Castle 5x08: After Hours

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A priest is murdered, and it's up to Castle and Beckett to find out who did it. Which is good, because they were at a dinner with their parents, and it wasn't going well. Esposito and Ryan start by interviewing a nun, and, right away, I think she's the killer because I've seen her in something. She's not though, she just has information that might lead to a suspect: The priest was friends with notorious Irish mobster Mickey Dolan.

Meanwhile, Castle and Beckett have a lead on a witness. But, before they get a chance to interview him, some of Dolan's goons get the drop on them.

Hired goons.

They manage to escape when the witness, Leo, causes a distraction by opening his door, but they're on the run in the Bronx with no money, no phones, and no car, since it's been stolen. The payphone they find is broken, and when Castle attempts to antagonize someone into calling the cops, he just threatens to come down to the street and kick his ass.

I think Castle could've taken him.

Back at the station, Esposito and Ryan can't get in touch with Castle and Beckett. The Cap'n has Ryan track down her car while Esposito goes to the witness' apartment to look for them. Obviously they're not there, but there are signs of a struggle, so he calls in the cavalry.

Beckett busts a car window so she can steal a cell phone, but it's password protected, and the noise from the car alarm attracts the goons. They escape again and hide out in a playground for a while. Castle tries to figure out the password for the phone. He guesses that it's the name of the woman's cat because its photo is on the phone's lock screen. The phone's owner calls and Castle tries to convince her to call the cops, but they have a misunderstanding and she hangs up. Luckily, she gave him the name of the cat and he unlocks the phone, but before he can make a call, she remotely disables it.

Her nude photos and tweets are safe.

A cab drives by and they try to catch it, but the driver's off duty and doesn't believe that Beckett's a cop, so he won't help them. Worse, they get spotted by the goons again and have to flee. They hide out in a basement for a while, then Castle tries to make a run for a 24-hour Chinese restaurant.

He doesn't quite make it.

Castle tries to hide Beckett's location from Dolan and the gang, but Mickey's far too good a poker player and sees right through his bluff.

At the station, Ryan and Esposito discover that the priest was talking to the feds right after he had a fight with Dolan. The Cap'n calls in an agent he tells them that Dolan was considering becoming an informant, and the priest was helping to turn him. He slipped out of custody when he heard the Father was dead, so he couldn't be the murderer. The O'Reilly family killed him to flush Dolan out, now Mickey's looking for the real killer, OJ style.

As it happens, Beckett's already found him. When one of Dolan's goons tracks her down, Leo kicks his ass, grabs his gun and points it at her.

The face of a killer. I've seen him in stuff before, too.

Leo ties Kate up and has her use the goon's phone to call Mickey. Castle tells her that he's pretty sure Dolan just wants to talk, and she tells him something strange so he'll know that things are fishy on her end. They agree to a meeting, and Leo marches Beckett over to Dolan's van before emptying his mag into it. Of course, there's no one inside, and the remaining goons emerge from the shadows intent on whacking Leo. Castle convinces Mickey that that's not what his friend would want, and they all put their guns down just in time to see four or five cop cars roll up. One of the cops whistles for a cab, and Beckett and Castle are on their way home.

The licence plate said 'FRESH'

What I Liked
-Castle makes a 'Dude, Where's My Car?' reference. Man, I haven't thought about that movie in years.
-A call from a payphone costs a dollar, and it really ticks Castle off. It ticks me off, too. Seriously, they should just slap some ads on the outside and make local calls free.
-After the woman remotely disables her cell phone, Castle chucks it on the ground. Yeah, screw that lady.
-The second time he gets caught, Castle apologizes to the goon for kicking him in the junk the first time they met. That's a wise move.

What I Hated
-The ringtone on the phone Beckett steals is 'Call Me Maybe'. I've heard that song enough. It took me weeks to get it out of my head, and I don't want to have to do that again. It's just too catchy.
-"What are you doing Leo?" "My job." Ugh, so bad.

Final Thoughts
The entire premise of this episode is based around the idea that Castle and Beckett can't find a way to contact the station. Sure, everyone in TV New York is a jerk who won't call the cops for you, but there was nothing stopping them from breaking in somewhere or from starting a small fire in a dumpster to attract the fire department. Even in TV New York, if you want the cops there are ways to get them to show up. Plus, even if the cab driver they found didn't want to give them a ride, they could've gotten him to call emergency services. No matter how much of a dick a dude is, he'll still probably help you out if you yell 'Oh my God! Call an ambulance!" The writers wanted to do an episode where the leads were on the run with no way to call in assistance, but even after taking their phones it still didn't really work.

Overall, I didn't get much of anything out of this one. There were some good bits, and it was nice to see the Cap'n and Martha get a bit more screen time than they usually do, but it wasn't fun or exciting or suspenseful. It was just sort of there.