Castle Season 6 Premiere & Potential Spoilers

In one short week the sixth season of 'Castle' will be premiering on ABC.

Thinking back over the last four seasons, it's easy to say that 'Castle' is a show that has succeeded in character growth. Beckett and Castle have both made strides and bounds in terms of mental and emotional well-being. Now even bigger changes are coming our way.

Although ABC and Andrew Marlowe (the creator of 'Castle') have been trying to keep a wrap on details of this season's premiere, it's pretty easy to piece together the key points. Stop reading now if you want to avoid potential spoilers (though keep in mind that I haven't seen the premiere and these are merely my best guesses--we'll see if they hold true).

Castle Season 5 Finale: Yes or No

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 5 FINALE!

In the past 'Castle' has had dramatic finales. Who could forget the season when Beckett got shot mere moments before the end credits? Still, this season's finale offered a blow of a different sort. For a season that focused on the emotional development of its main characters it makes sense that the finale would deal with just that.

Season five wasn't as edge of your seat high stakes as the seasons before it, but it definitely allowed us to watch Castle and Beckett's relationship develop while still providing us with some tricky cases.

In tonight's episode we all knew what was coming; as had been pretty clearly established last week, Beckett was going to interview for a job in DC and she was going to get it. What was most surprising about this week's episode was the fact that it was half way done before Castle even discovered she'd interviewed which left scant time to focus on their argument after her secret had been revealed. In a way that made the finale all the more powerful.

Castle: How Much Hitchcock is Too Much Hitchcock?

 "How Much Hitchcock is Too Much Hitchcock?" is clearly a ridiculous question--the answer is obvious. There is no such thing as too much Hitchcock.

I don't think it's plausible to not get something out of a Hitchcock film, regardless of whether you're watching it for the first time or the 22nd.

However, it is definitely possible to overuse Hitchcock allusions. Case in point? The current season of 'Castle'.

Castle: After the Storm, Recap

5x01 Recap

Castle and Beckett wake up together and it's almost as perfect as we all imagined. Castle is scared it was just a dream, but then Beckett walks in, wearing only an oxford shirt, and carrying two mugs of coffee. She hands one to Castle and perches on the edge of the bed. And they discuss the night they just had. Castle references the line that Beckett whispered to him in the first season, where she insinuated that he had "no idea" what sex with her was like. He smiles and admits to her that indeed, he had "no idea". Except now he does!

Castle Season 5 Sneak Peeks

And now I've watched the preview scenes! You can watch them too, right here:

Castle Seaon 5 Premieres Tonight!

Here's what I think might happen:

Let me preface this by saying that I have not yet seen this season's premiere of 'Castle'. And I have not yet watched any of the sneak peeks. So, there are no spoilers here. Unless you consider the few things I have gleaned from watching the only promo that ABC has released to be spoilers.

First of all, it's clear that there are at least two bedroom scenes, because the bit in the promo where Castle and Beckett wake up in bed together, and he asks if it was good for her, is clearly spliced. Will we get two bedroom scenes in the first episode? Who knows! I certainly hope we do.

It's also fairly obvious that Castle and Beckett will try to keep their relationship hidden as much as possible. Not only will they have the same fear as Chandler and Monica on 'Friends'..."we're both really bad at

Castle Season 5 Poster Revealed

The official poster for the fifth season of 'Castle' first appeared online earlier this afternoon, and I think it perfectly captures the playful aspects of the show. What do you think?

'Castle' is coming to TNT

The time we've all been waiting for has finally come...'Castle' is officially entering syndication.

So, when is 'Castle' coming to TNT?

The first marathon will air...

Castle Season 5 Promo Video

All right, so for those of you who watched tonight's re-run of 'Castle', you saw the first Season 5 promo with new footage. If you're like me, you can't wait for the 5th season premiere, "After the Storm". So, SCROLL DOWN and watch the promo!

'Castle': First Glimpses of Season 5

The Season Five premiere of 'Castle' is entitled "After the Storm". The producers have insinuated that the timeline for the premiere is slightly unusual. Mainly because...

Castle: Always

Season 4, Episode 23

Castle and Beckett are finally in a good place, in fact they might have...a date? Alexis is graduating from high school, and will be busy partying with her classmates after the ceremony. Martha is going out of town to see friends. And Castle is planning a movie marathon to drown his sorrows. He invites Beckett, and she accepts!

Unfortunately, it seems like the date might be put on hold.

Couples That Aren't Together...Yet

All of us have friends, or at least acquaintances, who we think would be perfect together. If we could only use forceful matchmaking skills, and make them date, all would be good in the world. Well, forcing friends together is a tad...difficult. TV characters, on the other hand, get forced together all the time. Here are a few current TV characters who should be dating, will probably date in the future, but haven't been forced together yet by the shows' writers. 

