Holy hot damn was this episode fun! A very nice contrast to last week's episode. I'll watch it again tomorrow but, here are a few of my favortie moments off the top of my head.

Castle trying to hide the paper.
Ryan and Esposito playing with him (any of them)
Esposito's "motherfreakin snake on a motherfreakin plane" line
The actual dates themselves.
Castle and Beckett leaving their dates.
The VERY last scene, which again ends up in an elevator. Especially Beckett twirling her hair on the way out.

Just a few a quick thoughts!

Copied and pasted from the thread that I made (is there any way to delete it? More people are replying in here).

Of course, I'll make a full review after I re-watch the episode tomorrow, but for now…

Beckett's response to the newspaper: priceless. Like I imagined, another "I'm going to kill you!" "I swear I had nothing to do with this!" interaction, only this time Castle was a little more defensive. Loved how Castle and Beckett kept poking each other over the whole ordeal.
"Only number 9?"
"I'm sorry, what number are you?"
Or something to that effect.

Alexis' concern for her dad was really sweet. But don't worry Alexis, Beckett will be there to make sure he doesn't burn off his eyebrows again. :P

Esposito was all out amazing in this episode. From teasing Castle with the article (with the help of Ryan), to going on and on about Beckett's date ("I'm telling you man. Puppies.") to that look that he gave the brother in law at the end of the episode.

I suspected that "Mr. July" and "Number 3″ would get together at the restaurant. From the second that Beckett opened her mouth, you could see that it was all going downhill. :LOL: The fact that Castle seemed a lot more interested in Beckett's phone calls than his date was an added bonus. And we can't forget: "Do they realize that they're finishing each others sentences?" Icing on the cake.

Glad to see that Castle and Beckett went out together at the end. And I'm just hoping that Ryan and Esposito saw Beckett twirl her hair while walking arm in arm with Castle. That would be too good to not bring up later.

<insert choir of angels>

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!!

So very, VERY fantastic. I suspect everyone's going to hit the high notes on this one before it's over, but the thing I loved about this ep is that it went somewhere that might've been predictable then took a serious Castle-style detour. Castle and Beckett showing up at the same restaurant for their dates… I was expecting more of a cat fight on that, but they were refreshingly "adult" about the whole thing. They were there to demostrate to themselves–and possibly to each other–that they were so very not interested…

…and then they COMPLETELY blow their dates because, at the end of the day, the only two people they're in sync with at the moment is each other. This fact was handled in a fashion that was not only thrilling for the shippers in the crowd, but also downright hilarious.

I was just re-watching their first fight at the precinct and I just love how those two can from ridiculous argument to brilliant deductive skills in literally the space of a heartbeat. Oh, and Beckett trying to overhear Castle's phone was a nice callback to the scene with Castle's ear-twisting back in Season 1.

Just bloody brilliant… hands-down my favourite ep for Season 2 thus far.