Castle – Recap & Review – Almost Famous

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Castle
Almost Famous

Original Air Date – Nov 1, 2010

Alexis P – Reviewer
Alexis@thetwocentscorp.com

Strippers and cougars and gangs! Oh my! In this week’s episode Castle and Beckett investigate the death of a young aspiring actor. But to solve the case they will have to get past a motorcycle gang, a wealthy cougar ex-girlfriend and a passel of male dancers with tear-away pants. Much to Castle’s chagrin.

It’s nighttime in the city but it seems like it can’t be all fun and games. A cop approaches an apartment door down a dim lit hallway with his weapon drawn. Suddenly the door opens and the cop is yanked inside.

Then Castle gets a 5am call from Beckett. The author looks slightly sleep deprived thanks to Alexis and her grandmother doing voice exercises to warm Alexis up for a school musical audition for Grease.

Beckett and Castle show up at the scene for an officer down. Sure enough the victim looks like a police officer lying at the bottom of a fire escape with a fatal gunshot wound. But a closer look reveals a fake badge, a squirt gun full of cheap tequila and tear-away pants. (At first glance I thought maybe the dead guy was played by Sean Maher but no such luck. They look very similar though.)

A peek in his car leads to an address just a street away. When they knock on the door they are greeted by a severely hung-over girl in a fuzzy pink tiara. I’m thinking bachelorette party? And I would be right! Castle and Beckett enter the aftermath complete with a trashed apartment and wasted girlfriends. Who get super excited when Becket calls out ‘NYPD’. More strippers! they shriek. Castle puts up his hands. “ Sorry ladies. I’m not a stripper but I can understand why you would think so.” Haha. Very funny Castle.

The medical examiner finds a long blonde hair on Derrick’s body that came from a male and they discover that Derrick was hired out by an agency called Mucho Men. Ryan and Esposito are sent down. The man behind the desk takes a look at the two of them. “ I’m up to my eyeballs in A-rods but chicks have been requesting that skinny Twilight dude like crazy.” He says nodding at Ryan. Heehee. Though if you’re going to request a Twilight character put one in for Jacob Black. Hot.

But the guys find out Derrick worked at a strip club called The Package Store. Which Beckett of course has to go to. And who else would she bring along but Castle? She drags him along and is enjoying his unease so very much. “Let me know if you need any singles.” She tells him. They find out that Derrick had a run in with a fellow dancer named Hans about headlining at the club. And voila! There he is on stage with half a dozen tanned, oiled up, half naked firemen. You won’t hear me complaining about the view. They hop off stage and surround Beckett while she tries to get Hans’ attention. Castle cools things down with a fire extinguisher.

Hans speaks to them back in his dressing room where his German accent slips when they imply he might be guilty of murder. But he has an alibi as tight as his abs. He does mention a rich cougar girlfriend who was obsessed with Derrick. So they meet Rebecca Dalton and her lawyer Michael. Seems they had a good relationship until Derrick asked for $25,000 dollars which she couldn’t give him and she broke it off. She discovered he was meeting with the wrong kind of people. A motorcycle gang led by Billy Grimm. But Billy turns out to have had nothing to do with Derrick’s death and Derrick had paid Billy the 25,000 as a peace offering.

So how does a stripper get that kind of money? They follow the money and discover deposits connected to a man named Jesse Mandalay and get their hands on bank video footage. Jesse is Derrick. Castle gets an idea. Derrick was an actor and he was playing a part of a successful and savvy business man. Turns out he was involved in a scam getting folks to put down money on properties that were not his to sell at 10,000 dollars a deposit. But he had a partner that was handling the money itself. When they trace the company its seems that Sunfire is owned by one Rebecca Dalton. “Shut the front door!” Castle replies.

So they meet up with Rebecca and her lawyer again. But Rebecca has an alibi, being in Paris for fashion week. So it wasn’t her. But it was her lawyer. He got Derrick to play the part in his scam while he was accessing Rebecca’s funds and funneling them into his own. But when Derrick was done playing the game and took the 25 grand from Michael he confronted the actor. Rather than face being charged with fraud what other choice did Michael have then to kill his partner?

Castle returns home to find out Alexis didn’t get the part of Sandra Dee and realized she didn’t really want it as bad as her grandmother wanted it for her. She does get to be stage manager which is once more her speed and Castle congratulates her.

I found this episode quite entertaining! Both for obvious reasons of a little eye candy and for a good quip filled script. My favorite scene though has to be Ryan and Esposito at the agency. Their expressions were priceless when the agent tosses a red g-string at them.

What was your favorite scene or line this week?