All of the baseball stuff just bored me to tears. I'm still not sure why Joe Torre is someone to really geek out over.

IMW, I can totally see how this would make a HUGE difference in someone's perception of and reaction to this episode. I LOVE baseball in a way that is probably ridiculously intrusive in my life, and Joe Torre will always have a very special place in the history of the team I love. LOL. So to me, having all of the baseball stuff–and Joe Torre to boot–made me enjoy it more than I would have if it was say, about hockey with Wayne Gretzky making a special appearance. If it was about hockey, I might have looked more to the rest of the episode for my enjoyment, and it's entirely possible that I wouldn't have found enjoyment.

And just one small comment/suggestion about Beckett's fangirl moment with Joe Torre–yes, it was the middle of a case but Joe wasn't actually involved in the case. She didn't go in expecting to meet him and it wasn't like she had to interrogate him or even question him about what happened. So I didn't have a hard time believing the fangirl moment. I've had the pleasure of meeting some of my Yankee favorites on a few occasions and me who gets paid to write and speak for a living was reduced to complete gibberish. Someday I'll get up the guts to tell the phenomenally embarrassing story of meeting Derek Jeter in Banana Republic in Baltimore during the amazing 1998 season, and you all will get a good laugh over it. I'm only thankful that he meets so many fans wherever he goes, he undoubtedly has forgotten about it by now.

This thread is making me so sad… so many of you are unhappy with this episode! ' class='wp-smiley' />

I'm sticking with my earlier post. I thought it was great. Not every episode has to be the next step in the C/B relationship. I thought this ep was a nice example of where they've gotten to so far. They're friends. And they're both good with that… for now. It did not feel like 'filler' to me.

I'm also not disappointed about not including Martha in the whole father discussion. The way Castle has joked about it with her before and they way he told the story to Alexis in this ep tells me that Martha has told him all she can about it and there would be no point in asking her about it any further. And he knows that. And he isn't bearing any grudges or he wouldn't joke about it. And I'm not surprised Alexis didn't know the story, either. If you were Alexis and Martha was your grandmother, would YOU ask her about such a thing? Not I.

I do agree with everyone who said that this was likely just laying groundwork for a future episode. I could definitely see this coming up again later on, though maybe not this season.

I was kinda bummed that the whole Remy's thing didn't get addressed. No one ribbing them about going out together for dinner? Awwwww…

And yeah, the neighbor thing from twitter! Hmmm… maybe WriteRCastle is setting us up for a little Olympic-hiatus mystery. That would be a lovely way to pass these next few weeks, don't you think?

Yes. I agree with most of the 29 previous post that it wasn't a top episode destined to be one of our favorites.(filler is an ugly word,kinda like stalker )

You can't have a series based in NYC w/o a sports related episode.Maybe we will get some football worked into an episode in the future!

Beckett didn't even question Castle about his connection with Joe Torre.Whats with that?

I did like the references to Castle's family past(hucksters,circus people etc.)I also agree that we did not get our usual dose of C&B banter and flirting and that the episode seemed kinda scattered.Some points for future episodes though.If this series last several years(paleeezzzzzeeee)we may hear more about Castle's father.Alexis probably had some of the best lines in this one which I think is great.

Overall I liked it but it didn't make my top 3…4,5…….it was good.

Yes the last three episodes did tend to spoil me for what I want to see in a Castle episode but that's just me. :)

Musiclover i agree 100%

although it was a really intriguing case (kudos Jose) i thought they would have made this episode revolve a little around castle (like sucker punch was about beckett a bit) i felt that even though castle's explanation to Alexis was good in a sense, i can see if it kind of eats aways at him little by little…and the comment beckett made to castle at the baseball field when they were talking about their fathers, you kinda knew she was joking, but i think i saw castle stiffen just a little bit at that comment…i'm not sure though

I don't mean to come across as not liking the episode. Filler may be too harsh because I do think they threw some stuff out there for future episodes but it was obvious that something was off. No way you can have all episodes be like the last 3 but I still enjoyed a lot of the moments. I just didn't think we got the type of moments we're used to seeing. When's the last time they focused so heavily on the case and the interactions between the characters took a backseat?

I enjoyed this episode, but I do agree with others that it was not one of my favorites. I think everyone else has pretty much said what I thought about the episode. Loved the end with Castle and Alexis playing catch. I had this feeling he was going to hit something. I love their little moments together.

Also, I was hoping that Ray Wise's character would be the killer in this episode and he was. He's such a good actor.

