How I Met Your Esposito

Kicking things off is How I Met Your Mother. Last night's was totally a Ted episode, which has been sorely needed, especially after last week. The more I mulled over the last episode, the less I liked it (although I'm still a sucker for a monkey). This time around though, we start off with AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ANGELA PETRELLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, calmer. It's the actress, but now she's Ted's mom, and she's getting remarried to the perfect living stereotype of New Age hippie nonsense. At the wedding, Ted is bummed out that his mom has essentially lapped him, entering her second marriage while he is still waiting for his first. Skipping out on the toast (which is understandable after Clint's 12+ minute epic song), he disappears for 72 hours, and comes back a homeowner.

And it is the worst house ever, although I loved Barney's line about "Was it difficult to negotiate with the Blair Witch?". While Uncle Ruckus (no really, he does the voice on the Boondocks, seriously) inspects the house, Ted and the gang sit around and talk about feelings. Well, Barney talks more about Robin's feelings, as he won't stop telling people how she teared up at Clint's song. Except she didn't, it was Barney. Because he was sad about the time he made out with Ted's mom. Maybe. And he maybe got to second base. And his penis may be enormous.

Also, we get a new Marshall bit, where he tells a story of a stupid decision he made in his past, and the gang have to guess whether he was drunk, or a kid. Lily's dad should make that one into a board game, then bundle it with "Slap Bet!". After an epic (well, not so much) sledgehammer session, Ted still decides to keep the house, and in a nice montage, we see the torn-up wall become the same wall we see every week as Ted tells his kids this epic story. Very nicely done scene, and as such, the episode didn't even need a tag before the credits. The story of the house is a great insight into Ted (although nothing we didn't already really know), and a tangential take on the central mythology of the show. The Ted that bought this house is the Ted that stole a blue French Horn for Robin, and who will likely do something else impulsive to finally get The Mother...which should happen ANY TIME NOW!!! DO IT!!!

Okay, I'm better. Let's move on to Castle.

The highest compliment (and it is a compliment) that I can pay this show, is that I can't think of any other show on television that could pull off this storyline, and any cast that could walk the line between the levels of emotion pulled off in the episode. We get Flirty Beckett (with Demming, the new cop in town), Wacky Castle (seriously, between his Old Timey poker outfit {and Alexis' matching one...adorable], and his facial expressions through most of the episode), and Ultra Serious Esposito (with a cameo of Serious Ryan), this was a chance for most of the cast to stretch new muscles, especially Jon Huertas, who really stole the show this week. The case had a much smaller suspect pool, and thus the plot was tighter and kept you guessing until the end.

Esposito's arc with his dead partner, who turned out to be his alive/crooked partner, who then turned out to be his still-a-good-guy partner was some great writing coupled with great acting. Was that Jim Cramer as the crime boss? If so, good work from him. It was a better acting job than the one he does when he tries to convince people that he knows anything about the market, that's for sure *rimshot*. Ryan didn't have much to do, but he made the most of two scenes; the quasi-physical comedy of he, Esposito, and Castle swiping Demming's cell phone, and then the more serious scene he had with Esposito near the end of the episode. The concept of partners has been explored a lot on cop shows, and with Castle/Beckett many times on this show, but that one scene emphasized it without belaboring the point, a hard trick to pull off.

Speaking of Demming, I hear he'll be around for a while, and this third wheel in the Castle/Beckett relationship will likely drive the last few episodes of this season; possibly continuing into next year. The two played well together in their scenes this week, so he looks to be a good (temporary?) addition. Meanwhile, I feel inspired to check out some more Jon Huertas and pick up Generation Kill, the HBO miniseries he was in a couple years back.

Next up, LOST, then a big update next week, since I'll be out of town for the return of Thursday comedies, and the next Doctor Who.