This week on Castle, zombies walk among us! Well, not actual zombies, but people dressed as zombies anyway. It’s less exciting but more hygienic! As Beckett and Castle get to the bottom of the case of the zombie murder, they also start delving into the state of their relationship.
Leave it to Castle to have Beckett and Castle hash out their feelings for each other without ever directly saying they have feelings for each other in an episode about zombies. Castle has always loved to tap into the zeitgeist with its cases of the week and this week is no different. Frankly, considering how Nathan Fillion is a geek god and everyone loves zombies, I’m surprised it took them this long to get to the brain-eaters.
While the case is fun, the real heart of the episode lies in the Beckett and Castle partnership. As always, those two are dancing around each other. Neither will just come out and utter those three little words they both obviously feel. (And no, those words are not “I want brains,” we’re off the zombie thing right now!) They’re getting closer than ever, however, to finally being on the same page at the same time, and that’s pretty exciting for everyone who loves themselves a little Caskett.
Holding On and Letting Go
As per usual, Martha is the one telling Castle true things about his life. I wish I had a Martha around for whenever I needed an eureka moment or I was about to make a bad decision. I think I would mostly use my Martha in shopping situations, but then again I don’t solve murders for a living. This week, Martha tells Castle that he’s punishing Beckett without letting her know why. This leads Castle, incorrectly, to decide that this will be his last case working with Beckett.
Meanwhile in casa de Castle, Alexis is trying to decide between Stanford and Oxford. She’s decided she needs to push herself by going as far away for college as possible. Obviously, this bums Castle out. All Castle wants to do is play laser tag in the house until one of them reaches one thousand. They’ve been playing since Alexis was five and they’re only a few points away.
Of course, Alexis says that she was pretending not to want to play laser tag anymore to trick Castle as she descends from the ceiling like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. How long do you think it took to get that wire hooked up to drop down like that? I’m wondering what the cost/benefit was on that move. I imagine Alexis just hanging from the ceiling for like five hours waiting for Castle. More importantly, where did Alexis get a leather catsuit? There’s so much I want to know about what Alexis does off screen.
At the end of the episode Alexis finally freaks out when Castle gets the one thousandth point, winning the game. She realizes she doesn’t actually want to go that far away from home. So next year she’ll be attending Columbia, just as long as Castle doesn’t drop into her dorm unexpectedly. Good luck with that Alexis. Just hope he doesn’t show up in zombie makeup.
Must Have Brains
The case of the week was a poor man named David who was beaten to death and zombie-chewed on. It turns out that David was having an affair with a woman named Greta, who had just recently broken up with him to go back to her fiancee Tom.
Castle, as you would imagine, mostly focused on the zombie-chomping sections of the case. This led to a lot of really great Castle puns regarding the walking dead. My favorite? When explaining why the zombie would choose David, an investment banker: “The more intelligent the victim, the more delicious the brains.” Never change, Castle.
It turns out that the zombie caught on security cameras was part of a large zombie walk, where people dress up as zombies and chase “normals.” I found the most unrealistic part of the whole episode to be the concept that Castle had never heard of a zombie walk.
They soon find the murdering zombie in question and assuming he’s dead, bring him to the morgue. If you said “Oh man, that dude’s gonna pop on up and scare everyone” then congratulations! You have watched television before. Because that’s totally what he does.
Turns out Kyle, the zombie in question, was dosed with a drug referred to as the zombie drug that makes people compliant and easy to manipulate. Who gave him the drug and sent him off to kill David? Tom, the angry fiancee of course. Thanks to some creative zombie makeup, Castle and the team get Tom to confess to the crimes.
Walls Come Down
Castle spends the whole episode leaving hints that this is going to be his last case. Even Beckett, the most obtuse person about feelings in the universe, starts to pick up on them. Maybe because it’s the last case, Castle has gotten over treating Beckett like crap and their flirty, banter-y partnership sees a return. Even Ryan notices.
Of course, talking about Kyle the killer zombie turns into talking about Beckett’s shooting and Castle’s I Love You. But because this is Castle and Beckett, this whole conversation is very oblique and roundabout. “When a life altering moment occurs, people remember,” Castle says angrily. “Maybe it’s too big to deal with; maybe he can’t face it just yet,” Beckett counters defensively.
Later, as Kyle walks away dejected and off zombies forever, Beckett mentions that she’s been in therapy. Castle is surprised that he didn’t know, but this is Beckett so I’m not sure why he’s surprised. She’s practically redefined emotionally unavailable.
She tells him that she’s finally in a place where she can accept everything that happened the day of her shooting. “Everything,” she says meaningfully. “That wall that I was telling you about, I think that’s coming down,” she explains to Castle. He of course says that he’d like to be there when it does come down and Beckett says she’d like that too. This is as close as these two have ever come to feeling the same feelings at the same time, so this is pretty exciting. Plus she even liked him in his gross zombie makeup, so you know that’s love.
Next week is the Castle season finale. Secrets will be revealed, the murder of Beckett’s mother will be reopened and Castle and Beckett will probably make out. It’s what we’ve all been waiting for people.
What did you think of tonight’s episode? Were the zombies brain-eating fun? Sound off in the comments!
Morgan Glennon
Contributing Writer
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
