Castle 6.15 Review “Smells Like Teen Spirit

On last night’s episode of Castle, our duo finds telekinesis in their veins. I have no scientific evidence of this, but a lot of shows do some sort of scary/horror themed episode around Valentine’s Day. I suppose it’s just counter programming for all the lovey-dovey stuff, but Castle gave us both in spades!

Castle and Beckett discover a young telekinetic who took revenge on her high school bully by murdering her, which her friends discover through a Facetime call. Jordan Gibbs was tormented by Madison Beaumont and her friends and she cracks in the cafeteria one day. Tables and chairs start flying all over the place as Jordan freaks out and Madison is backed into a corner. “Very Carrie.” Castle and Beckett investigate at the school, Faircroft, which is one of the private schools Castle attended in his delinquency days. Castle was expelled from Faircroft, however, in his senior year, for getting a cow onto the roof (!!). He later tells the principal, the very same one who expelled him, that “if you ever need one, I know a guy.” Of course he does.

Telekinesis certainly explains the blood on the ceiling. Castle can’t wait to tell Stephen King! Jordan begins to get very nervous in interrogation and the table begins to shake… but it’s just her knees bumping up the table. “It’s a nervous habit.” Jordan thinks she might have actually done it, she wished for Madison to be dead, and then she was! Jordan has a (physical) alibi, but Madison has some mysteries of her own. She’s got money, real money, more than her rich family’s money. Castle and Beckett head to the school library (how many think Castle may have had some trysts in that library?) and find Madison hiding Russian bearer bonds in a copy of War and Peace.

Madison was a thief who stole the money from her dad’s client, Chen, who stole the money from some Russians. But Chen’s gone; the neighbors spotted the patio furniture chasing Chen out of his own house. Beckett tries to give a logical explanation, but it ends up sounding as wacky as one of Castle’s wild theories, in view of the supernatural evidence. But as always, there’s a logical reason: Jordan’s friend Lucas rigged the furniture to fly around, both in the cafeteria and at Chen’s house, the latter to allow Madison to steal the money. He also helped her stage the Facetime call, to scare her partners in crime, the girls who reported her dead. One of them was angry with her and used the video Madison sent to scare her as her alibi. The girl is arrested in her prom dress and Jordan and Lucas get to dance at the prom.

Castle and Beckett stay and enjoy the prom too, as neither of them attended as seniors: Castle had been expelled and “Rebel Bex” was too cool to attend a school dance, she went to a poetry slam instead. They cuddle close and lean in to “In My Veins,” which Castle fans should remember from “Always” right before Beckett arrives at Castle’s door. They realize that’s their song. It’s really great how the writers give us these moments, so perfectly them but also catering to what the fans remember and enjoy about the show. I do wonder, though, what all those teenagers thought about two random adults making out at their prom…

I also love how this show always presents the logical answer, but always leaves room for the “wild theories” to be true. Beckett says they didn’t find any of the wires and magnets required for Lucas to rig the furniture like he said, leaving it open for telekinesis to be real. They did the same with the time travel episode. The writers have fun and it lets us have fun too.

Finally, check out this video (which I’m sure this episode is based on), which features a similar prank involving wires and magnets, creating a Carrie-like phenomenon in a New York City cafe. Wild!

[Photo via Richard Cartwright/ABC]