Tuesday, November 19, 2013

TV Recap: Castle 6-9 - Disciple

Last night left us with some tantalizing possibilities.  No, it wasn’t another time travel episode but one of the few recurring villains stirred things up a little.  I’m definitely on Castle’s side when it comes to the subject.  No dead body means someone is still alive in fiction.  It’s one of the main rules.

But I’m getting ahead of myself as usual.

The episode opens with a security guard finding the body of a woman hanging down on the docks.  The surprise is that the woman looks like Lanie’s doppelganger.  She was definitely strangled by fishing line, and a quick database search of that MO finds two murders down in Florida.

The victim is a former prostitute who got her life straightened around a couple of months back.  She wouldn’t talk about her new benefactor, but she was living in a great apartment.  However, all of her expenses were being paid for by an off shore shell company and there’s no way to track who really owns it.

Meanwhile, Lanie freaks when she finds the woman has the same tattoo that Lanie just got in the last three months in the same location.  Then Lanie remembers a night she went out to drink with some co-workers and woke up the next morning with no recollection of how she got home.  Since she didn’t go over her two drink rule, someone must have drugged her.


She had cheek implants to look more like Lanie, and through those they track down the surgeon who worked on the victim, but she seems to be a dead end.

The victim has a picture of herself with a boat taken on the day she died.  When they go to the boat, they find a second victim, and this one could be Esposito’s doppelganger.

This second victim is a similar story, a male stripper who had recently taken a new job paying him lots of money.  He was getting coaching in how to sound more like Esposito.

And he has a connection to the doctor.  He was sleeping with her and he recommended the first victim to the doctor to get her implants.

However, when the doctor alibis out, the zero in on a new suspect.  The second victim was seen getting into a car owned by the security guard who found the first victim.  And this security guard has since disappeared.

That’s when Castle starts thinking this feels all too familiar.  The elaborate set up and the killer being one step ahead of them?  It’s got to be 3XK.  Beckett, of course, argues that no one could have survived the fall from the bridge, but Castle points out that his body was never found.  This being fiction, that of course means that 3XK is still alive.

Beckett and Castle go down to review the files on 3XK only to find them completely gone.  Esposito had checked them out.  Only he denies it.  Likewise, “Lanie” had checked out the files on 3XK at the medical examiner’s office.  So now we know why those two people were practicing looking like our characters and why there were killed.

The security guard is located at the hotel where 3XK was held, and he’s in the same room.  While the others go into the room, Castle spots him trying to sneak away and tackles him.  Given enough pressure, the security guard actually does confess to these murders, the similar ones in Florida, and countless others.  Frankly, he’s creepy.

When the files in New York were discovered missing, Beckett had the files from the prison where he was held sent over.  Ryan looks over those and discovers that the doctor was on staff at the prison the entire time 3XK was locked up.  They rush over to her office, but it’s empty.  There’s just a pen and a note promising to see them again.

And the pen?  Castle is playing with it that night and discovers it’s also a thumb drive.  He plugs it into his computer, and a song starts playing again with the sentiments of “I’ll see you again.”  As Castle and Beckett stare at each other horrified, we fade to black.

As I say, I’ve known all along that 3XK would come back into the picture at some point.  No body means the killer is still alive.  I think more than anything, it’s just a matter of getting the guest star back.

But in the meantime, this was a chilling episode, and I enjoyed it.  Yes, there were some great one liners, but on the whole I felt the suspense more than the humor.  Not that I’m complaining.  And I hope they bring Annie back.  She was appropriately evil as the doctor.  You knew something was up even when it looked like she was innocent.

Thoughts on the episode?  Hit me up in the comments and we can discuss.

10 comments:

  1. Regarding the actor who played the security guard. I knew I had seen him in something else, either a much earlier episode of Castle as a different character or another show. After some digging I discovered he played Ethan on Lost! Another creepy guy. And boy was he creepy in this episode! The doctor was equally creepy. 3XK likes creepy people I guess.

    I'm using the word creepy a lot - I found this episode to be, well - creepy! I have not heard if there will be a 7th Season. I wonder when they announce those things. If this does turn out to be the final season, I'm guessing (and hoping) they will resolve 3XK and the Senator too.

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    1. I thought he looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. No wonder he was so good at creepy. I wish I hadn't erased the episode already, I'd go back and watch his scenes. I recognized the doctor as Renee from 24, and she wasn't nearly that creepy in the past.

      The tv sites I follow this next season of the show will be a no brainer. I hope they resolve some of these things before the end, but I don't think we have to worry about it yet. Getting the actors will be the hardest part, I have a feeling from the way the creator talks.

