‘Castle’ Episode 508 Recap And Review: After Hours

Welcome Castle fans! It’s a party! A dinner party to be precise. Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion) are having a very uncomfortable dinner with their parents; his mom, Martha (Susan Sullivan), and her dad, Jim. It seems these two have nothing in common, he thinks actors are flaky (aren’t they??) And she thinks his love of baseball is dull (isn’t it??). Just when things are about to get really ugly, our lovely couple is saved by the bell. Well, the cell phone. There’s been a murder…..

It turns out that a priest, Father Joe McMurty, has been killed, gunned down in front of an abandoned building. And there may have been a witness. A local bartender tells our team that one of his customers claimed to have seen someone running away from the building after the shots were heard. There is also a nun who says she may have some information for the detectives. So, Beckett and Castle go to interview the witness, and Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) go back to the station to interview this nun.

At the station, Ryan confesses to being intimidated by just the thought of interviewing a nun. Esposito shrugs this off, he can handle her. Only he can’t really. The sister isn’t taking any sass from these detectives. She let’s them know that the killer is most certainly Mickey Dolan, a mob enforcer who has been friends with Father Joe since childhood. And the two were seen arguing in front of the church just the day before.

Castle and Beckett have gone to locate this witness, Leo. Leo lives in a really bad part of the Bronx, and when Castle and Beckett park her police issue Castle expresses some concern about whether it is wise to leave a car unattended on this street. Beckett dismisses this, who would take a cop car?!? And off they go in search of Leo’s apartment. When they find it, they are standing at the door bickering about their failed dinner (your mom should have been more understanding. Well, your dad shouldn’t have insulted actors… and so on) when Beckett sees some mob types coming up the hallway. Beckett is forced to drop her gun and badge before she and Castle manage to duck into Leo’s apartment and barricade the door. But that won’t hold the bad guys off for long, so out the fire escape goes our not-so-happy couple with a very confused Leo in tow.

Our trio goes for the car, but guess what?? It’s gone (I told you so)! Next they try ringing doorbells, which gets them accosted with a beer bottle and threatened with a beating. So next Beckett smashes in a car window to get at the cell phone inside. Eureka! Oh, wait…it’s password protected! And now the car alarm is going off and the bad guys are on the way! Castle is sure he can work out the phone’s password but Beckett wants to chance making a run for the Subway. This leads to more bickering and Leo questioning his safety with these two.

Meanwhile, Ryan and Esposito have confirmed the nun’s story and when Esposito tries to contact Beckett and cannot reach her, they know something is wrong. Esposito accidentally sets off alarm bells with Martha and Jim when he calls Martha looking for Castle. The parents have arrived at the station looking for answers. Answers that Captain Gates (Penny Johnson) and the boys don’t have.

The captain sends Esposito out to try and locate the pair while Ryan tracks down more information on Mickey Dolan. Turns out that Father McMurty was trying to get Mickey to turn states evidence against his bosses, the O’Reilly family. So, that means he had no reason to kill his friend. The Feds had him under surveillance, but he slipped away and is now looking for Leo, not to kill him as we all assumed, but to question him.

Esposito gets to Leo’s place and finds it a disaster. He phones the Captain, who has to let the concerned parents know she has misplaced their children. Martha and Jim take up residence in the break room and while they wait, begin to mend fences.

Back to Castle and Beckett. Castle almost has the code..sort of. He knows it’s most likely the name of the owners cat. Then the phone rings. It’s the owner of the phone (and car…and the cat) and she is not happy! Castle tries to explain, but it is useless. However, she does drop the name of her cat…and then remotely disables the phone before Castle can dial 911. So, now our trio tries to hail an off duty cab, with no cash. That doesn’t end well, and Leo ends up twisting his ankle, forcing them to duck into a cellar and reconsider their approach. Finally they agree that Castle will go for help, while Beckett and Leo stay behind. Before he leaves, Castle and Beckett have a “private” chat about the disaster dinner and how it’s okay if their parents don’t get along. After Castle leaves, Leo tries to give some free advice, don’t waste time worrying about tomorrow, live in the now.

Castle is out on the street, trying (and failing) to blend in when He is caught by the very men he was trying to avoid, Mickey Dolan and his henchmen. Mickey wants to know where to find Leo, and starts questioning Castle, who I could have sworn has a better poker face than that! He basically gives away the cellar hiding place without ever saying a word (don’t quit your day job Rick!).

So, Dolan sends on of his goons for Leo & Beckett and Leo takes him out with relative ease, and no limp. Beckett realizes this guy isn’t a witness, he is our murderer (**I have to tell you here that my husband, who doesn’t even watch this show, figured this out after about 3 minutes. He looks at me and says “he’s no witness, he’s the killer” and walks out of the room. ABC, I am not happy that he was right!!**). He’s plan has always been to get Mickey Dolan to come to him so he could kill him for the O’Reilly’s. Poor Father Joe was just the bait. Leo has Beckett, who is now his hostage, call Dolan, who hands the phone over to Castle. Beckett tells him how nice it would be to take their parents out to something all four of them would enjoy, like a baseball game, if they survive this debacle. Baseball? Martha? Could we be speaking in code here??

They set up a meet and when Beckett and Leo show up, he opens fire on the SUV. But it’s empty. Castle got the hint and has set up a sting. Mickey Dolan comes out ready to kill the man who murdered his friend but Castle convinces him to honor his friend and let the police handle Leo. There is a very sweet moment when Beckett throws herself into Castle’s arms and says “I thought I lost you” and he replies “no, never, never, never”. Finally the couple makes it back to the station to find their parents chatting like old friends and they realize that everything will be okay. Let’s hope they are right.

I am sorry to say that this was not one of my favorite Castle episodes. I mean, my husband picked out the killer in record time. That being said, it was still a good episode with lots of great one liners and chuckles to be had by all. And I do love the dynamics between Beckett and Castle. I am looking forward to seeing where this relationship is headed. And watching them solves some crimes too. 🙂
See you next time!

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. I’m a Castle fan and liked the episode much better than last week’s Swan Song episode. Seeing Martha and Jim together was fun but I did miss Alexis. Nice to see Chuck alum, Bonita Friedericy, as the nun. I’d like to see Adam Baldwin back as Det Slaughter!

    Thanks for the review!

  2. This episode of Castle was amazing, although it doesn’t pass Final Frontier for me for the best episode of the season. I’m so glad that my coworker at DISH told me about this show, because it is one of my favorites, for sure. With so much on TV on Mondays, though, it’s hard to watch everything I want, but thankfully DISH’s Hopper records all four major networks with the PrimeTime Anytime feature, so I don’t have to worry about missing anything. I can’t wait for more of this season, because it has been amazing so far!