Castle: Always, Spoiler Videos

Read my recap of 'Castle: Always': HERE

All the 'Castle' sneak peek videos in one place:

Castle Promo: Season 4 Episode 23 "Always"

American Promo:

 Canadian Promo:

Castle and Zombies and Beckett, Oh My!

 "Undead Again", Season 4 Episode 22

Tonight's 'Castle' gave us something we haven't had in weeks: hope.

During the last several episodes (read my recaps HERE and HERE) Castle has been pulling further and further away from Beckett, and she has been too hurt to do anything about it. To refresh your memory, it all started when Castle overheard Beckett say that she remembered everything about her shooting that happened at the end of last season. This wouldn't be a big deal, except that Castle told her he loved her, and for the past 21 episodes Beckett has been pretending she didn't hear it. When Castle realized that she had heard it, he assumed she had ignored it because she didn't feel the same way. Since he had been going for weeks on the assumption that she returned his feelings, but wasn't "ready yet", this stung a bit. And so, he decided that last night's case would be their last one together. Ever.

And it was a doozy. At first, it seemed like they were dealing with a rather simple murder. A trader was murdered at 4 am in a parking structure, and everything pointed to his disgruntled co-worker who had been turned down for a promotion. Everything, that is, until said co-worker was found chained in his apartment, ranting that zombies had killed the trader.

Castle rather typically immediately latched onto this. Zombies! Something he could talk about endlessly. And Castle is always at his best when the murder leads to oddball theories. He told his mother that he'd decided that this would be his last hurrah, and he was thrilled that it was an interesting case. He admitted to Beckett that he was glad it wasn't a boring one, and also told the medical examiner (sarcastically) that he would "treasure these special moments [they'd] shared"--this definitely made Beckett suspicious that something was going on, but due to the tense relationship they've had during the past several weeks, she didn't ask him anything.

It wasn't just the co-worker's words that made them suspect zombies, it was security camera footage that Ryan found. It showed a zombie going after the man. As the gang stood around discussing this probability Espositio told Castle it was good to see that he and Beckett were getting along again. In reality, it was because he had decided it was his last case, and that he would be leaving, that Castle was acting so friendly with everyone (even Beckett). His mother's statement earlier in the episode, that he had been flaunting women around just to punish Beckett, also got to him. Beckett certainly recognized that he was more like his old self, it would be hard not to since he was back to his usual schoolyard teasing ways. When Ryan asked him if he really believed in zombies, he admitted that he didn't, but he loved to tell Beckett that he did.

They found out that the murdered man had texted a woman the night that he died. When they questioned her, she admitted that she used to date him, but that she was now engaged to a law student. She had briefly cheated on her fiancé with the man, but once her fiancé found out she had broken it off. The trader wouldn't take no for an answer and kept texting her. This, of course, made them immediately suspect the law student, but it turned out he had an airtight alibi. He had been studying in the library during the exact hours of the murder.


By tracking where the murdered man had been that night, Beckett and Castle went to examine an abandoned warehouse. While they were there they were suddenly surrounded by zombies! Beckett pulled out her gun, but Castle pointed out it wouldn't be enough to kill them all. Caught up in the moment, they both panicked. Castle, proving that he still cared about Beckett more than he wanted to admit, yelled at her to get behind him. It was this order that made Beckett realize how absurd the whole situation was, and she immediately yelled "NYPD". The zombies all stopped being zombies, and turned into normal people. They admitted that they were doing some event called 'zombie walking', where they pretended to be zombies, and chased the 'normals'. Beckett ordered them all to the precinct for questioning.


They talked to a lot of the zombies, including some who were clearly high on drugs. After showing the picture of the zombie in question to all of them, one guy finally identified him as Kyle. But when Ryan and Espositio burst into Kyle's apartment, he was dead. And still decked out in zombie makeup. The paramedics brought him to the morgue, and Beckett and Castle showed up to the attend the autopsy. Castle tentatively asked the medical examiner if it was possible the guy really had been a zombie, and right as Beckett was telling him not to be absurd, the medical examiner cut into Kyle and he woke up. He jumped off the table and ran away, and Beckett chased him down the hall, screaming at Castle to call for backup. 


But Kyle wasn't really a zombie, it turned out he had been given high doses of a drug similar to a roofie. Except, with this drug the person stays conscious and becomes highly suggestible. It is actually known as the 'zombie drug'. As the drug leaves their system they lose all memory of what has taken place and can even go into a coma. This is what happened to Kyle.


Beckett remembers that some of the 'zombies' they questioned were high, and she brings one in for questioning. He admits their dealer is the law school student. Beckett realizes that he dosed Kyle and told him to kill the trader. She tells Castle she's afraid that it's the perfect crime. and he assures her there is no such thing. 


Because it's Castle, he comes up with a perfect plan. They trick the law school student into thinking both he and Kyle have been released. They then put Kyle's make-up on Castle, and he 'attacks' the law student, causing him to admit everything. 


