Castle: The Wrong Stuff (7x16)

Castle has always had an interesting relationship with science fiction. It's one of my favorite things about the show, to be honest. It's a procedural cop show with a slight twist in genre. This show has dealt with time travel and other SF related concepts before, and this new episode took it to a whole new level. Let's dive in.

Basically, an astronaut participating in a highly advanced Mars simulation winds up dead. Castle is giddy to be able to "go to Mars," figuratively. I'll cut right to the chase - the murder ends up being a collaboration between the other astronauts. They all hated the victim and knew that going into space with him was going to compromise the mission. They programmed the computer to kill the victim using the Rover.

Meanwhile, Castle and Beckett are finding it difficult to get time alone. Martha has her new boyfriend over all the time, and Alexis has her friends over as well. Castle decides to call a family meeting to think about how they're going to manage the chaos. To his surprise, Martha announces that she's going to find a new place to live, since she's doing better financially and wants her own space.

That was a criminally short plot summary, but it gets the basics across. I loved this episode. It was exactly what I wanted. Something light and clever after the double episode angst we just got finished dealing with.


I have just one complaint - at one point, the computer shuts down and all its memory is wiped, which apparently means that this entire multi-million dollar simulation has to start over from scratch. That's crap. You would most definitely have external hard-drives backing up the information stored on the computer for something this important. The genius funding the whole thing is apparently some sort of computer expert, so how could he let that happen?

But I did love this episode, as I said. Let's list some of the reasons why.

I loved that there was an AI computer in this episode. Well, it wasn't AI, as they made very sure to clarify, but it was a computer with the capacity to learn. Castle even references Hal 9000 from 200l: A Space Odyssey, and then he and Beckett are almost killed when the computer releases a toxic gas into a locked room. Later, they find out that a subroutine had been put into the computer, so it wasn't really a computer trying to kill them, but it was still very evocative of Hal.

Beckett and Castle had some adorable banter here. Each of them finds out that the other signed up to go to Mars, and when they ask "where was I?" the other's reply is "we were fighting." I love that. They both have this desire for adventure, and they both react the same way to conflict, by making a big and mostly meaningless gesture of escape. There was also a moment when Castle had to hoist Beckett up so she could look into an air vent, and Castle complained "why am I always on the bottom?" Beckett just glared at him, and Castle said: "yes, dear." So perfect.

I already mentioned Castle's unique relationship to science fiction, and how much I loved it. I think my favorite moments were the 2001 references, including the music playing when Castle first gets to "Mars," and the Star Trek reference, when Castle talks about the "voyages of Castle and Becket. To seek out new motives..." etc. etc.

Then there's the plot thread about Castle's overcrowded house. I loved this a lot. It makes sense that these four adults would start rubbing each other the wrong way. Martha's offer to move out wasn't a selfless gesture for Castle and Beckett's sake - she really could use her own space. I'm so happy that after years of depending on her rich and successful son, Martha can finally start making strides on her own. (Although, this does make me curious about Alexis. We haven't gotten any updates about her life lately. I wonder how she's doing.)

I think that's where I'll leave off for now. Great episode. Really funny, really clever. It felt like old-school Castle!

9.5/10