Castle – A Chill Goes Through Her Veins

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Another solid week in the Castle.  Despite my fears last week that they were going to make the show too sexy too soon between Beckett and Castle, this week they were back to the comfortable-in-a-business-partnership mode.  With the pleasant addition that they now also seem comfortable enough to snipe at each other without worrying about offering offense.  I was definitely pleased to see that.  I think it’s the right level of relationship between them for a while longer.

This time the murder was really a cold case–both in that it involved a woman who had been missing for 5 years, and that her body was discovered frozen at a construction site.  Beckett and Castle track the body to a storage facility, where it had been held in a giant freezer, but beyond that they run into a brick wall of anonymity.  In order to solve the case, they must go back to the beginning and try to figure out what happened when the woman disappeared all those years ago.

After the usual round of twists and turns and switchbacks, they uncover the truth of what happened.  In this case, an affirmation of the old adage that “friends help you hide, but best friends help you hide bodies.”

We got to see Castle showing off his storytelling skills again, spinning wild ideas into plausible situations through his powers of suggestion.  As he says to one of the junior detectives who scoffs at his theory, “Give me 250 pages.  I can make you believe it.”  Annoying as Castle sometimes gets (both in the sense of his hit-and-run romantic life, and his need to not follow the rules), he is also an intelligent and talented man.  It’s fun to see his face light up with the joy of the hunt as he untangles the story from its end-the dead body.  Nathan Fillion plays that enthusiasm and insatiable curiosity very, very well.

We also got to see more of Beckett on a personal level:  she finally told Castle about what event in her past had prompted her to enter law enforcement.  This week’s case struck a nerve with Beckett, when it became clear that the detective who had originally investigated the woman’s disappearance had written it off as another of her drug-related leavings and failed to follow through looking into all the other possibilities.  She was justifiably angry, but also disproportionately so.  Eventually she explains to Castle that her mother had been murdered and that the crime had been attributed to random gang violence and never brought to closure.

I have decided that I don’t especially like the way this show is previewed.  The sneak peeks at next week’s episode make the series look more campy than it is.  I’m not trying to say the show’s entirely serious, ’cause it’s not, but the previews make it look like it’s an hour of witty banter and eyebrow waggling, and it’s a bit better than that.  So I really don’t know if they’re doing themselves any favors with that kind of advertising.

All the same, I’m looking forward to next Monday already.

10 Comments

1. 

   Damon

   April 8, 2009 at 9:54 am

   I actually fell asleep for part of this episode and woke up to see Castle looking at Becketts mothers file. Did not think it was a great episode and it seems that this is another show on the ropes and will probably get canned as well.

   Reply
2. 

   Damon

   April 8, 2009 at 10:31 am

   Yeah I think that is the way I feel about it as well, there is something Dr. Horrible about him in this show that makes it worth watching just for him.

   Reply
3. 

   Jay Tomio

   April 8, 2009 at 10:56 am

   The guy is damn Malcom Reynolds. I’m waiting 20 years for the Trek like rejuvenation.

   They took the sky from me.

   Reply
4. 

   Elena

   April 8, 2009 at 10:27 am

   To be honest, even though I’m enjoying the show I’m enjoying it 85% because of Nathan Fillion and Nathan Fillion only. It’s entertaining but not special. I would neither be surprised nor traumatized if it gets axed.

   Reply
5. 

   Jay Tomio

   April 8, 2009 at 11:35 am

   BSC will be hosting/sponsoring that convention in twenty years and producing the film.

   Reply
6. 

   Elena

   April 8, 2009 at 11:09 am

   Damon – yep. It’s actually an interesting case study in how one person can carry an entire show.

   Jay – see my recap of the 1st episode when I said he’s playing the Captain again. Because he is. And I’m totally covering that convention in 20 years.

   Reply
7. 

   Bill Cameron

   April 8, 2009 at 2:00 pm

   In a broad sense, I don’t think this is a great show. But I do think it’s a very good show, and one I’d certainly like to see continue. I don’t see it as on the ropes so much as still feeling its way forward. The groove so far is solid, but there is room for it to grow. 85% Fillion? Definitely. That’s not a problem for me. The only question is if Fillion can carry the series long enough for it to really blossom. I’d like to hope so.

   What made this episode particularly interesting to me was the questions it left unanswered. The mystery was fine, if not striking. But manner in which Beckett and Castle solved the mystery opened doors into their characters—that’s what works for me. Beckett is still a bit prosaic, but Castle continues to display a complexity belied by his outward pose.

   So now we’re left to ask what exactly he will do with Beckett’s backstory? And more importantly, what will he do with Johanna Beckett’s case file? Will he betray the measure of trust she’s started to him, or come to earn it in unexpected ways. The possibilities aren’t wide open, but the way those possibilities are explored by the writers and portrayed by Fillion could be.

   Whatever happens, I’ll be there at that convention in 20 years. Sign me up now.

   Reply
8. 

   Bill Cameron

   April 8, 2009 at 2:02 pm

   Will he betray the measure of trust she’s started to HAVE IN him, to HAVE IN him.

   Reply
9. 

   MattD

   April 8, 2009 at 3:33 pm

   It makes me sad how formulaic the show is — so much potential in the premise is untapped.

   (Then again, this is why I can’t read cozy mystery series…I just lose interest after the first 2-3 books. I keep wanting them to subvert the premise, and it’s probably never going to happen.)

   Of course formulaic shows can be fun, but they typically need more of an ensemble cast to provide a more interesting variety of character dynamics (cf Leverage, Eureka, etc.).

   Although that said, I do like Beckett as a character, she’s more than 15% of the appeal of the show to me. What I think is interesting is that we’re all wondering about her background, but nobody is asking why Castle chose to write, and write crime fiction in particular…

   And I can’t say whether or not I like Castle’s character because I’m still not sure what his character is.

   Reply
10. 

    Elena

    April 8, 2009 at 9:00 pm

    Bill, I think you hit the nail on the head with this episode working not necessarily for the mystery but the exposition on the characters that came with it.

    Matt, I agree that it’s pretty formulaic and has room to grow. If it hangs on for a while maybe it will.

    Interesting that you like Beckett more than that. I am actually not sure on the casting for her. I feel like I should like her more than I do, based on the character type; but I don’t dislike her, either, so one really great episode (an episode wherein she is really great) could increase her stock for me.

    Reply