TVGC review of "Death Gone Crazy" LINK UP

[Queen Of The Castle]

I know, tonight's episode was probably dead last on everyone's list for their favourite episodes of this season and I totally get that.  It wasn't exciting, it didn't seem to push much forward in terms of the storylines, and while there were a few really key moments that could have been easily overlooked, it really didn't seem to have much to it.

But I believe that this was one of those episodes that we'll look at quite differently by the end of the season, or maybe even well before that point, as I definitely think there was more to it than it seemed tonight.  This may prove to be one of those "setup" episodes that we won't really put much stock into until hindsight gives us the benefit of knowing how vital it actually was to the storylines later in the season.

With that said, I'm going to follow along with tradition and post my review here for you folks to check out prior to it being published online at TV Guide Canada tomorrow morning.  I'll post the link here once it's online as well and I hope you'll follow that link to give it a read online tomorrow and support the show over at TVGC, perhaps even with a facebook post or a tweet or whatever you wish to do to support having these reviews continue each week.

Even if you weren't a huge fan of the episode, I do hope you'll enjoy this review and maybe find the desire to wait and see if this episode proves to be a key setup for what may come as the season progresses.

** Please note that the below review was actually my original "final draft", which I later amended and have re-posted further down in this thread.  The second review will be the one that I submit tonight to be published tomorrow.  I've left the old version on here (see below) for anyone who wants to compare the two and weigh in on which they actually liked more **


Final Review is posted! CLICK IT

---

The Setup on “Castle”

By Lisa Caputo

2013-02-22

Kelly Hu guest-stars in Monday’s foreshadowing-filled episode

This fifth season of ABC’s hit series, Castle, has arguably been the most compelling and impressive season yet. With a plethora of

fantastic episodes through the fall portion of the season and a string of highly-anticipated dramatic episodes on deck through February, Monday’s episode seemed to be the typical calm before the storm; a straightforward episode with no forward push in the ongoing storylines. But when it comes to this series, nothing is ever truly straightforward, and hindsight will likely prove that
there was much more to this episode than it seemed on Monday night.

Some will chalk this episode up as mere filler, but I truly believe that there was a much greater purpose to it. In fact, I have my
suspicions that this was actually a brilliant example of pure foreshadowing, setting the stage for some of the drama to follow during February sweeps. Penned by Castle newcomer, Jason Wilborn, “Death Gone Crazy” followed the murder investigation of a character we met once in season four, Beau Randolph, the creator of the “College Girls Gone Crazy” video series. But it also focused on Esposito’s romantic interest in Beau’s bodyguard (guest star Kelly Hu) and Castle discovering that Alexis had begun an online video  blog while away at college, two storylines that may very well factor heavily into the upcoming episodes in the second half of this season.

Kelly Hu turned in a memorable performance as Scarlet Jones, a tough yet feminine spy turned bodyguard, hired to infiltrate Beau’s  company to dig up some dirt on him by the owner of a children’s literature publishing house that Beau was set to invest in as a means of cleaning up his act. After butting heads with Esposito at the crime scene, Jones seemed to pique the detective’s interest. While she was an on-again / off-again suspect in the investigation, Jones and Esposito did manage to find time for a quick date,

which was interrupted by Ryan and Beckett who were looking to bring Jones in for questioning again.

While the romance did not seem to go anywhere in this episode, the door did seem to be left open for Hu to potentially return again
in the future. Even if she does not reprise her role of Jones as a recurring character, something that would be a shame after Hu’s intriguing and captivating performance, she will have at least left her mark as the first true romantic interest for Esposito since his breakup with Lanie last season. So far this season, all signs seem to point towards Esposito feeling like the odd man out now that Ryan and Jenny are planning to have a child while Castle and Beckett have finally cemented their own committed romantic relationship. While Esposito and Lanie have always maintained a friends-with-benefits type of relationship since their official breakup last season, it has been carefully hinted at that Esposito may be in the market for something much more serious this season.

Thus, it seems as though introducing Scarlet Jones may have been a clever way of showcasing the fact that Esposito is ready to move on with his life and settle down, whether with Lanie or with someone else entirely. In fact, this storyline may have set the stage perfectly for either an Esplanie reunion or for Esposito to cut his losses with his former love and go on the hunt for a new flame instead.

