Castle: Still (5x22)

I don't think I've ever had so much fun watching a clip show. And it wasn't really a clip show, was it? At first I thought it was going to be, but in reality they didn't spend all that much time playing us clips of old stuff. There was a full story and a lot of new material. It was sort of a combo between a clip show and a new episode, and I for one thought it was great.

The premise is simple: Beckett steps on a sensor plate and if she takes her foot off, a bomb is going to go off. Castle stays with her to keep her distracted while they try and disarm the bomb. Turns out, there's a timer, and the bomb squad cannot find a way to disarm it. Castle refuses to leave, however, and the two of them come up with the correct password to disarm it at the very last second. It's unrealistic and cheesy, and it's the second time that this show has done a disarm-the-bomb-just-before-it-goes-off episode, but it works pretty great.

Alexis and Martha weren't in the episode at all this week, and Javi, Ryan and Bates all have fairly secondary roles as they scramble to figure out how to save Beckett. They did a good job displaying their panic and their drive. There was one moment from Bates that was absolutely fantastic, but I'll get to that when I get to the end of the episode.

Mostly, the best part of this whole thing was the interactions between Beckett and Castle. They took a bit of an unorthodox road by making Castle's character mostly serene and joking throughout the whole thing. He never really broke down or acted too scared. I think it worked wonderfully, because instead of being a blubbering mess he was being brave for Kate's sake. It really came through in Fillion's acting. They showed a lot of montages of their moments together, all as part of a flirtatious argument between Beckett and Castle as to which of them fell for the other first.

We had montages of Kate touching Castle (beating up on him, basically), flirtation from both of them, hot outfits of Kate, Castle loving being a cop, instances in which other people told Kate that Castle liked her, a montage of all the near-death experiences they've had, and at the end a kiss montage. 

There were a lot of adorable jokes thrown in here, such as Castle getting distracted while thinking back over Beckett's "dizzying array of hairstyles over the years," and there was a great moment when they called Esposito and he says: "Seriously? Who liked who first? You do realize that I'm busy trying to save your life."

I think the best part of the episode, though, was the ending, when we find out that Captain Bates knows about Castle and Beckett. "Oh, for heaven's sake, detective, just kiss the man!" This was awesome. I absolutely love when things like this happen. 

In all, it's a bit difficult for me to review this episode normally, given that it was a clip show of sorts. But for what it was, I really enjoyed watching it.

8/10