Monday, November 19, 2012

Castle: "The Final Frontier"

By Michael Seese

Funny, funny, funny, funny, funny, funny, funny episode. Did I mention I thought it was funny?

"The Final Frontier" was just a wonderful show. I suspect that the direction of Jonathan Frakes had something to do with it. Though I've never met him, of course, I just get the impression that he has a great sense of humor. And it showed.

First, let's dispense with the formalities.

- Murder? Check.
- Lots of suspects? Check.
- Motives? Not at first, but then...check.
- They solved it? Check.
- Nice bit of insight in to Beckett's soul? Check. (The scene where she explained why she liked Nebula 9.)

One picky thing: at the end, when they were examining all the suspects' hands under the UV light, they seemed to pretty easily accept Winter's alibi that he bought a gun and shot it that morning.


OK, so let's talk about lines, looks, and references.

For the sake of level-setting, normally when I take notes on Castle, I use ¾ of a sheet of paper. This one took 1 ½ pages.

Lines

Beckett: "What caused the wound?"
Medical Examiner Perlmutter: (Pause) "No clue."

Perlmutter: "Detective Beckett. And non-detective Castle."

Beckett: "This coming from the man with a life-sized Bobba Fett in his bathroom."
Castle: "Point taken."

Castle: (After seeing Alexis in her cleavage-baring costume): "How am I going to un-see that?"

Beckett: "I know about the threesome with the Lt. Chloes. How much worse can it be?"

Castle (channeling Jean-Luc Picard): "Let's make sure no one forgets the name Enterprise."

Stephanie: "Lt. Chloe bobbleheads!" (The delivery was everything.)

(Intermission: In the middle of the show there was a commercial for Zicam cold medicine, in which a "snot monster" got pancaked by a delivery truck...LOVED IT!)

Looks 

Ryan's quizzical, "The Nebula 9 Fan Club?" followed by Beckett's uncomfortable, "Yeah, I understand they have a loyal following."

Castle's amused blink-blink when he said, "Kate Beckett! You have a Nebula 9 outfit." 

Castle's true shock / horror when Beckett appeared in the hot costume and the hideous mask.

And the entire scene where Ryan and Esposito were interviewing witnesses was precious. I especially loved Espo's face when the girl in the leaf costume pulled one off, wrote her number, and walked away. Then he added weakly, "You took my pen."

And I have to admit, I loved Stephanie's "death throes" as they were re-enacting the crime.

References 

Of course, I'm sure I missed a few. And others were so obvious that I didn't even record them. But the most noteworthy:

"Star Trek. Battlestar. And that other show by Joss Whedon." The latter, of course, is "Firefly" starring you-know-who.

"Fracking amazing." "Frack" was the f-word equivalent in the original "Battlestar Galactica." It might have been used in new one as well; but since I only saw bits and pieces of several episodes, I can't say for sure.

The song played at the end was "Ideal Woman" from the William Shatner disk "Has Been." Incidentally, that is a great album; it definitely is one of the "Ten I'd Want On A Desert Island" disks. 

Even though it's been nearly two weeks since the show aired, feel free to share your thoughts, and especially any cool references you found.

6 comments:

  1. I saw Jonathan Frakes on a panel at Dragon*Con. Yep, he's nutty.

    My daughter was telling me about all the references (she's a huge Firefly fan - belongs to a Browncoat fanclub, loves Joss Whedon - I mean LOVES), but she missed Mr. Frakes at the beginning (getting Castle's autograph). I really enjoyed this episode. Laughed a lot (but not as much as the next one - what a hoot!). This season is really turning into a comedic one. I love it!

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    1. Was he the one wearing the "I (anatomically correct) ♥ Richard Castle?" If so, I missed it. I'll have to go back.

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    2. I don't know what his shirt said, but it was in the opening scene, where Castle was signing the book. He gushed on about how Castle was his favorite author (or something like that).

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    3. Yup. That's him at the beginning.

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  2. Hence, Castle's line: "How far they've fallen."

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    1. That was a great line. (And I did go back and re-watch.)

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