S07.E04: Child's Play

[WendyCR72]

When an ice cream vender is shot, evidence leads Beckett and Castle to believe that an unknown second-grader may have vital information about the case. Castle goes undercover at an elementary school to try and identify the second-grader but nothing goes as planned.

 

I know, a bit early as the current episode is just in the middle of airing, but the info is out, so I'll do this now so as not to forget. As always, wait 'til the episode ends on the east coast, then it's fair game!

[clarkbar]

I enjoy Castle, and I know it is often tongue-in-cheek fiction, but as an educator, it drives me crazy to see how classrooms are portrayed on TV.  No teacher I know would tolerate the obnoxious behavior of the students toward a guest in the classroom.  Still waiting for a TV elementary teacher and classroom that reflect reality.  That said, I do believe that kids would accept and relate to Castle.

 

 

[FlickerToAFlame]

Decent but forgettable episode. The kid scenes were cute, the Alexis ones creepy. Something seemed off overall, probably how Caskett was separated most of the episode.

[FlickerToAFlame]

Best scene of the episode:

http://riversnogs.tumblr.com/post/100549771341/castle-7-04-childs-play

[verdana]

I sense there will be calls for Caskett babies after this outing in some quarters. What should they have first? Boy? Girl? Twins? Please God no, not now, not ever in fact, well okay not until the very last episode then I'm happy to hear about a pregnant Beckett. I beg Marlowe with every fibre of my being to resist the inevitable push towards this as long as he can. 

 

Castle sporting fairy wings, wearing a fluffy tiara, waving a wand talking to Emily whilst having a tea party...adorable, then Emily sizing Beckett up later on and asking if they're getting married.  Best bits of an average episode made better by Fillion's natural charisma and chemistry with children.

 

Not much Castle and Beckett goodness to get worked up about which is why I watch the show, they took a back seat to the Alexis B story and Nathan with the children but I can't say I was surprised. they felt rather disconnected this episode.

Edited October 21, 2014 by verdana

[S55]

I agree it was a fairly forgettable episode. My favorite scenes were definitely Castle interacting with the kids. Especially Emily. OMG. My heart just melted during the tea party. And I was imagining him doing that with Alexis when she was younger. Just adorable. :) 

 

Also, someone please remind me to Twitter mute the writers at 9:59 p.m. ET every Monday night. I think I'll enjoy watching a ~whole lot more not seeing their tweets. lol 

Edited October 21, 2014 by S55

[KaveDweller]

Okay episode, but the show always suffers when Castle and Beckett are separated.  My favorite scene was the one in the middle when they were at the loft talking about fairy-princess girl (and Castle grabbing her to admit Alexis was acting weird).

 

It was totally obvious the annoying kid was the one who knew something.

 

I enjoy Castle, and I know it is often tongue-in-cheek fiction, but as an educator, it drives me crazy to see how classrooms are portrayed on TV. 

 

I thought the most unrealistic thing was saying that a class at a NYC (public?) school had only 20 kids in it.

 

They should have had an 8 year old kid or something. Then they would have more story to play with regarding the father/daughter thing.

 

They probably didn't want to make her too young, so it didn't seem like Castle was abandoning her to go play cop.   Plus, the teenager thing allowed for all those great scenes where Beckett gave Castle advice on parenting a teenage girl and revealed things about herself.  And I'm in the minority that I've never really liked Alexis.

[verdana]

I'm not child orientated so on paper this episode should have been a real chore to sit through but Nathan's the magic ingredient here for me no question. He was perfectly at home and I sense he doesn't even have to act really in fact at times I don't think he was. He's obviously having just as much fun as they are and being a big kid himself at heart.  I know Nathan doesn't have kids but Jesus I think he's make an amazing dad. Coupled with the fact that Castle as a character we know already is such a great parent - the set up was perfect for Nathan to have a good time and just goof around which is what he did a lot of the time.

 

Castle being shown cocky and confident and then cut down to size I don't usually find enjoyable but may be because of the situation with it being children it sort of worked, although the humor was a bit slapstick for my tastes at times but overall it was okay. Would children this age be allowed to get away with some of the things they did with Castle? It was predictable that the children were portrayed as unruly at times for the obvious laughs they were going for but it feels very much like some Hollywood stereotype they always go for when it comes to these kind of situations. I'm not sure that I buy into some of the behaviour shown there happening or being tolerated especially since it was in front of the teacher.

[verdana]

I'm not suggesting Alexis shouldn't be allowed to have some reaction to Castle's disappearance (obviously she should along with everyone else) and I'm glad the writers attempted to do something here rather than ignore it but they handled it the wrong way. They fell back into comedy mode (which tends to happen when Castle/Nathan is more the focus I find). I wish they would have tackled this in a more serious way given the subject matter. The end scene with Alexis bugged me and I wish it didn't because I used to love their father/daughter moments. I am not an Alexis hater by any means. But I did dislike them yet again having him agree with Alexis that she's the grown up of the family and with good reason. Stop this bullshit! After the immature, bratty shit she pulled over Pi and the way she treated her father Alexis forgoes the right to say that any more to him. 

