‘Castle’ 5.15 Episode Recap And Review: Reality Star Struck

It’s a Valentine’s celebration, Castle style! Castle has the perfect gift for Beckett and, of course he is trying to figure out what she got him! But Beckett isn’t going to spill the beans, so Castle moves on to Esposito, asking about his plans for the holiday. But Espo isn’t talking either except to say he is working a murder. The murder of Hannah Green to be precise. Hannah is one of the stars of the “reality” show The Wives of Wall Street and she has been stabbed in the back, literally. Her purse and cell phone are not in evidence, but she is wearing a nice diamond tennis bracelet and has a very expensive chef’s knife sticking out of her back. So I think it’s safe to say this wasn’t a mugging.

Beckett and Castle talk to the show’s producer, Peter Monroe, who isn’t exactly crying buckets over Hannah’s death. He is much more concerned about the ratings than the stars of his show. He shows our duo the last filming Hannah did and Beckett notices that she is wearing the same clothes she was found in. Strange, since the taping had been done the day before she died. Mr. Monroe says he has no idea what Hannah or any of his stars did when the cameras weren’t rolling but that she was part of the “family” and no one on the show would have hurt her. He suggests they talk to her brother, apparently her family wasn’t happy about her role on the show.

Charlie Green, Hannah’s brother, admits that he recently had a phone argument with his sister. But we can see right off that this man didn’t kill Hannah. He is her older brother and wanted to protect her. Hannah’s family has hurt and horrified by the things that Hannah was doing on the show. Even before she started th affair. The affair?? What affair? Oh, the one with Bob, the husband of her cast mate and former boss on the show, Penelope. As Espo, Castle, and Beckett are watching the tape of a confrontation between Hannah and Penelope Captain Gates comes in and goes on and on about the show. She is definitely a fan. A fact that Castle immediately sticks his foot right in and falls flat on his face with an attempt complement that comes out as an insult. He really just can’t win with her.

He is saved by the cell phone though. Lanie is sending a picture of a broken fingernail found on the body. And it just happens to look like a match to the nail polish Penelope is wearing in the clip on the screen. Off we go to interrupt the filming of the show to question Penelope, who is sporting a broken nail (someone please tell me why she had not already repaired that?? I can’t stand to have a broken nail, it MUST be remedied immediately!) And bad mouthing Hannah for the cameras. Now she is under arrest and pissed! How dare they arrest her in front of the cast and crew. But Beckett lets her know quick that she has bigger problems. What was her nail doing in Hannah’s hair? And has she considered what Bob might tell them? Penelope scoffs, Bob is stupid to believe that Hannah loved him, she was just trying to raise her profile on the show.

Bob, on the other hand, is busy telling Ryan and Espo that “it was love, true love”. Hannah didn’t come home last night and yeah, he was worried, but do we really think Penelope could have killed her? Back to Penelope who says Yes, she wanted to kill Hannah, but with all of America watching? She is not that stupid! Yes, she and Hannah had a “dust up” because Hannah asked for her old job back. Apparently she was having trouble in her new job with Margo, one of her other cast mates. So, she wanted to come back to Penelope. After ruining her marriage. Hence the “dust up” and broken nail. And Penelope has an alibi for the time of death. Next suspect please..

The knife used in the murder is clean of prints but does have residue of a fire retardant on it (please don’t ask me to spell it out, I can’t). The knife was also brand new, never used. And here comes Espo with a picture of our victim from a fan site, time stamped just 20 minutes before her death. Captain Gates recognizes the building as Margo’s home and it is right around the corner from the crime scene. Castle and Beckett go to visit Margo and her son, Stone. Hannah had been working with Stone on a new clothing line but had been a no show for a taping the day before her death. The night she died she came by Margo’s place to apologize and “recommit” herself to the work. After she left Margo had a conference call with her entertainment attorney about the spin off they were trying to get off the ground, starring Stone and his fiancée, Ashley. So, Margo alibi’s out. Next, please….

Well, there is the mystery man that Hannah met with at a dive bar the night she missed her meeting with Margo. The bartender is working with a sketch artist, so we will come back to that. Hannah was also receiving $5000 a week from someone. Who? And why? AND it seems Hannah went completely radio silent for a full day after that meeting. No texts, no phone calls, no email, no social networking (are we sure that didn’t kill her? It might do me in). So, where was she? Lanie knows. Madagascar. Really? Well, that is what the fiber under her fingernails says. It’s from a plant cultivated there. Other evidence on the body suggests that she was held hostage, which would explain why she had not changed her clothes for 2 days. Still, Madagascar seems a little out of the way. But what about a “green” apartment? Turns out there is one near where Hannah caught the cab that took her to Margo’s the night she died. But we will get to that.

