Castle Season 7 Episode 7 - Once Upon a Time in the West

Overall, I have been very happy with season seven of Castle, especially with episode six.  I really enjoyed Once Upon a Time in the West, the seventh episode of the season.  It is another fun, entertaining episode.

Like usual, there are spoilers ahead for people who haven’t seen the episode yet.  Read at your own risk.

Rick and Kate have Lanie, Esposito, and Ryan over the loft and tell them they got married.  The three are a bit upset, especially when Martha goes on about how perfect it was, even saying you should have been there.  Lanie goes off on Kate briefly, talking about not eating carbs for months so she would fit in her dress, and then she hugs Kate in happiness while pushing Rick away.  The guys hold on to their disappoint, saying they had plans for the wedding, including a song, and now there is no song for Rick, not even at the reception/party that will be coming up.  Kate gets a call about a new murder, and Ryan and Esposito refuse to go, saying that is another call they didn’t get.

At the hospital, they discover that the victim got sick on the subway, was taken to the hospital, said diamondback just before she died and she had been poisoned.  At the precinct, Ryan and Esposito discover that the woman had just been at Diamondback Dude Ranch.  Kate contacts the local sheriff who says he can’t do anything with any concrete proof and he’s unwilling to go to the ranch to ask questions since the ranch brings in a lot of tourists to the area.  Kate is aggravated, but thinks there is nothing else she can do.  Then Rick comes up with the idea that he and Kate should go to the ranch and honeymooners to investigate.  Surprisingly, Gates agrees with Rick, so the two head off to the ranch.  Rick thinks they might as well try to have some fun too since they won’t be able to take an actual honeymoon for a while because Kate used her vacation days looking for him when he was missing. 

Rick is having fun from the moment they get to the ranch while Kate is trying to focus on finding out what happened to the victim.  They do some shopping, getting some western clothes and Rick wants to get guns, but Kate says they need to head to their room - she managed to talk their way into them getting the same room as the victim.  They talk to the guy in the room next door who also shares the bathroom and learn some things about the victim, including that she may have been involved with a married ranch staff member.  Rick comes up with a way for them to try to figure out which staff member by them doing various activities around the ranch.  He of course goes for the poker game in the saloon while signing Kate up for something like calf or hog roping.  They learn that the victim had been asking a lot of questions and they keep hearing about lost gold. 

Back in New York, the guys are working on the case as well, while continuing to whine about not being at the wedding.  Rick and Kate go looking for the lost gold, with Rick tracking trash through a field instead of tracks.  They find what Rick thinks is the treasure, only to discover a dead body instead.  There is a suspect in New York, though he turns out not to be the killer.  When Rick is drinking with the owner of the ranch, he gets a call from the guys.  They figured out that the owner of the ranch is the killer and Kate isn’t answering her phone.  Rick and the guy almost get into a shoot out, but Kate arrives to deal with the situation just in time.  At the precinct, the guys are still complaining about not being at the wedding when Gates decides that she has had enough of that.  She points out that real friends would just be happy for their friends, especially when they have been through as much as Rick and Kate have.  The important thing is that Rick and Kate are happy and married.  The guys see the light and follow through on an idea from Gates and each give a few of their vacation days to Kate so she and Rick can have a short honeymoon.  They are staying at the ranch for those days, but Kate gets a promise of a real honeymoon for sometime later.

This is another fun, entertaining episode that I really enjoyed.  Yes it does get a little silly a few times, but it works for the episode and makes it more entertaining in my opinion.  The case is interesting and it serves as a way to give Rick and Kate at least a short honeymoon, which is nice.  I’m not the biggest fan of westerns, but the western theme works well here.  The episode does use some of the cliches of the genre, like shootouts and someone shooting a gun out of someone else’s hand.  Those things all worked to make the episode more fun and entertaining.  Castle has done other episodes sort of like this and those episodes also did the same thing.  I tend to like these type of theme episodes.

