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Let's recap:
Castle was less than thrilled to discover that his mother had hired a young guy to help her write a one-woman show. And that they had decided the most "creative" space to work in was Castle's own office. Oh, and that the show was full of white lies, including made-up stories about Castle's own life. Before Castle could start yelling at his mother, he got a phone call from Beckett; murder time!
At the crime scene Castle complains to Beckett that he doesn't want someone (his mother) poking into his life and rewriting it. She scoffs at him (um, maybe because that's exactly what he has been doing to her for the last three years!).
The murder victim is a young woman, and she is wearing a red cloak. Oh, and it looks like she has been mauled by a wolf. Castle points out the obvious, which apparently Beckett doesn't see; the woman is dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. In the morgue Lanie discovers actual wolf hair embedded in the claw marks. Don't worry yet, 'Castle' hasn't gone completely 'Once Upon a Time'. Instead, the wolf hair is a red herring. The woman was actually killed with a combination of ketamine and oxycodone. Oh, and it turns out she took a really odd amount of money out of her bank account (I know, I know, I should have written down the amount while I was watching the episode. Total fail on my part. Just believe me when I say it was a weird amount of money).
Before you know it, another body has turned up. It's another young woman, and she is dressed as Snow White. She even has a poison apple. Castle and Beckett realize that the murderer is following the traditional Brothers Grimm fairy tales. This relates nicely to the theme of this episode, which is that fairy tales are stories which are made up to make us feel better about reality (after all, in the original stories the girls are often saved, even though they have to use violence to do so). I wonder how this is going to relate to the fact that Castle is hiding reality (about her mother's murder) from Beckett.
Ryan brilliantly (he really has been coming up with smart ideas the last couple of episodes) suggests that they track the costume manufacturer, and see where the costumes were shipped. It turns out that someone (presumably the murderer) ordered 3 costumes. Because they know there is another victim out there, Castle and Beckett start to race against the clock. They send Ryan and Esposito to the address where the costumes were shipped. When no one answers their knocks, they burst into the apartment. It is filled with dolls. Everywhere. Ryan points out that it's as twisted as he thought it was going to be (and that he has been terrified of dolls since 'Chucky'). But then a little old lady appears. It turns out it's her apartment. As she has no idea why the costumes came to her address, or how someone got her credit card number to pay for them. The building is not at all secure, and so there's no way of knowing who picked up the package. Basically, it looks like a dead end.
Ryan and Espositio find out that both the murder victims disappeared for about an hour on the same day, at the same time (1 pm). They are able to trace the women to a restaurant. Despite the fact that their families claimed the two women had never met, the waitress says that she saw them together. She also saw a third woman with them. Perhaps the potential third victim?
Meanwhile, Beckett discovers that victim #2 withdrew the same bizarre amount of money from her bank account. Castle realizes that banks have to report withdrawals over $10,000, and they pull up information about all recent withdrawals over that amount (don't they need a warrant for this?!). They quickly figure out who the victim is. The fact that she matches the description from the waitress makes them positive they have the right person.
Everyone races to her apartment to try and save her life. When they get there the door appears to be kicked in, and they cautiously enter the apartment. They find the woman dressed as Sleeping Beauty, lying on her bed. She has been dosed like the other two women, but she is still alive. She is rushed to the hospital, while the detectives search the apartment. They find a large photograph which includes the three victims and a man. Each of the women are dressed in fairy tale costumes. On the back there is an order to pay up "or else", and the amount of money they paid matches the time stamp on the front of the photo.
They identify him as Ethan, a hit-and-run victim who died with ketamine and oxycodon in his system. His death was never solved.
Victim #3 survives, and they question her about Ethan in the photo. It turns out he was a friend of theirs. All of them attended a rave together, and they all took ketamine and oxycodone (the exact drugs that were used to dose all three women). She tells Castle and Beckett that as they were driving away from the party Ethan started to hallucinate and freak out in the car. She says that they dropped him off at the side of the road. When they found out the next morning that he was dead they all freaked out, and decided to never tell anyone that they had seen him. They were worried the scandal would hurt their college acceptances.
The story seems to be coming to an end when Beckett realizes that the sister of the first victim is married to Ethan's brother. He is clearly the perfect person to want to avenge his brother's death. They soon have video tape surveillance which proves he is the one who developed the photos. He cracks in interrogation, and admits that he blackmailed the women. He adamantly denies that he killed them. Beckett refuses to accept this, and they arrest him for the murders.
His wife is devastated that he blackmailed and murdered her sister. Beckett and Castle watch from a distance as they scream at each other. Beckett compares keeping secrets to holding onto a bomb, and warns that they will always explode. Castle looks a tad guilty (oh, I don't know...maybe because he is holding onto a massive secret regarding Beckett's mother's murder). I'm very, very concerned that Beckett's statement is foreshadowing a massive falling out between Castle and Beckett. Why can't everyone just be happy!? I know it would be boring TV, but I'd be pleased.
Castle and Beckett go to his house to watch his mother's one-woman show. He goes to see his mother before it begins, and she asks him to help her tie her bow. As he is tying it, Castle has an epiphany. He realizes that with the first two victims, the bows were horizontal, whereas with the third victim the bow was vertical. He grabs Beckett, and they go to interrogate the third victim. She committed the murders to cover up the fact that she was driving the car that night, and that she accidentally hit and killed Ethan. Eventually, faced with all of the evidence against her, she admits that she is the murderer.
I love the fact that this episode dealt loosely with the fairy tale phenomenon, but that in the end the murder had nothing to do with fairy tales at all. I didn't enjoy the fact that Beckett seems to be becoming increasing jaded. Season Two Beckett would not have been completely convinced that their first suspect both blackmailed and killed the women. She would also have had more sympathy, because she would have related to the years of not knowing who had killed Ethan. Even if he had been the murderer, while she would not have agreed with his decision to go after his brother's killers, she would have related to him on some level. Yet in this episode she takes the first solution presented to them, and accepts it. Castle is the one who repeatedly questions the arrest, and he is the one who eventually figures out that they sent the wrong man to prison. Perhaps this relates to Beckett's mothers murder: Beckett is no longer investigating the murder (as far as we know) and she is learning to accept that she will never know what happened. Castle is actively pursuing an answer, and thinks that a large cover-up may be involved.
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