ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 8, episode 19 review: ‘Dead Again’ brings us fun — and LokSat clues
Monday night’s new episode of “Castle” seemed on the surface to be one jam-packed full of humor and superhero metaphors, as our victim was none other than mild-mannered Alan, an inspector who managed to survive being killed multiple times and someone who Rick was convinced has some sort of special power.
However, what we learned instead was that this was the most significant story for the LokSat plotline in weeks, as Beckett finally was able to influence Caleb Brown, the supposed good-guy lawyer who was involved in some capacity, into giving up his information and also where / how he receives phone calls from a mysterious voice. Is this entire storyline still unwieldy? Sure, but we appreciate having some more information on it, and we really hope that there is some sort of resolution here that makes real sense and pays off all of the buildup, in between the separation and Rick’s missing time.
We rather enjoyed the rest of the story with Super-Alan, mostly because he was such a vanilla guy, and Rick was so convinced that he could be more than that. He was completely reckless, especially when it came to allowing him to go on a date with a co-worker who happened to actually be the killer. Had Rick not been there as the “coach” for this evening-gone-terribly-wrong, who knows what would’ve happened to him? Jonathan Silverman was a great guest star for this role, and there were several laughs as we got to the reveal.
Yes, news from outside the show does influence us while watching, and we were sad at times to remember that there are seemingly only three more episodes with Stana Katic in the cast. Yet, we don’t want to deny that we enjoyed “Dead Again” for all of its silliness, even if very little of it made actual sense. Grade: B.
Buddy
April 26, 2016 @ 1:41 pm
Thank God for Beckett’s sensibility otherwise Castle’s inane stupidity would have thoroughly trashed the episode. Seriously, Castle’s behavior showed that he believed the victims resurrection and some sort of super power which would have caused me to call the guys in the white suits with the straight jackets. It was not funny but pathetic buffoonery.
After about 17 episodes of no information and no progress on LokSat it is good to note that the ep’s finally woke up to the idea that they had a case to solve.
The only thing that showed any taste and quality in the episode was Beckett and the guest star. I am starting to believe that the Castle format for season 9 is to be about a totally inept private eye who cannot find the seat of his trousers with both hands.
Leo
April 26, 2016 @ 1:09 pm
This was as far from RC of seasons 1,2 and 3 but fun none the less. If you can shut out all the hysteria flooding the internet these final episodes will be memorable . The development of Loksat has been incredibly weak, and KB’s decisions about it run contrary to character,but this is where we are. Filming ended three weeks ago and Castle as we know it is done.