Castle – Recap & Review – A Deadly Affair

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Castle
A Deadly Affair

Original Air Date: Sep 20, 2010

Alexis P- Reviewer
Alexis@thetwocentscorp.com

Summer may be over but the Heat is on! After a summer season apart Castle and Beckett are back at it trying to solve a triple homicide that takes some confounding turns. There is a surprising arrest, lots of gunfire, three dead bodies and one cold shoulder. Is the partnership through after a busy summer break or is it just beginning?

As the episode opens Castle finds himself reflected in a dozen funhouse mirrors, grasping a gun as bullets fly and glass shatters and explodes around him. He runs out of the dark into a city alley to find Beckett. She pulls a gun on him, he raises his and fires!

Oh and look- just what I thought might be next…the words 3 DAYS EARLIER.

Things at the precinct are kind of ho-hum. Summer is over and something is missing from Beckett’s desk- Castle. She tries to pass it off as no big deal that he hasn’t shown up yet after his summer in the Hamptons- with the ex, but she is clearly disappointed that he hasn’t invaded her space yet.

A call to a crime scene reveals a young woman shot to death and hanging in an awning below her apartment window. Esposito and Ryan say they see Castle. Beckett stares into an eye-catching window display of a bookstore. And there is a life-size cutout of Castle (where can I get one of those?) advertising his new novel Naked Heat. Turns out Castle is indeed back in town and Beckett is miffed because he hasn’t even called.

The dead girl, Chloe a former chemistry teacher, had an address in her hand so they go to investigate. They enter another apartment and bust in the bedroom to find another dead girl with Castle standing over her with a gun! After some tense shouting Beckett whips out her handcuffs and the MIA Castle is under arrest!

Now Castle sits on the other side of the table in interrogation and Beckett isn’t going to go easy on him. She grills him for answers both for the investigation and her own curiosity. He quips that she hasn’t even asked how his summer went. She isn’t amused. ‘You look good,’ he says with a smile. “So do you. For murder!” Becket replies. By the way he does look rather good. Can you tell I’m a Fillion fan?

Some quick banter reveals that the girl called Castle for help, he arrived to find her dead, grabbed the gun to defend himself and no, he wasn’t sleeping with the girl whose name is Mia, a sculptor. Turns out that, of course, Castle didn’t kill her and the gun he was holding didn’t match the caliber of bullets used on not just one but on both victims. Beckett tells Castle to go home to his ex and his book parties. Ouch. Someone is jealous. Careful Beckett, your feelings are showing. Castle is eager to pick up where he left off but she isn’t having any of it, yet.

Castle revisits the crime scene after Beckett leaves and finds some more clues. Beckett finds clues in phone records that reveal the two women got calls from the same man. A guy named Todd who works in vending machines. She goes to this man’s apartment and what does she find? A very dead guy and Castle…Again! What is going on?

Beckett has had enough and wants to arrest him while he tries to explain he was following a lead. He wants to help. Now they have three murders that have to be connected somehow.

The next morning Castle and coffee show up at Kate’s desk. She missed him but you won’t catch her telling anyone. They make a bet. Whoever can find the connection between the three vics first wins. If she wins he has to promise to never interfere on her cases again and go away forever. If Castle wins he gets to be her partner again. Castle, being the smart cookie that he is suggests looking at the financials and all the victims had large deposits of money made on the same days.

“Don’t think this means you won the bet.” Beckett says. “I missed you too,” replies Castle.

The lead takes them to a crazy Circus Burlesque club where the owner Kitty Canary and her husband knew the victims as they were part of her troupe. Later the medical examiner finds traces of chemicals on all three of the dead. Turns out they were in a scheme counterfeiting money. The sculptor made the plates, the vending machine man had a supply of dollar bills, and the chemist knew how to chemically wash the bills and the missing link? Unlimited ink. Kitty Canary.

They return to the club and catch Canary trying to fly the coop with the evidence. Beckett chases the husband down and Castle takes off after Kitty. Enter the funhouse again with bullets and glass. Castle is out in the alley with Beckett pulling a gun on him. He raises his and fires, over her shoulder to take out a perp, while she does the same over his bringing down Kitty. Impressive team work! Very Cool. Turns out Kitty and her husband killed the others to keep them quiet when the operation was in danger of exposure.

Back at the precinct Beckett concedes that Castle won the bet so she will see him tomorrow.

And so it begins…again.

So a solid premiere to get us back into the swing of things. It seemed that the audience was in the same boat with Beckett and Castle. Summer is over so they were testing the waters to see if they still had something, that it hadn’t gone cold. I would say things can only get hotter from here.

For those of you who might want to check out a cool tie in, you can buy Richard Castle’s new Nikki Heat series in stores. Heat Wave is out and Naked Heat is due out September 28. Heat Wave was a pretty good story complete with About the Author, dedication and book jacket pic of Castle himself.

What did you think of the premiere? What are you looking forward to this season?