Castle: XY

by Michael Seese

After a summer of reruns, Caskett is back. Well... sort of, as

SPOILERS!!!!

they weren't really much of a team in the season opener XY because Kate is on the run from bad guys and her friends, not to mention (ostensibly) the entire NYPD.

The show starts with a murder, up close and personal. (Word to the wise, guys: if a woman you've never met crawls into your lap and start kissing you... RUN!) Then on to a scene of domestic bliss at the Castle residence, where we learn she is now Captain Beckett. She goes to work, he stays at home, and then the sh!t hits the fan. (Or is that the blood and bracelet hit the floor?) We then follow Castle as he tries to track down his beloved, putting himself into harm's way several times over, before a hazy reunion at the end. We are left with the setup of a bang-bang beginning to the second part ("XX") as we see a gang of armed men storming Beckett's (no longer) safe house.

What will happen?

Prediction: she doesn't die.

Real prediction: she was enlisted by the FBI to help ferret out an evil insider; they needed her, because she had been trusted and now was the cliched "one person we can trust."

Lighter prediction: I see a future romance between Esposito and Hayley Vargas.

We shall see.

A couple of noteworthy scenes.

I loved the BS routine that Alexis fed the paramedic in order to get him to review the tape with her.

If I may say "loved" again, I loved that Esposito and Ryan updated the child's game to "Knife, Gun, Kevlar."

And finally, kudos to Espo for not just kicking in the door, but knocking it down.

Considering it was a darker episode (of course, any episode with Bracken immediately takes on a midnight hue) I thought there was a lot of humor.

Castle: "What am I going to do, sit outside your office and fetch you coffee?"
Beckett: "Yeah, you're great at fetching. I've trained you well."

Castle: "You've closed four cases? That's more than I have."
Alexis: "I know. Step up your game."

Castle: "You're going to call off your dogs, right now."
Bracken: "Or what? You going to write something mean about me?"
Castle: "I'm going to start a scholarship in your name and offer it to the children of the first inmate who shanks you in the prison laundry."

Assassin (yes, that's how the character is listed in IMDB): "Your earlier stuff was better. You got soft once you met the skirt."
Castle: "Everyone's a critic."

So what did you think of XY? And what do you think will happen in XX? (Please answer within the next 120 minutes.)