A high-powered divorce attorney who only represents women takes an icepick to the neck... but that's just a framing device for the real story in this episode. The real story is that Alexis has mono and is convalescing at home during a week when Beckett's staying over because her apartment is being fumigated. That would easily be enough for wacky hijinks to ensue, but wait... Who's that at the door?
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| *Woooooooo!* It's TV's Darby Stanchfield! |
Foolishly, Castle allows his ex to move in so she can look after Alexis. Beckett's not cool with that. Not cool at all! She even gave him a look.
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| Lanie helped give him one, too. |
He tries to fix it, but Meredith is a difficult woman to say 'no' to. She's been a bit of an absentee mother, and now she's incredibly thankful that he's willing to let her be there for Alexis in her hour of need.
Meanwhile, Beckett goes downstairs to talk to Lanie about the case and she gets an earful about how she needs to protect her territory. Castle and his ex hook up whenever she comes to town, and now that Beckett is encroaching on her man booty, Meredith's fighting back.
The case continues with a raucous visit to the lawyer's final client who lost big in her divorce. She and her ex-husband destroy every vase they can get their hands on until Beckett has them both arrested.
Back at the precinct, Ryan and Esposito notice that something's up when Beckett makes a snide remark about Castle's ex and he doesn't say anything. He lets them know what's up, and they tell him that he's on the edge of a very steep cliff and he's about to go over.
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| Castle's love life is a metaphor for the US economy. |
Castle uses his considerable clout and finances to book the Ambassador Suite at the Four Seasons, complete with strawberries and champagne. Beckett's not going to let Meredith chase her away, though, so she heads back to Castle's loft and is up with the sun to make him coffee. But, Meredith's an early riser, too, and she doesn't have to go to work, so she doesn't need to put on pants.
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| She also makes better coffee than Kate... in her underwear. |
Beckett and Castle visit a golf pro who they believe killed his wife and then killed the lawyer when she found proof. He seems ticked off about the whole thing and he's not much help. When they return to the station, Kate gets a phone call from Meredith asking her to dinner. His world's are colliding, and Ryan and Espo tell him that can only mean one thing:
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| "Boom." |
At home, Martha tries to get her son to relax and have a glass of wine, but all he can do is pace. His ex-wife is out with his girlfriend, and there's no way that can go well for him. They actually have a good time together, though, and when they get home, they break Castle's brain.
The next day, the case is solved and Beckett's apartment is habitable again, so she clears out of Castle's place. He tries to get her to stay, though, because he might need to fumigate, too.
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| His apartment is infested with redheads. |
Fortunately, Martha and Alexis have had enough Meredith for one week, and they convince her to go to Paris to finish her vacation. While Castle goes upstairs to grab her bag, she and Kate get to have a little confab. Beckett asks Meredith why it didn't work out between she and Rick. As it turns out, it was a communication thing. She told him everything about herself, but whenever she'd ask him about something meaningful or painful, he'd make a joke and change the subject. The episode ends with Beckett slowly realizing that despite the fact that she's known him for more than four years, she really doesn't know that much about the man who she loves.
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| That can't be good. |
What I Liked
-Castle realizes a second too late that he shouldn't be discussing the manner in which his daughter got 'the kissing disease' with her. The trials and tribulations of a single dad.
-Nathan Fillion plays the confused man whose home is overrun with ladies really well. Just look at that face:
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| This is the face of a man who has no idea what's going on. |
-TV's Darby Stanchfield in her underwear. I'm a guy. I like it when tall redheads walk around without any pants.
-Ryan and Esposito track down a lawyer who paid a guy who might have been the killer, and he actually acts like a real lawyer. He eats a hot dog and tells them to go screw themselves. None of that 'That's privileged information... I wish I could help you' crap.
What I Hated
-The murder plot was really complicated. During the lawyer's investigation of her client's husband, she discovered that he was a close friend of one of her old clients who was missing and had been presumed murdered by her husband. Further investigation found that the living client's husband's boat had been in close proximity with the dead woman's husband's boat on the night of her disappearance, and furthermore, money had been bouncing around which proved that the dead woman wasn't actually dead. The not-dead woman killed the lawyer after she threatened to expose her because she couldn't live with the injustice.
-Castle and Beckett are pretty blatant about their relationship. Long gone are the days when they were destroying video tape that showed them sharing loving glances. Now he's yelling stuff across the room at her. They should probably deal with the Cap'n at some point; by now, everybody must know they're together.
Final Thoughts
It's been so long since we've seen Meredith that I completely forgot about her. Darby Stanchfield hasn't been on the show since the sixth episode. She was an excellent casting choice back in the day, and I can still totally see how she and Nathan Fillion could have a kid that looks like Molly Quinn.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable episode, even though, or perhaps because the murder case was secondary to what was going on at the Casa de Castle. I also appreciated the fact that they tied the home stuff into the work stuff by having the murder victim be a divorce lawyer.
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