The other major case of potential foreshadowing, and the one that seems to carry much more weight in terms of possibly dramatic
storytelling, was the debate between Castle and Alexis over her online video blog. While Google-ing himself early in the episode (hilarious), Castle discovered Alexis’ new online video blog, where she described a recent skating date with her boyfriend, Max. Acting in line with how any parent would act, Castle attempted to convince his daughter how truly dangerous it was to share
such personal information so openly on the internet. Meanwhile, Alexis, Martha, and even Beckett all seemed to believe that he was being too overprotective.

In the end, Castle was swayed by the three most important women in his life and agreed to let Alexis make her own decisions. While it was true that Alexis was, technically, an adult and therefore was responsible for making her own decisions in her life, it was actually rather cringe-worthy to watch Castle back down on this issue, especially as it now seems abundantly clear that Alexis’ actions may very well put her squarely in some very serious danger as the season progresses.

The first hint of foreshadowing came in “Probable Cause”, with Jerry Tyson (aka: 3XK) making it abundantly clear that he had been keeping tabs on Castle and all of his loved ones, including Beckett and Alexis. It was also rather clear that Jerry Tyson had succeeded in disappearing, though it was likely that he would return to the series again when the time was right.

Perhaps Tyson returns with a vengeance, using Alexis’ video blog as a means to gather more information about her. With the young woman giving out details about her routines, her typical activities, and her friends and boyfriend, Tyson may be able to gather more than enough personal information to find a way into her life, either from afar or perhaps even directly. After all, Alexis has likely never seen what Tyson looks like, meaning she could easily become a sitting duck for this psychotic serial killer.

This is all pure speculation at this point and all we can do is sit back and wait to see if this episode was truly setting the stage for
some dramatic material as the season progresses. With the track record of the Castle team and their penchant for extremely clever foreshadowing and finding brilliant ways to connect their episodes together throughout a season or the series as a whole, I am inclined to believe that hindsight will soon shed light on the greater purpose of this seemingly straightforward episode.

After all, when it comes to Castle, there is always a deeper meaning... especially when the episode ends with the line, "A father would do anything for his daughter."

[Queen Of The Castle]

Sorry, I posted the wrong version at first and then I had some formatting issues, some of which are still present... my apologies... I'll try to fix this all up later!!

[cinster52]

Queen,

I liked the show. I thought the story was also a setup for future shows. Beau was trying to become a better man for a woman he loved and for his baby girl, a more caring man. Castle changed into a better man for the woman he loves. Castle has become a better father over the years seeing what happens in the real world and his concerns about Alexis is justified. "A father would do anything for his daughter". Watching Kate's face after he said that and she had a little smile, was she thinking that he would be a great protective father for their daughter?

Esposito is looking for his "0ne and done" and still trying to be the cool guy. I hope he finds her.

As always, I enjoyed your review. You point out parts of the story that would be missed if all we are looking for is the love scenes between Kate and Rick. I always think those are bonuses to the story. This week personal story wasn't about them.

[Queen Of The Castle]

Thanks, Cinster, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

And I agree wholeheartedly with your thoughts as well. With some of the heavy episodes that we have coming up, I thought this was a great way to set things up in a slightly less dramatic way so as not to overdo it. I loved the way that they portrayed Castle as the overprotective father when it seems quite clear that he was actually the one who was being the most rational in this case. It opens the door for him to take on the blame if/when something happens to Alexis, knowing that he should have put his foot down whether Alexis liked it or not.

I'm also glad to see Esposito turning towards trying to find something more substantial for himself as well. He's got that same sort of false reputation that Castle always had, with everyone just assuming that he's the eternal bachelor who is just looking for a hook-up when he actually really does want what his friends all seem to have; a committed relationship with someone he can grow old with.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the episode. I actually found myself really enjoying it even more on the second viewing of it tonight, watching it again while knowing what happened so I could just concentrate on what was there rather than what wasn't there. Aside from the great foreshadowing, I actually really enjoyed a great deal of the episode, both in the case itself and the heart that existed within it (as you pointed out in your post so wonderfully) and also in those personal moments between Castle and Alexis, Beckett and Esposito, and even a quick but revealing moment between Castle and Beckett.

Actually, I came right home after watching it again on the west coast feed with my bf that I decided I had to rewrite part of my review to pay better tribute to those extra moments that made it worthwhile to watch a second time.