Kyle is released from jail, and Beckett tells him the DA may not even press charges. He was completely manipulated by the law school student. After Kyle leaves, Castle tells Beckett he doesn't know how Kyle will ever get over it--you don't forget really tragic events. Beckett's eyes widen slightly, as though she realizes that Castle knows she has a memory of what happened during her shooting. She tells him, clearly talking about herself as much as Kyle, that it will be very hard, but that with therapy he will learn to live with it. Castle admits that he didn't realize that she was in therapy, and she tells him she didn't want anyone to know, she just wanted to do what she had to and then move on. She also admits that she is almost ready to deal with everything that happened that day. She then pauses, looks Castle right in the eye, and states "everything". Clearly she is talking about his statement of love, and they both know it, although nothing is said directly. Castle says he hopes that's true. Beckett then asks him, showing that she realizes his behavior has been slightly suspicious that day, if he will be in again tomorrow. And he promises he will.

The episode ends with that--a promise of a tomorrow, and a conversation (however much was left unsaid) that insinuates a reconciliation between Castle and Beckett. 

SPOILERS

The promo for next week's season finale suggests that Castle and Beckett will finally get even closer! The episode is titled 'Always', and it will finally deal again with Beckett's mother's murder. This is the one secret that Castle is still keeping from Beckett. He promised unknown forces that he would stop Beckett from investigating and that in return they would let her live. She doesn't know any of this, and if she did, the secret would surely tear them apart again. In the next episode, Beckett will learn what Castle was keeping from her. Beckett will quite the police force to investigate on her own. And we will have another declaration of love on Castle's part, as well as the possibility of them finally getting together. At the very least, I think we can finally expect a kiss. See if I'm right next week. 'Castle' airs on Mondays at 10/9C on ABC.

We've never had a real kiss--the closest we got was S3Ep13. Is it time now?

'Bones' & 'Castle': Game Changing Episodes

Castle: The Limey & Bones: The Prisoner in the Pipe

Let's talk about 'Bones' and 'Castle'. Both of them had important episodes last night, which may well change the course of their prospective series.

 

In last night's episode of 'Bones' (recapped here), we all knew what was coming: a baby. It was no secret that Brennan was going to deliver her baby last night, and that's slightly unfortunate. Much of the episode was completely expected. The producers and the network released a huge amount of information about the episode ahead of time: we knew that the crime involve a prison, we knew that Brennan would go into labor near the prison, and (if you've been paying attention to spoilers, like this spoof video by Michael Ausiello, Gillian Jacobs, and Adam Pally) we knew that the birth would take place in a barn. In fact, the network even released an extended scene from this episode, showing the manipulation that occurred between Booth, Sweets, and Brennan. Oh, plus the fact that we all knew that they would name the baby Christine after Brennan's mother. Really, there were no real surprises left. And I think that's unfortunate. I assume that spoilers were released in order to achieve a massive number of viewers for the show's first post-hiatus episode. But loyal viewers don't care about numbers in the same way TV execs do. The episode would have been a lot stronger if viewers could have held their breath in anticipation, even a little.

Clearly, my main critique is not the content of the actual episode, but rather the way that it was promoted. Each part of the episode felt predictable, and a large part of that predictability was not due to the quality of the writing, or the quality of the performances, but rather to the promotion of the episode. I knew what was going to happen next to such an extent that I didn't much care what was happening next.

Now, let's switch shows and talk about 'Castle'. This show actually went to the other extreme. The producers have been promising that the last couple of episodes of this season will change the course of the series. Many viewers, myself included, have taken this to mean that something will finally happen between Castle and Beckett. What that something is remains to be seen--but at this point I think we'll take almost anything. Last week's episode was important, and painful, because Castle finally learned that Beckett had heard him tell her that he loved her, and had then lied about hearing it. While 'Bones' didn't put its viewers on edge enough, 'Castle' put them on edge too much. I was filled with nervous anticipation during the whole episode (would Beckett figure out why Castle was being so distant?), and none of that nervousness had dissipated by the end of the episode. Nothing was really resolved at all, and the lack of resolution was to such an extent that I actually was in a bit of pain (okay, okay, I know I shouldn't care so much about a show--but I do). Now, the fact that I cared so much is a credit to the show. But, that being said, it actually made me hesitant to watch last night's episode. I seriously contemplated taking a break for a week or two so that I could watch several episodes in a row and hopefully see some closure on screen. But, of course, I write this blog so that wasn't really an option.

During this week's episode we continued to deal with the fall-out of Castle learning Beckett's secret. Castle is clearly pulling away (even returning to his partying and sleeping around ways), and Beckett actually noticed. Finally her detectives skills are worth something (where were they last week?!). Lanie gave Beckett some reasonable advice: talk to Castle, tell him how you feel, he's probably pulling away because he's tired of waiting. Now, clearly that isn't all true. It was painful to watch Castle hurt and trying to deal with it, and Beckett hurt and trying to deal with it, and realize that if they just talked to each other honestly for one second none of that pain would be necessary. At the end of this episode things were actually worse than at the end of the last one. Beckett began to doubt that Castle cared for her, and wondered if he could ever change his womanizing ways. Castle continued to believe that Beckett didn't care for him (it wasn't helpful that she was so friendly with the visiting Scotland Yard detective). Great. Rip my heart out right now.

