Castle: The Wrong Stuff

by Michael Seese

Funny. Funny. Funny. Funny. Funny. 

Did I make it clear that "The Wrong Stuff" had some humorous moments in it? It was a thigh-slapper to be sure, though it surprised me with some bonus depth at the end, specifically, Beckett comparing the astronauts' close-quarter plight with theirs.

As is typical, they seem to follow the dark episodes (in this case the deep dark Resurrection and Reckoning, back to back) with a light one. I filled a page with quips before the first commercial break.

Nice touch aside: Replacing the skyline of NYC with Mars.


(Bear in mind, it's not always the words alone, but the delivery as well.)

Castle: "You're playing laser tag without me?"

Castle: "Are those my pajamas?" And though I didn't write down the full line, I loved his follow up which noted that they were his softest pajamas, and now he had to "burn them."

Beckett: "We've got a murder. To solve. Not commit."

Beckett: "We're bound to step on each others' toes."
Castle: "Yeah, but there were a lot more toes tonight."

Beckett: "You signed up to go to Mars? When?"
Castle: "A couple of years ago."
Beckett: "Where was I?"
Castle: "We were fighting."
(And then reversing the conversation later.)

Beckett: "Even when you whisper, everyone can hear you."
 
Then four great cultural references:

Castle: "One small murder for man. One giant mystery for mankind."

Castle: "Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of Castle and Beckett. They're ongoing mission to explore strange, new motives. To seek out new witnesses, new suspects for murder. To boldly go... Oh, right over here."

Jansen: "She's more Siri than HAL."

Castle: "There goes my Rise Of The Machines theory."

(And to make sure everyone got in on the parade.)
Alexis: "Wow, you guys. Get a room."
Castle: "We would if there was any place left."

Castle: "I'm checking you for bites and scratches. Just making sure you didn’t somehow get impregnated."
Beckett: "If you think that’s how I’d get pregnant, we need to talk."

Whew! That's plenty.

Plus there was joy a-plenty. Castle's slow-mo Mars-hop, and Esposito's chase ("Where are you going to go?") come to mind.

SPOILERS NOW.

This may be the first time Castle ever had a triple homicide, though in this case, "triple" refers to the murderers.

I do have to mention my picky aside, since this dances right up to being such a gaping logical flaw that the whole enterprise (pun intended) falls apart. Simple question: why kill Richwood? No doubt the debriefing would include thoughts on the personnel. If everyone (or even 3 of the 5) said "This guy would drive us nuts," he'd be booted.

Oh well. I still enjoyed "The Wrong Stuff." How about you?