Double-Rainbow: Psychic or Skeptic?

Castle S03E02 He's Dead, She's Dead

Every cop show, even the comedic ones, eventually deal with the topic of psychics; Castle did an excellent job of balancing the two sides of skeptic and believer the entire episode. Though the expected line of 'she (the psychic) didn't see that coming' was said (it had to be), in fact the running debate was whether she actually HAD seen it coming because a letter to the police detailing things from the murder appeared.

The very first shot of the episode showed a view 90 degrees above a girl entering a door. At the time, I thought it was just a cool opening to the show, but now I realize they were setting up the idea of the mother's POV looking down from above.

The sound mixer usually does a fantastic job with Castle, knowing exactly when to start playing more light-hearted music to signify a humorous jest, and when to cut out the music to emphasize the idea of 'crickets chirping' from the inanity of a comment (usually Castle or Ryan). This episode made one large glaring error. When the daughter called her mother's cell-phone and quickly turned around because she heard something, the muffled ringing isn't heard until she already reached the couch. While it was pretty obvious to me that in context the ringing is the reason she turned around, the background music completely overwhelmed the sound.

The fascinating thing about Castle is that the writers keep the show current by including things from popular culture. As soon as I heard Martha (Castle's mother) say she needed to decide whether she was 'in or out' I was immediately reminded of Project Runway (probably because Heidi's phrasing of 'in or out' has been a subject of joking by the designers for several seasons running). Not only that, but they brought in the 'double rainbow' phrase as something as unbelievable as unicorns and fairies - from the viral video of some guy going crazy over seeing (and filming) double rainbows.

I also liked the daughter's weird pieces of advice to Beckett. The moment she told Beckett about an important Alexander who might save her life, I knew that Alexander would be Castle - the writers wouldn't write in another character prophesied to get together with Beckett. At the same time, I was wondering whether it was foreshadowing of more danger or whether it was just rehashing the past because in the previous season Beckett was saved by Castle's call.

Although I'm a very rational and logical person the majority of the time, I'm willing to admit that psychics possibly exist, simply because of a very weird experience I had when I was younger. The episode captured my indecision about psychics perfectly - confronted with 'proof' of a psychic, Beckett was able to rationally explain them away as coincidences (and for the most part she wasn't stretching for ideas). I love that the ending scenes with Castle and Beckett kept up the mystery of the psychic.

Great mother-son interaction was explored this episode because of Chet's proposal to Martha, and later his death, which caught me completely off-guard (good thing I don't like reading spoilers). A very touching scene occurred when Castle reminded his mother that by putting off her decision about marriage, she gave Chet an extra day of hope allowing him to die in peace. The most heartwarming scene, however, is when Martha tells Castle that she raised a good man, despite her many mistakes; it reminds me that I not only watch this show for comedic value and entertainment, but also for the feelings it can inspire.