TV Recap: Castle 7-9 - Last Action Hero

There are some ideas so genius for Castle I’m shocked they’ve never done them before.  Last night was one of them.  I mean, Castle and old action stars?  It’s comedy gold.  And they delivered on it last night.

The victim last night was an action star best known for the Hard Kill series of action films.  He’d started acting after a stint in the Spanish version of the CIA.  He’s found strangled in the alley behind a theater showing the first two films in the franchise.  His soon to be ex-wife is in town filming an action movie herself.  They’d met on the set of Hard Kill, where she’d played an archeologist.  And she’s currently playing…an archeologist – a female Indiana Jones.  And the victim was in town to film a part in the third in a current film franchise that was an obvious Castle world spoof on The Expendables.

The plot is kind of thin as I think about it.  The finger gets pointed at several people along the way, but the real fun was watching Castle geek out and Beckett roll her eyes at what they see along the way.

The victim had turned his life around from drugs after defeating cancer.  In fact, his sobriety is the reason that his friend, the director of the film he was starring in, gave him a part.  So why was he asking the director’s son for information about a club known to sell drugs?  The victim had a secret meeting with his ex-wife, but that was to get $200K.  And he was attacked in that ally before he was killed, but he fended off those attackers just like he would have in an action movie.  We also learn that his past was a fake.  He was really a goat herder before he became an action star.

Finally, they settle on the owner of a club as their prime suspect.  Why this owner and this club?  The victim had gone to see him right before he died.  And they knew each other since this club owner had played a drug dealer in the first Hard Kill movie.  Now, the rumor is, he is selling drugs out of his club, but no one can prove it.  Beckett figures out that the victim had left a bugged matchbox car in the owner’s office, but she can’t get a warrant to get it.  Lack of evidence.

That’s where the cast of the movie our victim was part of comes into play.  They recruit Castle and work their way into the office to retrieve it.  It’s not much of an action sequence really, but Castle loves it.  Beckett is not happy about the illegal way that he got the evidence, but she listens to it and her eyes get wide.  Time for a new suspect.

And that suspect is the film director’s son.  Turns out, during his battle with cancer, the victim learned this young man was actually his son.  However, the son has an airtight alibi for the time of the murder.

Because his mother is the actual killer.  She knew the victim was going to tell everyone the truth about his son, which would destroy her 30 year marriage, so she killed him to keep the truth quiet.

But again, the joy of the episode was in Castle being a kid in a candy shop as he looked at all the stuff happening around him and Beckett not giving in to the glitz and glamor.  It’s something they’ve done before, but it is always fun, and it was again last night.  I especially got a kick out of Castle, himself a famous man, acting like his fans do when he meets some of his idols.  It’s endearing and funny.

There was also a sub-plot about Beckett moving out of her apartment.  Castle wasn’t sad to say goodbye to the place, but Beckett was and his attitude upset her until Lanie pointed out that the place meant more to Beckett than to Castle.

Honestly, I’m not sure I have much more to say.  Delightfully fun just about sums it up, and I think I’ve gushed enough along those lines.

Next week, we’ve got another Christmas episode before we head into a four week break.  See you then, but in the meantime, let me know your thoughts about this episode.