Once Upon a Time in the West is very closely tied to the last episode, well, at least the ending of the last episode.  It isn’t said for sure, but I don’t think much time has passed since Rick and Kate got married and the beginning of this one when they are telling Lanie, Esposito, and Ryan.  I got the impression that Rick and Kate weren’t home that long before getting them to the loft to tell them.  It is clear that they are happy to share their news.  I get why the three were disappointed or even upset at first.  I think Lanie was the best, with how she sort of told Kate off, and then was hugging her and happy for her friend in less than a minute.  The guys held on to their issues longer, and while some of that was amusing at first, like when Rick just hands his wallet over to them when they say he owes them for the tux rentals, but it got old for me when they wouldn’t drop it.  Even when calling Kate about the case, they brought it up again.  They were being childish and it got old for me fast.  I was very glad when Gates decided to have a talk with them and I agree with everything she said.

Overall, I really enjoyed Once Upon a Time in the West and think it is one of the more entertaining episodes for this season of Castle.  The next episode looks like it will be one of the more serious episodes.

Once Upon a Time in the West is available to watch on the ABC website and other streaming services.  I think it is also available through ABC On Demand.

Castle Season 7 Recaps/Reviews
Driven ~ Montreal ~ Clear and Present Danger ~ Child's Play ~ Meme is Murder ~ The Time of Our Lives ~

The Big Bang Theory Season 8 Episode 8 - The Prom Equivalency

 The newest episode of The Big Bang Theory, The Prom Equivalency is the eighth of season eight, is another fun, entertaining episode that also has a surprising development.

As usual, there are spoilers ahead, so read at your own risk.

Howard is a bit upset to hear that his mother Debbie and Stuart were at Beninhana the night before even though he says he is all right.  It doesn’t help that Raj says that once they got back to the house - Stuart is still living there - they probably put on matching pajamas.

Amy and Bernadette arrive for an evening at Penny’s.  The living room is full of clothes because Penny had to make room for her new work clothes in her closet.  They start talking about proms after Amy and Bernadette see Penny’s prom dress.  Penny actually went six proms and enjoyed them.  Amy was on the clean up crew for her prom, and only danced with a mop.  Bernadette had a date, but he only went with her because he was trying to get to her friend.  Bernadette says how she thinks it would be cool if they had their own prom now by getting the guys to dress up in tuxes and decorate the roof.  Amy likes the idea too, though Penny is less interested.  She comes around when Leonard says that he would like it.

Bernadette is happy that everyone is coming, including Stuart who is bringing a date.  Howard flips out some about that, thinking that Stuart is bringing his mother.  Howard decides to call him, and then is upset when Stuart says he is bringing someone else.  Sheldon is less than pleased about the idea of going to a prom.  In high school, he spent his time studying - though he was also younger than his classmates since he graduated so early.  He decides to talk to Penny about it since he knows she isn’t as into the idea either.  His idea for getting through the evening is to pretend that he’s an alien that is taking part in a human ritual to learn about humans.  Penny doesn’t want to do that.  She does ask Sheldon if he will be taking part in any post prom mating rituals.

On the night of their prom, Sheldon kind of freaks out after seeing Amy in her dress.  He runs back into the apartment while Penny and Leonard head to the roof and start to enjoy their evening.  Raj, Emily, Howard, and Bernadette are in a limo going to pick up Stuart and his date.  Howard is shocked and upset to see that it is his second cousin Jeanie.  Yes, that second cousin.  Howard is also upset by the fact that Raj starts talking about the incident and it only gets worse when Emily says that she already knows because Raj told her ages ago.  Howard is not dealing well and things devolve to the point where he and Stuart start fighting in the car.  Emily is having a great time.  Amy goes to check on Sheldon and he talks about all the pressure he is feeling tied to this prom and how it is more than he can deal with.  Amy says she wasn’t putting pressure on him for anything and she just wanted to have a nice evening.  Sheldon then says something incredibly shocking that I absolutely did not expect.

