The meta of "One Life to Lose" is very fun, with Castle and Beckett visiting the set of a soap opera to solve a murder. We see the craziness of shippers and bloggers who are rightfully criticized for getting out of hand sometimes, and it's all well and good. The case is solved, and then there's a Castle and Beckett moment where Beckett that she used to watch the soap opera with her mother so watching it now makes her feel safe.
But Josh's face pops up on Beckett's phone. My reaction: instant facepalm. If the writers are going to make fun of ludicrous soap opera plots, how about not using the latest plot device, Josh showing up at the end of every Castle and Beckett scene as of late?
I have this theory about that scene and shipping fandoms in general. The writers deliberately lead shipper on by providing endless teases to tug at heartstrings, while never providing a good solution. Meanwhile, they create an opposing tension which generates buzz among the fans which eventually spills out to people who aren't fans of the show. This way, they can get more people to watch, continuously leading shippers on with endless teases and also new viewers who want to see what the hubbub is about. So maybe that scene was the writers acknowledging their role in infuriating shippers. Or they're just clueless.
The case suffers from the problem of the recognizable actress. We've seen Tina Majorino in Napoleon Dynamite, Veronica Mars, and just the night before, on the series finale of Big Love. Everyone else on the show had already been interrogated, leaving her as the only viable suspect.
Score: 8.5/10
