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.