[Queen Of The Castle]

Okay, so as I mentioned in my previous post, I sat back and watched the west coast viewing tonight with my bf, as per usual.  In doing so, I realized that there was so much more to this episode than just the foreshadowing that I had focused on so heavily in my original "final draft" of my review.  I am fully able to admit that I do sometimes do this very thing...  I watch the episode once on the early viewing and spend so much time writing about something that I've found to focus on about the episode that I don't really sit back and watch the episode again until the west coast viewing.  In those cases, sometimes I find that this second viewing opens my eyes to things that I didn't necessarily miss the first time around, rather things that I didn't put as much weight on after seeing it the first time around.

Well, that's exactly what happened tonight.  I realized that my error in my previous version of this review was that I chose to focus solely on the foreshadowing and theorizing what it may mean for the future episodes. Yet I overlooked the importance of those wonderful standalone moments throughout the episode, those moments that infused this episode with the heart and soul of the story, rather than just the build-up of the potential upcoming story arcs.  It wouldn't have been fair to the Castle team to not at least touch on these moments and discuss how special they were, not only to this episode but to the characters themselves and their ongoing storylines.

Thus, I came right home and set to work to rewrite this review, yet again, and focus on both the foreshadowing but also on these other highlights of the episode.  With that said, here is my amended review, which is now my real final draft, and this will be the version that I submit to my editor tonight.  I hope you all enjoy it!

P.S.  I did leave the original version on here, in case anyone wants to read both and weigh in on whether or not you liked the new version better.

---

The Setup on “Castle”

By Lisa Caputo

2013-02-22

Kelly Hu guest-stars in Monday’s foreshadowing-filled episode

This fifth season of ABC’s hit series, Castle, has arguably been the most compelling and impressive season yet. With a plethora of fantastic episodes through the fall portion of the season and a string of highly-anticipated dramatic episodes on deck through February, Monday’s episode seemed to be the typical calm before the storm; a straightforward episode with no forward push in the ongoing storylines. But when it comes to this series, nothing is ever truly straightforward, and hindsight will likely prove that there was much more to this episode than it seemed on Monday night.

Some will chalk this episode up as mere filler, but I truly believe that there was a much greater purpose to it. In fact, I have my suspicions that this was actually a brilliant example of pure foreshadowing, setting the stage for some of the drama to follow during February sweeps. Penned by Castle newcomer, Jason Wilborn, “Death Gone Crazy” followed the murder investigation of a character we met once in season four, Beau Randolph, the creator of the “College Girls Gone Crazy” video series. But it also focused on Esposito’s romantic interest in Beau’s bodyguard (guest star Kelly Hu) and Castle discovering that Alexis had begun an online video blog while away at college, two elements that may very well factor heavily into the upcoming episodes in the second half of this season.

Some of the standalone highlights of the episode included a vast array of memorable moments which, in and of themselves, are certainly worth watching the episode again to see. The two scenes between Nathan Fillion and Molly Quinn, who continue to portray the most refreshingly sincere and beautiful father/daughter pairing on television today, were heartwarming and endearing. Beckett’s genuine interest in Esposito’s love life saw her questioning and teasing him about his interest in Scarlet Jones, just as an older sister would. Also, Beckett pushed Castle to express his feelings after his heart-to-heart discussion with Alexis, a sure sign that she was not willing to let the same pitfalls that doomed his marriage to Meredith become an issue in their own relationship. Each of these carefully crafted moments added a great deal of heart and soul into this episode.

Meanwhile, Kelly Hu turned in a memorable performance as Scarlet Jones, a tough yet feminine corporate spy turned bodyguard, hired to infiltrate Beau’s company to dig up some dirt on him by the owner of a children’s literature publishing house that Beau was set to invest in as a means of cleaning up his act. After butting heads with Esposito at the crime scene, Jones seemed to pique the detective’s interest. While she was an on-again / off-again suspect in the investigation, Jones and Esposito did manage to find time for a quick date, which was hilariously interrupted by Ryan and Beckett who were looking to bring Jones in for questioning again, just as things were about to get interesting.

While the romance did not seem to go anywhere in this episode, the door did seem to be left open for Hu to potentially return again in the future. Even if she does not reprise her role of Jones as a recurring character, something that would be a shame after Hu’s intriguing and captivating performance, she will have at least left her mark as the first true romantic interest for Esposito since his breakup with Lanie last season. So far this season, all signs seem to point towards Esposito feeling like the odd man out now that Ryan and Jenny are planning to have a child while Castle and Beckett have finally cemented their own committed romantic relationship. While Esposito and Lanie have always maintained a friends-with-benefits type of relationship since their official breakup last season, it has been carefully hinted at that Esposito may be in the market for something much more serious this season.

