Castle: The Squab and the Quail (5x21)

Okay, so I sort of liked this episode, but I was also getting really frustrated by it. I'll be brief, because in all honesty there was nothing all that stellar to comment on here. Basically, there's this super rich inventor philanthropist guy named Eric Vaughn, and a murder attempt was made on his life. So, Beckett is assigned to watch over him while they try to find the murderer. Vaughn flirts a ton with Beckett, who is rather flattered by this extremely important man's attentions.

The murder itself, like most murders on procedural shows, was nothing special. That being said, I wasn't bored by it or anything, which is usually a pretty good sign.There was a very reasonable twist at the end wherein for a moment, everyone thought Eric Vaughn was the bad guy, but it turned out to be someone else working for him.

Here was my primary problem: this Eric Vaughn guy? Too perfect. At first I thought it was an obvious setup and that he was going to be the villain. And then for a moment I was right. But then... I was wrong. It was just a fake-out. I'm fine with fake-outs, it's just that Vaughn was too perfect to be legitimately innocent.

I liked the jealousy storyline here, although it did make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Are Castle and Beckett really that insecure about their relationship? At the beginning of the episode, we see Beckett acting all sexy and Castle playing video games, and he's so caught up with the game that he doesn't rush to have sex with Beckett. This makes her a little pissed off. I totally get that. But then, she continues to act all pissy for a lot of the episode about how Castle doesn't appreciate her and how she doesn't know where their relationship is going.

At the end of the episode, when Castle "symbolically" cuts his video game cords for Beckett (I laughed) he starts to take her into the bedroom, and she says "where are we going?" and he says, like any normal person would "to the bedroom." Beckett then gets this disappointed look on her face, like, why couldn't you tell I wanted to ask you how serious our relationship is? Look, lady, if you want to have the talk, maybe you should be a bit more explicit about it. I was getting annoyed because thus far we've seen no real indication that Beckett is insecure about their relationship. Isn't it obvious that they love each other? Why would she be questioning how serious he is, after everything they went through to finally get together? It just feels like a rather cheap way of introducing new conflict into their relationship.

Our supporting cast had very little to do this week. Alexis and Martha merely egged on Castle's jealousy by remarking on how amazing Eric Vaughn is, while Ryan and Esposito did the same thing. Ryan, hilariously, assured Castle that he had nothing to worry about and then followed it immediately with: "I wouldn't let Jenny near that guy."

The other funniest part of the episode was Castle's hyper need to solve the crime as soon as possible. He just wanted Beckett away from Vaughn, and because of that he drank a ridiculous amount of coffee, talked in hyper-speed, and pestered Javi and Kevin nonstop for more answers about the case. It was really funny to see him like this, but again, I felt that the driving force of the jealousy issue could have been better explored.

I said I'd be brief, so I'll sign off now. In all, I enjoyed watching this episode start to finish. I was never bored or too annoyed. My biggest problem was simply that I don't find it realistic that Beckett and Castle would be this insecure about their relationship. I hope they talk it out in the very near future!

6.5/10