Castle - Eye of the Beholder, Season 4 Episode 5 Recap

Monday night's Castle episode was much more lighthearted than last week's. It had art, murder, romance and jealousy. All ingredients for an entertaining hour of television.
　
The crime of the week was the murder of the Cosmopolitan Art Museum's executive director, Brian Hayes during their 4th Annual Benefit Gala. He is found impaled on a scary looking larger-than-life Egyptian mask that has several long, sharp spikes protruding from it. Also, a piece of art called the Fist of Capitalism, which is valued to the tune of $50 mil has disappeared.
　
Serena Kaye (Kristin Lehman) is the museum's insurance investigator. She is a smart, sexy blond who catches Castle's eye and grates on Beckett's nerves. Against Beckett's wishes, Captain Gates lets Serena join the team as a consultant in hopes she will be able to help them solve the crime.
　
The suspect list:
　
An international art thief named Falco, suspected because Serena recognizes the device used to disable the museum's security system as one of his making. Falco becomes the main suspect as it is assumed that he was hired to steal the piece but then decided to add murder to his rap sheet and keep it for himself.
　
Anton McHugh, the co-owner of The Fist of Capitalism. His soon to be ex wife, Joy McHugh, says that he would do anything to keep her from getting to keep the artwork at the museum.
　
Brian Hayes himself because he was deeply in debt.
　
The consultant Serena Kaye. It turns out she was a former alleged art thief but has now turned responsible art thief investigator. She had a meeting with Brian Hayes the day before the murder/theft that she failed to mention to any of the detectives on the case. Esposito and Beckett find the smoking gun (or in this case tools) an her hotel room along with feeler emails out to possible fences for the Fist.
　
Alyssa Lofters, an artist of another piece at the exhibit because she is suspected to have been in the vicinity of the crime around the time it went down.
　
The final suspect and ultimately whodunit was Joy McHugh. She hired Falco to disable the security system during which time she was going to take the Fist of Capitalism and hide it in one of the televisions in Alyssa Lofter's objet d'art. When the exhibit was over she was set to become the proud owner of Alyssa's handiwork. However, she was interrupted by Brian Hayes and according to her, she had no other choice but to kill him. Then she went ahead and hid the Fist, but managed to leave her bloody fingerprints on it in the process. Her motive: The Fist of Capitalism was rightfully hers and she was not about to let her husband have it in the divorce settlement.
　
On the Beckett/Castle romantic front: Beckett is definitely bothered by Castle's attraction to Serena. But when he gives her the opportunity to talk him out of pursuing Serena, she only tells him to suit himself. At her therapy session, Beckett claims the reason that the Castle/Serena iffy ship is annoying her is because Castle is supposed to be her partner and not "all smitten." Her therapist insightfully asks her if she's more afraid that Castle won't wait for her or that he will?
　
　
Castle is enlisted to distract Serena while Beckett and Esposito search her hotel room. When they don't get out quick enough, Castle gets a message from Beckett telling him to stall Serena. In the hallway in front of her room, he grabs her and kisses her, at just about the time Beckett flings open the door and tells Serena she is arresting her. Although Castle claims he was just doing what Beckett wanted him to do by distracting Serena, Beckett is not happy with the smooching in the hallway.
　
By the end of the episode she warms up enough to Serena to let her know that Castle never doubted her innocence throughout the investigation, in a roundabout way giving them her blessing. But Serena realizes there are feelings between Castle and Beckett so she gets out of the game. Although none of that is ever said when both Castle and Beckett were together, leaving the slate clear for more sexual tension in the next episode.
　
　
　
　

Castle - Season 4 Episode 4, Kick the Ballistics Recap

Original airdate 10/10/11 ... Episode 4x04

This episode of Castle was actually a lot less focused on it's namesake.  All the key players got some screen time, but this was more a story about Detective Kevin Ryan (Seamus Denver).

The victim is Jane Herzfeld, a young college student who tutored other students on the side. 

Her ex-boyfriend Finn McQueen is the first suspect because they had a somewhat volatile relationship in the past, according to her mother anyway.  But, McQueen's alibi checks out.

It was Ryan's old service weapon that was taken from him during the 3XK investigation last year that was used as the murder weapon.

This now points the finger at Jerry Tyson AKA 3XK.  Ryan takes this as a personal blow because he feels responsible for Tyson getting his gun.  He is frustrated and on a short fuse throughout much of the episode, almost getting into a fight with the second suspect Seth Carver and eventually getting lippy with Captain Gates, who tells him to take the rest of the day off.