I really enjoyed this episode and thought it was very fun and entertaining.  The prom do over is only main story in this episode, though a few subplots do come up.  Overall, I think the idea of them doing their own prom on the roof is sweet and fun.  There are a few really nice, even sweet moments with some of the characters that come about because of the prom.  It is completely believable that Penny went to multiple proms and made out with the football captain at one of them.  I think Amy and Bernadette’s prom experiences are completely believable too.  It was fun to see Bernadette so excited about something since her mean side has been out more in recent episodes.   Amy gets to show a slightly different side as well with dressing up.  It may seem a little silly to some people, but I think it makes an entertaining episode.

It is interesting that there is a bit more about Howard’s cousin Jeanie who has only been mentioned a few times, usually when one of the other guys is teasing Howard.  I still find it funny how Howard is dealing, or really not dealing with - Stuart living with Debbie and their strangely developing relationship.  Things are not fully normal there, but Howard’s relationship with Debbie isn’t exactly normal either.  I find it very interesting to see Howard more and more crazy about Stuart and Debbie.  I just find it very funny.  It is clear that Debbie sees Stuart as a surrogate son with what we have seen.  She was probably a bit lonely after Howard moved out even though he was still going over there somewhat often for various reasons.  At the very end of the episode, Stuart gets a call from Debbie and immediately has to leave, something that use to happen to Howard.  Howard and Stuart getting into what is basically a brawl in the back of a limo is hilarious.  There is another development in Amy and Sheldon’s relationship that is very surprising.  It isn’t a bad thing and it is progress, but it is surprising.

The Prom Equivalency is a very fun, entertaining and somewhat surprising episode of The Big Bang Theory.  Fans of the show should definitely enjoy it.

Castle - Season 7 - Episode 4 - Child’s Play

The fourth episode of Castle of the season - Child’s Play - is another one that is a bit lighter overall even though a few more serious things come up.  The episode stands alone fairly well, there are a few small connections to earlier episodes.

Once again, there are spoilers, so people who haven’t seen the episode yet will want to proceed with caution.

At the loft, Rick, Kate, Martha, and Alexis finish a big dinner that Martha and Alexis fixed, complete with a huge sundae with potato chip fudge ice cream.  When Kate tries to say that she and Rick will do the dishes, Alexis takes the plates away.  Kate is a bit concerned with how Alexis is acting, but Rick isn’t bothered and thinks he should enjoy it.  They get called to a crime scene where there is a dead man inside an ice cream truck.  They soon figure out that someone was hiding in a cabinet in the truck and it looks like it was a second grade student since there was a field trip permission slip from a near by school in the cabinet. 

When Kate and Rick talk to the principal the next day, he says that none of the kids have said anything.  Kate then gets the idea that Rick should go into the classroom, as an adult who can act like a kid, and try to find out who was in the truck.  Rick claims he’ll have no problems, but a few of the kids do present a bit of a challenge.  He does come up with the idea of having the kids write stories, hoping that something in them will point to who the witness is.  As Rick tells the teacher, he believes that witnessing the murder will come out in the writing some way.  He thinks he finds the potential witness, but it turns out the boy was writing about a scary movie.  A little girl named Emily seems on the verge of telling him something at the end of the day, but then her mom interrupts, so Rick promises that he will be there the next day.

The next morning, Alexis actually feeds one last bite of breakfast to Rick while giving him a lunch that she packed him.  After that, he agrees that he needs to talk to Alexis.  Back at the school, Rick has a princess tea party with Emily during recess that is very sweet and she does confide in him.  Unfortunately, it is that Jason is a bully.  Rick does tell her something that I think is very good related to her inner strength.  Emily interprets it in a different way, punching Jason who then goes running to the principal.  Since Jason’s parents are lawyers who threaten to sue at the drop of a hat, the principal sends Rick on his way.  As he is leaving, Rick finds a drawing in his coat pocket that is of the ice cream truck.  Kate, Ryan and Esposito have been following other leads in the case.  Rick lets Kate know about the drawing and she goes to the school where they discover that Jason drew the picture.

