Still, the increase must also be attributed to the episodic nature of the show. It is relatively easy to start watching Castle, knowing nothing about it before hand. Sure, you might wonder about the details of Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic)'s relationship, or who Alexis (Molly Quinn)'s mother is, but the main relationship structures are immediately apparent. And while the banter does not exclude information we have learned previously, it does not rely on it.
This latest episode, Suicide Squeeze, demonstrates perfectly the solidity of the writing, with a wonderful family theme tying together an exploration of Castle's feelings over being fatherless, Beckett's relationship with her own father, and the death of a baseball player.
The plot was fairly political. The victim was a famous baseball player who escaped from Cuba about 18 years before. Recently, he had renewed relations with his homeland, which naturally created some controversy. Throw in the possibility that he had a Cuban mistress whom he was trying to sneak off the island, and there are a whole lot of reasons that he might have ended up dead.
The theme, of course, was the answer. The girl was not his mistress, but the daughter his fiancee who did not make it out of Cuba gave him before she died. Not that he knew of her existence until he returned to Cuba. Then, the father ended up dead in a confrontation with his manager, the man who had not rescued the mother and daughter from Cuba, nor told him the truth about them staying behind (or the daughter having been born).
The regret the baseball player felt that his daughter grew up not knowing him, and thinking that he had abandoned her, was a lovely symmetry to how Castle's father may or may not feel about him. Castle, being the writer that he is, feels no pain over not knowing. He has imagined himself the perfect father, who is both an astronaut and a classical musician. And while he is content with this memory, and Alexis is not too upset over not knowing her ancestry on one side, his daughter regrets the most that her father did not have the chance to have a relationship with his dad the way she does with hers.
How could Alexis give up those moments where she tells her dad that, by eating lots of whipping cream out of a can, he'll spoil his dinner, only to be told "This is my dinner." "No," is Alexis unwavering response.
This was an episode that should be watched again, probably on Father's day.
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