 

So according to Castle Alexis has spent "way too much time having to be one" (an adult), sorry to tell you Rick but she is an adult end of story and part of that process is dealing with grown up things, so let her get on with it. She's not a child any more and I wish the show would decide what they're doing with her as a character, they lost their way with her development from about S4/5 onwards. 

 

As for the mention of Paris that exchange would have had more impact if it had not taken two seasons to hear it. So yeah there's continuity and I should be grateful but sometimes you can leave it too long to feel that meaningful or have any powerful impact.

Edited October 21, 2014 by verdana

[FlickerToAFlame]

Was it intentional that Beckett was kicked directly in the ovaries? Seemed like an odd choice, but I guess it proves she isn't pregnant yet because this show wouldn't go there (having an early pregnancy hurt by an on the job fight).

[Nadine]

Was it intentional that Beckett was kicked directly in the ovaries? Seemed like an odd choice, but I guess it proves she isn't pregnant yet because this show wouldn't go there (having an early pregnancy hurt by an on the job fight).

 

Or thinking she wouldn't be pregnant after getting kicked there (the opposite effect I mean)?

 

I'm reserving judgment until I see the episode which should be in a few hours time hopefully!

[verdana]

Good to see they had a teacher observing as there is no way in this day and age you would be allowed alone in a room with a child unsupervised, sadly that really would have required total suspension of disbelief.

 

I hated that Jason kid on sight and cheered when he got punched, go Emily! Good job acting kid if being an annoying little arse was your designated role because you played it to perfection.

 

They need to find something for poor Susan Sullivan to do, she is so wasted on this show.  Yeah I know I keep saying that but it's true. Good to see a family at home scene at the start of the episode that always works for me, them sitting down to have dinner together and doing more things as a family unit I want to see.

 

I also liked Beckett's reactions to his cocksure confidence at being able to more a whole class full over children, loved the thumbs up from Beckett. 

[McManda]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought this episode was only okay. I think I expected more ... cuteness? Instead it felt like Castle left to go be cute with the kids and then there was this second show where there was still a murder to solve. The two didn't seem to mesh really well. It might have been a bit better if they had had Beckett stay in the classroom too - call her Castle's ride or something, I don't know - but there would have just been more opportunity to build off of.

 

That said, I think Nathan is comfortable with kids, so I think the parts in the classroom felt the most real. I would have liked Beckett to witness some more of paternal Castle (because it's one of the things that I really liked about the early episodes - that yeah, he was this big kid but he was still an adult and had the capability of being more than whatever she thought of him at the time). Emily was my favorite, with her tea party and ice castle and I really enjoyed when Beckett showed up and it was almost like Emily knew that Beckett was important to Castle and that made her maybe a little jealous.

 

As far as the end fight went - I'll have to watch again and I know this isn't true now, but when I was watching on TV, my first thought was Russian-dude had stabbed Beckett in the stomach, but clearly not. I didn't even think of some sort of pregnancy ending/pregnancy barring stomach punch. Although they might have been able to fit in a pregnancy scare if they wanted - Beckett thinks this awful sounding ice cream is delicious, maybe an upset stomach (from the ice cream or the 3 day old rotting body or something), maybe a little angst over the stomach blow, and then turns out she's not/never was pregnant. It could have forced a little more Castle/Beckett interaction and maybe some talk about the future. People would have eaten it up with a spoon (no pun intended).

 

Alexis didn't bother me in this episode, because I kind of get what they were going at. I'd be afraid that my dad was going to disappear again too, if he had gone missing for two months and no one still has no idea why. I also thought it was a nice little reminder that she's always mostly been the adult in their relationship, except now she's actually an adult. And I really liked the end scene. Plus, I thought Molly looked really pretty.

 

Was that Nathan's real scooter? He looks like he's pretty comfortable using one. :) But I liked that Alexis's had the green undercarriage lights. :)

[sinkwriter]

 

The end scene with Alexis bugged me and I wish it didn't because I used to love their father/daughter moments.

 

I was very glad to see a Castle-Alexis scene where they addressed his being missing and the impact that would have on her. I find it believable that she'd be hyper-conscious of his comings and goings after that, and scared that after the next time she sees him, he might disappear again. However, I do think that final scene would have had more emotional impact on me as a viewer if they'd, you know, showed any part of what Alexis went through during the time when he was gone, rather than telling us about it in this episode's final scene.  *sigh*

Edited October 21, 2014 by sinkwriter

[FlickerToAFlame]

Terri tweeted that Hanning was Nathan's stand in for the fight scene. I think she was serious, I need to rewatch that.

[McManda]

Stand in doesn't mean he was in the episode, though. Stand in's are just for technical things like lighting and camera blocking.

