Castle – Beckett ain’t afraid of no ghosts

Castle might not be Community when it comes to homages and pop culture references, but they do damn fine job when they send up a genre. This week’s ghost-themed episode had more than its fair share of Ghostbusters and Ghost Hunters references. The death of the week was connected to a haunted house with a history of other murders. The question is whether or not they referenced American Horror Story on purpose, or was it just serendipity.

I love when Castle gets a little zany. Castle himself is a perfect ham, and anchors the silliness. Beckett always walks the line between instigating and antagonizing him. She might be all business, but usually gives in to her partner’s cornier desires in the end (“I ain’t afraid of no ghosts”). These “fun” episodes also serve an additional important purpose.

When Castle decides to bring the drama, the stakes are always so much higher because of the usual light tone of the show. Similar to the way those “A Very Special Episode” of 80s sitcoms always stood out, Castle knows just how to ratchet up the seriousness when it needs to. It makes for a surprisingly well-balanced full season’s worth of episodes.

The :45 Minute Guess: Each week, I try to take a stab at who the murderer might be somewhere around the :45 minute mark in the episode. There is no obvious choice at this point (which really doesn’t matter, as it is rarely the obvious choice at this point), but I’m thinking the murder is more connected to the present than the past. My guess is Amanda Walsh’s Lulu, whom I’m predicting had some type of thing with the victim. And as we all know, things often go horribly wrong.

Was I right? Couldn’t have been less right. Not only did I get the murderer incorrect, I also thought the past murders weren’t connected with the present. The only thing I may have come close to was Lulu having a thing for Jack Sinclair that likely wasn’t reciprocated. This week’s installment of the guessing game was a big bucket of fail for me.

One thing hit me several times throughout this episode. If anyone ever tried to do a Craig Brewer/Footloose style remake of Ghostbusters, Nathan Fillion would HAVE to be in the flick.

Notes & Quotes

• So the name of the place where the murder was set is McCleran’s? I hope the cats and kittens over at How I Met Your Mother have somewhere to drink tonight
• “What happened?” – Beckett
  “That’s it, that’s when all the camera signals cut out at once.” – Lulu
  “And what could explain the picture suddenly going out like that?” – Beckett
  “I don’t know. This has never happened before.” – Lulu
  “Well, there was that last episode of the Sopranos.” – Castle
• “I just saw Ryan downstairs. I can’t believe you let him go chasing ghosts with Castle.” – Esposito
  “Yeah … Maybe Shaggy will keep Scooby out of trouble. Besides, you never know. Maybe they’ll come up with something useful.” – Beckett

Clacked by Ivey West
on Oct 25, 2011 @ 02:21 EST5EDT