Captain Gates give out homework in the form of watching some episodes of Wall Street Wives to the team. She feels this will help them solve the case. Beckett isn’t really interested, but Castle goes home and gets hooked. He stays up most of the night watching. Before he gets started though, he shows off his Valentine’s gift for Beckett to his mom and Alexis. They are beautiful earrings. Martha thinks the perfect delivery of the gift would be to slip them into Beckett’s coat pocket when she isn’t looking. Nothing can go wrong there, can it?!?

Anyway, the next morning Castle is gossiping about the show with Gates like old friends (funny how a good show will draw folks together). Gates asks Beckett is she watched the show and she confesses watching 1 episode. “One episode? That’s like having 1 potato chip”, Castle says. To which Beckett says (to the envy of chubby women the world over) “I usually only eat one potato chip (LIAR!). But I am off track again. The sketch is finished and our mystery man has been identified as the star of another reality show, “The Shark Pool”. This man was interested in funding Hannah’s clothing line, but backed out when she told him she was thinking of leaving the show.

Castle and Beckett are brainstorming in the break room when he slips the earrings into Beckett’s blazer pocket. One problem. It’s not her blazer. It’s Gates’. Of course. But he can’t do a thing about it because they have to go, they have located the apartment building that Hannah was being held in. Oh dear.
At the building security confirms that Hannah had been seen entering an apartment – An apartment that has loud banging coming from it. Beckett enters, gun drawn only to find Penelope and Bob in bed. It seems their breakup was just a ploy to up their exposure on the show, which explains the weekly payments into Hannah’s account. But Hannah had changed her mind and wanted out. They panicked and kidnapped her to try to convince her to stay. When they had no luck, they called in their friendly producer, Peter Monroe. (Beckett gets all this info by playing the really tough “lady” routine on Bob, who crumbles right away. Great scene) Peter claims he is the good guy, he released Hannah. He offered her everything he could to try to make her stay. But the last he saw of her, she was getting in a taxi. No deal. And guess what, he alibi’s out.

That brings us back to Margo. Margo, who lied about even being in the apartment when Hannah came by. So, off we go back to question her again. But Castle still has his eye on Captain Gates’ blazer and Beckett has noticed. So he has to come clean. Now the cat is out of the bag and Beckett is worried. Was there a note? Of course, it was a Valentine’s gift from a writer. Was it signed? Yeah, we think so. Was her name on it? Well…we aren’t sure. Just keeps getting better and better.

Sidetracked again! If Margo wasn’t home, who let Hannah in? Stone? It looks that way at first when the team finds him trying to leave the country. But no. It turns out that Hannah and Stone were in love and she had come to the apartment to ask him to run away with her. He refused and then his mom showed up and threw her out. Stone had a change of heart and went after her, kissing her in the street. But she rejected him. After that he claims to have gone for a walk. Stone looks good for Hannah’s murder when the team discovers that he and Ashley are registered for the same knife that was used to kill Hannah. Except one thing, wedding gifts traditionally go to the bride to be, not the groom.

And that brings us to Ashley. Ashley, who works with chemicals, specifically the one found on the knife. And her knife is missing from the brand new set. Turns out she saw Stone kissing Hannah and was not about to lose her fiancée and the chance at a spinoff of her very own. So she eliminated the threat. And that, my friends is a wrap.

But what about the earrings? And Esposito’s mystery date? And what did Beckett get Castle? So many questions! Well, Captain Gates found the earrings and assumed they were for her. She read Castle the riot act for trying to curry favor and returned them. Espo’s date was Lanie, so maybe there is hope for that relationship after all (fingers crossed). And the big question, what Beckett get Castle? His very own drawer at her place. Best gift ever.

This was the usual fun episode. I really enjoyed the watching Gina Torres and Nathan Fillion working together again (Gina played Zoe in Firefly, in case you didn’t know). But to be real honest, it is tonight’s episode I am looking forward to. From the previews it looks like Alexis is kidnapped. That promises to be very intense! I love it when we deviate from the light-hearted into the dark! I can’t wait!