 

The dude that got thrown to the floor in the classroom was definitely Nathan's stunt double. It looks like Stana's stunt double was also there (the hair is weird to me), but I can't tell because there's usually hair covering Beckett's face.

[Elysium1973]

Yawn. My favorite part of the episode was the reappearance of L.T. Alexis/Molly both annoy the shit out of me so the more I have to see of her the less happy I am. Adult!Alexis is as irritating as regular Alexis, so, thanks, but I'll peace out on that.

It's only episode four and Fillion already has that exhausted look to him. I can't imagine what he'll look like by episode nine. I did appreciate the fact that he said he was cutting out sugar during the tea party. Keep cutting out the carbs, buddy.

For some reason this episode just telegraphed "the Nathan vehicle" and it kept taking me out of the moment. By that I mean that MilMarMann stating they wanted to keep the focus on the character of Rick Castle this season and this one surely did that. Personally I have zero interest in Caskett light episodes, but that's just me. I mean, sure Fillion's cute with the fairy wings on, but his time in the classroom just went on and on. And his conflict with the "bully" kid was just so...I don't know. Dopey is the best word I can come up with. And as far as Caskett was concerned, you couldn't even tell they were together - much less engaged and getting married in two episodes. Blah.

I guess the silver lining is that we don't have to worry that CAPD was going to be the start of a trend in season seven. I think we can safety say that was a one off, much like NOF was last season. For some reason this was a really bad letdown mostly because it was just so god damned boring. Make me feel something, but don't bore me.

[verdana]

I wish they would have Beckett and Castle talk properly about his amnesia instead of making casual quips/asides almost for laughs about it. There was a brief mention at the start and then again as they walked to the crime scene before Castle (deliberately?) changed the subject. I can't decide if they want to treat this story seriously or not with these two right now or are the writers hedging their bets because they don't know what they want to do just yet?  

 

They keep mentioning it every episode (it's replaced the wedding planning rather laughably) but you're not seeing them talk about anything seriously at any stage so it doesn't do much for me.  What happened to Castle was serious but I would never know that watching this episode, it all feels rather strange. Is Castle really that bothered about what happened to him? Because unless I'm meant to assume he's covering his distress and trauma up with a veneer of cheery normality then I'm baffled. If they're still "processing" his disappearance can I see Castle and Kate doing that in some tangible way please? 

 

However, I do think that final scene would have had more emotional impact on me as a viewer if they'd, you know, showed any part of what Alexis went through during the time when he was gone, rather than telling us about it in this episode's final scene.  *sigh*

 

It's back to show don't tell me. I needed to see more of the immediate aftermath of Castle's disappearance and the devastating fall out it caused for that conversation between them to have a genuine emotional impact.  

I would assume for most fight scenes like that they would both use stunt doubles.

[FlickerToAFlame]

Stand in doesn't mean he was in the episode, though. Stand in's are just for technical things like lighting and camera blocking.

The dude that got thrown to the floor in the classroom was definitely Nathan's stunt double. It looks like Stana's stunt double was also there (the hair is weird to me), but I can't tell because there's usually hair covering Beckett's face.

True, but this is how she worded it:

@TerriEdda: That was actually @RobHanning standing in for #Castle in that fight.

[verdana]

I liked it when Castle asked the children to write a story and his conversations with the teacher - I thought they had a good dynamic throughout the episode as their relationship developed. In fact I thought Castle and Leslie had better scenes together than Castle and Beckett did this episode. I like it any time Castle gets to refer to his writing on the show and using his talent to try and engage the kids was nice to see. Okay it didn't really work out quite the way he wanted but I still enjoyed that little moment.

 

I'm probably reading way too much into this but his line to the teacher about "an experience that powerful is going to find a way to express itself and will end up on the page" had me wondering, is this an indirect reference back to what made him become a writer and that traumatic event back when he was 11 years old? Marlowe has said we're going to find out more about this at some point. I wonder if this was deliberate or just strictly connected to this episode and the writers gave it no more thought than that. 

[FlickerToAFlame]

Verdana, I think you're onto something. Maybe Castle's next book will include some keys to where he was, but with Castle initially thinking the suppressed memories are fiction. Fake Jenkins could turn back up and ask wtf he thinks he's doing publishing what he worked so hard to forget.

[verdana]

Andrew W. Marlowe @AndrewWMarlowe  ·  2 hrs 2 hours ago

“@TerriEdda: I like to play princess with @AndrewWMarlowe” I'll slay your dragons.

 

I wish they would #respecttheprocess I don't want to think about this too much. 

 

Any one following Nathan and his livetweeting? How is that going on? He upset any shippers yet? 

Edited October 21, 2014 by verdana

[turnitwayup]

I did like the opening scene at the loft. That dining table rarely get used. Lol since Castle eats smorelettes of course he would like potato chip fudge ice cream. I loved Beckett's reaction to it and she ends up liking it. Castle was totally adorable with Emily and she was my fav kid in the classroom. Jason with the polaroid was so annoying. Castle walking around the classroom announcing the story assignment felt like we got a taste of what Nathan would be like teaching. I did like seeing Michael Hyatt and not having the most recognizable guest actor as the killer. There was some continuity with the tracker app but at this stage I'm over Alexis acting like the parent.

