For everyone who had a hard time getting into this episode, I understand.

Alexis has always been a supporting player, along with Martha and with even Espo and Ryan and (IMO, especially unfortunately, Lainie since I love her to bits!).

So we got an episode without Castle and Beckett doing their thing (although we did get an moment of Castle sharing with his daughter a patented Castle/Beckett "thing" and his daughter being disturbed enough to say "ewwww." as a result), but for me, it was not only a great case (if a new show was launched about father/daughter crime fighters based on this episode, I wouldn't object simply because the father/daughter bonds combined with the passion for justice intrigued me -- but that's not what Castle is about, so I'm not going to expect things to change on the regular show anytime soon).

This week, Alexis not only got "her" episode, but it was built up on tremendously realistic issues the child of a broken home might have with her dad when she's trying to spread her wings and he's trying to build a safety net that she knows will only hurt her more if she falls because she's seen his pain too many times to count.

For me, it was a delight to see a show that wasn't coated in saccharine begin to address the problem of how people who love each other can still manage to live with each other, because I haven't seen much of that (in the news, in politics, or, most especially, in entertainment) for a very long time, even though, to my mind, that's the question of the ages.