Castle – Nikki will burn

This week Castle got a little stunt-casting star-power bonus in the form of Dana Delany. How that came about is an interesting story on its own. It seems that when Nathan Fillion read the Jordan Shaw part, he called Delany and asked her to play it. She declined, because she already had the Desperate Housewives gig. Fortunately for us, someone at ABC liked the idea and things were set in motion to make it possible. What’s more, this all led to Delany landing the lead in another ABC pilot, Body Of Evidence. For now though, we’ll stick to Agent Shaw.

It didn’t play out exactly how I thought it would on first look. My guess was that Shaw and Beckett would be cut from the same cloth, and having Shaw take over the investigation would cause quite the rift. Something akin to Brenda/Raydor on The Closer, if you follow that one. Castle even goes so far as to mention that Shaw is the federal Beckett. While there were certainly glances, and you could tell Beckett wasn’t exactly thrilled, their working relationship is pretty solid.

The real fireworks came from Castle, and his infatuation with the technology and the new playground that comes with the FBI team. His wide-eyed amazement at just realizing who Agent Shaw was really sold that aspect of it. I especially liked, “Wow … there’s an app for that?” (Another in-joke, as Fillion turned Delany on to the iPhone.) And the way it played out afterward — from the shenanigans in the car to Beckett being jealous of Castle and Shaw running theories — was perfect. As was the realization that when we get down to it, Castle will always side with Beckett.

Getting to the big case, I’m both fascinated and confused. I love having a truly epic villain. Puzzles, words on bullets, taunting phone calls, a body left propped against the door…. Those are the makings of a case that is worthy of  “special event” status, and bringing in Delany. I was ahead of the game on the Conrad murder, calling it as a setup as soon as he appeared in the window. Unfortunately, my operating theory was that it was all heading back to Donald Salt (Andrew Rothenberg). Then the preview for next week went and showed us the real baddy, so it looks like Salt is off the table.

The two-part status leaves much of the case up in the air. But that’s OK; we’ll deal with all of that in a week’s time. There was still so much to like about this episode that it stands up on its own. Castle and Beckett reassuring each other that they’re not to blame was both fun, and telling. “You can’t blame Jodie Foster for John Hinckley, but you can blame her for Nim’s Island.” And how could you not love the awkward stares that resulted from Agent Avery (Leonard Roberts) noting the sex scene between Rook and Nikki? Or, how that all came back with everyone’s questions about Mr. Castle making breakfast.

Good stuff all around, with just one big question left to answer. No, not the fate of Beckett. Because … duh. The real question is how did she not get blown up? I’m betting that Castle’s phone call was just in time, allowing her to dive back into the tub and avoid the blast. We’ll see how it all plays out next week.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Mar 23, 2010 @ 00:14 EST5EDT