Castle 6x01: Valkyrie

When last we left our heroes, Castle had just proposed marriage to Beckett. Then we waited four months to find out her answer. As cliffhangers go, it was no 'Who Shot JR?' but it was better than nothing.

Just like me, Beckett thought Castle invited her to the park to break up with her and is somewhat taken aback when he drops to one knee. Things are complicated by the fact that she got the job with the fancy secret spy agency in DC. But he didn't propose to her just to get her to stay in new York, so she agrees to marry him and he puts a big, fat rock on her finger.

It pays to date a rich guy.

Ten seconds later, we skip forward two months, and Beckett is in DC running training exercises with TV's Lisa Edelstein. Meanwhile, Castle is in New York, having just returned from a 12-city book-signing tour. Alexis is back, too, having returned from Costa Rica a week early. And she brought a little surprise with her.

His name is Pi.

Castle's a little nonplussed, and when Beckett calls him to tell him she's just been put on a priority case and won't be flying to New York for the weekend, he's a little bummed. So he does the only logical thing and flies to DC for sexytimes with his ladyfriend. She still has to work, though, and since now she works for shadowy government types and he doesn't have clearance, he can't help.

But threats of long-term imprisonment and getting his fiancée fired aren't enough to stop Richard Castle, and when Beckett accidentally drops a photo, he begins his snooping. Under the guise of researching his next novel, he calls Ryan and Esposito, and after bribing them with Knicks tickets, he gets them to look up the serial number of a blown transformer. Using the awesome powers of tech lady Tory Ellis, the guys determine exactly where the transformer was. When the gang in New York discovers that the feds are actively investigating the explosion, Castle quickly pretends he's going into a tunnel and hangs up the phone.

Recurring guest star Maya Stojan as the NYPD tech lady who I didn't think would be in more than one episode.

As it turns out, the transformer was destroyed to momentarily kill the power at a cyber security firm that held a super-secret spy satellite access module. The awesome power of millions of dollars worth of government expertise and equipment leads Beckett and TV's Lisa Edelstein to a golf course, where they think the thief escaped to after leaving the security firm through a drainage tunnel. The awesome power of 15 minutes on the internet led Castle to the exact same conclusion, and TV's Lisa Edelstein is not at all happy to see him interfering with their case.

Not at all happy!

After a thorough dressing down (and not the sexy kind) from both agents, Castle tells Beckett what he knows, then promises to go home and stay out of it. The security guards saw a guy snooping around the day before the explosion, and the video from the golf course leads the government guys to an ex-military dude. They bust down his door, but he's not home... because he's busy kidnapping Castle off the street and forcing him into a car. The two of them go for a little ride and after briefly questioning Castle about 'Valkyrie', the guy says he's going off to Dream World and drops dead. The ensuing car accident attracts federal attention, and Beckett and TV's Lisa Edelstein are not at all happy to see that Castle was involved.

Not at all happy!

The feds arrest Castle, and Beckett's boss gives him an overly harsh interrogation to make sure he tells them everything he knows and learns once and for all to keep his nose out of federal business. While the rest of the team tracks down the dead guy's girlfriend, Beckett tells her gentleman friend to go back to New York.

Reluctantly, Castle hops the next flight back home and has a heart-to-heart talk with Pi while the young man prepares a fruitarian dinner for the family. It's a short talk, though, since Castle needs advice from more worldly people, namely Ryan and Esposito. Kevin offers up relationship advice, while Javier tells them that Dream World isn't where you go when you're taking a nap, but rather a secret US military base in the Persian Gulf. Beckett's into some serious stuff.

Meanwhile, back in DC, the feds have used magic facial recognition software to track down the girlfriend. They arrest her at Union Station as she's pulling the access module out of a locker. The girlfriend says it was all a setup, and Beckett believes her because the whole thing was just way too sloppy. So, she looks into what other businesses were in the same building as the security firm, and the one occupying the top floor is so classified that even she can't see what it is.

Later, some guys in suits drag Castle out of his apartment and take him back to DC where Beckett tells him that the secret upstairs offices held a chemical laboratory, and that he's been exposed to a super-secret toxin and only has one day to live. Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

What I Liked
-Castle's full name is Richard Edgar Alexander Rogers Castle... or REAR Castle. Hehe- butt jokes.
-Nathan Fillion's face acting.

He's the best at what he does.

-The shadowy government computers can't magically enhance a licence plate. I think that's the first time I've ever seen that on TV.
-"It's papaya steak. It's the juiciest steak there is." They really wrote Pi as the ultimate hipster douchebag.

What I hated
-Pi. As a character, he's a weird stereotype that really has no place on this show. Beyond that, I'll admit that I don't keep up to date on the love lives of fictional characters, but didn't Alexis have a boyfriend? And a hipster douche doesn't really seem like her type, anyway. I guess he must give excellent moustache rides.
-The whole 'You have 24 hours to live' thing. The show is called "Castle". They're not going to kill him off. Without Nathan Fillion, the show would lose all cohesion, so unless Richard has a long-lost twin brother, there's no chance of him dying, and everyone knows it. You can't have dramatic tension if every already knows the outcome, so why bother trying?

Final Thoughts
It's been a while since I last saw TV's Lisa Edelstein in anything. It looks like she's mostly been doing occasional TV guest appearances lately. That's a bit of a step down from being the female lead on one of the most popular shows on television, but I suspect that she socked away enough House money that she never needs to work again if she doesn't want to.

They'll probably sort it out in the next episode or two, but I wonder how they're going to keep everyone involved in the show if Beckett's in DC and everyone else is in New York. While Castle's untouchable, they could potentially write out Beckett. The odds on that are pretty slim, but I'm really not sure what else they can do, other than having her get fired from her new job. But that would make me wonder just why the hell they bothered to give it it to her in the first place.

Pi is basically Poochie. I hope he dies on the way back to his home planet.

The first episode back is always a bit of a wash as they resolve cliffhangers and set the tone for the rest of the season. Apparently, this year Castle will make funny faces, and Beckett will be serious business lady. That's not really an improvement over last season.