Thus, it seems as though introducing Scarlet Jones may have been a clever way of showcasing the fact that Esposito is ready to move on with his life and settle down, whether with Lanie or with someone else entirely. In fact, this storyline may have set the stage perfectly for either an Esplanie reunion or for Esposito to cut his losses with his former love and go on the hunt for a new flame instead.

The other major case of potential foreshadowing, and the one that seemed to carry much more weight in terms of some possibly dramatic storytelling, was the debate between Castle and Alexis over her online video blog. While Google-ing himself early in the episode (hilarious), Castle discovered Alexis’ new online video blog, where she described a recent skating date with her boyfriend, Max. Acting in line with how any parent would act, Castle attempted to convince his daughter how truly dangerous it was to share such personal information so openly on the internet. Meanwhile, Alexis, Martha, and even Beckett all seemed to believe that he was being too overprotective.

In the end, Castle was swayed by the three most important women in his life and agreed to let Alexis make her own decisions. While it was true that Alexis was, technically, an adult and therefore was responsible for making her own decisions in her life, it was actually rather cringe-worthy to watch Castle back down on this issue, especially as it now seems abundantly clear that Alexis’ actions may very well put her squarely in some very serious danger as the season progresses. We already know that Jerry Tyson (aka: 3XK) is still alive and well, potentially plotting his next attack against Castle, and Alexis certainly seems to be a likely target for him at this point.

This is all pure speculation, of course, and all we can do is sit back and wait to see if this episode was truly setting the stage for some dramatic material as the season progresses. With the track record of the Castle team and their penchant for extremely clever foreshadowing and finding brilliant ways to connect their episodes together throughout a season or the series as a whole, I am inclined to believe that hindsight will soon shed light on the greater purpose of this seemingly straightforward episode.

After all, when it comes to Castle, there is always a deeper meaning…  especially when the episode ends with the line, “A father would do anything for his daughter.”

[beckettnypd]

Even before reading your review, I felt that they were foreshadowing there will be trouble ahead for Alexis. I have a feeling she will be kidnapped, and Rick is going to lose it and Beckett is going to be his rock through it.

[castlekat]

Ok, Queenie, after reading both reviews, I have to agree with your decision.  Your revised edition is DEFINATELY the better choice! I think those were some key moments indeed, that you included the second time around, and deserved a mention.  More focus on the "here & now" of what happened in the episode, versus what may happen.  Theory-spinning is awesome, but the focus on those nice moments enhanced your review greatly, I think.

Awesome anyway, as usual.

[Queen Of The Castle]

Jan 22, 2013 6:53:20 GMT -5 beckettnypd said:

Even before reading your review, I felt that they were foreshadowing there will be trouble ahead for Alexis. I have a feeling she will be kidnapped, and Rick is going to lose it and Beckett is going to be his rock through it.

I wholeheartedly agree with this, beckettnypd!!  Thank you for sharing your thoughts!!

[Queen Of The Castle]

Jan 22, 2013 8:10:34 GMT -5 castlekat said:

Ok, Queenie, after reading both reviews, I have to agree with your decision.  Your revised edition is DEFINITELY the better choice! I think those were some key moments indeed, that you included the second time around, and deserved a mention.  More focus on the "here & now" of what happened in the episode, versus what may happen.  Theory-spinning is awesome, but the focus on those nice moments enhanced your review greatly, I think.

Awesome anyway, as usual.

Thanks, castlekat, and I'm glad to hear that you agreed that the revised version was the one to run with.  After sitting back and watching the episode again, I felt I wasn't being fair enough to the merits of that episode on its own.  Yes, it was important in the foreshadowing and the setup elements that would become clear as the season progresses, but it was also full of its own great moments. Like you said, there was a great number of "here and now" moments that I had failed to mention in my first version and I really didn't feel right about that.

It's impossible to ever write about everything in an episode, but I didn't feel good about focusing solely on what this episode would mean for the future rather than also paying tribute to some of the great moments that it showcased in the present and what that means for the characters as well.  Not calling attention to how incredible the scenes were between Nathan and Molly would have been an absolute crime.  Not pointing out that we're already seeing a change in Beckett in that she's focused on pushing Castle to talk about his feelings more would have been irresponsible of me as a reviewer.  And not referencing how great it was to see Kate showing a genuine interest in Esposito's love life would have been a missed opportunity to point out the change in both of these characters, expanding on their brother/sister type of relationship and really delving into some very sweet territory with Beckett showing that she cares a great deal to see Esposito happy, perhaps even more so now that she's found love with Castle.

