Castle – Recap & Review – Love Me Dead

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Castle
Love Me Dead

Original Air Date: Nov 16, 2009

Karen B – TwoCents Reviewer
karenbelgrad@thetwocentscorp.com

This episode was a return to form for Castle. An ADA’s murder leads to a semi-intricate web of call girls, ex-cons, and secret lives and identities. It all begins when the ADA Jack Buckley’s body falls onto the hood of a random couple’s car…

Based on years of television viewing, it seems that falling onto a car is actually a very common way to die. I wonder if there has ever been a study to see how high the building-to-car-hood death ratio really is. Is it time to avoid rooftops? Should the media be assembling a public service campaign?

Upon learning the ADA was a conviction over plea bargain type, Castle immediate goes for the Cape Fear scenario. It must’ve been an angry client, her surmises, complete with a very sad DeNiro impression… They quickly discount the first criminal, John Knox, who had been in Buckley’s office that day, but had an airtight alibi of a Reverend A.A. sponsor.

Red Herring#1
This one was all in my head. The first office assistant we meet is played by Shari Headly, of All My Children & Coming to America fame. Of course, they cast a notable name, she must be the killer. Sadly, she was just a bit player in the story, as I overestimated her fame.

Red Herring#2/Clue #1
Recently released on a technicality, Norman Jessup was afraid of being retried and sent back to prison. He stalked/followed Buckley to try and talk to him. He lands a pretty good right hook on Castle when they try to bring him in He longed to be a locksmith, but his felon record was stopping his apprenticeship. His stalking information lead to…

Red Herring#3/Clue #2
The ex-brother in law, Paul Cho, had been seen arguing with Buckley shortly before he died. Turns out Paul favors ladies of the night and their pimp (Danton) wanted him to deliver a back-off message to the ADA.

Using Cho as bait, they order a girl from his Danton’s service. Lo and behold it is Scarlett, Buckley’s office assistant. She spins a hard luck story about coming to New York for law school, her belongings stolen and no place to live, she ended up in the life of prostitution with Buckley as a client. He took pity on her and brought her in as a legal assistant to his office.
She didn’t know Danton, but Vice Detective Gil Lazarro pointed them in the direction of…

Red Herring#4/Clue #3
The original pimp, Dantonelli, had been in prison for seven years on a deal that saved him from a 20 year sentence. But wait… Buckley supposedly didn’t cut deals, right? Ah, but our tough ADA was dirty. He cut the deal and took over the call girl ring himself. Turns out all pimps go by the code name Danton. So with Buckley dead, Dantonelli in jail, who’s running it now?

Circle back around to the beginning…

John Knox, the criminal with the clergy alibi. It turns out that Knox was Buckley’s enforcer and wanted a bigger piece of the action. And as for that pesky alibi…

Scarlett shows up at Castle’s door at 2AM, battered and bruised. Fingering Knox for her beating, she eliminates his alibi. Nothing says afterlife like blackmailing a reverend with a clandestine photo! In spilling her story to Castle, she tries to kiss him. He cuts that off quite nicely, although with more empathy than most would have for the call girl on the doorstep. Castle is kind enough to take the battered girl to the hospital.

Now, for the whodathunkit plot twist… Scarlett is missing from the hospital. She puts in a call to say that Knox has her. Castle and Beckett track her and Knox to a seedy hotel, just as Scarlett as shot and killed Knox. Castle’s father-like sympathy for the girl is apparent.

But…. Knox had been under surveillance, he couldn’t have beaten her at 2am. So in the final twist, Scarlett was a partial mastermind to the whole chain of events and after a little entrapment dirty talk with Castle, they arrest her.

The side plot of the week involved Alexis wanting to talk to Beckett more than to her “cool dad”. Castle respectfully kept his distance. As it resolved, Alexis was considering a three week foreign exchange program and wanted Beckett’s advice (Beckett studied abroad). Beckett said go for it. Alexis decided not to go. Yay?

Although I enjoy the family dynamic, this side plot didn’t add much outside of a make-the-dad-needlessly-worry exchange between Castle, Ryan, and Espinosa.

Some fun quotes:

Castle: “Alexis would never keep anything serious from me. I’m the cool dad.”

Husband Driver: “If I’m lying, may God strike me de–…” (corpse lands on car)

Beckett: “You’ve got quite a record Mr Knox.”
Castle: “Your parents must be proud”
Knox: “Yeah, they hang all of my mug shots on the fridge”

Castle: “Thanks
Beckett: “For what?”
Castle: “for not saying ‘I told you so.’”
Beckett: “Oh, that starts tomorrow.”

All in all, a step up from the last two weeks in decipherable plot twists, energy, and banter.

That’s my twocents, but what did you think? Share your twocents in the comment section below!