Castle: "An Embarrassment of Bitches"

After last week's dark episode, this week's entry was much a much lighter welcome relief. (If you can use the terms  "lighter" and "relief" to describe a show which always has at least one murder.)

Of course, it's hard to be serious about dog shows. (Unless you're a dog shower, I suppose.) Just ask Christopher Guest.

Beckett even laughed three or four times, which may be a new record.

Nothing sums up the attitude of this episode better than the fact that no one batted an eyelash when introduced to "Dr. Barker," the dog psychologist. Come on, normally Castle would be all over that.

I spent a lot of time trying to guess "who done it." In hindsight, the reality star's boyfriend should have been the obvious choice, especially when we learned that she had been a visitor at the home of the drug cartel family; he set up her whole life, so of course he would have arranged that. (For the record, I figured it out when they showed the footage of her spritzing her new scent in his general direction. At least I got it before Castle did his rewind and review.)
 
But, this show was all about "the looks." There were so many, I lost count. A few that I recall:

- Castle, when talking to Alexis and his Mom at the beginning. Of course, those conversations always confuse, confound, or amuse him.
- Castle, when the photographer said, "Hey, that's not Jason Bateman."
- Esposito, when Ryan said, "a real underdog."
- Kay Cappuccio, after Beckett glared at her when she said, "I can't go anywhere without a million people taking my picture."
- And Esposito again, when she kissed him.

And let us not forget the "moment:" the way Beckett looked, and then looked at Castle, when he took her hand and massaged it. But I loved his recovery, as he beat a hasty retreat and said, "Don't miss me too much. The dog, not you."

Next week's, which appears to be in the style of 1940s film noir, looks promising.

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