Clearly I didn't enjoy either of the last two episodes of 'Castle', but I didn't enjoy them because they made me care so much about the characters that it actually hurt a little. On the other hand, I didn't really enjoy last night's return of 'Bones' either. However, my lack of enjoyment there was due to the promotion of the episode. With 'Castle' there was too much nervous anticipation (I was so focused on their relationship I couldn't focus on the murders), and I cared too much. With 'Bones' there was a lack of anticipation, and because of that I didn't care enough. Hopefully both these shows can find a happy medium next week!

'Bones' airs Mondays on FOX at 8/7C

'Castle' airs Mondays on ABC at 10/9C

Castle: 47 Seconds

On tonight's 'Castle' things started with a bang. Literally.

At a protest clearly based on the Occupy movement, an explosion is shown on national television as a bomb explodes behind a news reporter. Five people die and eleven are wounded.

Castle, Beckett and co. investigate. Initially the Chief gives them a list of 300 protest attendees and they start randomly interviewing suspects. Not surprisingly, this doesn't really get them anywhere.

Lanie helps a little. She finds blue canvas embedded on the victims, so the bomb must have been encased in a backpack or suitcase.

Eventually the Chief, who apparently has friends in really high places (like, really, really high), gets the GPS coordinates of all of the cell phones of the attendees. This is pretty ridiculous, because although the government does have access to that information, there is no way anyone would get it so quickly. Clearly none of these people have ever tried to get a real warrant. Anyway, disbelief needs to be suspended to accept the rest of the episode.

Right, so GPS. They have it, we're dealing with it. They managed to track a phone that was right next to the bomb when it went off--it must belong to the bomber! It belongs to Andrew Haynes, a political activist. They all think Haynes is the bomber, but we know otherwise. It's only half an hour into the episode...way too early to find the criminal.

The FBI decides Haynes is their man, but Beckett and Castle are more hesitant. It occurs to Castle that they should ask a drummer who is in the background of the video from the bombing. The drummer is initially hesitant to give them any information, because he is afraid of immigration. Beckett assures him that she doesn't care about that, and he is soon talking. He tells them that he saw a man drop off a blue backpack. He describes the man. Beckett believes that he is telling the truth, because they didn't tell anyone about the blue material.

Castle is thrown by the bombing, because it makes him think about how short life is. He decides to tell Kate how he feels about her. He starts to say something, and from Beckett's expression she knows what's coming, but he is interrupted before he can finish. He says they'll talk when the case is over.

The Chief sends Castle home with hundreds of witness statements to look over, since he is a speed reader.

While Castle is at home, Esposito and Ryan identify the man with the backpack. He is brought in for questioning. Castle comes in as Beckett is in the middle of questioning the witness. He stands behind the window listening, and Beckett has no idea he is there. The man with the backpack tells Beckett that he is in shock and can't remember the bombing at all. She yells at him that she was shot and that she remembers everything. Castle hears her and is shocked and hurt. This means that Kate has known all along that he told her he loved her. Also, Kate did recently lie about her memory (need a reminder?).

He meets his mother at the memorial for the bomb's victims. He tells her that he find out that Beckett knows, and she tells him that maybe he needs to move on. He tells her that he'll move on from Kate, but that he has to keep working at the precinct--it gives him purpose. And he needs to keep doing it for the victims.

Beckett leaves the witness in holding and sees a coffee (Castle's normal token of affection) on her desk. She asks Esposito where he is, and he tells her that Castle was there but said that he quickly had to leave. God I wish that A) Esposito tells her that Castle was listening to the witness or B) that she puts it all together. But she doesn't.

Castle returns to the precinct, and is quite icy towards Beckett. She appears puzzled each time he directs a snide comment her way. (Seriously, this woman is a detective?)

They soon figure out that the man with the blue backpack was actually a pick pocket. He stole the backpack from between two dumpsters. They realize that if it had exploded there it wouldn't have hurt any of the protesters.

After looking at more witness statements, they realize that the organizer of the protest was the actual bomber. When the man stole the blue backpack the organizer chased him, and tried to stop the bomb from going off. This tells them that he didn't have control of the detonator.

Re-watching the footage of the bombing, it occurs to Castle that the news reporter set off the bomb. Beckett looks at him proudly, but he doesn't smile in return.

They bring the reporter in for questioning. During the questioning Castle talks about standing up and telling the truth, especially if other people get hurt. He is clearly talking about himself and Beckett (and she still doesn't get it!). The reporter caves, and she is arrested.