I agree with you about not really wanting to know who Castle's father is, Laura. I think his not caring is in line with his character, and I don't at all feel like I'm missing anything by not having it clarified. It's part of what makes Castle who he is and having someone suddenly show up won't add anything to the show for me.

nalissa2 said:

Wait! I just had to add, does that mean Beckett is a Mets fan?? Now, that is cool.

Yeah. She said that her Dad has been taking her to Shea Stadium since she was 3 years old. Her Dad's side of the family are all baseball fans and I'm betting Met's fans too.

Another good episode, not of the best (because the best episodes are chock-full of Castle-Beckett relationship stuff ), but good (because if every episode had that much Castle-Beckett relationship stuff, it would be romantic comedy, not crime drama, and the two would be married and divorced by the end of this season ).

One problem was that the best moments were spoiled in the sneak peeks (well, only myself to blame for watching them), so the glee wasn't as strong when watching now. But then we got the great addition of (and I repeat) a "Beckett look" followed by lingering happy fan feeling "Well I just met Joe Torre so I guess anything's possible." And this episode's ongoing joke with playing catch (and failing at it).

And a very good explanation of why Castle don't know his father. Martha of early season 1 seemed to get around, but maybe that was a reaction to getting screwed by her ex (he left and took all her money, didn't he). A bad break-up can get you into such a mood. But lately it's only been Chet for her. So rather than Martha sleeping around, "she loved a lifetime the night she met him". Then Castle repeats history as a freshman.

I think Beckett's "famously fatherless" was a neutral comment. Great that Castle defended his mother from Esposito's ribbing. And even better that Esposito said "a Mamma Mia thing" – which Nathan mentioned as a possibility in an interview ages ago

Agree loretta! Everyone has summed up what I think as well. Not one of my favorite episodes, but it wasn't bad. Of course I love the Castle/Beckett relationship episodes. Personally I'm not a huge baseball fan, but I don't think that's the reason I didn't care for this episode as much. Still undecided as to WHY exactly I didn't care for it much so I'll just blame it on the lack of Caskett/Beckle-ness. However there was some cute flirting! Loved the beach comment & Beckett looked fabulous

Some pieces of the text commentary that I remember off the top of my head:

They filmed the club seen on location at a club called Kress Hollywood and that the weather was so terrible outside that the craft services tent blew down and all of the donuts, bagels and fruit trays got soaked by the rain.

The "I knew it was you" and "soft hands" lines were ad libbed by Nathan.

He mentioned again like he did in chat that Stana asked him to write her a line of dialogue in Spanish because it was likely that a cop in NYC would have at least a working knowledge of spanish words.

Also, the last name of the character "Quintana" gave people problems because it was being pronounced differently by different people, so the 2nd day he had to give out a pronunciation sheet with the script

During the second to last scene they filmed, one where they are walking through the precinct, they filmed the scene and then the camera operator discovered a hair in the lens casing and the scene had to be done again.

I'll try and share more tomorrow, that's all I have for it being 1am. There was a lot more little tid bits offered up during the commentary though.

Can I join the chorus? Liked it, didn't love it. What I liked:
The scene where they're tossing the baseball around – Beckett totally snagging it when Ryan and Esposito are tossing it around, and it flying right over Castle's shoulder and him not even noticing when it was tossed it his way. I totally guffawed out loud to the point I had to rewind what happened afterward so that I could hear it. Hahah! The Castle/Beckett/Torre geek-out scene – her face was PRICELESS. I don't know about you, but I have totally been there and done that when I've met someone I really admire. LOL On the Beckett tip, I felt like her interrogation scenes were very strongly written and really well played. And I found the introduction of the idea of Castle's dad's identity interesting, and wonder how genuine he is expressing how he feels about it – will be an interesting idea to develop, and I hope they do, somewhat. I also liked that we saw some more ethnic diversity being represented on the show. For as diverse as NYC is in real life, we've seen a lotta white people involved in cases.

What I didn't like:
I felt like the focus was more on the crime subjects and the overall story than on Castle and Beckett. In previous episodes, the focus has been more on Castle and Beckett solving the crime together through interactive dialogue with one another, whereas there seemed to be more sort of interrogatory scenes with the subjects of the crime this episode. More stuff was kind of inferred than illustrated through dialogue. Therefore, it just wasn't as interesting to me, unfortunately. I also felt like there was just a general lack of that really sharp, quippy dialogue between them on any level.

Although, according to my guy pals who watch, my problem is just that, "this was an episode for the dudes." As I was, and still kind of am, the biggest tomboy ever, I ain't buyin' it. LOL