Castle: Dressed to Kill (6x14)

Interesting. This week, Castle travels into the world of fashion, which is extremely cut-throat. To me, this sort of felt like a condensed version of The Devil Wears Prada with a little dash of murder thrown in. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing, but it did make the episode feel extremely derivative.

The plot: at a high end fashion magazine, the Editor in Chief Matilda King rules the roost. However, things get complicated when her assistant is found murdered. The case twists and turns a lot, because nobody is sure if Matilda or the assistant was the person being messed with. The magazine is going through a sensitive time, because it has just been bought by a new owner who wants to change things considerably. The case gets more and more twisted as the team finds a bug in the assistant's apartment, learns about competing magazines, and more. In the end, it turns out a member of Matilda's own magazine is responsible for the murder. He was looking to take over Matilda's job.

Meanwhile, we find out that Beckett and Matilda King actually know each other. Beckett had once almost modeled for her. At one point during the case, Matilda has Beckett try on a wedding dress, which Kate loves. Earlier on, Castle and Beckett had finally agreed on the perfect venue for their wedding. Only one problem - it's extremely popular, and there aren't any spots open until 2015. However, when a couple drops out, they have a chance for the wedding to take place in Spring of 2014. Castle calls to tell Beckett this while she's wearing the wedding dress. She hesitates and tells him no, that she doesn't want to rush anything. Later, she admits to Castle that she hesitated because trying on the dress made her think of her mother, and how much she wishes she could be a part of all of this.

So. What do I like about this episode?

- The wedding subplot. I'm glad that the wedding stuff isn't taking over the whole show or anything, but it is nice to see it become a bigger part of events. I was starting to wonder if they would ever tie the knot! Beckett's dilemma with her mother was a sweet reminder of how hard her life has been.

- The fashion. I loved all of the designs, I loved the wedding dress, and I loved the way that the world of fashion was not treated as a joke. The competitive nature, the quality of the designs, all of it was treated as stuff that really matters. Esposito's clueless attitude was endearing, and Beckett's unexpected tie to the world of fashion was a delightful surprise. I always love it when shows acknowledge their unnaturally beautiful collection of characters. Beckett sure is gorgeous.

- The guest characters. Yeah, so Matilda King was exactly like Miranda from The Devil Wears Prada. Their names even sound the same. But setting that aside, I was really drawn in by all of these characters. The assistant, the assistant's roommate, the designers, the heads of the rival magazine, etc. They all felt like real, fleshed out characters, despite the short amount of time we spent with each of them.

And... what do I not like?

- The case itself was a bit muddled. There were too many red herrings in my opinion. Also, I guessed it was the designer guy from the first time he was in the room. Too often with procedural shows, we'll see the murderer earlier on, and then bring in a ton of extra unnecessary detail before we loop back around to the beginning. I get that this is sort of par for the course with these shows, but I wish they could mix it up.

- So... I said that Beckett's dilemma with her mother was a lovely little touch, but the execution of it was poor, in my opinion. Basically, they made it look like Beckett was questioning her decision to marry Castle. It was stupid, because I don't think anyone was really fooled, but it was like they wanted us to be worried. That doesn't make sense to me. With a couple as strong as these two, it wouldn't make sense for there to be serious doubts like that. And... there wasn't. But they tried to trick us into believing there would be, which annoyed me.

So, there you have it! This one was okay. I don't mind that it wasn't all that original. It was basically just your standard Castle fare, with some fun wedding stuff to sweeten the deal.

7/10