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  2. I found the name (William Mapother) familiar when it showed up on the guest stars list, but didn't place it until I saw him later in the episode. However, that was one plot hole that kind of bugged me. With nobody else around (unless you want to count the homeless guy he shooed away), why all the mystery surrounding his finding the body? ("Ma'am? Excuse me? You can't be here.") HE killed her, right? That was really bad writing. Really dumb. Otherwise, I loved the episode and found it really creepy and look forward to see how it plays out in the future. Will they take it all the way to the spring season finale? Let it go for now and return to it? Or just let it play out now?

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    1. They might not revisit 3XK and his "friends" until sometime next season. Who knows.

      I absolutely agree about the plot hole. I chalked it up to it being for our benefit since that's how they always start an episode these days, but yeah, it wasn't that realistic at all.

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  3. I prefer my episodes of Castle less suspenseful! GAA. Totally on edge after watching it.

    But at the same time, it's nice to have a deeper plot going on. I do believe Annie has changed the appearance of the 3XK. And I wont' really be at all surprised if it is the security guard. He WAS creepy. And there is something very not right about the way he fits into the story. Going to the same hotel. Same room. Allowing himself to be caught (*I* think) and only confessing to a few murders. I just suspect.....

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    1. It sounded to me like he was going to confess to a lot more murders than those four we knew about. And I think this guy was a disciple of 3XK long before Annie got involved. And think about it - this guy is in prison. When we arrest 3XK, or kill him, we will definitely know one way or the other. To have this guy be him would be a cop out at this point.

      I honestly think he's the decoy and the real 3XK is out there somewhere. With his files gone, he can start killing again without people being able to make the connection. I think that's what this was all about.

      But who knows where the writers will go with this. And their hands might be tied by real life concerns like getting actors back, etc.

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  4. I have thought all along that 3XK was still alive..just like Rick.
    This episode was very good. Definitely one of the more creepy episodes, but very good. 3XK is in this up to his eyeballs. I'm leaning more towards the security guard guy being the decoy/scapegoat. That sort of ....elaborate plan is right up 3XKs alley. I'm also thinking, after watching the episode again, that maybe the security guard didn't kill Pam - the Lanie look a like. I'm thinking that 3XK did it and framed the security guard. I'm also thinking that the two of them know each other somehow...the security guard did say something along the lines of admiring 3XK during the questioning. Somehow 3XK got the guard guy to take the blame...it may have something to do with Kate saying that if he confessed now, the death penalty in Florida would be off the table. Something more is going on there.

    Did you notice the homeless guy? The one the guard shooed away at the beginning right before he found the body. He was coughing and had on a hoodie. Later in the episode, when they go back to the hotel, a homeless guy walks across, coughing, just as Kate and the guys gets there. It looked like the same hoodie and the cough sounded the same. I think that was 3XK. He could have been there before meeting the guard and he picked that hotel and room because of the significance to when he escaped from Ryan and Rick.

    I am thinking that 3XK looks at least a little different now. The doctor has probably already done some surgery. And I remember from back when 3XK was escaping, he talked about getting a new face and that he had done it before.

    I think the files were taken to make it so no one can find a connection back to 3XK once he really gets to killing again - and you know it is just a matter of time before he does a lot of killing again..and he'll probably do it in a...specific way again too. Now, if another detective does some sort of search for similiar MO, nothing will come back. Also, if there happened to be any DNA evidence in any of what was taken, that won't tie back to him anymore either. If he killed again and left DNA, it would have tied back to him if they had that on file or whatever. And if they got a hit on the DNA, that would make it pretty clear that he was still alive and killing.

    As you can probably tell, I've perhaps gone..overboard speculating about all this. lol

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    1. I'm completely with you on the files, and I must admit that I don't remember 3XK enough to know what he looks like or not. I'm sure they wouldn't waste the actor, and I know they are not planning to bring him back without bringing that actor back. However, that is interesting that you'd notice the same homeless guy in two locations. I didn't pick up on that.

      Overboard? We welcome that around here. Personally, I don't think the writers have thought that far ahead, but you certainly make a very plausible case.

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  5. I didn't notice the homeless guy the second time until I rewatched the episode. And that was after I read a post on a Castle fan site that mentioned it. So I made sure to pay attention when I rewatched and there he was. He is barely seen the second time, but it looked like the same hoodie/jacket to me. So now I think that was 3XK. I could believe that he would be hanging around a crime scene and then that hotel to keep an eye on how the police are handling the case.

    The only thing I'm absolutely sure of is that something more is going on and we haven't seen the last of all of this...and probably not the last of the doctor and 3XK.

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    1. Absolutely. We may not see more on this for a while - maybe even next season. But we will see more.

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