How can you go wrong with Castle in the old west? You
just can’t. Well, there might be a way, but the writers certainly
didn’t find it on last night’s episode. That was a ton of fun and a
great mystery honeymoon for the newlyweds.
And for these two, what could be more appropriate?
Speaking of newlyweds, the episode starts with Castle and
Beckett breaking the news to Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie, who are less than
thrilled that they missed the big day. Martha isn’t helping talking
about how wonderful it was. (And later, at the precinct, Captain
Gates points out she wasn’t even included in this Champaign
announcement). Lanie is quicker to forgive than the guys, who really
seem out to hold a grudge.
But that is interrupted by the discovery of a body. It’s
a woman who got sick and died on the subway, and they quickly determine it was
poison that killed her. Foxglove to be specific. And it
entered her body several hours earlier. While back tracking to where
she was at the time, they determine she was still at a ranch in Arizona. The
sheriff out there won’t investigate, saying it is a New York problem. It
is way outside of Beckett’s jurisdiction, and while they wait for official
strings to be pulled, evidence is disappearing. That’s when Castle
hits upon a grand idea – he and Beckett will go out there on their honeymoon
and investigate. Beckett agrees, but only if they take a real
honeymoon not an undercover one later on.
This particular ranch caters to their guests by putting
everyone and everything in the time of 100 years ago. You arrive by
stage coach, and even the guests have to dress the part. Castle and
Beckett manage to get the victim’s room, which has a single bed. However,
they learn from her neighbor that she went off on her own the first day there
and she was spending a lot of time around a married employee.
With no official jurisdiction, Castle and Beckett start
doing research (just a fancy term for investigating if you ask me). They
learn from the ranch hand that the victim was asking lots of questions and
wasn’t really coming on to him, so that’s a dead end. She went out
to research the meaning of a word in the tribe of a local Native American
group. And they keep hearing about the legend of local gold thieves.
It’s that legend that Ryan, Esposito, and Gates are honing
in on back in New York. It turns out the victim’s mother had just
died, and the victim found some letters written by her father to her
mother. Her father had been out in that area trying to find gold
that had been stolen over 100 years before. Her mother had finally
gotten tired of his quest and dumped him. Using the correct meaning
of that Native American word, Castle and Beckett are able to track down the
location of the gold. Only inside of the chest is a dead body
instead of gold.
Now here’s where things get complicated. They are
able to determine that the body in the chest was the victim’s father who
died years ago. So obviously, his partner killed him and took the
gold, right? They are able to figure out that his partner is the man
who can come into the station at the start of the episode because he and his
wife were listed as the emergency contact of the current victim. However,
he didn’t kill his partner, the victim’s father. The two of them
intended to turn the gold in for the reward if they found it. The
wrinkle in their plan turned out to be a third partner who wanted to keep the
gold. This third man fought with the victim’s father, and the father
accidentally died.
Who is this third partner? The owner of the ranch
where Castle and Beckett are now staying. Beckett’s gone off with
the sheriff to show him the location of the old body, leaving Castle with the
ranch owner. Castle gets a panicky call from Ryan. They’ve
discovered the identity of the killer but Beckett isn’t answering her phone. They
tell Castle, and the owner figures out the game is up. He and Castle
are about to face off in a classic shoot out, but Beckett comes back and saves
the day. She got her messages after all.
And to wrap things up, Castle and Beckett wind up extending
their stay as an official honeymoon (sort of, they still plan to go someplace
tropical once Beckett has some vacation time saved up again) because Gates
talks Ryan and Esposito into giving Beckett two vacation days each as a wedding
present. Once again, Gates shows her human side when the situation
calls for it.
I really did enjoy this episode. They used all
the clichés about the old west, but had so much fun with them, making them
jokes instead of clichés. They even changed the opening to make it look
western and they added “The End” at the end.
Plus, they are still having Castle add to the investigation
by looking at things as a writer. I loved that in the early
episodes, and it is so nice to see that return.
Looks like next week will be a more serious and suspenseful
episode, but I’m hearing great things about it. I will see you
then. In the meantime, did you enjoy this honeymoon as much as I
did?
Yes I did! I thought it was a great episode and so much fun. I was pretty zoomed in to the bad guy being either the Sheriff or the owner but it sure was fun getting to that point. I loved the Old West town and people dressed Western and Kate and Castle's Western look. Everything about this episode was right on the money and I got a real kick out of the burning The End during the closing. When they do these episodes right it really is something :) Hoping next week's is good because it does look pretty serious.
ReplyDeleteI was having so much fun with the the episode, I wasn't paying attention to guessing the killer ahead of time. Yes, "The End" was wonderful, and I seriously loved the way they tweaked the opening "Castle," too.
DeleteThey do serious episodes well. Think about the fire episode from last January. I'm sure it will be good if not the light hearted fun we are used to seeing.
I really enjoyed the episode overall. I did think the guys held on to their anger a tad long - I get they were upset..it just went on to long - but I loved that Gates set them straight.
ReplyDeleteThe guys hanging on to their anger was just for the comedy. And it gave them another chance to show that, while Gates gives Castle a hard time, she really does like him deep down.
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