At the end of the case Beckett asks the guys to come with her and grab a drink. Esposito and Ryan turn her down, and she looks expectantly at Castle. He says no, and starts to leave. Kate stops him, and asks him if he wants to tell her what he started to tell her earlier. He shakes his head and leaves. She seems slightly hurt and surprised.

And that is the end of the episode. How painful was that?!

In the promo for the next episode we hear Kate ask Lanie why Castle is turning away. And Lanie says: "Maybe he just got tired of waiting". Yeah, or maybe he just had his heart broken because he heard you yell that you remembered everything about your shooting (including said guy's professed love for you). And now he thinks you purposefully ignored him and played with his feelings, and has no idea you really like him. Way to go, Kate. Ugh.

I'm guessing they won't be this close again for a while.

Castle: A Dance with Death

Last night's 'Castle' episode (S4,Ep18) wasn't much of a surprise. The return of the show after its brief hiatus had been steadily advertised on ABC, and most of those ads had paired 'Dancing with the Stars' together with 'Castle'. So, we all knew what was coming: a 'Dancing with the Stars'-themed 'Castle' episode! And that's exactly what we got.

'Castle' began moments after 'Dancing with the Stars' ended, and the sets looked so familiar that for a second I thought that Tom Bergeron was going to pop up and tell the viewers that it was all a big hoax, and that we were going to have to suffer through a second hour of 'DWTS'. Thank goodness, this wasn't the case. Instead, we were watching the set of 'A Night of Dance', a dancing competition show that would feature heavily in this episode of 'Castle'.

The host and judges of the show were waiting in anticipation for a dance-off to occur between two competitors, Santino and Odette. Santino stepped onto the stage, but Odette was nowhere to be seen. Of course, since this is 'Castle', we instantly knew that she was dead.

And dead she was. The whole gang arrived at the scene. Odette had been shot in the chest, and Lanie quickly confirmed that it was a recent murder. Lanie also revealed that she was a huge fan of 'A Night of Dance', and that Odette was favored to win the whole competition. Oh, and that Odette had previously been a spoiled rich kid with a shopping addiction and drug problem. Anyway, now we know that Lanie loves trashy reality television, and that she wanted to be a ballerina as a child (um, way to randomly throw that storyline in, I can only assume it is because the writers later want to have Beckett and Castle discuss their childhood dreams).

Castle and Beckett interview all of the judges, and learn that a contestant who was previously voted off the show had been extremely upset. His name was Eddie, he had a problematic past with law enforcement, and he had been cast as the 'bad boy' (now would be a reasonable time to debate why Eddie and Odette, who both had problems with the law, were dealt with so differently on the show...financial backgrounds maybe? But, you know, I'm too distracted by Beckett's hair).

Beckett and Castle interview Odette's brother (I think?), and he says that he was pleased that she had been behaving so much better, and that she had stopped using drugs. She was still rich, but after a recent brush with death (a literal train wreck) she had apparently cleaned up her act. At this point in the episode, I couldn't help but wonder how Beckett would deal with this news---would she be reminded of her "brush with death"? Would it help her realize that she should make changes in her life (i.e. get with Castle)? I was a little disappointed when none of this was addressed, but then I saw the promo for next week's episode and I realized that they are addressing all of those things then. Guess they didn't want to jump the gun.

But, I digress. Odette's financial adviser and a bunch of other people reference the fact that she used to make crazy purchases (paying for a friend's plastic surgery, shopping sprees, etc.) when she was using drugs, and that all of that had stopped after the accident. However, recently those purchases had started up again.

Beckett is not convinced, because she notices that Odette bought only clothing, and that the clothing was in a size four (not Odette's size). Castle remembers his glory, college days, and how he would let other people use the gas card his mother gave him in exchange for cash. He suggests that Odette was buying clothing for her friends in order to get cash so that she could pay for drugs. All this seems rather logical, except that it isn't right. Instead, it turns out that Odette was buying all the clothes for an assistant on the show--because the assistant had overheard part of a fight and Odette was worried she would tell someone about it (can you say blackmail?).

Castle and Beckett approach the guy that Odette was fighting with. He admits that he saw Odette shooting up (presumably heroin), but that he had promised her he would keep it a secret if she stopped. He knew if her drug use was discovered she would get kicked off the show. But, then he caught her again, and when he threatened to expose her she said she would tell the producers he had kept it a secret the first time, and that he would be fired too. Hence, the fight.

Ryan and Esposito search Odette's apartment, and discover syringes. Only problem is, Odette didn't have any drugs in her system when she died. And those syringes? They're filled with insulin. Which is bizarre because A) Odette wasn't diabetic and B) Most people don't hide their insulin in false-bottom boxes.

Anyway, we suddenly find out something big! Odette wasn't really Odette. The real Odette died in the train crash, and the faux-dette (I swear, they call her that, I'm not just stealing ideas from 'Fringe' by myself) is really an ex-foster kid named Barbara. Castle immediately posits a "twins separated at birth" story. As he explains, these stories rarely end happily, except for the 'Parent Trap'. Beckett is buying this explanation, because, seriously, the women look identical. But then, a twist! Their DNA doesn't match!