Jason mouths off a bit to Kate when she first starts to talk to him, but he eventually starts to talk.  He insists he wasn’t in the ice cream truck but that he knew who was and that he wasn’t supposed to tell.  It was his older half sister who also was the graphic art teacher of the victim.  It turns out that they, along with one of the victim’s childhood friends from Russia and a former cop had been making fake passports to help Russians being taken advantage of go back home.  One of their clients is actually a wanted criminal who is now killing anyone who has seen his picture.  Kate and Rick go after an actual picture Jason’s sister has, only to figure out that the picture is in the classroom.  Just as they find it, the bad guy shows up, a fight ensues, and Rick ultimately stops him by dumping marbles on the floor.  Rick discovers that Alexis put a tracking program on his cell phone when she texts him to come straight home.

Rick again agrees that he has to talk to Alexis.  Rick arrives home on a scooter to Alexis freaking out a bit because she thinks he is late.  They talk about her being afraid that he will disappear again and how he felt after she was kidnapped.   He also points out that part of being a grown up is realizing that you can’t protect someone you love every minute.  Rick convinces Alexis to be a kid by bringing in another scooter and the two head off for pizza. 

While this episode isn’t one of my favorites, I still really enjoyed it.  Rick and Kate spent most of the episode investigating apart, something that I generally don’t like as much.  I just tend to enjoy the episodes more when they are together more.  I did like Rick spending time with the children .  While it was perhaps a bit silly, it was fun and I think worked overall for the episode.  The princess tea party was absolutely adorable and gives the audience a hint at how he was when Alexis was that age.  It takes a confidant man to pull of fairly wings and a tiara, and Rick pulled it off perfectly.  I just wish that Kate would have shown up then for some reason - maybe to have lunch with Rick or just to check in - and seen the tea party. 

Rick has always been a bit of a child inside the body of an adult man and that one of the things that I like about him.  It makes him more of a fun character.  He isn’t exactly immature, at least not all the time, but he will take time for fun and to enjoy things.  Yes some of that can be a little silly, but I like it.  Rick in a classroom full of children is very fun.  He thinks he will have no trouble at all, only to quickly see that he is wrong.  It seems mostly realistic even when it is a little silly.  Rick has a way of connecting with children without talking down to them.  I thought it was fun to see him with younger children after seeing him with Alexis for the last six years.  Nathan Fillion is wonderful in the episode and it nice to see him get a bit more to do.  The case is interesting, though I enjoyed the parts with Rick in the classroom more than Kate, Ryan and Esposito following other leads.  I think I would have enjoyed that part more if Rick had been more involved in it as well like usual. 

There are no new developments connected to Rick’s disappearance, but the episode does address how Alexis is afraid that he is going to vanish again.  It even refers back to when she was kidnapped and how overprotective Rick felt afterward too.  When that happened, once Alexis was back home, they didn’t really deal with that again except very briefly when Rick didn’t want her to go off to Costa Rica.  They really didn’t talk about things at that point, so I think it is good that they did this time.  I think it is completely believable that Alexis would be worrying more about Rick and even kind of over protective.  It is kind of cute to see her fuss over him in that way, though she is going overboard.  Last year when Rick and Alexis had their issues, Kate didn’t bring it up, she just waited until Rick said something.  This time, she points it out early in the episode.  I think this is a way of showing that Kate feels more comfortable as a part of the family that includes Alexis and Martha.  I also think there is a bit of a clue in what Rick says to the teacher about how it would come out someway in writing of the child who witnessed the murder.  I think that is a clue that whatever happened when he was a child has already made it into his writing at some point in his past.  I’m also thinking that it is possible that something from the missing two months may start to come out in his future writing, once he is working on another Heat or Storm book. 

Overall, I really enjoyed Child’s Play even though it isn’t one of my favorite episodes.  I liked Clear & Present Danger better, but that one is hard to top.  This one is still very fun and well worth checking out.

