Castle: Cool Boys (8x06)

A Beckett-less episode. Strange. Still, this was pretty fun. I'm just going to get straight to it. I apologize for my brevity.

Cons:

Same complaint as always. Beckett and Castle's separation doesn't make any sense, so it's difficult to be emotionally invested.

This episode was so busy focusing on other things that it completely dropped the Ryan and Esposito tension that's been going on. That annoys me - these two were at serious odds over the results of the Sergeant's exam, and now there's no sign of any tension whatsoever.

Pros:

Adam Baldwin returns as Ethan Slaughter. Last time we saw him, there were a lot of really fun Firefly references. This episode didn't have that, but even without it, Baldwin's presence in the episode was the biggest highlight. Baldwin and Fillion have a great time, and there are lots of great comedy what with Slaughter's utter disregard for the rules and his violence, paired with Castle's natural hesitance when in dangerous situations alongside his insatiable curiosity. A great mix of stuff going on here.

The case of the week was actually pretty powerful - the suspects include Slaughter himself, and an at-risk youth with a genius-level IQ and a difficult life. In the end, Slaughter ends up as sort of a mentor for this kid, which was surprisingly touching. Both of them are rather rough around the edges, but they want to work to help keep each other in line.

The other funny part of this episode was the way Ryan and Esposito continually got duped by Castle. Honestly, they were put in a really difficult situation here. Castle is their friend, but they know he crosses lines. And then he's paired up with Slaughter, who's even worse at keeping to the rules. Without Beckett around to keep the boys in line, things get a little wacky. I loved the moment when Castle stole Slaughter and the car, and Espo and Ryan were forced to Uber around on their investigation. It's one of those suspension of disbelief things - obviously this would be a serious crime in real life, but Castle's relationship with the precinct has always let him get away with pretty much anything.

Beckett's absence actually ended up being a blessing, because it moved the episode away from the forced conflict of their separation, and delivered a fairly light-hearted, silly episode of Castle. If we can just get over this stupid separation crap, we might still salvage this season.

8/10