Seth is actually an undercover cop himself and tells them Jane was tutoring a fellow student by the name of Ben Lee and was supposed to be an informant about Ben's father, Clifford.  Clifford is a huge drug kingpin and Castle likens him to "The Godfather."  Carver says that the Lees probably found out what she was doing and bumped her off.

Castle - Season 4 Episode 3 - Head Case, Recap

Alexis is devastated to learn that despite having already picked her classes, bought t-shirts and badly wanting to go there she has been rejected by Stanford University. 

Team Beckett's newest case involves a body-less crime scene with so much blood Lanie is sure that the person must have died. 

There was a van seen leaving the vicinity of the murder area about 20 minutes after gunshots were heard.  They trace the van to a warehouse registered under the name of PW Storage. 

In the warehouse they find containment units that house frozen people inside.  They hear movement in another room and go in to find technicians loading a body into a vacuumed container.  The technicians explain that they work for a cryonics company called Passageway.  All of their clients have contracts with them to preserve them after they die.  The clients are outfitted with biowatches that have pulse monitors and GPS systems built in.  When someone's pulse stops the technicians go retrieve the body.  The bodies must be frozen as quickly as possible, which is why they took the shooting victim that morning without bothering to inform the police.

Dr. Harry Weiss comes in and introduces himself as the CEO of Passageway.  He identifies the victim as Lester Hamilton, a biology professor at Hudson University and also an old friend.  Lester was doing cutting edge research on developing life extension techniques.  The lawyer that Dr. Weiss has brought with him informs Beckett that if the NYPD tries to take Hamilton's body, Passageway will file a lawsuit. 

Because of murky case laws the D.A. tells Beckett they won't issue a warrant.

Red Maroon Logo and Writer - Righter of Wrongs

We have two new graphics available based on the TV show Castle. 

The first one is from the episode Superheroes and Villians (Season 4 Episode 2).  It is the superhero Red Maroon's logo which was a red shield outlined in yellow with the letters RM (also in yellow) inside the shield.  Underneath the logo Red Maroon is written out.

Available on everything from tee shirts to flip flops to wall decor.

The other design has the names Kate Beckett and Rick Castle at the top.  Under Kate's name is a detective badge.  Under Castle's name is a pencil and a spiral notepad that has Heat Rises written on it.  Under the image of the shield it says Righter of wrongs.  Under the notepad it says Writer of wrongs.

See it on t-shirts, hoodies and more.

Recap: Castle Season 4 Episode 2, Superheroes and Villians

Original airdate: Monday, September 26, 2011

Episode 4x02 starts off with a young women running out of alley. A man grabs her and throws her to the ground. As he is descending on her and making threatening comments a deep voice comes from somewhere in the darkness of the alley telling him to leave her alone. A long blade slices through his wrist severing his hand from his body. In a grotesque version of shadow puppets, the man is finished off as the blade divides him from head to toe and his halves fall away from one another.

At the home of our ruggedly handsome writer, Rick Castle is making an omelet as his mother models a Desmonda costume that she is making for her Shakespeare class.. Alexis finishes up her phone call with her Stanford college boyfriend, Ashley. After she talks excitedly about going to Stanford in the spring, Castle has to blame his weepy eyes on the onion he was cutting.
...

Recap: Castle Season 4 Episode 1, "Rise"

The episode begins with the snippets from last season to remind us why we are tuning in again this time around. Kate Beckett says that they are going to make sure the late Captain Roy Montgomery keeps his good name. Then at Montgomery's funeral she is shot, prompting Richard Castle to finally confess his love for her.

They rush Kate to the hospital and on the way her heart stops. They get her into an operating room where Dr Josh Davidson is the attending physician. After he recognizes who the person in front of him is, he calls for another doctor and tells the rest of the people in the OR that she is his girlfriend.

The scenes go back and forth from the hospital team working on Kate to the reactions of Castle, Esposito, Ryan, Martha, Alexis, Lanie and Kate's father in the hallway. It is done in such a way that it really amps up the tension of the moment.

Josh starts to operate on Kate because she is bleeding and they are going to lose her. After a short while another doctor comes in and convinces Josh to let him take over and he leaves the room.

In the hallway he confronts Castle and accuses him of being the cause of Montgomery's death and the reason that Kate has been injured.