This week on Castle, the show uses the constant onslaught of sleaze that is Girls Gone Wild (or in this case, Girls Gone Crazy) to tackle the thorny relationship between fathers and daughters. It’s tough when your little ones grow up, whether that means accepting they might not make the same choices you do or whether it means they may have choked a dude to death with their bra.
This season, the newly established relationship between Castle and Beckett has been pulling focus. This makes perfect sense since fans have been waiting patiently for the relationship between our favorite duo to become a reality for four years. But putting all the focus on how Castle and Beckett work as both a relationship and a crime-fighting team means there hasn’t been as much room to focus on Castle’s home life.
Alexis’ Non-Sing Along Blog
So as delightfully as the show has been handling the central romance, it’s nice to take a break from the Caskett of it all and dive into a nice little story centered around Castle and Alexis.
These two have one of the warmest and most enjoyable father-daughter relationships on TV, and it’s nice to see Castle having a tough time with Alexis’ transition into adulthood. Obviously, the fight isn’t so much about Alexis’ video blog, but about the possibility that Castle can’t protect her from all the dangers of living life outside the nest.
Considering the Internet, a video blog about an ice skating date is pretty much the best thing Castle could have hoped for in this scenario. And as Martha notes, the video blog is adorable but also looks super duper dull. Is anyone like, “Man, this red head’s story about ice skating is just riveting, I better sign up for every installment”? Honestly, you know Alexis’ friends probably aren’t even still watching these things anymore. “Oh, hey guys, did you watch my latest video blog on that totally awesome ice cream sundae I made with my dad?” “Oh, yeah … right … totally watched that…”
I have to say, though, it’s always funny whenever Castle acts scandalized by technology because of the disconnect between the character and actor Nathan Fillion. Anyone who follows him on Twitter or sees him pop up on a web series knows Fillion, unlike Castle, is far from afraid of diving into the tech world.
Girls Gone (Really) Crazy
To get into the conversation about fathers and daughters, the case of the week centers around every father’s worst nightmare: Girls Gone Crazy. Obviously, this is the show’s send-up of Girls Gone Wild and its reprehensible founder, Joe Francis. We’re introduced to Beau Randolph, the founder of this gross institution, at a club party. Of course, the show reminds us that we’ve briefly met him before in last season’s cryogenics caper.
Randolph is killed by being strangled with a fancy bra, which somehow allows Lanie to glare daggers into Esposito. Their post-breakup relationship is so hilariously real.
The case then takes a surprisingly crazy amount of twists and turns. A typical episode of Castle usually contains several red herrings before we get to our killer, but this week there seems to be a new red herring every five minutes.
After all of those false leads, it turns out that Randolph was trying to get his life together because he found out he was about to become a father to a baby girl. See, it turns out that his sex-taped one night stand with the daughter of a morality crusader resulted in a pregnancy. But instead of bailing, Randolph wanted to be a good father to his future little girl.
He was going to end the company and was looking into buying Little Frog Enterprises, a children’s entertainment company. His plan to go from NC-17 to G hit a snag, however, when his cameraman Troy figured out he was about to be without a company and killed him. And he almost got away with it, too, if it wasn’t for that darn tripod! See, this is what happens when you always shoot in shaky cam.
Espo in Love (or Lust)?
One of the episode’s many red herrings is Randolph’s security guard, Scarlett Jones, who turns out to be a double agent working for Little Frog Enterprises to scoop up dirt on Randolph. Not only is Scarlett super hot, she’s also a total bad-ass. Esposito is basically smitten from the moment he sees her, and is even more attracted when he finds out she broke some guy’s nose.
I guess Esposito loves a bad girl and Scarlett really does rock a pretty awesome leather jacket. She looks like a sexy biker spy, which sounds like it would make for a pretty awesome show on FX.
Unfortunately, Esposito’s date with Scarlett gets interrupted by the team right before the sexy times were about to happen. Even Ryan apologizes for being a bad bro. But since it turns out that Scarlett was just working undercover, does that mean she and Esposito might have a second chance at romance? Only time will tell if she and her leather jacket will be back again.
This season, it’s felt like Espo has bounced from girl to girl trying to get over Lanie. When the two initially broke up, I felt like it was only a matter of time before they were hastily reunited. But it’s been some time, and despite a few nice scenes, the two seem no closer to a reconciliation.
Maybe Lanie and Espo will never ever, ever get back together? (I’m sorry, that Taylor Swift song just sort of burrows into your brain and makes a home there to pop out at random occasions.)
In two weeks, Castle kicks into high gear when Beckett sees an opportunity to take down the man who had her mother killed. But will she endanger her career (and herself) in the process?
What did you think of this week’s episode? Did you like seeing the Castle and Alexis relationship take center stage? Will Lanie and Esposito ever get back together? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