Castle Season 7 Episode 3 - Clear & Present Danger

I have had some issues with recent Castles episodes, mostly the season six finale and the season seven premiere, but I have continued to watch.  The second episode was a little better, with a few more answers being discovered, but something was still a little off.  For the most part, I was all right with that since I know that the writers have started what they are calling a new mythology connected to Rick.  I didn’t expect everything to be resolved in one or two episodes.  I did want to see the beginning of some resolution, and I do think that happened in the first two episodes.  For me, Clear & Present Danger, is the most entertaining episode of the season so far and it feels like things are back on track between Rick and Kate.  While some of what happens is more silly, to me, it feels more like a classic Castle episode.

Like usual, I will be sharing things that will be spoilers for people who haven’t watched the episode yet, so read at your own risk.  You have been warned.

A man is alone in his apartment playing pool when there is a knock at the door.  When he checks the peep hole, no one is there, but he opens the door anyway and walks into the hallway.  He then freaks out and rushes back inside, slamming the door behind him.

Rick and Kate are settled in at the loft, on opposite ends of the couch, using their tablets.  They have a short discussion about doing something that night, deciding against the idea of a movie because they have watched a lot of them recently.  The discussion takes a more personal turn, with each of them admitting that they thought the other wasn’t ready for certain activities again just yet.  They each state clearly that they are ready and just when they are ready to head to the bedroom, Kate’s phone rings.  They have a murder to deal with.

Will Fairwick, the man from the first scene, is dead in his apartment, stabbed in the chest with a pool cue.  Ryan shows up to the scene a little late, smelling of alcohol that he said someone spilled on him when he and Jenny were having dinner.  They discover a stash of cash in the apartment and it looks like Will worked for an insurance company.  His neighbor Henry shows up long enough to say that Will was a pool hustler and that was how he made his real money.  Henry says that he and Will sometimes played video games together and he didn’t hear anything because he had been playing with headphones on.

Rick and Kate talk to the owner of a pool hall where Will has won a lot of money.  The owner claims that Will talked about having made a deal with the devil to be so good at pool.  He also said that Will was acting nervous recently and started to say that his time was up.  Back at the precinct, they look at the video footage from the hallway outside Will’s apartment.  It shows the door opening and closing, after the time of Will’s murder, but no one is visible on the footage.  Rick decides that the devil showed up to collect while Kate tries to find a more reasonable explanation, like a draft from an open window - even though all the windows were closed and locked from the inside.

They follow a few clues, which leads Rick and Kate to Tom Talmadge, a man in the hospital recovering from being attacked.  When he talks to Kate, Tom says he was attacked by some kind of unseen force and he briefly blacked out.  When he came to, a stranger, that he now identified as Will, was standing over him.  Tom believes that Will saved him from whatever attacked him.  Back at the precinct, Kate wants to look at the video footage again, only to discover it missing from the evidence and the officer on duty says no one has been there since she originally brought it in.  That makes Rick decide that the suspect is an invisible man.  They do discover that Will had been dating Donna, a biology professor that he originally knew from college before he had a break down and dropped out.

Kate and Rick head back to Will’s apartment to get the keycard for the insurance company that he worked for.  Rick does make a joke or two about the Invisible Man again.  After Kate picks up the keycard and they are leaving, she is attacked by something or someone that they can’t see.  At first Rick thinks she is teasing him, but he quickly realizes he is wrong and tries to help her.  He does manage to get the attacker off Kate, only to be attacked himself as soon as he picks up the fallen keycard.  Once the attacker seems to leave, Rick shares that he managed to keep the keycard.  Kate comes up with a creative explanation for the encounter when telling Captain Gates what happened.

Back at the loft, Rick and Kate attempt to follow through on their plans from earlier, but first Rick and then Kate get the feeling that they are being watched.  Rick then gets what looks like every pot and pan in the loft and strings up a homemade alarm.  Unfortunately, they are interrupted again when Martha, who thought they weren’t home yet and wanted some dental floss, got snared in the trap. 

