Castle 5x03: Secret's Safe With Me

There's been a murder, a murder most foul. A woman is found dead on the floor of a hotel room with the word "LIE" scrawled beside her in her blood. After a little fancy detective work, they determine that it's actually "317" and the number refers to a locker at a self-storage warehouse. Of course, having seen TV, everyone else figured it out in about 30 seconds, while the NYPD was clueless until it was almost too late. The locker's being auctioned off because apparently that's a big thing these days. Fortunately, Castle's a rich guy, so with a little help from a fellow bidder, he's soon the proud owner of a big pile of crap.

Is that a portable toilet chair?

At first, the Cap'n isn't terribly enthused about having a bunch of junk in the police station, but Castle gives her a rare collectible doll (remember that, because it'll come up later) from amongst the crap and her softens up. Some keen investigative work shows that the guy who was renting the storage unit was the twin brother of the dead woman, and he also died under mysterious circumstances. Some more keen investigative work leads to a robbery committed at the home of a wealthy socialite, but despite catching the dead guy's partner and cracking open a safe, they don't find the $4 million bracelet that's supposed to be missing.

Damn it, Geraldo!

So, if the bracelet wasn't stolen, where is it? Well, it's still in the socialite's safe, and she's been running an insurance scam. But, if nothing was stolen, why did the dead guy break into her apartment? And why were he and his sister murdered? Castle's been through everything that was in the storage unit except for one thing. He charges into the Cap'n's office and smashes open the head of the doll he gave her. Except he accidentally takes one from her collection that she brought from home, so he has to find the real one and smash it, too. The Cap'n is understandably upset.

One unhappy Cap'n

Inside the doll they find a glass eye and a USB drive. As it turns out, the twins' parents were killed in a hit-and-run car accident, and the guy who did it lost his glass eye in the carnage. Who else has a glass eye? Why, the wealthy socialite's butler, of course. When confronted with DNA evidence, he makes a full confession, and the case is closed.

On the home front, Alexis is leaving for college. Like many young people, she has a lot of stuff, and she's having trouble deciding what to leave behind. She's also a bit bummed when her dad tells her that he's dating Beckett. Not because she's worried about being replaced, but because everything is changing. Even though she's only going to school ten minutes away, it's the first time she and her father will be separated. But, she's a tough girl and he's a devoted dad, so she can get by without him, and if she can't, he'll come running.

Alexis Castle: College Girl

What I Liked
-Martha wants Castle to talk to Alexis, but he's already had the sex talk with her; he learned so much. Nathan Fillion makes the best face when he says his line. It almost makes up for the weird sex face he made during last season's finale. That's a good crappy band name: Nathan Fillion's Sex Face.
-Castle got in trouble for answering Beckett's phone.
-The manager at the self-storage warehouse sees a picture of the dead woman and just plain does not give a damn that it's a corpse. I'm sure you see a lot of dead bodies in the self-storage industry.
-They almost mention where Alexis' mother is. Of all the mysteries on the show, that one is the biggest.
-Castle gets to say "The Butler did it!" They don't say that nearly enough on these types of shows.

J'accuse!

What I Hated
-The Cap'n gets all pissed off at Castle for having his junk in the station, even though it's part of an active murder investigation. Then he gives her the rare doll and she's suddenly his best buddy. They're really not writing her character very well. It's one thing to hate Castle, but hating him for saving the precinct thousands of dollars and wanting the team to throw out evidence is just insane.
-No one but Castle knows who the Wonder Twins are. There are things I'm willing to suspend disbelief for, but not that. NOT THAT.
-Castle and Beckett's handshake makeout. Holding hands can be quite intimate, but the scene just came off as creepy and weird to me.

So hot!

Final Thoughts
I don't know if they were doing a thing with Alexis having to choose which boxes to take to her dorm room and Castle digging through a pile of junk as well, but I'm going to give the writers credit and say that they were. It shows off the differences in maturity levels between Alexis and her father (which also, apparently, exist between Molly Quinn and Nathan Fillion) when she manages to leave some stuff behind, and he just wants to keep some awesome new nunchucks he finds. Martha's still going to be around, and I know it's going to be difficult, but I hope they manage to find a way to bring her back every couple of episodes. The Castle family's home life is one of the highlights of the show. Or maybe they could spin her off and have her solving mysteries at Columbia. I'd watch.

The mystery portions of this episode were fairly obvious, apart from who the killer was. Of course the word written in blood was upside down, and of course the evidence was hidden inside a doll. However, I'm willing to forgive all that, because it turned out that the butler did it. If you're going to go for cliches, go all the way.