So yeah, it had to be changed.  And this is why I don't send my reviews in right away until I've seen the episode with a fresh pair of eyes.  I usually watch it once on the early viewing and then start writing while I watch it in the background a second time, checking out specific scenes along the way that I may focus on in my review.  And then I watch it again during the east coast airing while I edit and rewrite and edit some more, just to be sure that I'm focusing on the right aspects of the review, or at least in my opinion (lol).  But it's always key to take a break and watch it again, entirely for the enjoyment of the episode as a whole, and sometimes I find that I need to rewrite some more afterward because I either got something wrong or I missed the opportunity to focus on something great that I overlooked in my first attempt.

This is the first time that I've actually rewritten such a large portion of it and added something new in there instead, but it was also a rare occasion where I only watched it on the early viewing and then spent the rest of the night writing while having the hockey game on in the background (it's baaaaack!!), so I apparently threw myself off by doing so.  Lol.  It was essential to have that second viewing with the west coast feed as it opened my eyes to how much I had skipped over in my review and showed me that my original focus wasn't the right one.

Hindsight really is 20/20...  lol.

[CXQ319]

This is another episode where we see the victim still alive in the opening scene. That "always" puts me on full alert. One could not help but to feel the foreshadowing through out. Alexis, Castle, any Father, Yo-Man all brought flashbacks and yet forboding. As a total SPREE I am sooooo thankful for a few tidbits that I can speculate upon.

Another great Q review. Nobody does it better.... anyone else hear a melody when they read that? LOL

[Queen Of The Castle]

Jan 22, 2013 14:46:51 GMT -5 CXQ319 said:

This is another episode where we see the victim still alive in the opening scene. That "always" puts me on full alert. One could not help but to feel the foreshadowing through out. Alexis, Castle, any Father, Yo-Man all brought flashbacks and yet forboding. As a total SPREE I am sooooo thankful for a few tidbits that I can speculate upon.

Another great Q review. Nobody does it better.... anyone else hear a melody when they read that? LOL

Thanks, CXQ!!  I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm so glad you finally get to toss around some theories with us since your being spree usually means you don't get to have fun with theories like us spoileraholics.  Lol.

And yes, I do believe "nobody does it better" is part of a commercial jingle...  in fact, I KNOW we have a commercial with that here in Canada...  lol.

[tycho657]

I agree that your 2nd draft was better also. I have to say I was not very excited about the episode. Yes, it must be leading us down a path that we will figure out later. I was also disappointed that there wasn't anything to  indicated that Castle and Beckett were now dating/together. I got 2 new people to watch last night because I told them that season 5 had these two together. After they watched last night they probably thought I was crazy. I was surprised at the lack of fun banter that I thought we would see come back this season. I hope we see some of that come back before this season ends. I feel like they are dropping the ball with the fun we saw in season 1 & 2. It is time to see some of that come back. 

[CXQ319]

Anyone else unhappy with the new process for TVGC comments? I don't FB, Tweet or use any other social media. Looks like I won't be leaving any comments at the TVGC site.

[teelduo]

Even if you can fb or tweet, you really aren't leaving comments. You're just giving them a count on how many will share the article. I guess they would rather have that feedback than us saying how much we love Castle. LOL

[motowncf]

Jan 22, 2013 14:55:27 GMT -5 Queen Of The Castle said:

Jan 22, 2013 14:46:51 GMT -5 CXQ319 said:

This is another episode where we see the victim still alive in the opening scene. That "always" puts me on full alert. One could not help but to feel the foreshadowing through out. Alexis, Castle, any Father, Yo-Man all brought flashbacks and yet forboding. As a total SPREE I am sooooo thankful for a few tidbits that I can speculate upon.

Another great Q review. Nobody does it better.... anyone else hear a melody when they read that? LOL

Thanks, CXQ!!  I'm glad you enjoyed it and I'm so glad you finally get to toss around some theories with us since your being spree usually means you don't get to have fun with theories like us spoileraholics.  Lol.

And yes, I do believe "nobody does it better" is part of a commercial jingle...  in fact, I KNOW we have a commercial with that here in Canada...  lol.

I suspect CXQ is referring to the Carly Simon tune that was the theme for the Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me.  At least that was the tune that started running through my head.

While I liked both versions, I gotta agree that the second one brought a little more balance and had more focus on the episode itself as well as future possibilities.  In fact, I need to go back and rewatch now to catch a couple of those moments!