 

Meh on the murder story and I keep tuning out when Beckett and Espo were out working the case. The ep seems to work better when it's Beckett/Castle and Espo/Ryan pairing while working the murders and having their own subplots. Plus I'm not really like this theme of dark lighting in the precinct.

 

 

Any one following Nathan and his livetweeting? How is that going on? He upset any shippers yet?

 

Not on yet for west coast.

 

Nathan Fillion @NathanFillion

Getting ready for that live tweeting? In front of your tv? Set to ABC? Castle time?

 

Sounds like he made it home in time unlike the premier.

Edited October 21, 2014 by turnitwayup

[verdana]

McManda. I agree things didn't really mesh together that well. 

 

That said, I think Nathan is comfortable with kids, so I think the parts in the classroom felt the most real. I would have liked Beckett to witness some more of paternal Castle (because it's one of the things that I really liked about the early episodes - that yeah, he was this big kid but he was still an adult and had the capability of being more than whatever she thought of him at the time).

 

I adored those moments when Kate would see Castle in that mode, I'm sure that's what initially softened her up to him and made Beckett realise there was more to him than meets the eye. They definitely missed out on an opportunity there and Stana could have played some good reaction shots too, might have made things seem less disjointed especially between Caskett.

[Driad]

 

Somewhere I read a story (fiction or nonfiction?) that detectives were tracking a criminal in the early 1890s.  They didn't know who the criminal was, but they knew that he had lived in Johnstown, PA, at the time of the great flood of 1889, that he was now living in "other town," and that he had children.  So they arranged with the schools of "other town" that on a particular day, every child in the school system would be asked to write about the Johnstown flood.  Most of the pupils had only heard about the flood, but a few had clearly been there.  From that evidence the detectives were able to narrow the search and arrest the suspect.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

[turnitwayup]

 

Nathan Fillion @NathanFillion

“@whereboochelle: @NathanFillion You all film there a lot.”

 

Agreed.

 

Lol, yes I did notice that same under some bridge/freeway from Headhunters and After Hours. I'm sure there were other eps.

 

 

 

Nathan Fillion @NathanFillion

“@shipperstana: @NathanFillion did you ever consider being a teacher?”

 

I almost was a teacher. Look it up!

 

Lol, some really need to learn to google simple facts or look at his imdb page.

 

 

Nathan Fillion @NathanFillion

Have to say, all those kids were so great. They really handled themselves well. Better than some actors I’ve worked with!

 

Awww

Edited October 21, 2014 by turnitwayup

[verdana]

Castle Recap: Schoolhouse, Rocked by Matt at TV Line

 

Here is Matt's take on Caskett related matters, tend to agree with him, had to laugh at his comment about Alexis and her kidnapping:

 

THE CASKETT | With Rick in the classroom and Kate off chasing leads/more dead bodies with RySpo, the lovebirds were separated for much of the hour, though there were cute moments involving Rick’s favorite ice cream flavor, wee Emily’s jealousy of Mr. Castle’s girlfriend, and a fun bit where “jerkface” Rick and “frog breath” Jason called a “truce.” A C-story about Alexis’ smothering mothering of her father was just as weird and random as her antics, serving only to denote that Rick’s “vanishing” act had his daughter worried about losing him again. But hey, at least it again proved that someone remembers Alexis’ own kidnapping!

 

Edited October 21, 2014 by verdana

[angelita100]

Loved the episode.  Man Castle around those kids made me smile smile smile.And love the line..90% kid and they've accepted me as one of their own.

[turnitwayup]

 

Alexis creeped me out. With her spoon feeding her dad.

 

Ikr? Just handing him the lunch sack would've been sufficient to portray the whole weird parenting thing going on in this ep. They need to stop with the things that Castle/Beckett do together and doing the same with Castle/Alexis like the theory building scene in the car last season. Castle feeding Beckett is cute. Alexis feeding Castle is something I want to unsee. I know Alexis brought Castle breakfast in bed in an earlier season ep, but she grabbed the fork away from him when she reminded him of the last time he went to a crime scene with a full stomach.

[Nadine]

The episode was eh. And for me to say that about a Hanning ep is unusual too. Definitely could have been so much more. But it did make me want to watch Kindergarten Cop again.

[verdana]

Holy shit. My friends here are going to throw a party. I did not like this episode.

 

It all came down to one simple thing.

 

Alexis creeped me out. With her spoon feeding her dad. 

 

I can let a lot of things go but this…it's gonna take a while to wash off.

Heh. Yeah I noted the spoon feeding bit and thought that's going to freak some people out. 

 

I don't know why they keep doing that especially with Alexis. Worse one for me was LFLD and father and daughter theorising together and they even tried to make a bit of a joke out of it, just no. Especially after Marlowe has made it plain any number of times that Beckett and Castle doing this is like sexual foreplay. 

