Castle – It was Principal Wood, with a handgun, in the garbage chute

It’s a battle that every procedural constantly fights. All too often, a character will pop up on the screen, and just by way of the actor’s resume you know that there is far more to the story. Rarely, for example, does anyone hire someone like D.B. Woodside to play a background character that just passes along some info to our heroes. Because of that, I was convinced that Clawson (Woodside) was the guy from the moment he hit the screen. Fortunately, that didn’t detract from the episode because the mystery of how it all came about was so full of surprises that the journey really was the thing.

It really was another classic Castle mystery that started with the quirky Castle vibe when we met the wife (Perrey Reeves), and the fiance (Abigail Spencer), in the morgue. That was a great hook, but it just kept getting better and better. The brother made for a nice red herring, and the revelation that Sam/Jake was a corporate spy was a nice twist. What really sold it though, was learning that Sarah was actually a spy hunter. Spy hunter! I did not see that coming.

After that, it was a short trip to seeing how Clawson had been involved all along. Although, even that revelation came with its own surprise when we learned that the entire company was a big environmental scam. And that gets right back to what it is that is working so well for Castle right now. Even after you have long since decided that President Palmer is the killer, the mysteries are so much fun that the who doesn’t matter nearly as much as the how and the why. This week’s spy hunter combined with last week’s D.A. pimp has the show on quite a creative roll where the cases are concerned.

That’s much like what we are seeing with Alexis. Aside from the fact that watching her with Castle is occasionally the cutest thing ever, the last two weeks really went well together. The mysterious meeting with Beckett to discuss foreign exchange possibilities dovetailed nicely with the internship. The writers have found a great balance between volunteer inspector Castle on the case, and fun dad Castle at home.

Now things get really interesting. Our favorite novelist investigator has had a cushy run of it through these first ten episodes of season two, but Tom and Samantha are ready to hand out the big mirror ball. Castle is now going to have to make its way behind the decidedly less attractive lead in of Find My Family. I hope everyone sticks around.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Nov 24, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT