Castle: Under Fire (6x11)

That was one of the most unrepentant, dramatic, and cheesy episodes of Castle that I have ever seen, but I didn't mind it one bit. In fact, I enjoyed every second. Let's take a look!

The plot is fairly basic - the team's latest murder victim is found inside of a recently burned building, and thus the team works together with the fire department to try and catch the killer, who they believe is the arsonist who started the fire. The victim is so charred that at first they don't know who it is, but later they discover that the man was a member of the fire department desperately trying to catch a serial arsonist. By following this unfortunate man's leads, Ryan and Esposito find themselves in an abandoned warehouse, which it turns out the arsonist was using as a headquarters. Unfortunately, the place was rigged to blow, and Ryan and Esposito are trapped in the basement as a raging inferno consumes the building.

Meanwhile, Ryan's wife Jenny goes into labor while Ryan and Espo are still caught in the building. It looks like they won't be making it out alive, that is until Castle notices that the building plans don't match with what Ryan and Esposito tell them - there is no lower basement on the plans! Castle, Beckett, and Gates work hard to catch the arsonist, who is then able to tell them another way out of the secret basement. Ryan and Espo are saved just in time, and Jenny gives birth to a healthy baby girl - Sarah Grace.

Beckett and Castle took a backseat in this episode, and the real focus was on our bromance. In particular, Ryan had a lot to do, what with almost dying in a fire and also becoming a father. Some favorite moments: all of the bromantic stuff in the burning building was lovely. Espo calling out Ryan's name in a panic, and then refusing to leave him when he found him with his legs stuck... Ryan telling Jenny to name their kid Javier if it was a boy, Javi falling asleep and Ryan freaking out and then putting his head on Javi's chest in despair... oh boy, this was all so wonderfully angsty and dramatic. But the comedy was mixed in there, too - Javi makes fun of Ryan's sentimentalism - "you're going to call a white Irish kid Javier?"

Beckett did good work this week as well. I loved Stana's performance, particularly when Ryan finally manages to get a phone call through and she's so tearfully relieved that her boys aren't dead. There was also a lovely Castle/Beckett joke when Ryan says that Castle should find a date for his wedding, and Castle says he'll just take Beckett as his date. Beckett responds: "Really? When is that, I might have plans." So cute!

The case wasn't the focus, obviously, but it was still pretty interesting. I liked all of the twists and turns, including the fire fetish website and the reveal that the arsonist was actually a building inspector. Even if the focus was on the characters, I thought the story was pretty nice too.

If I had to find any problems, I'd say the actress who played Jenny couldn't quite pull her weight with all of the dramatic scenes. Although... it was still sweet when she and Ryan reunited. Yeah, actually, that's all I've got! I loved this episode, even if it was overly dramatic.

9/10