 

While her father is a big kid he isn't exactly an irresponsible moron. Hell he was actually quite over protective. So once again WTF?

 

I get annoyed at the idea that he's being portrayed almost as an idiot who needed constant supervision in order to look after her properly when she was younger and that's clearly not the case. Yeah he could be child like at times in his behaviour with her and liked to have fun but he was always the adult in the relationship and she was his child to take care of there was no question about that and he did a great job for the most part. 

 

Maybe Castle's next book will include some keys to where he was, but with Castle initially thinking the suppressed memories are fiction. Fake Jenkins could turn back up and ask wtf he thinks he's doing publishing what he worked so hard to forget.

 

Someone mentioned during another episode how does Castle remember again get another knock on the head? Because he has to start remembering something for this mythology to start unravelling and we get more story. I wonder now in some way does his writing act as a kind of trigger event and this is them planting a few seeds? That would be kind of appropriate but then again may be I'm putting way too much faith in the showrunner here when it comes to this.

Edited October 21, 2014 by verdana

[TWP]

The episode met my minimum criteria....which is "doesn't suck". It was an entertaining hour. The kids were cute. The ròwdiness wasn't realistic, but this is fiction.

I understood Alexis' insecurity. The over the top behavior was supposed to be comedy and may have worked under the right circumstances and/or with the right actors. And I think Beckett's attitude about it was a little cold. One would think that with her own mombatross that she would understand Alexis having some neurosis about her father. He DID all but vaporize and was gone for months.

I wasn't sold on Nathan's rapport with the kids. For me he had a bit of that "get me out of here" vibe.....even when it wasn't appropriate to the story. Maybe he just felt uncomfortable.

They definitely separated Caskett this week. Strange.

Was there a COTW? All I remember is some Russian alphabet soup. All the names started sounding the same and I lost track of who was who.

But overall with one eye on Internet surfing, I thought the show was light amusement. Just what I expected.

[turnitwayup]

I understood Alexis' insecurity.

 

I think it might have worked better if Child's Play followed Montreal and they had built up her clinginess starting with their trip to that bank. It gets resolved in this ep then have Clear & Present Danger air since she wasn't around and was going on with her life offscreen. Plus we could've had 3 seasons in a row with the 4th ep being enjoyable.

 

I don't remember Castle and Alexis building theory together. But that seems to be a hot button for a lot of people here.

Maybe I blocked it out of my mind. Im so indifferent to her that I ignore a lot.

 

Like Father, Like Daughter building theory

 

 

I guess Lee is gonna have a field trip with Lanie again. Blow to the back of the head with a heavy object. How did you see that one when you never moved the body ? I tend to blend her out anyway. Where is Perlmutter !!!!

 

Sometimes it's a race to see who has the worst dialog between Lanie and Tory on any given ep. Nathan tweeted that he's glad he doesn't have Tamala's lines but who knows what he really means. Is it the blah repetitive lividity lines she usually gets or is it the hard medical jardon that I don't remember her having much anymore.

Edited October 21, 2014 by turnitwayup

[MsFlibbles]

I want those scooters. I hate those skinny ones the kids have today. My son had a radio flyer from the 60s back in early 90s. He rode the hell out of it. Wish we had kept it. Anyone know where I can purchase those scooters? TIA

I didn't keep a close eye on the show. Was distracted by solitaire. But, I really don't like when a bunch of kids are on adult shows. Babies not included. Miss Kosmo.

[cappuccino]

I don't remember Castle and Alexis building theory together. But that seems to be a hot button for a lot of people here. 

Maybe I blocked it out of my mind. Im so indifferent to her that I ignore a lot.

Last season but don't ask me the name of the episode. Everything after No.1 is a blur to  me. When she did that death row case and asked for Castle's help. That was really not my thing and yeah creepy.

 

I liked the episode. Well Castle and kids were great. That "kiss" in the loft felt kinda weird. As if one wanted to go for the lips and the other went for the cheek. Liked all the little smirks Beckett had going in this episode. Her in the classroom with Castle should have happened earlier but I liked how it all played out with the kids in the end. Little Emily was cute and when she asked if they were playing princess too, I had to laugh: Not that kind of role play. Could have done without Teri's tweet about her and Marlowe though #shudders#

 

I guess Lee is gonna have a field trip with Lanie again. Blow to the back of the head with a heavy object. How did you see that one when you never moved the body ? I tend to blend her out anyway. Where is Perlmutter !!!!

[Nadine]

I think it might have worked better if Child's Play followed Montreal and they had built up her clinginess starting with their trip to that bank. It gets resolved in this ep then have Clear & Present Danger air since she wasn't around and was going on with her life offscreen. Plus we could've had 3 seasons in a row with the 4th ep being enjoyable.

