Castle – 9 meets 3 at dinner for 2

Holy smokes. There was a point in “The Third Man” where I was on the verge of being completely lost. But that’s a good thing, and another nod to the great mysteries at the heart of each episode. They really do go all out building in the various twists and turns. And, thankfully, they also do a good job of reigning all of those twists back in by the end of the hour. On top of another great case, we also had another very fun chapter in the Castle/Beckett courtship, made all the more entertaining by the meddling of Esposito.

Starting with the case, I know exactly where I started to get lost. It was Mickey’s (Rick Gonzalez, Reaper!) crazed explanation about the events at the apartment. It was so frantic (plus, I was watching on the internet) that I misheard “Maitlin’s apartment” as “maintenance department.” I was positively bamboozled trying to figure out how the guy from the maintenance department figured into all of this. Was it the same guy that fixed the leaky faucet? What the hell? Fortunately, that was cleared up soon enough, so I was back on the right page, or rather, reading the right book. Still, that didn’t do much to help solve the mystery.

I was totally sidelined by the possibility that it was all about a bank heist, and somewhat thrown by my own prediction that it was all part of some real-estate shenanigans. That’s what I get for focusing on Castle admiring the apartment instead of the big clue, the airport party. It all paid off rather well, and the pet store brought with it some very funny scenes. Topping the list was Castle’s reaction to the spider, and you had to laugh at Esposito’s motherfrickin’ snakes on that motherfrickin’ plane.

Meanwhile … how much fun was the dueling date story? Castle and Beckett working so hard at making each other jealous was much more predictable than the third man whodunit, but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. As soon as they both started talking about the case at Drago, I knew they would solve the case at the same time. And points to CC Chatter Nancy, who called that Fireman Brad would end up with Amanda (Sarah Brown). (Side note: Man, it has been a good year for General Hospital actors in prime-time, hasn’t it?)

Despite being completely predictable, the whole affair was just a treat. Every part of it. From Alexis fretting over who will take care of dear old Dad when she’s moved out … to Esposito pushing Castle’s buttons for kicks and giggles … to Beckett’s bumbling request to have Lanie set her up on a date. And, of course, we got the big payoff at the end, as Castle and Beckett headed off on a date of their own. Yeah … I’m sure they would both insist that it wasn’t a date, but I think we all know better.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Jan 26, 2010 @ 00:18 EST5EDT