As the daughter of a wealthy author, I imagine Alexis goes to a fancy NYC private school like Sacred Heart (or whatever the co-ed equivalent would be).  On top of that, she's a straight-A student, so its not hard to believe multiple Ivy League schools would have a place for her.

@seal of death
Well, Castle had abandoned Beckett & co. the entire episode and only contacted them to ask for favors…and Beckett did gather evidence without him having to ask and went on to help him solve the case.

@dah_sab:disqus, that's true, but Beckett has the added burden of being the primary love interest so she should ideally resonate with the audience to the point that it's believable Castle would be in love with her.

When bad things happen, my first instinct is to blame Primatech Paper.

@avclub-13d7df3c17502af69aafccc758195f96:disqus … I could see that happen.
Next, Castle would tell Beckett how Alexis' career experience has given a whole new meaning to the term "headhunters"

Beckett was a little bit of everything in this episode.  She was part hard-ass, part dependable friend, and even turned into a high-schooler for the duration of her therapy session.

I agree, this episode was good fun & I think it's been underrated.  To me it even had more of a "classic" feel, as if it were an episode from season 3 or earlier.

*cue Castle's falcon-punch*

I mostly received paper acceptance letters in 2007.  At the time I got the sense that it was more popular for schools to send rejection letters via email.

1.  Castle gives Slaughter his brown coat. 
2.  A more subtle reference is the reverse-dichotomy of Slaughter being the "captain" character while Castle is the sidekick.

The comments about Katic also seem overdone this time considering she wasn't even around for most of the episode. It seems that Beckett delegated baby-sitting duties out to Ryan and Espo until Castle came crawling back to her in last 15 minutes.

Even though A.B.'s character was a little cartoonish, he was a lot more fun than the pseudo-British guest-detective in "The Limey".  Also, Castle finally got to punch a guest star—that should earn him bonus points.

They have mentioned the Irish mob before, I think they were featured primarily in "Sucker Punch".  Though I remember that episode more for my favorite Castle suspect to date: Johnny Vong.

Given that Beckett seems to have gone through the trials of deprivation, blood, pain, sacrifice, anguish, and death, Dr. Worf probably could have instructed Beckett to marry Castle.

I generally don't care about Alexis enough as a character to notice her subplots, but holding a grudge against Stanford after being accepted in the 2nd round seems a little far-fetched even for her. 
I was expecting the writers to have her fulfill her role as a foil to Castle and react in a mature, parent-like way to…

I feel like this can be extended to all grouchy medical professionals. 
Though my personal favorite have always been medical quack-characters, like Dr. Leo Spaceman.

I have been picking up a "Michael has brain-damage" or "is on drugs" kind of vibe so far, rather than a "there are actually 2 alternate universes" vibe. 
My guess is the conspiracy will turn medical given that Michael's main confidants are his psychiatrists, rather than a lovably loony scientist like Walter from…

I am enjoying the show so far, but the conspiracy element is making me antsy.  I'm having hard time imagining how it would be in Carl's interest to keep Michael in his current state, unless poor Mike is being used to test an elaborate, mind-altering medical procedure.
I mainly got the medical vibe after the previous…

Is Sofia Vergara a modern reincarnation of this show?

Jua! Jua! Jua! Jua! Jua! Jua! Jua!