This week on Castle we see the entire crew in NYC as Agent Beckett and her partner have a federal investigation involving a case at her 12th precinct in NYC. The episode starts off with a pretty good hook…

****SPOILERS BELOW****

Castle is going a bit stir-crazy (maybe a bit “Pi”-crazy, a.k.a. Alexis’ loft “haunting” new-ish boyfriend) hanging out at his building. Lucky for this show, murder never sleeps. Case in point, the grown child star dangling, having been impaled by a huge New York City construction crane hook four flights high in the air. After seeing this murder on the news, Castle uses his wiles to get Esposito and Ryan to let him help on the case. I think I could see this set-up working with the bros tackling cases in NYC. It really worked for me on, I think, one of the best episodes, “Heartbreak Hotel” (Season 4, Episode 8)  in Atlantic City and with the boys (a la Elvis; check out this 1:30 min video if you’d like to see what I mean).

Agent McCord (Lisa Edelstein) and Beckett appear in the precinct and take over the investigation just as Castle is getting his A$$ handed to him by Captain Gates for his piggy-backing on this new case and knowing a bit too much about her schedule (even if wrong). I was wondering why the feds would be interested in the murderer of Scree…ch…I mean “Dewy Hancock” from Too Cool for School? We see the camps divide between the Feds and the Detectives with Castle in between trying to keep the peace (his girl and his bros).  Detective Sully (the new detective at the 12th) does some digging and finds a connection to Charlie Reynold’s (the victim) old co-star Ramon Russo [the “jock” on the “TCFS” high school show they both were on years ago].

Turns out there is a reunion movie being filmed for the the TCFS series of 20 years ago. Ramon is doing it for a favor for Charlie. On set we see that Charlie’s character is already being recast, “the show must go on”, even a “classic” TV show. Ryan’s unabashed and reminiscing love of TCFS made for some comic relief, especially when others let slip “too” much knowledge. Letting us know they were closet fans.

The federal agents and detectives each figured out where Charlie was before he died, using cellphone triangulation and chicken poop,… respectively. The Russians are running guns under the guise of the production. Then the niece of the Russian mob heavy/co-star in the film ended up having been in love with Charlie.  This was found out due to Beckett slipping Castle some intel because she feels it was the right thing to do vs. letting a possible murderer get away because the powers that be didn’t want to chance disturbing a federal investigation.

Svetlana (Niece/co-star), who gets interviewed, explains it all and at the end is about to give up the person Charlie was last with. Instead of us hearing it, Esposito, Ryan and Castle walk to the production of TCFS commenting on how they “couldn’t believe” it was that person. They pass character after character we’ve met throughout the episode only to end on Ramon. In actuality, Ramon wasn’t doing so good, and Charlie was going to let him live in his old place for free while he and Svetlana would disappear together. So to show his gratitude, Ramon- in a rage about losing future deals of continuing TCFS’s reunion movies and the celeb life he wanted back because his co-star was about to disappear- throws the former friend and child actor off the roof onto the hook. With that figured out we have the epilogue.

Beckett does what she feels is the only right thing and protects Svetlana by anonymously telling the press that Svetlana is under investigation by the federal government (not true), but that allows Svetlana to cut ties with her Russian mob family and not be used by the CIA as a mole. Then, in a tense moment, Castle, after needing to “talk” to Beckett, says “It’s not working.” But there is no break up… in fact, Castle gives Beckett a key to their new place in DC. *Breathes a sigh of relief* I’m glad that’s resolved. Ding Dong, doorbell, Agent McCord is at the door. “Your fired, Beckett,” for her leaking info on Svetlana. For me these opposite but answer-giving  resolutions  address my questions of “why hasn’t Castle moved to DC?” and “how can NYC be the hub again?” Andrew Marlowe and the writers pull off what I didn’t think was pull off-able. I’m really interested to see next weeks episode.

P.S. My main question brought up by this episode is concerning where the real stories were mined from, so,… “Is Dustin Diamond a CIA spy or working for the Russian Mob?” I’ll let you know when he tweets me back.

To catch this episode and/or the premiere two-parter,  click here at the ABC’s website or app: http://abc.go.com/shows/castle

What did you think of the this episode? Did you think it was going another way? What did you like most? Let us know in the comments.

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Timothy Barone: Opera singer, Bio-chemist. Writer of the New England column “Uncommon Common Sense” under one of the chief editors of the Bostonian Magazine and book publisher, Keith Botsford.