I agree with this. The scene would have worked better if it followed the bank trip scene.  But because we had C&PD in the middle (where we were told Alexis' was doing an all-nighter studying, etc) it made it feel weird.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Nadine

[pepper]

Worst episode of the season so far, IMO. I just don't find Fillion slapstick as funny as he does. And it reminded me of why I don't like Alexis. And they separated Castle and Beckett for most of the episode. That's hitting all the marks for things I don't like. The CotW plot also didn't make much sense to me (the reason for a mail drop; the role of the cop e.g. not persuasive IMO) so no rescue there. Sure, the tea party scene was adorable and I understand how a.) the minds of children and how their imaginations work can be funny and b.) Alexis would be traumatized by Castle's disappearance, but the attempts to work both of those into the plot fell almost embarrassingly flat.

 

I don't ask for much from the show nowadays, hence my minimal criticism this season, but they're taking the piss. Writers: Nathan Fillion being "cute with kids" is not enough to carry an episode. Please be guided accordingly.

[moodyblue]

First I'm going to say I didn't see all of the episode. I fell asleep about 10 minutes in and woke up around 9:35. That's what five days of migraines and a lack of sleep will do to you; you can't even stay awake to watch all of your favorite show. I must have fallen asleep again for a few minutes at the end because I missed the fight but I did see the last few minutes with Castle and Alexis. I'll do a rewatch later, but after reading the comments about a lack of Caskett and the Alexis thing...I'll try to keep an opened mind.

And I'm in the minority that I've never really liked Alexis.

Anyone who remembers me from TWoP knows I don't like Alexis. I think those feelings started in season 2 but were cemented in S3. I understand why they wanted Castle to have a daughter, to make him more relatable and less of a jerk, but I really wish they would have shipped her off to Stanford or, better yet, Oxford.

I get annoyed at the idea that he's being portrayed almost as an idiot who needed constant supervision in order to look after her properly when she was younger and that's clearly not the case. Yeah he could be child like at times in his behaviour with her and liked to have fun but he was always the adult in the relationship and she was his child to take care of there was no question about that and he did a great job for the most part.

I get annoyed with that too. Castle has always been shown to be a wonderful parent and adult when it came to his relationship with Alexis. I never saw him be immature in parenting her. Yes, he is a kid at heart and Alexis was mature and overly responsible for her age in the beginning, but that doesn't make her the adult in the family. On the other hand, Alexis is the adult when it comes to her relationship with Meredith.

[Lamb18]

It was sort of OK, but I dislike it when kids are totally disrespectful of adults and its portrayed as cute, charming behavior.  Plus, is the teacher that good if her kids are rioting while she is out of the classroom?  The kid tosses marbles on the floor - the kid got no discipline for that?  I understand that that was what gave Castle the idea to catch the murderer at the end of the episode, but . . . that's not cute or humorous. 

 

In a way I liked the story line with Alexis because I thought at least someone is showing concern/reacting to Castle's disappearance, but the spoon-feeding thing was weird.

 

A few hours before this episode aired I watched the two-part episode where Kate's apartment blew up and Castle rescued her from the building.  I couldn't help compare it to the current episode.  Everything seemed done so much better in the serial killer/FBI agent episodes - the building of the plot, peeling away the layers to solve the mystery, Castle smart and observant, the interaction between him and Kate, especially Kate's little expressions when around him, etc.  Last week's episode was more on those lines.

[verdana]

I understood Alexis' insecurity. The over the top behavior was supposed to be comedy and may have worked under the right circumstances and/or with the right actors. And I think Beckett's attitude about it was a little cold. One would think that with her own mombatross that she would understand Alexis having some neurosis about her father. He DID all but vaporize and was gone for months.

 

Your comment about Beckett's attitude made me wish we could have seen more of these two interacting together beyond the strictly superficial moments in the first two episodes. Alas the writers don't seem to care about Alexis and Beckett's relationship that much and I sense they never will. I would have thought both women's different experiences could be used in so many ways to form a bond or at least prompt some interesting exchanges between them occasionally (with the common ground being Castle of course) but instead it follows the now usual dynamic of Kate voicing her opinion to Castle, then he goes off to deal with Alexis.  

 

Driven and Montreal seem like such wasted opportunities looking back for character development from just about every angle. 

 

And I thought that Beckett not even bothering to check the room and the killer is hiding under the bed was pretty sloppy, it did give me a bit of a jolt actually seeing him under there. I wasn't expecting that at all but she's meant to be a trained, experienced cop. 

[madmaverick]

So maybe Beckett will become a fan of the smorlette if she likes potato chip fudge (is that a real flavour?!) heh.  How salty sweet of her too.  Anyone else waiting for a crack about Castle being salty sweet?  For the record, I do prefer Caskett in spicy sweet or salty sweet mode as opposed to cavity inducing sweetness. ;)  There wasn't much Caskett in the episode but I did enjoy the light, superficial, fairy dust coating of it we got.  From Castle feeding Beckett (could have done without the follow up by Alexis!) to that cute little 'love triangle' with the little girl lol.  Little girl's face cracked me up when she 'interrogated' Beckett.  Now I'd like to know what kind of Princess games Beckett plays with Castle heh...

