This was pretty much a baseline episode of Castle—not one of their best, but certainly not one of their worst. Considering that an average episode of Castle is better than most stuff out there, well… Yeah, it was a good episode. We had the right balance of murder and whimsy, playful and dangerous. Though, perhaps, not in the right places or doses. Let me explain my thoughts….
Kind of like a batch of sweet and sour sauce, “Child’s Play” was a balancing act between the sweet and cute, and the deadly serious. The sweet part being Castle in a class full of surprisingly precocious 2nd graders, and the sour being the heinous torture and murder of several Georgian expats.
When it turns out that one of the 2nd graders might have seen a murder, but is too afraid to come forward, Castle is—as you might guess—the obvious choice to try and connect with the kids and ferret out the witness. He tries every trick in the book, from playing soldiers with the first “suspect,” to some great verbal sparring with bratty (and funny as hell) Jason (Quinn Friedman), to having the cutest princess tea party ever with an adorable little girl named Emily (Rachel Eggleston). When she confesses to him that Jason is bullying her, it’s a really sweet moment, albeit one with rather unintended consequences. Admit it… you think the idea of Emily popping Jason in the nose was funny as hell, too. I bet they end up married.
In a particularly clever move, Castle has all the kids write a story, hoping that one of them will reveal themselves as the witness through their writing. It’s a pretty great idea, but alas, doesn’t work. Castle’s time in the classroom is full of red herrings, which of course is de rigueur for the genre and to be honest, was the far more interesting part of the episode.
The rest of the squad’s pursuit of the killer seems rather under-written and light, with even more red herrings involving the Russian mob until, 50 minutes into the episode, there’s a “Keyser Söze” moment. All of a sudden we’re on the hunt for a mass-murdering, war criminal named Polkovnik and our witness has the only photograph of him in existence. For me, this is a little bit too late to introduce a potentially lethal and interesting nemesis. The guy’s been on the run from Interpol for years, and yet Caskett catch him almost by accident? It’s a little farfetched, to say the least.
The episode was a playful homage to Kindergarten Cop (intentionally or otherwise), but I just wish the actual murder plot had been more developed.
The b-plot with Alexis being over protective of Castle due to his disappearance was developed nicely, but I hope the “I’ll be ok, sometimes bad things happen, let’s go have pizza” speech by Castle wasn’t the end of it. I wouldn’t mind an ongoing plotline where Alexis continues to be affected by her father’s disappearance, because in the real world? She’d be all kinds of fucked up, and in serious need of therapy.
Some nice moments:
• Gram’s face when Alexis says “Don’t even think of it, Gram and I have it covered,” when Beckett offers to do the dishes. Priceless and Susan Sullivan is a gem.
• “Mr. Castle wet his pants! Mr. Castle wet his pants!” I’m still giggling!
• The fairy princess tea party with Emily was too adorable for words. Low calorie fairy dust!
• I am always happy to see the great Elya Baskin. I just wish he had more to do. He was wasted, IMHO.
Mark Rabinowitz is a Nashville-based freelance writer, film producer, and regular contributor to Paste. He is the co-founder of Indiewire.com and a former film critic for CNN.com. He worships at the shrine of swine. Praise the lard. You can follow him on Twitter.