Eventually, our detectives (with much help from Castle) figure out what really happened: Odette was getting arrested a lot, and she was being assigned community service. Clearly, she didn't want to do it. So, when she saw a stripper who looked a lot like her, she paid for her to have plastic surgery (see, not all those drug-addled purchases were nonsensical!) to look more like her. And then, tada!, Barbara looks just like Odette (I can't imagine it's really that simple, but for the sake of this plot, I'll go with it).

Ah ha! Beckett and Castle discuss their childhood dreams. Or rather, Castle asks Beckett about her childhood dreams. And she tells him that she was studying to be a lawyer before her mother's murder. This completely confused me, because I thought Beckett was planning on being an actress. Then I realized I was mixing up TV 'Castle' with trashy book 'Castle' (yes, I've used "trashy" twice in this synopsis, and it was worth it. And yes, I have just admitted to reading these books).

We of course get swept into a big debate about who the killer was really trying to murder; Odette or Barbara? For a while we get flung a red herring in the shape of Barbara's ex-boyfriend, who was a not very good guy (drug dealer?) who turned out to be kind of a good guy (he actually loved Barbara). Basically, he's irrelevant. Clearly didn't do it.

Immediately we think of the money: did Odette's brother murder Odette (or Barbara, thinking she was Odette, or Barbara knowing she was Barbara)? It gets a bit convoluted for a minute. Or was it the butler (Apparently all rich families now have butlers, and why was this man never interviewed before)?

To cut a long story short (way too late, I know) faux-dette wasn't murdered by any of these people! Turns out several years ago she had an affair with the financial adviser, and he helped her murder her grandfather. She then abandoned him for greener (younger) pastures. But he still loved Odette, and when he realized that Barbara was an impersonator, he got angry and shot her. So, that's that.

This episode also had a storyline involving Alexis in the morgue. Come on, people (Andrew Marlowe, I'm looking at you). No police department would ever, ever let an untrained minor handle evidence that might be used in a court of law! Seriously!

We also dealt briefly with Esposito and Ryan recognizing that Ryan's flirting days were over--women could smell the "happily married" on him. Even when he gave Esposito his wedding band to wear, Esposito still got more women. This was one of the weakest episodes this season for these guys. Honestly, I didn't care much if the ladies still like Ryan. Also, I don't care if Esposito gets Ryan's wedding ring stuck on his finger. This is a scenario we've all seen before, and it works way better in romantic comedies ('My Best Friend's Wedding', 'The Family Stone', etc.). Ryan and Esposito can be fun to watch, but in this particular case they just felt like filler.

Another pointless filler in this episode was the subplot involving Castle's mother. Apparently she got a horrible theater review when she was young, but now she wants the reviewer to write something lovely about her acting school. I'm not sure why we're supposed to care, but you can imagine how that goes if it matters to you.

I am happy about one thing. This episode of 'Castle' was light and fluffy, which is something that the show does particuarly well. Considering the fact that next week's episode looks like (excuse my pun) an actual train wreck for our characters, I'm glad we had something a little mindless this week.

Also, did anyone else think dead Odette looked way too much like Beckett?

Castle: Linchpin

S4Ep16

Last week, 'Castle' ended with a cliff hanger. Worse than that, it ended with a potential reconciliation between Castle and his ex-muse, CIA agent Sophia (Jennifer Beals). Luckily, by the end of tonight's episode we knew one thing: Sophia was gone, and she was never coming back.

The episode picked up exactly where the last one left off...Castle and Beckett were trapped in a car that had just been pushed into the river. Not only were they unable to find something to break the window in order to escape the sinking car, but Beckett's seatbelt was stuck. Castle dived into the water within the car and managed to find Beckett's gun, he shot out the windows at the last minute and they survived (I know you're shocked).

Clearly, Beckett and Castle were happy to have escaped their ordeal. Sophia, on the other hand, was less than thrilled. She was okay with them surviving (Well, kind of. More about that later), but she was annoyed that they had continued to investigate after she had ordered them off the case.

Sophia yells at Rick that he can't always rewrite the ending, like he did with them. Kate's expression shows that she is disturbed by the confirmation that they had a relationship.

They agree to stop investigating, and leave the CIA offices. Of course, it's Castle and Beckett, so they're lying.

Sophia, who does seem to know Rick remarkably well, is sitting in Castle's bedroom when he gets home. She tells him that she knows he won't ever leave a case alone until the end of the story is discovered, and she gives him a list of bank routing numbers that were found in the suspect's apartment.

The next morning Castle brings the list to Beckett. When she hears how he got it (Sophia. Rick's house. Middle of the night) she is obviously annoyed and slightly hurt.