 

Those were the more fun tidbits from the episode.  Basically, I enjoyed the classroom scenes with the kids and with Castle/Mrs Ruiz aka Leslie, but the rest of the episode in investigation mode with Beckett/Espo/Ryan were really boring. Not surprising since there wasn't anything there other than exposition.  Disappointing coming from Hanning.

 

Castle/Alexis also was more miss than hit.  Alexis' feelings were understandable but I feel they played her a bit too young or something with her over the top gestures that were supposed to be funny but weren't really.  Like others said, I would have preferred something less comedic and more along the lines of a serious chat instead.  I agree that the Alexis is an adult whilst Castle's the child note has been overplayed too many times, and kind of lost its credibility after Alexis' poor behaviour during the Pi debacle.  Some of my favourite instances of fatherly displays from Castle were when he insisted Alexis' drunk friend's parents had to be called and when he insisted Alexis had to go to school instead of hang at the precinct (one of the first times he earned points with Beckett too).  Basically, when he laid down boundaries as the adult in the relationship and did so with love.  I hope the show remembers more of Castle being that kind of father.  The conversation at the end wasn't too bad at least and it was nice to see them with some toys again.  I get the feeling they enjoyed the scooters.

 

This episode didn't work quite as well as No1Fan which also had a Castle focus because I think the COTW wasn't quite as compelling and the 2 bits of the investigation didn't quite gel together as well.  It didn't work as well as the last episode CAPD because that episode managed to successfully weave some fun and flirty Caskett into the COTW.  Here, Caskett were mostly kept separate which is always a challenge to the show, and also, they didn't delve into Beckett reacting to Castle being cute with kids as much as they could have had.  The side story was the Alexis one so they didn't focus on Caskett much unfortunately but there really isn't reason they couldn't have done both if they'd tweaked the episode a bit.  The COTW always becomes more interesting when they can weave more Caskett banter and relationship stuff into it.

 

All that said, I did really enjoy Castle in the classroom.  Nathan does have a really good chemistry with kids and it came off as believable how he slowly earned their trust and interacted with them.  The fairy tea party scene was lovely and well written with fatherly or princess-y Castle giving some good advice.  The tiara and fairy wings may be one of my favourite Castle costumes ever. ;)

 

I do wonder if these kid actors ever get type cast as the 'cute' kid, the 'annoying' kid etc.  Hope not for the sake of their psyches!

 

The actress who played the teacher was good and also had a nice chemistry with Nathan.

 

It really is hard to deal with 20 second graders and remember all their names!  Well done, Castle and no wonder Nathan recited the names of the crew in that farewell scene.

 

Nice to see some easy affection between Caskett in the loft.  The peck on the lips was fine but I couldn't help notice again how the area where their faces touched was a complete black blob on my screen again.  Not surprised since it's Bowman, but I find they don't light their faces in kisses a lot on this show.  Even if it's in the daytime with the lights on.  Why do their faces almost always have to be in shadow when they kiss?  Don't get it.  

 

Agree that there's foreshadowing about something terrible that Castle witnessed as a kid which inspired his writing.

 

And yes, I thought Caskett came across as really bad, careless cops in the last scene because they seemed completely ill-prepared for the Bad Guy and it could have gone down a lot worse.  That guy could have shot Beckett in the head just like that.  That kind of thing just takes me out of an action scene, no matter how well the fight is choreographed later on.

Edited October 21, 2014 by madmaverick

[KaveDweller]

I get annoyed at the idea that he's being portrayed almost as an idiot who needed constant supervision in order to look after her properly when she was younger and that's clearly not the case. Yeah he could be child like at times in his behaviour with her and liked to have fun but he was always the adult in the relationship and she was his child to take care of there was no question about that and he did a great job for the most part.

 

I feel like they want to find ways to make Alexis look good all the time.  Even when she screws up (like with Pi), no one on the show acknowledges it. She never apologized about it or admitted it was a mistake and Castle was right.  She's always just treated like the wonderful daughter, even when she's being a brat.

 

And I think Beckett's attitude about it was a little cold. One would think that with her own mombatross that she would understand Alexis having some neurosis about her father. He DID all but vaporize and was gone for months.

 

Yeah, but I think she was concerned that the behavior was not really healthy for Alexis.  Yes, it's normal for Alexis to be freaked about the whole thing (Castle and Beckett are/were too).  But just because it's normal doesn't mean they shouldn't say something about it or try and help her move on.

 

That "kiss" in the loft felt kinda weird. As if one wanted to go for the lips and the other went for the cheek.

 

It looked like they combined two different takes, and the shot of Castle going in was to the lips, but the next shot from the other angle was coming out of a kiss on the cheek.  But I thought their interaction in that scene in general was adorable.  It seemed natural.  We should get a scene at home in the middle of every episode, it makes a big difference.

