Spoilers AHOY! Let’s talk about those season finales! part 1

18 May

I’m up at my mom’s (a nice place to visit and come home to) and have been struck down by an evil genius stomach bug that has kept me here a week longer than planned. The one upside to this evil bug is that I’ve gotten to hang out with my family during the ends of some of our favorite shows and enjoy those finale cliffhangers together. (Though, my brother is annoyed because I keep snaking his chair)

Let’s just be safe- there be SPOILERS here!

Castle.

Well, who doesn’t love this cop dramedy wherein Nathan Fillion’s author character follows around the gorgeous cop lady under the guise of research, but ends up helping her with cases? It took four years for the pair to come out and admit their feelings for each other, leading to this fifth season’s lovely romance rollercoaster. It added a nice layer to their team-up, especially since they had to keep it hidden from the captain, less Castle lose his “position”. But that’s not the important part- I’m here to talk about the season finale… Let’s see… So Kate gets a job offer. That’s pretty much it. Oh, wait, the job is a federal law enforcement gig based in D.C. Hmmm… will this mean the end of the relationship? It did mean that Castle had to get off his ass and figure out what he actually wanted from the relationship. And get off his ass he did- right down on to one knee. Awwwww. So now we have a will she/won’t she situation hanging over our heads til fall. Argh.

Here’s my one question though- Castle’s got a ton of money, why can’t he pack up and semi-move to D.C. to be with her when she isn’t working? Sure things’ll change but at the relationship wouldn’t have to end if she took the job. And secondly, cuz there had to be another question, if she doesn’t take the job and says yes, will she resent him? I hate cliffhangers.

NCIS.

Ya know, I’m starting to hate how this show teases me. Kills me with such great episodes every week and then taunts me with hints of the Tiva relationship that doesn’t exist. This season finale essentially put that into words. Grrrr. But that’s not the important part… OK, so Gibbs is being hunted by an investigator out for his blood because he sees that Gibbs and the team don’t always follow the letter of the law, exactly. Well, um… how many terrorists have the team taken out? And how many has the investigator? I’m on team Gibbs.

The episode ends with Gibbs out on special assignment (i.e. being a sniper), the team quitting NCIS (OMG! What will they do now??), and Gibbs looking down a scope at Fornell! Wait… what? I love Fornell! Oh and that last moment, is 4 months in the future. So it damn well better be explained super fast in the season premiere!

But seriously- what will the team do if they don’t work for NCIS? Ziva can stay in the U.S. but with her background it’s not like she can go become a barista at Starbucks! Tony is essentially useless as anything but a cop, though I doubt the D.C. police force would hire him. McGee could be OK, he’s got money and skills that could be applied to many fields. I envision them somehow forming a small P.I. firm. Future spinoff?

Elementary.

Holy hell, that was a good finale.

The moment we’d all been waiting for happened- Moriarty is revealed. And no, it wasn’t too shocking who it turned out to be, but the reveal was nicely done. And then the spiral that Sherlock went through following it as his entire world crashed down around him? Fantabulous. This is why the series (and Jonny Lee Miller in particular) is one of my guilty pleasures. It was so well done that it really seemed he could lose his battle with addiction… did he? Here’s the spoiler… no. The overdose that was heavily advertised for the finale? A ruse to bring in Moriarty on Sherlock’s terms. Prior to that moment, she’d (yes, she) held the cards and controlled the situations in which they met. But now he finally had all the information and with the assistance of Watson- who could see the things that he could not- he defeated his nemesis. For now.

One thing I really enjoyed was that the energy of the episode did not lose the momentum that had been building throughout the season. Sometimes when a show is double length or has flashbacks (something that hadn’t been done previously), the momentum can be effected. But in this case, it kept going.

Another thing I liked- no cliffhanger. The series was picked up for a second season quite some time ago, so they could’ve easily chosen to leave fans hanging, waiting to wrap up a story (the two previously discussed shows did!) but instead it gave us a nice solid episode end of Sherlock and Watson, sitting on the roof, watching a new species of bee begin life.

I can haz moar noa pleez???

Alright… that’s enough for part 1. I’ll be back with more season finales in part 2 (and however many parts this takes!).