TV Recap: Castle 6-19 - The Greater Good.

Captain Gates seems to be more absent than normal this season.  In fact, I feel like the supporting characters in general are just not around as much.  But she was a presence in a big way last night.  A predictable story arc for her, but I still enjoyed it.

For this episode, Beckett and Castle are working on their wedding guest list.  However, their idea to start working on that gets interrupted by the call for a murder.  The victim was a day trader who was working at a bit firm in the city.  His place was trashed, but there was no evidence of self-defense wounds on him.  And his shirt was unbuttoned, but it was done after he was shot.  He was from Venezuela, and was raised by his aunt and uncle after his parents died in an earthquake.  His cousin says he seemed stressed about work, but that's all she knows.  Work turns up nothing as well.

Lanie provides an interesting clue, however.  She finds evidence on his chest that he had tape ripped off like he'd been wearing a wire.  Was he undercover?

The answer is yes.  And that's where Captain Gates's sister enters the picture.  She's a district attorney in the state, and she and her assistant DA show up to clue in our team.  The victim was under cover for them trying to bring down his boss for illegal trading.  But our team can't reveal this at all during the investigation for fear of blowing what they do have.  He wore a wire all day and turned in his recording at night.  In fact, he missed his drop the night he was killed, so that's why the assistant DA showed up at his place and found his body.  She then went down the street and made an anonymous call from a pay phone at her boss's (Gates's sister's) suggestion.

They other lead they have is a man that the victim's boss said he saw the victim meeting with in the stairway of the building.  The assistant DA thinks it is a lie, but something interesting turns up.  The gun shot matches a gun that was used in another murder and is registered to someone matching this mystery man's sketch.  The victim's cousin identifies the mystery man as the victim's best friend in youth, but they hadn't spoken in years - since our mystery man joined a gang.

This gang member is willing to talk to Beckett and Castle, however.  He says that the victim called him up out of the blue and asked for a gun for his own protection.  That's why he had it.  He also made a wire transfer for the victim, but he knows nothing else about the money.

Meanwhile, we've learned that the victim started working for the DA when he was arrested for possession of cocaine, something his cousin denies he would use at all.

But the saying is follow the money, and so that's the route they take.  The money in that account the gang member transferred was $25 million.  But it went through international banks, so it's a bit hard to track down.  They do manage to find out the initial transfer came from a internet cafe.  Fortunately, there is video surveillance, and they are able to see that the victim's boss shows up and makes the transfer for our victim.

Obviously at this point, it can't be the boss.  He lawyers up and, without admitting anything, gets them pointed in the right direction.  Because the killer is…

The assistant DA.  Turns out our victim was coerced into being the mole inside his work place because the drugs were planted on him.  He had actually turned in his tape the night he was killed, and the assistant DA listened to it.  He told them point blank what he knew and that he was going to disappear.  With a little help from his boss, he was fleeing to his home country with a nest egg that would last him for the rest of his life.  Gates's sister knew nothing of this.

Speaking of which, I did enjoy their scenes.  They started out very chilly toward each other; heck, I think that first scene between them cooled off my living room.  However, the fact that in the end what our team found kept the sister from going into court with false evidence made her grateful.  There was a definite thaw between them.

But back to the guest list.  At one point, they were going to invite close to 600 people.  But in the final scene, Castle and Beckett decide to work on the list together with only the people who have to be there invited.  They start off with separate lists, but they only come up with one each - you.  Forced awes from us the audience.  Then they start on a list together of people to invite.

Seriously, that last scene was cheesy, and I do know my cheese.  However, I did enjoy the scene in the middle where they were discussing the wedding list and were dropping mystery author names left and right.  It's been a while since they did that, and I really enjoyed that aspect of things.

I enjoyed seeing Gates get a bit more development and screen time.  As I said, I feel she's been under used this season.  Likewise with Alexis, although I have a feeling the actress might be in college herself and available less for filming.  Just a theory.  I don't really know what Molly Quinn is doing when not on the show.

The mystery itself was good with some nice twists and clues along the way.

All told, I did enjoy the episode.

Looks like we've got almost a month to wait for the next episode, which is coming April 21st.  Not surprising since this is the 19th episode of the season, so there aren't that many more left.

Thoughts on the episode?  Was that last scene sweet or over the top for you?