangerous situation and the love story) were operating at an all time high.

Like I said this was the second part of a two part event. In the first part, Castle and Beckett discover that there is a dirty bomb somewhere in New York City. They don’t know who created the bomb or where the bomb is. Needless to say this is a DIRE situation, so a Homeland Security Agent (Agent Fallon) gets called in to help the NYPD locate the bomb. Agent Fallon really should have been called by another military name: Major Douche. 

During last week’s episode Castle and Beckett do not follow protocol which causes Major Douche Agent Fallon to kick them off the case. Naturally the two decide to go rogue and end up finding the bomb themselves. They notice that the bomb has a timer and is set to go off at 4PM the next day. However before they can do anything people start shooting at them. With no backup and countless bullets flying past them, Castle and Beckett run through a door to escape….however, this door leads to a freezer, and of course they end up getting locked in.

So this week’s episode, ‘Countdown’ picked up right where last week’s left off. One of the main things I loved about ‘Countdown’ was the suspense. I love that the bomb had a timer forcing the characters to work quickly to avoid it detonating in the middle of Manhattan. It added another level of suspense to the story, and I applaud the writers for doing that. 

Now, although the countdown provided suspense, you would think that last week’s cliffhanger ending of Beckett and Castle slowly freezing to death would add yet another layer of tension. Well, ABC kind of ruined that by playing promos for ‘Countdown’ that clearly showed Castle and Beckett safe and sound after their stint in the freezer. Yes Castle and Beckett are the main characters so it is HIGHLY unlikely they would die, but still ABC…come on! Luckily this episode was too full of awesome for ABC to ruin it with bad promos.  Despite lacking uncertainty about their chances of survival, the freezer scene was still brilliant. Castle and Beckett truly felt like they were going to die which prompted this dialogue exchange between the two:

Beckett: Castle…thank you…for being there.
Castle: Always.
Beckett: I just want you to know how much I…

At this moment, Beckett goes limp. Now it could be just me being an extreme shipper but I SWEAR she was about to tell him she loved him. Anyway Castle does his best to wake her but ends up passing out too. Luckily Castle and Beckett are found and given medical attention. This is where the situation gets ugly. Castle wakes up and starts frantically asking if Beckett is okay. We then see that Beckett has been taken care of….by JOSH.

After this week’s episode, I’ve decided one thing: I hate Josh. Yes, Josh has barely been on screen. Yes, he is hot. Yes, he rides a motorcycle. But the dude is messing up destiny, and that is just not okay. Josh is Beckett’s boyfriend who she has been seeing throughout this season. He’s a doctor that is usually out of the country. In part one we learned that his consistent absences had been bothering Beckett (which was good news because it helped open the door to Castle and Beckett admitting their feelings). So needless to say when Josh showed up I was PISSED. Why is Mr. Always Gone suddenly there? Turns out Josh decided not to go to Haiti after all…how convenient.

At this point I got extremely disappointed and kind of overreacted. I thought that was going to be it. Since Josh was there, I assumed there would be no more Castle/Beckett love going on for the rest of the episode. I was angry that the writers would cancel out any hope of cutesy Castle/Beckett moments this early on in the episode. However, like I said, I overreacted. Little did I know the best was yet to come.

The episode continues on like any normal episode of Castle. Castle and Beckett are back on the case; they do some digging, and eventually they find the bomb. By the time they reach it the counter is down to two minutes. Neither Castle nor Beckett knows how to disable the bomb so they call Agent Fallon and try to send him pictures of it, hoping that he’d be able to tell them what to do. Unfortunately this takes too long, and Fallon apologizes because he knows he won’t be able to figure it out in time. This is a beautiful moment because it really makes the audience feel for Fallon and understand that although he had been a douche the entire time, it wasn’t because he was a bad person- it was because his job forced him to be that way.

Castle and Beckett hold hands and prepare for the inevitable.  By this point I was FREAKING out. Was the bomb going to go off?! Were they finally going to admit their true feelings to each other?! Well it turns out neither. At the last second Castle pulls out ALL of the wires hoping that undoing one of them will disarm the bomb- a true McGyver moment!  Now, this might seem ridiculous but it actually makes sense if you think about it (the bomb was going to go off anyway so why not just go for it?) When the bomb doesn’t go off Castle makes the CUTEST “in your face, bomb” expression and hugs Beckett. This leads to a scene of pure bliss…almost.

Back at the precinct Castle, Beckett, and the rest of the force drink beers and go on and on about what a day they’ve had. One of the other cops tells Castle “You don’t know how lucky you are.” Castle only looks at Beckett and says that he does realize how lucky he is.  At this point the two of them are called outside by Agent Fallon.  Fallon tries to make amends with the two and then walks away, leaving Castle and Beckett by themselves. Castle then starts to say “You know, I was thinking…”  I’m pretty sure at this point I was freaking out more than I was when the bomb was about to go off.  I cocked my head and thought “THIS IS IT! THIS IS FINALLY IT! HE’LL FINALLY TELL HER HOW HE FEELS!” Unfortunately he didn’t. Castle abruptly changes the subject, making us (and Beckett) wonder what on earth just happened. We then realize that Castle stopped because someone showed up…JOSH. Stupid Josh. 

This scene PERFECTLY paralleled the end of season 2 when Beckett is about to tell Castle her feelings for him. She breaks up with her boyfriend for Castle, tells Castle she needs to talk to him alone and starts to talk.  Castle’s ex wife shows up causing Beckett to stop.  Now despite the fact that tonight Castle and Beckett failed to mention their feelings AGAIN, I love that the writers completely paralleled that scene.  It makes the audience feel for Castle even more, because apparently their timing is just never right.

So that was the end of it.  Overall this episode was full of suspense and I loved every minute of it.  I was on edge the entire time and completely threw myself into it.  I think the writers AND actors did an AMAZING job and for this I give the episode a win!

So how about you guys? Did you like this episode as much as I did? Did you think it was better than Knockdown? Were there scenes you liked that I didn’t mention yet? Do you hate Josh as much as I do?! Share below! By the way the next new episode of Castle is March 21^st- I simply don’t know if I can wait that long!