Castle: The Blame Game (8x12)

This was a great episode once you look past the silliness of the concept. And it's not hard to do - this hour was entertaining enough that I didn't roll my eyes at all!

Cons:

Not enough Ryan and Esposito. This episode focused on Castle and Beckett being in considerable danger, and I could have done with more scenes of concern from our two favorite secondary characters. Instead, most of the worrying and trying to find them was done by Alexis (yay) and Hayley (nay). I don't have a huge problem with Hayley, but her presence in the story still hasn't managed to solidify itself into anything that makes much sense. She pops in often enough that they clearly want to make something of her, but not often enough to cultivate a strong character.

And, yeah, the premise for this one is a bit tired and overdone. The protagonists are caught in a puzzle arranged by an insane villain. A few of the twists were painfully obvious, and in fact the villain's motivation, that he wanted to get revenge for the hell he went through as a child, didn't really come together for me either.

Pros:

The plot is as follows: Castle and three other men are lured under false pretenses to an abandoned building. They wake up in a room that looks like a kindergarten classroom, where they begin undergoing a series of tests. Castle helps to solve numerous puzzles that eventually lead them to a gun with three bullets. The last of the four of them who survive will get to leave, or so says the note with the gun. At this point, a screen shows a view of an identical room where Beckett and two other women are trapped in the same situation. After undergoing a series of tests and puzzles, everybody gets out except for Castle, Beckett, and one of the other guys, who, it turns out, was the mastermind who orchestrated the whole thing. Castle and Beckett manage to trick him and get out to safety.

While the two of them were trapped inside and struggling to get out, Ryan, Espo, Alexis and Hayley were working on putting together the truth behind a murder, and how it related to Castle and Beckett's abductions. They discover that years ago, the murderer was subjected to torturous psychological experiments that eventually drove him to insanity and his twin sister to suicide. He is now getting revenge on the various institutions that let him down. Beckett represented the NYPD, who failed to stop him from getting hurt, while some of the other abductees represented social services and other organizations that didn't stop his pain. With Hayley and Alexis' help, the NYPD finds Castle and Beckett's location and gets inside just in time to see that Beckett and Castle have already dealt with the bad guy. All is well!

There were a lot of fascinating things about this episode. For one, even though the setup was unoriginal, I loved several of the ideas in it. The duplicate rooms thing was clever, as was the markings that some of the captives had on their shoulders. Those mysteries kept things very suspenseful. I loved how this plot thread gave the show an opportunity to showcase Castle's intelligence. He was solving all of these puzzles with great speed and skill, and it reminded me why he was of value to the NYPD as a consultant in the first place.

Also, this episode nicely subverted any angst-y drama by having Castle and Beckett never once try and sacrifice themselves for one another. In the end, when the bad guy says that they have to pick one to live and one to die, they just stall until they can get his weapon away from him. Neither of them tries to make the ultimate sacrifice. That was refreshing.

Like I said, I could have done without Hayley, but I like Alexis sleuthing around after her father, who does have an unfortunate tendency to get himself kidnapped far more often than is usual. It was sweet to see her concern, and I liked their reunion at the end. It would have been even better if we could have seen Beckett and Alexis have a reunion as well. I wonder how their relationship is going to repair itself once Castle and Beckett are back together in the open?

That's all I've got for this one. The creative premise allowed for a lot of interesting details. I liked seeing smart Castle and smart Beckett keeping cool under extreme stress. Hopefully we can get more strong showings in the coming week. This season might just be salvageable!

8.5/10