Basically this whole episode illustrates how well Stana Katic (Beckett) can play annoyed and hurt. Someone give that woman an Emmy.

Anyway, Castle and Beckett follow the clues and find the dead professor's house. They find a room which includes his linchpin formula--and they discover its ultimate goal: World War III. They also find out that the linchpin is a little Chinese girl. All they find is her photo, they don't even know her name.

Suddenly they are interrupted by Gage. If you'll remember from last week, Gage is the rogue CIA agent who is involved in Pandora. Or is he? He saves them from a bomb, and pulls them to safety. He hurriedly tells them that he is being set-up, and Kate seems to believe him. They are interrupted by a team of CIA agents who take Gage into captivity.

Sophia and her fellow CIA agents try to interrogate Gage, but he keeps saying that he was set-up.

Castle and Beckett have turned over the photo of the girl, and they have run her through face recognition, but can't figure out who she is. They're in a hurry, because they suspect that Pandora is going to happen in the next 24 hours. Castle suddenly has an epiphany, and suggests that they run recognition software on the mountains in the back of the photo. Sophia admits that it's a brilliant idea, and briefly kisses Castle on his cheek. Stana Katic has another Emmy moment.

As the techs are investigating the photo, Sophia approaches Kate, and starts talking to her about Rick. Kate asks what went wrong. And Sophia responds that they had sexual tension for months, but once they finally gave into it, they didn't have anything left. All that was left were all their little annoying personality traits. Of course, Sophia is just listing the concerns of 'Castle' writers. She's also making viewers everywhere yell "shut up!" at their TV screens. Must she really put more doubts into Kate's mind?

The techs figure out who the girl is! She's the daughter of a Chinese official in the financial sector who is the main supporter of China helping with US debt. Through some super fast talking Kate, Sophia, and Rick explain why this is bad. Basically, if his daughter is killed by "CIA" it means China will no longer help the US financially, which = ruin.

This means there must be a mole in the CIA. The techs run a trace on all the agent's computers to discover who the mole is. It points to Sophia's partner, Mark. He escapes.

But there's no time to run after him, because they have just realized that the little Chinese girl is in the United States, and may be killed that day. Sophia, Kate and Rick run to save her. Sophia insists that no one else come with them, because she doesn't trust her agents anymore. She has contact with another CIA cell, and says that they will help instead.

But Sophia leads Kate and Rick into a parking structure, and points a gun at them. She's the real mole. Her agent from the other CIA cell is actually her partner in crime, and she orders him to go and kill the girl, while she murders Kate and Rick. Sophia taunts Rick, telling him that the only reason he ever had access to the CIA was his father (rather famously, Castle doesn't know his father). She also speaks in Russian, insinuating that she is ex-KGB. Right as Sophia is about to shoot Castle, while Beckett screams "no", Sophia is shot in the head. It's Mark, the framed CIA guy, who isn't really a mole. (Yeah, the plot was convoluted this week).

Mark, Rick, and Kate go to save the girl. And they do. Yay!

At the end of the episode Castle is clearly upset that Sophia may have known something about his father. He asks if Kate thinks she was telling the truth, and she tells him that she thinks Sophia told "a lot of lies" (Maybe she no longer trusts the relationship advice Sophia gave her! We can hope).

Kate expresses sympathy for Rick regarding Sophia's death, as well as the death of his muse from his Derek Storm novels. He tells her that his female main character in those books may have started out based on Sophia, but ultimately they grew into someone more like Kate: brave and caring. He says that's one of the reason he was first attracted to Kate (he quickly adds "as a muse", but it's clear Kate knows what he means).

Next week 'Castle' will return to it's frothier murder mystery background, as Castle and Beckett investigate a killer who is framing his murders after fairy tales.

Kate, I love you, but I refuse to believe your hair is that perfect after a near-drowning.

Castle S4Ep15: Pandora's Box is Full of Jealousy

"Pandora"--Season 4, Episode 15. Henceforth to be known as: the episode where Beckett gets super jealous and shows it.

I loved "The Blue Butterfly" last week, but I was still excited to step away from themed episodes and back towards a more traditional episode  of 'Castle'.  I didn't want 1940s flirting, I wanted present day flirting.

We didn't get a lot of flirting in last night's episode ("Pandora") but we may have gotten something better, a jealous Beckett. Proof positive that Kate really does care about Rick.

The episode began, as 'Castle' episodes often do, with a body that had fallen out of a window. I wish they'd come up with other ways to introduce the dead, because at this point I'm becoming concerned that it's actually one big serial killer conspiracy, where they've all agreed ahead of time that pushing people out of windows and onto parked cars/wagons is the best way to kill.

Sorry, I got distracted.

