Castle: Food To Die For – A Review Of The Police Procedure

Food To Die For was written by Terri Miller, who also penned the Rose For Everafter and Vampire Weekend episodes—one good episode and one disaster. This show, however, was pretty doggone good for many reasons.

Of course, the writer couldn’t resist adding a bit of goofy forensics—a body frozen solid because someone poured liquid nitrogen over it. Sure, liquid nitrogen would freeze human tissue if the body was totally immersed in the substance, but probably not by merely pouring the stuff over the victim. Besides, there was more than ample time for thawing by the time everyone (the M.E. witnesses, and the police) arrived on the scene.

Speaking of the M.E., it was definitely refreshing to see Perlmutter back on camera. Even though his information was not quite right, his delivery is always believable. And isn’t that what fiction is about, making the story seem real to the viewer/reader?

M.E. Perlmutter even mentioned running prints through AFIS. We never hear Lanie Parish saying things like that. Nope. She just breaks out her little forensics Ouija board and all the answers suddenly appear.

Still, this episode was good, because the crime was solved in the same manner that most crimes are solved, by knocking on doors, talking to people, and putting the word out to snitches. No forensics. The investigation progressed nicely, and realistically (sort of).

Beckett’s dinner at the police department with Tom was nice, and it hit home. There’s no telling how many meals—holiday, birthday, special occasions—are eaten at police departments because there’s no time for the officers to go home. So, the spouse brings the meal to his/her loved one, and they share it at a dented metal desk in the corner of a squad room or cubicle.

Castle’s dinner was interrupted by Beckett, who felt she needed to question her friend the murder suspect. Again, this was another fairly realistic possibility. You do what you have to do when you need to do it. Politeness should not be an issue if the act is the best means of solving the case.

The dialog between Beckett and her friend while they were in the interview room was priceless—“Make little Castle babies.”

This episode was one of the better episodes so far. Still, the killer was predictable and some of the police-type information was weak, like when Ryan said he found a pair of shoes at the killer’s house with soles cracked from contacting liquid nitrogen. There’s no way he could have possibly known how the soles had become cracked. BUT, the show is all about Castle and Beckett, and the heat was definitely turned on high. And how about this exchange…

Beckett – “Guy’s like Wolf come in and upset the apple cart. Makes you feel alive, but eventually you know he’s just going to let you down. So why risk it?

Castle – “Because the heart wants what it wants.”

ABC photos.

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