Castle: Dead from New York (7x22)

What the heck was this episode? This was so random! I think I liked it... let's jump right in to what happened.

A parody of SNL called "Saturday Night Tonight" is the frame for this week's crime. The show's creator turns up dead, and it's up to Beckett and Castle to crack the case. There are a lot of different potential suspects in this episode, including some of the actors on the show, and one of the intern helper people. At one point, it looks like organized crime is playing a role in events. It turns out though, that the guilty party is an executive producer who was embezzling money from the show. As the creator of the show was in danger of finding out, he had to kill him to keep him quiet. He tried to frame it on one of the show's other employees, but the truth comes out in the end!

The B-plot was about Martha. Her Broadway show is about to open for previews. She's really nervous, because it's been a long time since she's done anything this big. She's never had to contend with the instant mass reaction that comes from the internet. Castle gives her a pep talk, which seems to calm her down quite a bit. After the first night of previews, Martha looks online and is delighted to see that she has gotten rave reviews. Martha, Castle, Beckett, Ryan and Espo all drink champagne at the precinct to celebrate.

I do have a tiny bit of complaining to do - the Carly Rae Jepsen appearance was kind of fun, but it was also really random. Castle and Beckett end up dancing to her song, which would be cute normally, but it came across as very strange, since they're still looking for the killer. It's not exactly like Beckett to take time away from her job to goof around with Castle, especially when so much is on the line. I don't know... maybe it's just a nitpick on my part, but the entire musical interlude didn't really work in conjunction with the rest of the episode.

For the most part, though, I loved the entire concept of "Saturday Night Tonight." The title of the episode is great, playing off of SNL's "Live from New York," we get "Dead from New York." We got to see Castle and Beckett being flustered fans, especially Beckett, as the celebrity host kept flirting with her. Actually, Beckett was a big hit with the people form SNT overall. One of the writers was really inspired by her, asking her how she could always look so put together and beautiful while on the job. They put in a sketch with Beckett and Castle, making Beckett a model/detective, and Castle her incompetent side-kick. At the end, when Beckett and Castle are catching the killer, they burst into the middle of that sketch while the show is being recorded live, making the arrest on TV and bowing to the audience after their little stunt. It was so funny!

Ryan and Espo disagree about the merits of SNT. Ryan loves it, but Espo says it's stupid. Ryan tells Espo he should stop being so negative, and learn to respond with "yes, and" instead of "no." This is a technique in improv acting - never shut down your partner's scene choices by saying "no." Instead, add to what they're saying. I loved that little detail.

The funniest suspect in the case was one of the actors on SNT. He was really funny on the show, but his co-stars said he was acting totally insane lately. When they bring him in for questioning, he has a puppet that he talks to like it's his lawyer. However, once he realizes the boss is dead, he drops the act. He says he's not really crazy - he was acting like he was so hopefully he could be let out of his contract and go on to bigger and better things. The puppet bit was so silly and juvenile, and yet so genuinely hilarious.

All of the humor in this episode aside, I think I enjoyed the B-plot with Martha even more. There were some funny moments here, too - apparently Martha has a ritual where for the two days prior to opening night, she'll only say her character's first line, and nothing else. This leads Beckett to wonder why Martha is repeating "is he dead?" over and over again. Castle says that they have it easy - once, he first line was "come on baby, I'll make it worth your while!" Castle tells Beckett that it made for one awkward parent-teacher conference!

The sweetness of the mother/son relationship between Richard and Martha was really enjoyable. I loved the way Castle gave Martha a pep talk, reminding her that she's earned this second chance at success. And Martha is successful, as if we could have any doubt. The sight of Martha drinking celebratory champagne with the team at the precinct gave me warm fuzzy feelings. Adorable!

I think that's all I've got to say. This was a really weird episode of Castle, I must admit. But I actually really loved it!

8/10