House 6×05 — “Brave Heart”: This episode was kind of boring for me, and bordered on supremely cheesy in some parts. For instance, that whole “autopsy” scene where the patient suddenly woke up… did the show really go there? How ridiculous! And Wilson talking out loud to Amber every night?? Hey, I can understand going through a mental recap of your day to a dearly departed loved one, but doing it aloud with a house guest in the next room? Uh, I don’t think so. Wilson just came off as utterly pathetic rather than sweet. He needs to get over her soon.
I thought the Chase stuff had the potential to be interesting, but I was wrong. I’m already tired of him and all his baggage from what he did to James Earl Jones. I read somewhere that this is the incident that paves the way for Jennifer Morrison’s exit from the show, which sucks. That probably means that Thirteen will be back to a regular role soon thereafter. Boo!
Castle 2×05 — “When the Bough Breaks”: This was another great Castle episode! I’m telling you, this show is on a roll here in the second season! I absolutely love the continued chemistry between Castle and Beckett, and enjoyed all the scenes where they realized that this might be their last case together. I thought for sure that Castle was finally going to ask her out, first at the book launch party when she read the dedication, and then at the end when it looked like he was leaving to write the Bond series. In fact, I think the end would have been the perfect time for it. First, he asks her out to dinner and she accepts. Then, they get their respective phone calls letting them know that they’ll still be working with each other. After that, they have to deal with the whole dinner date thing and decide whether to keep the date or cancel now that they’re still partners. Oh, well.
I know it will be practically impossible to sustain the UST for years and years in a believable way, but I hope the writers can figure it out. I think that like David & Maddie and Mulder & Scully, these two are actually better apart than they would be together. The only couples that I liked more after they finally got together were Josh & Donna from The West Wing and Barney & Robin from How I Met Your Mother (though the jury’s still partially out on them). I would hate to see the Beckett/Castle chemistry get messed up from a premature pairing.
Criminal Minds 5×05 — “Cradel to Grave”: I thought this was a very strong episode. Initially, I figured the case would just be a ripoff of recent headlines, with the unsub keeping the women around for sex and then leaving the resulting offspring in the dungeon as well. But the writers included sufficient differences in the script to make the storyline far more interesting than if they had simply chosen the lazy route.
What was with all the electronics down in the dungeon, though? They had some expensive-looking medical equipment and stuff. How did the unsubs, who lived in a rather modest house, afford those things? Also, didn’t they have an ultrasound machine? I could’ve sworn I saw one of the women getting an ultrasound. If so, then they would have known the sex of the baby well before it was born, right?
I’m not sure that I like this development of Hotch stepping down and putting Morgan in charge. This reminds me of House still being on the team while Foreman is “in charge”. Won’t the rest of the agents still turn to Hotch for validation of theories and so forth? Why wasn’t Rossi chosen to replace Hotch as the leader? I don’t particularly care for that character, but he has more experience than Morgan and is the senior agent, so promoting him would make more sense. Meh, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see where this leads.