Castle: Firefly, Serenity, or Close Encounter of the Murderous Kind?

While the episode of "Castle" that aired on January 31, 2011 was a repeat of an earlier episode, it was well worth seeing again. The episode entitled "Close Encounters of a Murderous Kind," was just too great. Anytime Nathan Fillion is even close to his space-cowboy roots it sends a rush of adrenaline through the veins of die hard Sci-fi fans; "Firefly" fans unite!

in this episode, which originally aired on November 15,2010, Castle and Becket are tasked with solving the murder of an astrophysicist who had died a bizarre death. She was the victim of explosive decompression, an injury common to something that would occur in outer space's vacuum environment. Of course, Castle almost immediately concludes that the poor astrophysicist is the victim of an alien abduction gone wrong. Beckett, on the other hand, remains unswayed by Castle's UFO frenzy, even though detectives Ryan and Esposito are generally rooting for Castle's theory to pan out.

Every turn Beckett makes to logically find evidence in the murder comes up short. The vacuum chamber where Beckett suspects the scientist was killed lacks any DNA evidence, and the other chamber in the area is also clean. It begins to look more and more like Castle's hypothesis is correct. Beckett, while unwilling to believe in UFOs or alien abduction, finds herself mixed up in a government cover up resulting in her and Castle's own abduction.

Imagine Castle and Beckett driving on a deserted back road when suddenly an EM pulse strikes their car. Their cell phones fail, and they are stranded in the dark moonlight. As they stare bewilderedly at each other a bright light shines onto the roof of their car, and even Becket begins to question the reality of little green men.

Unfortunately, reality soon emerges and the aliens in question turn out to be men in black, operatives of an unknown government agency where Lyle Lovett plays the lead operative. It was exciting to see Lovett as a mysterious secret agent and he played the role well. His dark black suit paired with his tall lanky frame almost gave him an ethereal presence.

The astrophysicist case takes more turns than a firefly-class spaceship, and soon Castle and Beckett find themselves face to face with a Chinese spy. It is then Castle shouts the immortal words, "My partner is crazy and may start firing at any moment." When Beckett questions Castle's fluent Chinese, he simply states it's from a television show a few years back. Of course, "Firefly" fans, and there are many out there, totally loved that reference to Fillion's time spent as Malcom Reynolds.

It is great to see Nathan Fillion portraying Rick Castle, but having Castle take on UFOs is really the best of both worlds for die hard fans.