Castle – The Final Frontier

• Title: Castle – The Final Frontier
• tv.com: link

“I was a sci-fi-loving, costume-wearing geek.”

The mysterious murder of a young woman (who was apparently killed with a phaser) at a sci-fi/pop culture convention where Castle (Nathan Fillion) is hawking his latest graphic novel brings Beckett (Stana Katic), Ryan (Seamus Dever), and Esposito (Jon Huertas) to investigate. The case also brings out Beckett’s inner-geek and her love for a short-lived sci-fi series on whose “fan experience” the body was found.

Castle and Beckett are not at a loss for suspects in the murder of the young woman who had bought the rights to the defunct show after creating a series of popular, but somewhat controversial, webepisodes. The suspects include one of the original cast members (Christina Moore) who was the last to see her alive, a secret boyfriend (Chris McKenna), her best friends (John Bobek, Erin Way), a special effects and sci-fi prop creator (Armin Shimerman), and the ship’s captain (Ed Quinn) who had a tumultuous relationship with the victim and who was walking around the convention with the murder weapon strapped to his hip. There’s also the motive of hard cash as the once worthless rights to the show were worth upwards of $2.5 million to a movie studio looking to jumpstart the franchise.

The episode works better than last year’s attempt to bring in the world of comic books into a murder. Beckett’s love of the cheesy show, and Castle’s hatred of it, make for several fun moments including the detective’s final victory over the writer as the episode comes to a close. The episode also gives us a short appearance of Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) and Castle’s consternation at having his daughter dress in a skimpy sci-fi outfit similar to one Beckett once wore, and if he has his way will wear again.