Anyway, this guy isn't just dead, he's dead dead. As in, he was killed in multiple different ways, just to ensure that he was really and truly dead. Castle and Beckett and Lanie examine the body, and then suddenly Alexis pops-up. Turns out her newest internship is shadowing the medical examiner. I can only assume that the writers wanted to utilize Molly Quinn more, because there's no way that this is: a) a legitimate internship or b) that anyone in their right-mind would let a high school around murder victims where she might compromise evidence. Then again, this is a world where Castle is allowed to accompany an NYPD Homicide Detective on cases, so I guess I'll let the whole Alexis improbability issue slide.

Castle is less than thrilled with the addition of Alexis, because he says it will compromise the integrity of the team. I think that in reality he's worried for two reasons:
1) He's worried that it will distract/interrupt his flirting with Beckett.
2) He knows that he is mixed up in something with the mystery man and Beckett's mother's death that may become dangerous, and he wants to protect Alexis.

His apparent jealously of his own teenage daughter seems less childish now, doesn't it?

Beckett and Castle arrest a man who was almost definitely responsible for the murder. But he doesn't seem at all worried, even insinuating that all of their evidence will soon disappear. Shortly after this, Castle and Beckett wander down to the morgue and discover that the body is missing. When they return to the precinct, the murderer is missing too!

They look up information on both men, but no data exists.

Castle and Beckett pursue a woman who is apparently connected to the two men. When they enter her apartment they find her dead on the floor. Beckett orders Castle to stay put, while she checks that no one else is in the apartment. When she enters the kitchen, she notices a steaming cup of tea, and realizes that someone else was just there. She calls for Castle, and reenters the living room, only to find Castle standing there with a bag thrown over his head and a gun pointed at him. She is forced to drop her weapon, and her head is covered with a bag as well.

Beckett and Castle are driven to a secret location, and then the bags are removed and they are handcuffed. They are place in an elevator and taken deep underground. Once there they are greeted by men in black suits and tons of technology. A woman approaches them, who Castle immediately recognizes.

It's Sophia Turner, a CIA agent who he shadowed while he was writing his first book. As soon as Kate hears this, you can literally see the jealousy in her face. She is not happy.

It doesn't help that Sophia Turner (Jennifer Beals) and Castle have some sort of weird/intense eye-contact thing going on. Or that Sophia insinuates that she and Rick slept together. Or that basically their relationship mirrored the one that Kate and Rick have--he shadowed Sophia, he wrote a book about her, it appears he fell in love with her--the only difference being that Sophia one-upped Kate because she actually had a "real" (read: sexual) relationship with Rick.

Anyway, I was so busy interpreting all of this that I almost missed the rest of the case. Luckily I regained focus, because there's a lot more:

Turns out Gage (the murderer) is a rogue CIA agent, and the man he killed was a current operative. Gage is involved in some sort of terrorist plot. Turner makes Beckett and Castle promise that they will keep this classified information secret, and that they will share any leeway they make in the case. Castle immediately agrees (with puppy dog eyes), while Beckett tentatively does so.

Turner gives them special buttons on their phones so that they can contact her direct line. Castle's is big and round and simply says "PANIC". Kate is less than thrilled, admitting that Sophia really does know Rick.

Anyway, to cut a long story short (too late, I know) Beckett and Castle find a briefcase filled with surveillance equipment that is linked to the dead woman. As they are retrieving it, Gage finds them and locks them in a trunk (I'd think a guy like Gage would just shoot them, but then the show would be over, so...). Castle makes a funny reference to when they were handcuffed together, and how this is better, but Beckett points out that they're going to run out of air. She manages to break out of the trunk, but as she is doing so she sees Castle's face and realizes that he pushed the panic button. She is clearly upset that he asked for Sophia's help, rather then having her do the rescuing. This shows how deep her jealousy goes, because obviously she should just be happy to be alive.

Sophia uses her fancy spy equipment to triangulate who was making phone calls to the dead woman, and it turns out that it's a former CIA asset who everyone thought was dead. They get super freaked-out at this point, because he is known for his complex math problems where he would find one catalyst, one linchpin, that could set off a series of catastrophic events. They are able to figure out what he was saying during the phone call, but it makes no sense, it's all chess moves.

Beckett and Castle are ordered to leave, and Beckett does so happily, she just wants to get back to solving murders. Castle is more hesitant, and Beckett interprets this as feelings for Sophia. Beckett and Castle fight.

He goes home to try and solve the chess puzzle, she goes to the precinct. Castle actually cracks the code, and he takes it straight to Beckett. It is clear she feels a little better when he tells her that she is his partner, and he is not bringing the information straight to Sophia.

Rather stupidly (jealousy can make you do stupid things) Kate and Rick go to the meeting place that was indicated in the code, and meet the former CIA asset. He drags them to a dock, saying it is a matter of life and death, he also admits that he accidentally released information about the linchpin that would cause total economic ruin in the United States.

Suddenly, the asset is shot. And Beckett and Castle's car is pushed forced off of the dock and into the water by a black SUV.

END OF PART ONE

That's a lot of eye-contact, Castle. Stop it.