ABC’s ‘Castle’ review: Alexis and inner monsters

After featuring two episodes that were largely just about his relationship with Beckett and a case with the force, “Castle” re-adjusted its focus this week, and in the process reminded us that there is still a family for Castle to worry about here that has been neglected the past few weeks.

One of the sweetest moments of the whole hour came when Nathan Fillion’s character was moving his daughter into her dorm, and they had a little moment where he checked under her bed for monsters. Isn’t their relationship precious? The really nice there was that when Beckett and Castle’s new relationship entered the picture, there was some ambivalence here … as there would be. Isn’t it hard for someone like Alexis, who has seen a number of romantic partners enter and leave her father’s life, to really take a shine to someone right away? There’s still time for all of this to work out, and we don’t completely buy that Alexis’ sudden shift in attitude was completely and totally due to the fact that she was stressed about going to school.

Elsewhere, we did have a mystery that led to a fun little spoof on “Storage Wars,” and we even learned in the process that Gates has a large collection of dolls that she will do anything for. Give the girl a doll, and she is suddenly your new best friend! As for Castle and Beckett fans, the best moment of the episode came when Castle learned that his new girlfriend keeps a stick figure in her desk that was a gift from her father.

What did you think about this episode?