Network: ABC
Time: Mondays, 10:00-11:00pm
Cast: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever, Susan Sullivan, Molly C. Quinn, Penny Jerald Johnson, Tamala Jones
Summary (from imdb.com): Castle & Beckett confront the possibility of paranormal foul play when a world renown ghost hunter is mysteriously murdered while investigating a haunting at a legendary New York mansion.
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE EPISODE
Review: I really have enjoyed this season of Castle. I don't hate the new captain as much as I expected to, and I'm fairly amused by the love/hate (Okay, mostly hate) relationship she has with Castle. Sure, I'd like to give Beckett a stern shake and force her to tell Castle she remembers everything and she loves him too, but the waiting only occasionally makes me nuts (like when they try to draw parallels between whatever case they're working on and Castle and Beckett's relationship). Even Alexis' new, semi-bratty stage hasn't annoyed me as much as I thought it would.
But this episode was far and away the best episode of the season to date.
I don't normally like Halloween episodes, especially in dramas. I don't really like scary stuff (shh, I only write about crime television). And I know Castle has done a Halloween episode at least once before, but I couldn't really call up the plot.
I needn't have worried though. Sure, the whole episode was about ghosts and demons, but it was also Castle, the way this show was meant to be written. I'd had an inkling that something was off in the beginning of the season, but I couldn't really put a finger on it until now. While there has been some decent banter between Castle and Beckett (and Ryan and Esposito), it wasn't really clicking until this week. I didn't realize that until I saw how much smoother they were in this episode. Every line, every facial tick, every movement was perfectly in sync, and that made all the difference.
If I had to pick one thing that didn't quite work, it was the Ryan/Esposito B story. The guys took their women (Ryan's fiancee Jenny (played by his real-life wife Juliana Dever) and Esposito's girlfriend Lanie) out to dinner for a double-date. I'd heard about this story, and I was looking forward to it. Ryan and Esposito's bromance is one of the greatest currently on television, and I've liked the small snippets we've been given between Ryan and Jenny and Esposito and Lanie. Combining the couples into an awesome foursome seemed inevitable.
But apparently the Powers That Be didn't agree with my idea. Instead of fun, light-hearted affair, we were treated to an incredibly cheesy and awkward toast by Ryan (sorry, man, I love you, but that can't be explained away with, "Well, I'm me") and then the World's Worst Question by Jenny. "So when are you two getting married?" she asks Esposito and Lanie. Okay, first of all, who asks that to a woman she's just met? That's something your blue-haired great-aunt asks you because she's hoping she'll live to see it or your mean-spirited older brother asks because he wants to make trouble. Am I crazy, or do you not ask that if you're trying to make someone your friend? Or keep someone as your friend, for that matter?
After that, obviously Esposito and Lanie decided they needed to break up, since Esposito's not ready to get married and Lanie... isn't either. Hmmm. I can only think of two reasons for the abrupt ending given to this relationship that we never really got to see much anyway: 1) the writers realized they didn't have much they wanted to do with Esposito and Lanie (and the chemistry, while present, was weak at best), or 2) the writers have something planned for Esposito and Lanie in the future. Either way, nothing about that story really worked for me.
But that was a very tiny fly in the ointment for this episode. The ghost story was perfect. I actually didn't identify the killer from the first minute he walked on-screen, which is unusual for Castle. I loved the intricate setup of the "haunted house," and that, while the demon was explained away, it doesn't completely remove the idea that there might supernatural forces. But most of all, I loved that Castle and Beckett seemed to be back on equal footing. Maybe we're starting to move away from the shooting aftermath, and we can get back to the Castle of previous seasons that we all loved so much.
Rating: 5/5
Favorite line:
Castle: So... if Barry's not our guy, I think it's time we revisit the possibility that our killer's a...
Beckett: If you say ghost, I'm sending you home.
Castle: Apparition-American.
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I totally agree with you! This episode was amazing, especially in this season where the writing has felt stiffer and flater than normal. It's nice to finally see them all at their best! Though, as a fan of ghost stories and the horror genre, I always wish that it's really a ghost! But naturally, that's not to be in a show like this, so I appreciated there attempt at keeping things a little "open-ended."
ReplyDeleteI agree that the sub-plot could have been so much more than it turned out to be. I wish it had been more silly and fun, and that Lani and Jenny had had a chance to hit it off and poke some fun at their boys. I mean, it felt contrived purely to break up Lani and Esposito, as if the writers forgot they'd put the two characters together and regretted it.
Here's to hoping the writing continues to be as good as this episode!