 

Anyone else waiting for a crack about Castle being salty sweet?

 

I thought I heard one, but maybe that was just in my head.

 

One other thought....someone is going to write a fanfic about what Beckett was thinking about when Emily asked her about "playing princess," right?  Cause it seemed like she really gave the question some thought before answering.

[madmaverick]

It looked like they combined two different takes, and the shot of Castle going in was to the lips, but the next shot from the other angle was coming out of a kiss on the cheek.

 

  I was thinking that they bothered to do 2 takes from 2 different angles but both had to be blurry dark blobs where they connected...why? ;)   A small nitpick, but did Bowman think it was more artistic to do it like this or something?  I noticed the lighting is such that I thought Castle's plaid shirt to be black for most of the episode until I saw it in natural light outside and it was actually blue.  

 

But I thought their interaction in that scene in general was adorable.  It seemed natural.  We should get a scene at home in the middle of every episode, it makes a big difference.

 

Agreed.   It was the kind of natural, easy affection that I want to see more of.  Definitely beats sitting on the couch apart and sipping wine.  Shocked we haven't had that yet this season. ;)

 

Oh yeah, I want to read that fanfic about "playing princesses".  One about Castle being salty sweet too. :P  I loved how Emily kind of had a 6th sense about Beckett and zoomed onto her at once.  And then asked them about getting married in a blunt and direct way that kids can do.

 

Alexis recognised that she'd made a mistake with Pi (not entirely convinced that was the original plan, maybe in response to the backlash) but she never admitted that mistake to Castle and apologise for her behavior to the person she owed it to the most.  Which makes me think perhaps the writers didn't entirely understand the reasons for the backlash against Alexis in the first place.  It was nice that Alexis finally had a real scene with Beckett, but she really needed one with her Dad too to clear the air.

[Samantha84]

Think that's what TPTB keep forgetting .. Alexis and Molly are not cute teenagers anymore. She's an adult! Write her an adult storyline, while still being Castle's daughter, or write her ass out! 

Edited October 21, 2014 by Samantha84

[sinkwriter]

 

So maybe Beckett will become a fan of the smorlette if she likes potato chip fudge (is that a real flavour?!) heh.

 

According to my quick google search, Ben & Jerry's have (or had at one time) an ice cream flavor called Late Night Snack: "Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a Salty Caramel Swirl and Fudge Covered Potato Chip Clusters." Oh my...

 

(Found a person's blog article about it here, complete with pictures.)

Edited October 21, 2014 by sinkwriter

[madmaverick]

Thanks, sinkwriter.  Still not tempted, I'm afraid, though I don't rule out that salty sweet things can taste good.  I have tried chocolate coated potato chips before but I find I prefer both separately.

 

I did think Beckett would have known what Castle's favourite ice cream flavour is after all the time they've dated.... but I can handwave since we got cute spoonfeeding.  (Can you imagine S1 Beckett reacting to Castle spoonfeeding her anything?  Oh wait, she did stuff a bear claw into his mouth heh.)  

 

Stana did great with her facial reactions to the ice cream.  She does some good subtle comedy in relation to Castle flavoured behaviour.

 

Rolling my eyes at speculations that Beckett/Stana could be pregnant based on her liking a weird ice cream flavour.  

[sinkwriter]

Thanks, sinkwriter.  Still not tempted, I'm afraid, though I don't rule out that salty sweet things can taste good.  I have tried chocolate coated potato chips before but I find I prefer both separately.

 

Yeah, I think it might be a little too much for me, too. Overkill with the salty caramel AND potato chips. I know what you mean about preferring them separately - I've enjoyed chocolate covered pretzels, but I still prefer those items as individual foods.  *GRIN*

 

Regardless, it was a fun scene and I liked Castle swaying her over to the "mmm, this is actually pretty good!" opinion. They've established that Castle likes quirky foods, so it was fun to be reminded of that and see Beckett change her mind from her "yuck, no thank you" face.

[Samantha84]

Rolling my eyes at speculations that Beckett/Stana could be pregnant based on her liking a weird ice cream flavour.

 

And her reaction at the crime scene. B/c Lanie didn't have one. Yet some neglect the fact that Espo had one so is he pregnant, too? lol. 

[sinkwriter]

 

Yet some neglect the fact that Espo had one so is he pregnant, too? lol.

 

I thought I noticed something different about him!  ;)

[KaveDweller]

Still not tempted, I'm afraid, though I don't rule out that salty sweet things can taste good.

 

Ever since I tried salted caramels (chocolate candies, not ice cream), I have been open to any kind of salty/sweet mixture.  But I still sort of cringed at the potato chip flavor.

 

If they want to give Alexis a storyline, why not focus on her picking a major in school? She would have to do that around now.  Or do they not want to commit to anything so they can use a random class as a plot point (like interning with Lanie or working the death penalty case).  And Castle would obviously have an opinion on what she's choosing to do with her life.