TV Recap: Castle 7-11 - Castle, P.I.

Yes, I know this is up a day later than normal.  I just didn’t have a chance to get my recap done yesterday.  Something about not being home until 11 last night.

I knew Castle working as a PI had the potential to be lots of fun.  Then, I’d started hearing rumors about just how much fun the first episode back from the break was.  In this case, listening to rumors was wise because this episode was a blast.  Oh, the mystery had a bit of a hole at the end, but overall it was a blast.

I’m not going to try to separate out the threads that Castle discovered versus the ones Beckett and the rest of the police found.  It’s not that important to the story anyway since in the end, everyone learned the truth.

Our victim is the admissions counselor at very private and popular pre-school.  Naturally, the first round of suspects are the rich parents she’s just turned down.  One in particular left threatening phone calls and was even seen showing up at the victim’s apartment.  However, he has an alibi that clears him.

At this point, we learn that the victim had recently taken a trip to Boston, paying in cash.  Naturally, that sparks the interest of everyone.  It takes a little digging, but we finally learn that she was investigating the death of her boyfriend.  He died at a frat party when they were in college fourteen years ago.  It was an accident as he fell out of a building.

Or was it?  When Castle realizes that part of the article in the college’s newspaper about it was cut from the front page, they start to dig into the cold case.  The reporter at the school newspaper is now working in NYC, and he says he was pressured to cut out a mention of who was in the room when the boyfriend fell all those years ago.  That person is now a prosecutor with a bright political future in front of him.  If, of course, he’s not convicted of murder.  Seems like a pretty good motive for a second murder.  And when his DNA turns up on the cigarette butt found outside the victim’s apartment, it’s looking like they’ve got the killer.  He does confess to having been in the room when the victim’s boyfriend died in the past, but it truly was an accident.  They were just trying to keep it quiet because of the potential scandal.  There is no crime.

Still, Beckett and Gates aren’t buying it.  That is until Castle bursts into the interrogation room with the victim’s dog.  Turns out their number one suspect is highly allergic to dogs.  As in he sneezes uncontrollably and breaks out in hives as soon as he’s in the same room.  (I have allergies, and they aren’t nearly that bad.)

However, as they track down who might have been framing him, they find the place where the cigarette butt was grab for the frame job.  And the killer?  It was an attorney we’d met earlier.  Her child is in the pre-school, and the victim had gone to talk to her about the statute of limitations on murder.  That’s when we’d met her.  You know, the typical one scene in an episode killer devise the show loves.  It was confirmed that she was paid a large sum of money recently.

So here’s the question that is left in my head.  Why?  Did she do it simply for the money?  Because murder for hire is a pretty big step, especially for an attorney.  The motive is extremely weak, but I think they realized they had filled the episode with so much fun they didn’t have any more people it could have been.

But I don’t truly care about this rather major hole in the story.  Why?  It was fun.  We had parallel investigations going on since Castle couldn’t be part of the official investigation.  He surprises Beckett by becoming a PI, and even without a client, he starts trying to figure out what is happening in this case.  There is an unofficial race, and we can see how they were tag teaming off each other, rather they were supposed to be doing so or not.

Other fun along the way?  Ryan stepping in for Castle and offering the C word – Conspiracy.  Turned out to be right as well.  We also saw the other medical examiner, the one who hates Castle, and he let Beckett know what he thought of her marrying Castle.  Castle’s set up an office, and we even get some very noirish PI narration out of him at one point.

Probably the funniest scene, however, was Castle and Beckett trying to get information out of each other at home that night over very very large glasses of wine.

I even loved the father/daughter scenes that Castle and Alexis share at his new PI office.  We haven’t seen those in a while, and I miss them.

Really, there were lots of fun moments in this episode.  Enough to cover up for a mystery that only marginally makes sense in the end.

I wonder how long they will leave Castle on his own.  When Beckett went to work for the FBI at the beginning of last season, it was three episodes.  Will that be the case again?  It definitely feels more organic to have all the characters in an episode than than Beckett at the FBI did, and it is a great way for them to break out of the mold a bit.  My guess is we will be back to normal before the February sweeps two parter, but how much before then is anyone’s guess.

Thoughts on the episode?  Did you enjoy it as much as I did?  Am I missing something in the explanation for the killer?  How long do you think Castle will be out in the cold?  Hit me up with your theories in the comments.