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Castle: A Murder Is Forever

“These art pieces all over, these are my story; but, the shells? That's ours.”

This episode was a welcome return to the norm. In other words, Alexis was nowhere to be found.

Surprisingly for November sweeps, the case this week was a fairly standard procedural. It wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t very exciting. The resolution got a tad convoluted and messy, but at least the boyfriend was innocent. As he was the first one interviewed, I assumed he was the guilty party. So, well done, writers, for shaking up the norm.

This episode certainly took a walk on the wild side -- animal metaphors abounded. The victim, Alice, had worked a la Dian Fossey with gorillas in the mist; the fixer was named Hawk; the CEO runs a company called Minotaur (mythical, but still), monkey therapy, Linus the lion and the elephant carrying the money. I’m not sure how many more animals they could have squeezed in to a mere forty-five minutes.

We were treated to some great Esposito and Ryan moments this week, never a bad thing. The whole scene in the car was priceless and made me laugh out loud. Esposito running for the border while Ryan wants to stop for lunch was terrific. While the shootout was a bit OTT, once again we see Esposito take care of his friend first as he throws Ryan to the floor.

Of course, with the victim being a relationship expert, there would have to be the Caskett equivalent. In this case, it was about Castle turning the loft from his house to their house. I was surprised that the writers resisted the impulse to refer to “Cuffed” in the opening scene as the parallels were astonishing. Our couple wakes up together with a lion nearby.

Throughout the episode, we see Castle coming to terms with the fact that change is nigh and we get to watch Beckett help him get there. She certainly has her guy’s number. The conversation in the garage and then later at her desk were fun and nicely done. The smile on Beckett’s face throughout was a clear telegraph that she knew exactly what she was doing.

It worked. The final scene with the seashells was very sweet. Castle is good with the romantic gestures and I was pleased to see Beckett appreciate this one. My favorite parts of this season have been watching Caskett negotiate their engagement. So far, the beats have worked well for me.

A good episode, but not exciting. It didn’t irritate me, for a change, so I will give it three out of four flawless diamonds.

Tidbits:

-- I was interested that the slideshow at the beginning showed Alice smiling deferentially to three powerful men: Clinton, Gates, and Gore. This seemed to fly in the face of the idea that she was a couples coach.

-- Congratulations to the show for its four People’s Choice nominations. Oddly, Nathan Fillion, who won last year, was not nominated.

Soundbites:

Castle: "You see, I'm honoring you by inviting you into my territory and Linus is part of that territory."
Beckett: "And if you want to be invited into my territory again, you should probably rethink that."

Ryan: "I don't know about you but I am very comfortable in my masculinity."
Esposito: "You do realize you're wearing a sweater vest, right?"

Esposito: “How deep would my pockets have to be to afford a rock like that?”
Jeweler: “Detective, you are not tall enough to have pockets deep enough. But, I would say it’s worth $60 million. Conservatively.”
Esposito: “Yeah, I ain’t that tall.”

Beckett: "If you don't like the elephants, I don't like the elephants."

ChrisB is a freelance writer who spends more time than she ought in front of a television screen or with a book in her hand.

2 comments:

  1. I wasn't a huge fan of this one. They did make the murderer someone different this time, at least, but they had to do some real plot contortions to make the motive work. Plus, there were quite a few holes. If this diamond was supposed to be a secret, why in the world would you wear it on a red carpet? No one noticed the 100 carat diamond around her neck from the red carpet pictures and was all, hey, where did you get the giant diamond? Ryan and Espo are allowed to cart around something THAT valuable with no extra back-up?

    The Caskett stuff worked better, but I still wondered at Castle being so controlling over his space. He hasn't lived alone in decades, you think he would've accepted women wanting to change things in his house. But the seashells thing was very cute. It reminded me of the scene in Friends where Ross accuses Rachel of not being sentimental and she pulls out a box of seemingly inconsequential items with immense sentimental value.

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  2. I thought it was ok. Loved the Espo and Ryan interactions and also the Caskett scenes, but the story was a bit boring. As far as the first thing you questioned, sunbunny, they did mention that they were the only ones that "knew it was real", so the red carpet people just thought it was well made costume jewelry. How believable that is, I'm not sure. I was also baffled that Ryan and Espo were allowed to cart it around.

    As side note, I don't usually buy into the "name combining"/shipper thing, but Caskett kind of sounds good. Maybe I'm just jealous though, since my husband's and my "shipper" name would have been Bleath.

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