Castle – “One Man’s Treasure” – review

I really enjoyed this episode of Castle.  I thought it was funnier than usual, and in a very natural way.  It also had a great subplot with Alexis, continuing the trend of expanding her character and giving her both more of a role than Castle’s daughter and jumping off of her help with the investigation of her favorite singer’s death. 

The mystery revolved around a man who had worked at a recycling company who had both a wife and a fiancée turn up at the morgue to identify the body….The threads began to weave together when it was discovered that he had used to work for the direct competitor of his new job, and that he might, in fact, have assumed a second identity to infiltrate the new company as a corporate spy.  The fiancée was an engineer at the company—but is she really as innocent as she seems, or was she playing him as well as he was playing her?

The smaller story with Alexis had her volunteering at the precinct for one of her classes at school.  Beckett set her to organizing and cataloging a room full of things collected at crime scenes that were not used as evidence but also not of note or importance enough for family members to think of asking for.  Alexis finds a photo album with what appear to be one-of-a-kind photographs and decides to track down the family of the victim who had owned the pictures.

First, I am going to admit flat-out that I didn’t recognize the reference being made with the opening scene of Castle playing with his remote control helicopter and making a commander’s voice.  It seemed like it was a similar thing to his Firefly reprisal at Halloween, but I didn’t catch it.  Anyone else know what it was?

Regardless of that, it was such a typical grown-up boy thing to have him doing.  Reminded me very much of the one I live with.  The digs from Beckett and Mama Castle about Alexis being more grown-up and responsible than he is were also funny and seemed like natural family ribbing.  What was it Martha said, she was “still waiting” for that moment when she looked at her son and wondered when did he grow up so fast?  Lolz.  And Beckett talking about “no, it’s Big Castle who annoys me; I’m sure Little Castle will be a dream.” 

And, of course, Alexis is much less annoying than her dad.  She is rebelling against him in the only way he’s left—by being studious, responsible, and grounded.  I know some of the fans of the show aren’t especially fond of her, but she reminds me so much of myself at that age that I can’t help but relate to her and like her.  The moment when she polices him like Beckett does, when he’s poking around in all the old non-evidence, and she all but slaps his hand to say “leave it alone”?  Hilarity.

Even the interplay with Ryan and Espesito was looser and more natural than usual this week.  I mean, it’s not like the jokes were necessarily all that clever or original (although, let’s be honest with ourselves:  how many of them that we crack over the course of a day actually are?), but they weren’t as lame and predictable as they sometimes are, either.  It felt…natural.   

I liked the mystery this week, too.  I was never really sure what was going on, who was playing whom, or who was only pretending to get played.  The information was doled out in small enough doses that I kept guessing and remained engaged throughout the investigation.

Finally, the story with Alexis was really sweet, that she took the time to actually go ask all the detectives who might have worked that case who the photos belonged to.  She was so cute when she thought she’d hit a dead-end and was really disappointed, only to catch fire—just like Beckett—when she found a new lead.  (Ironically her dad was the one who gave her the new idea, just as he often does for Beckett.)  Is this perhaps foreshadowing that Alexis might consider a career as a detective, if music doesn’t work out for her?  I mean, in a way it’s logical, since she’s grown up with a mystery-writer dad and now has a stable, intelligent, and responsible female role model—possibly for the first time in her life—in Beckett. 

I hope they continue to expand the friendship/mentorship between Beckett and Alexis, because I think it really adds some depth to both of them.  And, of course, it’s always funny to watch Castle get excluded from things by the two most important women in his life….