Review by Holli

There are two kinds of folks who sit around thinking how to kill people . . . psychopaths and mystery writers.  I’m the kind that pays better. – Richard Castle

Like the new teaser.  Introduction of the key characters.  Castle and Beckett.  Castle is eating popcorn from a bowl watchiing the moon madness of the precinct.  It’s entertaining.  Beckett is the calm amongst the chaos.  Fun lovin Rick had a great time checking out all the ‘girls.’  They had madness, mayhem and all they needed was . . . murder.  Cue phone!

So a couple’s therapist is killed and her husband has an airtight alibi.  Rick plays with an aquarium as Dr.Parish arrives for the info on the body.  She’s dressed for a night on the town.  “Quit lookin at the girls, Castle.”  Which he tries to heed, but she has to warn him again.

While Cosway, the shooting vic’s hubbie, talks about his boys night out, Ryan and Esposito hear of another pop and drop.  Cop lingo.  They go to the scene where the ME (Arye Gross) is examing the body.  Another shooting.  And all Castle can worry about is the bad grammar written on the first victim’s face.

In the station, Castle and the boys get into a pissing contest regarding detective work.  A bet is made.  The gambling continues from last week.  If R&E win, it’s $50 each, and Beckett is not to know.  “Secrets, murder and gambling.”

Mother!  I love Susan Sullivan and also Molly C.Quinn as Rick’s daughter, Alexis.  Elder redhead has an audition and younger redhead has boyfriend trouble.

Beckett and Castle are on the Cosway case.  Ms. Cosway was inquiring about a restraining order and so they investigate her patients.

Ryan & Esposito have the teacher who was shot in the park.  They want to talk to gang members who hang out in the area.  Rick points out that gang members wouldn’t do something on their own turf.  He’s all giddy because of their restraining order lead and almost dances right into Beckett.  One thing about Beckett no detail is too small for her notice.

Both sets of investigators go to work, but in the meantime the entire precinct is in on the betting.  Castle is quite the bookie.

As the episode moves on, Beckett finds out about the betting and even participates.  Detective Karpowski helps our heroes and eventually we have two sets of investigators who become quite familiar with each other’s cases.  Beckett’s perseverance and consistency matched with Castle’s knowledgeable whimsy helps solve the problem about solving the two cases.  They realize they are related and then switch cases with R&E. “There are no coincidences in murder cases.”  “What are the odds?”

One case reminds Beckett of her mother’s murder.  “Knowing why matters.”  The moment is immediately interrupted before Castle, who in the premiere had started to investigate her mother’s murder and then was chastised for breaking his promise not to do so, can react to her mention of the taboo subject.  That seemed like a failure to me.  It is supposedly one of the plot threads of the season.

It was Strangers on a Train night.  Novel by Patricia Highsmith (which Castle prefers).  Movie by Alfred Hitchcock.  Story of two people who kill for the each other after meeting on a train.  The murderers are connected, not the victims.

The bets are still on and the teams are neck and neck right up to getting confessions from the perps.  Perps confess. And the episode ends with sports analogies.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5. I really wanted to like the episode since it was my first review here, but it was mediocre at best.  Liked the premiere a lot better.  Rick is a man who likes women and is surrounded by women, but he’s always wanted to play detective.  So he writes murder mysteries.  Kate is a woman who comes from generations of cops and she works brilliantly in a mostly male field.  The thing I like about these two characters is their fish-out-of-water circumstances.  Rick has major connections in New York City (another character in the show) — political and artistic– and can pull strings.  Kate is hardworking middle class salt of the earth.  Tonight we saw what hard work police work is.  No flash, just good ole flatfoot detecting.  But that’s as entertaining as watching bread rise.  Yea, it’s great that it does, but not too many people bake anymore.

There are far too many more interesting and scientifically based detective shows being produced.  This show can’t compete on that level.  So what it must do is leverage its uniqueness.  Nathan Fillion is charming and handsome and I could watch him do about anything, but an actor needs good writing and great plots to keep working.  Stana is stunning and she is marvelous as the writer’s muse, but don’t cut short her character’s main thrust for this season.  I’m not asking for formulas but let’s get the communication and relationship between these two to its higher level from last season.  Mother and Alexis were wasted in this episode and that is very sad to see.