Castle, Like Father Like Daughter review

Alexis has had it out for Dad Rick this season. He just can’t click with his only daughter’s boyfriend “Pi.” Yes, Pi. Thankfully our favorite father and daughter team are back together (under protest) this week. One of Alexis’ friends has less than 72 hours until the needle. With no help from the 12^th, Castle and Little Castle take a road trip to suburban Pennsylvania where a man waits for his fate to unfold. But have no fear, not one but two Castles are here!

The story does a solid job of weaving a cogent narrative that brings the estranged Alexis and Rick back together. I was skeptical at first of having Alexis play Nancy Drew but Molly Quinn is such a strong actress that she really makes it work. Plus it was cool to see them outside of the city solving cases and taking down a big time case in a small town. Beckett is not completely absent from the show and gets just enough screen time without hurting the narrative. This is all about Rick and Alexis getting their relationship back on track. And what better way to get a father-daughter relationship back on track than with a good homespun murder in the sticks of Pennsylvania. It was very well done, executed perfectly and it really felt like I was watching one of those old two-hour movies that networks used to have from 9 to 11 every week.

The crux of the case is a young man on death row with just three days until the state sends him to meet his maker. The twists and turns are perfect and Alexis has really grown into a headstrong woman especially for just a sophomore in college. If you were to ask me what my sophomore year in college was like, I would have to piece it together from a series of bars and a string of fake ID’s from various states! I kept thinking how impressive this was even with the absence of Beckett for 90 percent of the episode. I even had the thought that Alexis could have her own spinoff show solving cases on the college front. How cool would that be? Either way CASTLE is back with some stellar episodes this season.

One of the great things about CASTLE, for me at least, has always been the way the characters are like a family. There is one scene where Lanie (the M.E.) calls Alexis out saying “why didn’t you just call me to do this?” Basically she was saying, you have all of us as resources so use us. However the only one that does not seem to be getting any face time or help from is Beckett. Maybe it’s that she hasn’t bonded with Beckett so much yet or maybe Alexis is just not ready to accept that her Dad is getting married…again. So I am hoping that they have some upcoming episodes where her and Beckett can join forces and be close. They do share a hug near the end of the episode so I have to think that that is foreshadowing of things to come. I hope so at least.

All in all I was really impressed with this episode aptly titled “Like Father, Like Daughter.” It is always nice to see Rick see how his act works outside of NYC. He is one smooth cat in NYC but amongst the common folk of middle America, they aren’t impressed with some big time mystery writer that counts his residual checks all day long. It is nice to see him come down to earth a little bit, roughing it in a cheap roadside motel with a blinking neon sign and an ice machine. I like the direction that this season moving despite a few duds early in the season. But I think we’ve settled into the season now and Castle and the gang are back in full force.

Den of Geek Rating: 3.5 Out of 5 Stars

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