(S02E12) Do you think child stars from the 80s had some sort of secret blood pact that prevents them from aging? I ask because there are a lot of them (whose names aren't "Corey") who look amazingly good. Alyssa Milano guest-starred in this week's episode of Castle, and damn. She doesn't look like she's aged a day in the past decade. It's a little creepy, especially when we see the picture of her and Castle together. Nathan Fillion looks like a big-haired, skinny (albeit adorable) punk, and Alyssa Milano looks exactly the same. She's like Dorian Gray or something.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. This week, we get a little bit of Castle back story, and it is highly informative. We learn that before the wives, Castle was into "real" women; namely his college sweetheart, Kyra. How do you know that he and Kyra are kind of soul mates? When she finally tries to get married (nearly 20 years after dating Castle [I guess he really is that hard to get over]), and her bridesmaid ends up dead on the morning of her wedding. Come on, how much more Castle-like can you get?

Beckett, for her part, gets insanely jealous -- to the point where even though she's perfectly pleasant to Kyra, you can tell that there's a part of her who would just like to karate chop her to death. That's the part of Beckett that I like. The part that I don't like is the one that insists that she doesn't have a thing for Castle, even though it's as plain as the nose on her face. I also don't buy Lanie's theory that Beckett doesn't see it. Beckett totally knows that she's in love with Castle -- she's just being obstinate.

This whole mystery really worked for me. It was nice to delve into the personal life of one of our main characters, and I will say it kept me guessing until the end. The writers were always one step ahead. As soon as I thought it was the fiance, they trotted him out as the main suspect and cleared him. Then, as soon as I thought it was Kyra, they trotted her out and cleared her, too. In the end, it was old Uncle Teddy, with the oldest motive in the world: greed.

The plot unfolded at a good pace, and for the most part, the resolution was satisfying -- except for the tie tack. It's hard to believe that those wounds were caused by that, though it did provide a handy piece of evidence.

It seems as though they're getting closer and closer to getting Beckett to admit her feelings for Castle. Personally, while I would like for her to come clean, I don't want her to act on them. It's much more interesting to have the attraction acknowledged, but not do anything about it yet. It somehow seems more adult than just shuffling around it like a couple of middle-schoolers at a school dance. What do you think?




[Watch clips and episodes of Castle at SlashControl.]