Castle: 4.22 “Undead Again” Review

I think that the most appropriate response to last night’s ‘Undead Again’was about damn time!

See, kids, did it hurt to use actual words to communicate what you’re feeling and thinking? If only that had happened three episodes ago, it would have spared us all the angst and drama and you could all be happy for a while now. But I get it, good drama makes for good TV and there were still a couple of episodes until the finale, so yeah. It doesn’t excuse the complete lackluster that this relationship has been all season and the glacial speed with which things were moving forward, but I think I understand the bigger picture a little better now.

So, the zombie episode. How did you guys like it? I’m going to be honest, when it was first said that there was actually going to be a zombie episode — I really thought they were joking when that information first came out — I was a little skeptical. After everything they had put us through this season, were they really going to sacrifice an hour of our time for zombies?

But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

Turns out that ‘Undead Again’was that kind of Castle episode that I had been missing for a while now, the one we usually refer to as classic Castle. It was very reminiscent of ‘Demons’earlier this season and the mummy curse episode back in season 2 (what is that one called? My memory fails me) and you know what? For the first time in weeks, I had a blast watching my favorite show. Do you know why? Because it had everything that made me love it in the first place all the way back in season 1. It was laugh out loud funny, it had character development, everyone had their chance to shine and Perlmutter was back!

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love Lanie, I really do. But Perlmutter is awesome because he puts Castle in his place and he doesn’t give flying rat’s butt about his fame or that he thinks he is a cop. I just loved every single scene our grouchy ME was in. The pace of the episode was also great and I thought the hour really flew by.

About Alexis, I was still on the fence about wanting her to stay or go, but I really liked how they handled her decision (and that scene when she tells Castle that it’s time to holster the laser tag gun and be adults was completely heartbreaking) and I am actually glad that she is going to college close to home. I wonder how often she is going to be on the show in season 5 if she’s supposed to be in college, however close that is. I am assuming she’s going to live on campus, so maybe she’ll pop by every couple of episodes? I don’t know. What do you guys think?

I also loved Ryan’s and Esposito’s involvement in the case, but I especially enjoyed Ryan’s willingness to believe in zombies with Castle. The writer is really rubbing off on him and it is so very entertaining to watch.

Finally, we circle back to our dynamic duo. I still don’t like Castle’s reaction to this whole thing, but I liked how they handled it in this episode. The passive-aggressive Castle from the past couple of episodes was pretty much gone and it was refreshing to see them together again and building theory and generally just getting along for most of the episode. Even though Castle still didn’t have the guts to just come out and ask her, Kate seemed to get the message and answered him straight out, which made me really proud of our dear homicide detective. I think that was probably the most honest we have ever seen her on the show and I am so glad they finally decided to use words instead of really subtle subtext.

So ‘Undead Again’made my love for this show return and I really, really enjoyed it. Kudos to writer Christine Boylan (@KitMoxie on Twitter) for knocking it out of the park with this one.

And just when I thought this was it, ABC decides to torture us all with that promo for the finale next week. I am honest to god so incredibly excited I can barely sit still, guys. I really, really hope the finale delivers because if that promo is anything to go by, ‘Always’is going to be beyond epic.

Haven’t seen it yet? Say no more. Check it out right here.