Esposito spots body glitter on Ryan and wants to know what is going on.  Ryan is still worrying about being able to pay for everything connected to Sarah Grace.  Specifically, he is worrying about college that he says will cost a quarter of a million dollars just for a state college.  He has a second job working as a bouncer at a strip club.  A male strip club.  Tory does some work with the keycard, but she is unable to find any information.  Another clue takes Kate and Rick to what turns out to be a secret government facility working on cloaking technology.  Will was working on the project which has been set back by his death.  His boss suggests that the Chinese may be behind his murder.  She also believes they are behind a recent computer attack that damaged all the files for the project. 

Rick notices something that points to Henry being involved in the attack.  He was a talented programmer who has been in trouble with the law before.  Will and Henry had been working in secret on the cloaking suit and managed to get it to work.  Henry used it to try to find proof that Talmadge had stole code from him.  Things didn’t go as planned and he ended up hurting Talmadge instead of just scaring him. 

Kate and Rick then realize that Will got back in touch with Donna because he wanted her research to use for the cloaking suit.  When Donna figured that out, she was ticked off and used the suit to attack and kill him.  She manages to get in the suit again, but Rick and Kate trap her in a room where they then get the idea to use fire extinguishers to find her.  Will’s boss shows up at the precinct to take possession of the suit.  Esposito gives Ryan the gift of a speedo, claiming he needs a proper uniform for his new job.  Back at the loft, Rick and Kate are able to pick up where they left out before earlier.

While some people may find this episode too silly, I thought it was really fun and entertaining.  It was nice to have a more lighthearted and fun episode again after the last two episodes that were more serious.  Nothing new tied to Rick’s disappearance comes up, but that doesn’t bother me.  While I do want answers to what happened, I am fine with it taking a while, as long as there is no lingering or long term damage to Rick and Kate.  Things definitely look to be back on track in that regard, which makes me happy.  It is nice to see them more natural with each other again and back to teasing each other a bit.  They even have one of their mind melds as Rick calls it moments late in the episode when they both get the same idea at the same time.  I am happy that they are getting back to their normal even while still not having all the answers.  There was at least one point in the second episode when it seemed like Kate still had doubts about Rick.  I didn’t see anything like that in this one, which I liked.

I have always really enjoyed the episodes that have Rick fully embracing one of his somewhat wild ides - he’s been cursed by a mummy, attacked by a vampire, abducted by aliens, a ghost is a killer, the killer is a zombie, he is going to die because he watched a cursed DVD, there is a time traveling killer, Bigfoot is real, or there is a ninja assassin running around.  The fact that it looks like an invisible person killed Will is just that type of case.  Rick and Kate’s reactions to what is going on is very entertaining.  It was kind of creepy but also funny when Rick was getting beat up by the invisible woman.  I’ve already watched this episode twice, and the second time, I swear I heard something when Rick did before he set up the pots and pans.  It is rather freaky to think that someone could be around that you couldn’t see.  It was very funny to see Kate try to explain what happened to Gates, especially when Rick started to say more but was stopped by Kate.  The cloaking technology stuff that is part of the story is based on real research that is being done by the military and/or government. 

The episode has several funny moments.  Some come from how Rick and Kate react or deal with things connected to the case.  It was really funny how Rick rigged up the homemade alarm in the bedroom.  It looks like he not only got every pot and pan from the kitchen, but that he got donations from the neighbors as well.  He has a lot of cookware.  It was really funny how Martha got caught.  Kate looked mortified, but Martha was fine, mentioning how she didn’t think they were home and she just wanted to get some dental floss.  I also found it funny that she didn’t question why there were pots and pans hanging from the ceiling.  Esposito’s reaction to Ryan’s second job is very funny, as is the gift and the way Ryan reacts to it.  I don’t think anyone else knows yet, so it will be interesting to see how Rick and Kate react.  I also don’t think that Esposito is done teasing Ryan about it yet either. 

This episode of Castle is the most entertaining of the season so far for me.  It is a bit silly, but it works.  Things between Rick and Kate are well on the way to getting back to normal even though they don’t know what went on when he was missing.