“Castle” Holds Its Own for Finale

Although Monday night’s “Castle” cliffhanger left me offering up sacrifices to the tv gods for its renewal, my favorite part of the show was the father-daughter story. My husband and I have a daughter just on the brink of her teenage years, and watching Castle discover that his daughter is no longer the little girl that depends on him for every little thing was both humorous and sweet. My husband has already laid his plans for grilling every boy that shows an interest in his precious gem. It involves making up stories of jail time and slapping a GPS on the poor guy’s leg. Castle’s ‘bloody head’ idea is worth looking into as well.

The relationship between Castle and Alexis is so much fun to watch. At times, she seems more the parent than her father. But in the season finale, she was just a teenage girl going to prom and getting her first kiss, while Castle was the worried, but not trying to look worried, dad. My favorite scene comes just after Alexis is kissed by her date and he leaves, but she stands there with a sweet and thoughtful smile on her face, just looking 15. Ah, those were the days! The giggly feeling when you get your first kiss and your stomach is filled with hundreds of butterflies. And there’s Castle in the background, who has seen all this happen, yet doesn’t say anything until Alexis does. Then he’s just a dad who loves his daughter and realizes it’s time to start letting go, yet is unwilling to actually go through with it. It means the end of something he thought would last so much longer than it did.

With Father’s Day coming up quickly, I think Richard Castle deserves a Father of the Year Award. At the very least, a renewal from ABC. 9.7 million viewers would agree.