Castle Review: Cool Boys (Season 8 Episode 6)

There’s just one question on everyone’s minds.

Where the heck is Beckett?

This episode of Castle, “Cool Boys,” takes Beckett out of the picture to offer fun, quirky moments that instead revolve more around Rick Castle and returning special guest, David Slaughter (Adam Baldwin).

In a lot of ways, it actually works. It’s a fun, lighter episode that doesn’t have us focusing so much on the weird split between Castle and Beckett. Instead, we see more of Castle’s fun side, and it’s always nice to see how he interacts with different sorts of characters.

You really can’t deny that it’s entertaining to see Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin on screen together again (especially if you’re a Firefly fan). The two of them have great chemistry, and these characters in particular have a quirky, unique dynamic that I’d honestly love to see more of.

Their West Side Story-style diversion is also one of the funniest moments we’ve seen on the show in a while:

Slaughter is also there to serve an important purpose. He’s there to give Castle some pretty blunt advice about Beckett. Castle opens up, just a little, about the fact that Beckett left him.

It’s something that I would have liked to see them spend more time on. We could see Castle opening up to Martha or Alexis, or even Ryan and Esposito, but here’s a chance to see him get different perspective.

My hope, is that this perspective will push Castle to be a little more determined. Yes, he’s been actively trying to get Beckett back, but he hasn’t been trying hard enough to figure out why she left in the first place. He knows something isn’t right, but we need to see him working to figure out what that is.

It can’t be that hard of a stretch, either. He knows her well, and it seems he’d be able to put two and two together pretty quickly that this would have something to do with her mother.

Beckett’s absence allows Slaughter to be there to serve that purpose. Sure, he could have shown up in an episode where Beckett is also present, but maybe there wouldn’t have been enough time to flesh things out in doing so. This way, there’s time to enjoy Baldwin on screen, and to allow him to fully work with Castle.

That’s not to say her absence doesn’t weaken the episode in general. It absolutely does, mainly because it isn’t even addressed. Her absence is far too conspicuous for no one to fully comment on it. We can imagine she’s not there because of what she’s secretly working on, but she would have had to at least give Ryan and Esposito some story of where she was going.

Her absence also changes the tone of the show in a way I can’t quite put my finger on. Everything already feels different this season, and not just because of the storyline.

Overall, the fact is that “Cool Boys” is still entertaining, despite the pitfalls. And if Stana Katic did have to be absent for an episode, who better to bring in as a special guest than Adam Baldwin?

What did you think of this episode of Castle? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.