Castle: Law and Boarder (6x21)

Is it just me, or was the case of the week particularly confusing in this episode? It seemed to go all over the place! My summary, by contrast, is going to be rather brief.

A competitive skateboarder turns up dead, and the team has to figure out why. At first they think it might be his competition, then they think it's his mom's ex-boyfriend who was hardcore into drugs and went to jail because of the murder victim. Then, it seems to be tied to a law firm of some sort. They track down several viable suspects, but none of them seem to be the murderer. They eventually discover that the victim's friend was killed several years ago, and it was caught on tape. The murderer had money to pay off the other witnesses, but he had to wait to turn twenty-one, for his trust fund to mature. They catch the guy who committed these two murders, the second one to cover up the first.

In subplot news, Beckett beats Castle at a game of Scrabble and Castle gets pretty upset about it. He keeps trying to set up rematches with her, but she's not interested. In the end they play a game of strip poker, which both find to be more fun.

Ryan and Esposito find out that Lanie is Beckett's maid of honor, and the two of them both start campaigning for the job of best man. In the end, they announce to Castle that they'd be okay being co-best men. Castle awkwardly tells them that he asked Alexis to be his best man, and asks if they'll be his groomsmen.

Problems:

Well, the case was too much. It had too many twists and turns. Honestly, there were like five different people who had a reasonable motive for killing the victim. It was just too crazy. There were ties to the mob, cover-up conspiracies, skateboarding rivalries, high tech robberies... yikes. I think it just became a little crowded for my taste.

Good stuff:

The acting of the guest stars was very solid. I didn't guess who the murderer was going to be, but once it was revealed, it felt obvious that this kid could have been capable of murder. So that was nicely done on his part.

The subplots were adorable. I love that Castle is extremely competitive about scrabble... that seems to fit his personality perfectly. He has this reputation in his family for being the ultimate champion, and the fact that Kate usurped him seems so in keeping with her role in his life over all.

Ryan and Espo fighting over being best man was just... so, so, precious. And Alexis being the best man! Yay!

I know I'm not being very chatty about this episode. To be honest I've had a bad day and I just need to get this done. The gist is this: I thought the main plot was too cluttered, but there was nothing terrible about it. The subplots were golden.

7.5/10