TV Recap: Castle 7-21 - In Plane Sight

As much as I love a typical episode of Castle, it’s always nice when the show breaks out of their formula and gives us something different.  That was the case last night, which was really the Castle and Alexis show since the story found the two of them solving a murder on board a plane flying to London.  Castle is on his way there to speak to a Sherlockian society, and Alexis is going with him to enjoy a little sightseeing and meet up with friends who live there.

However, things are not as they should be.  The air marshal is missing, which has the entire crew on alert.  The pilot follows protocol and locks herself in the cockpit while Castle volunteers to help search the plane again.  They find the marshal stuffed behind luggage in the hold.

So now the question becomes who killed him and why.  Castle doesn’t want to take the lead on the investigation, but Beckett insists that he can do it.  After all, he’s sat in on so many investigations, he should be able to handle it no problem, right?  Of course, it helps that everyone seems to be able to use their cell phone to be in touch with the rest of the cast in New York as needed for backgrounds and processing clues.  (Data I get, but cell phones?  Seemed iffy to me, not that I’m complaining too much.)  Mind you, Castle tries to keep the entire investigation on the quiet so that the rest of the passengers aren’t alerted to any danger and the killer doesn’t go off halfcocked.

The first suspect is a Middle Eastern man traveling under the name on a stolen passport.  He’s on the no fly list as well.  However, he claims to be innocent and only on the list because of a family member who joined ISIS.  He’ traveling home to Syria to visit a dying relative.  And he points out the air marshal was getting texts on a phone before he disappeared.

There are no texts on the phone the marshal had on him when he was found, so they have to start looking for the other phone.  When they do find it, they learn the texts came from a burner, but the burner was picked up by a woman in the airport right before the plane boarded.  She’s a former exec of the airline and just lost a wrongful termination lawsuit.  She also happens to be dating the marshal and admits to following him to figure out if he was cheating on her.  They also find the burner phone and the marshal’s missing gun in her carryon bag.  But she insists she’s innocent, and Castle leans toward believing her.

Which is why we find the real killer, the head flight attendant.  (So much for keeping the real killer in the dark.)  There is a man on board the plane transporting a fancy watch to London for auction, a watch worth millions.  The airline has recently cut pensions just as the flight attendant was ready to retire.  She drugged the man carrying the watch and switched it out with a fake, planning to use the money she got from this to retire.  The air marshal was there to guard the watch and figured out what was happening, which cost him his life.

Through the entire case, Alexis is right there working with Castle to piece things together, and she’s the one who talks the woman out of her gun in the final scene.  Castle and Alexis are thrilled to be alive and uninjured at the end and looking forward to some time together.  Meanwhile, Beckett watches the radar until she is sure the plane has landed safely in London.

I know that Oceanic Airlines was a made up airline that plenty of shows and movies used long before Lost, but I can’t help it.  Every time that name pops up, I think of Lost.  Isn’t it time we created another generic airline to be used in situations like this?

Other than that, I enjoyed the story.  While the setting was different, it did fit the formula of the show’s mysteries with someone we thought was helping us all along turning out to be the killer.  It was nice to see more of Alexis, especially since I’ve always loved the Castle/Alexis relationship.

Any thoughts on the episode?  Hit me up in the comments.