Castle 5x13: Recoil

A woman with all her teeth knocked out turns up burned to a crisp in a homeless guy's fire barrel. It looks like it could be hard to identify her until Lanie pulls a titanium screw out of her jaw and the serial number leads them straight to who she was: An engineering postdoc from New Jersey. No one has any idea who might have wanted her dead, but she left her half-sister a voicemail that contained the sound of her murder, and a check of her phone and credit card records leads to the Standish Hotel. Now, the Standish is famous as a place where powerful men can get a little discrete side-action, and after a little arm twisting, the concierge reveals that the dead girl had been meeting one man there on a regular basis.

Senator William H. Bracken, the man who had Beckett's mother killed.

The team decides to move slowly, so when Esposito and Ryan go to question the Senator they act as if the dead girl is merely missing. Bracken's wise to their tricks, though, and after a couple questions, he suggests that all further inquiries should come through his attorney.

Back at the station, the Team verifies the Senator's alibi for the time of the murder and through some fancy cross-referencing, coupled with FBI analysis, they discover the site of the dead girl's killing. There, they find a stolen car containing a sniper rifle and detailed plans of a hotel where the Senator is attending a conference. Bracken's not the killer, he's the target.

Smilin' Bill's not gonna be smiling for long.

Beckett is now in the awkward position of having to protect a man she wants to see behind bars. Neither of them is particularly comfortable with the situation, but they can't exactly explain to the public why they don't want to work together, so they're stuck with each other. Esposito thinks she should just sit back and wait for the killer to put a bullet in his brain, but Ryan believes that would make her no better than him.

Castle and Beckett go through the many death threats the Senator has received in hopes of finding something that matches the handwriting in the killer's notebook. When Beckett finds what she's looking for, she hides it from Castle and sends him home, then goes to visit Counsellor Worf. He doesn't tell her what to do, but says for her the right choice is whatever she can live with.

So she considers burning it.

The next day, she's troubled, but she hasn't destroyed the evidence and merely continues hiding it from the others until her conscience gets the best of her. However, when she goes to tell them, it no longer matters, since they have a better lead. Some items in the stolen car's trunk contained traces of motor oil and transmission fluid, and Esposito and Ryan are able to use that to find a service station where the guy used to work.

They load up and bust the guy's door in, but he's not home. Beckett heads down to the apartment manager's office to see if he knows anything, and on the way she runs into the guy when he's getting off the elevator. She pulls her weapon on him and tells him to freeze, but he bolts. As he heads down the stairwell, she puts two bullets into the wall to make it look like she tried harder to stop him.

The owner's gonna be ticked.

Later at the station, Beckett admits to Castle that she missed the guy on purpose. The letter she found accused Bracken of murdering the guy's son. He was an intern in Bracken's employ, and the day before he was scheduled to meet with a reporter, he was found hanged.

Inside the killer's apartment, they find materials for making a bomb and C4 residue, but the bomb itself isn't there. Fortunately, the cops find the guy hiding on a rooftop a few blocks away. Beckett tries to convince him that she's on his side because Bracken killed her mother, but he's schizophrenic and too far gone to believe her. She still thinks she can get him to tell her where the bomb is, but the Cap'n pulls her out: The FBI has already found it.

Beckett thinks it's all to easy, though. The bomb they found is far too neat to have been created by a schizophrenic who's off his meds. The Senator's about to give a big speech that'll put him on the national stage, but Beckett calls in a bomb threat and has the building evacuated. When the bomb squad can't find anything, her career is effectively over. Bracken tells her she's going to ruin her, but as he heads back to his limo, Beckett notices that his driver is acting suspiciously. She shoves the Senator out of the way just as the limo explodes.

They can probably just buff that out.

Bracken suspects that his driver was hired by a kingmaker who was upset that he was no longer following orders. He tells Beckett he owes her one and gives a statement to the press. He's now a folk hero who seems to be willing to fight for the little guy, even at the cost of his life.

What I Liked
-The article in the newspaper next to Senator Bracken's photo seems to be made of corporate analytical gibberish. My favourite line is "Thus any exponential coefficient mandates staff meeting level attention to the anticipated repercussions."
-Beckett asks Bracken if there's anyone he can think of who would like to kill him. Irony is hilarious. Just ask Alanis Morrissette.
-Castle makes air quotes when describing how he expected the kingmaker to wind up dead in a "plane crash" or a "car accident". Nathan Fillion does the goofy stuff so well.

What I Hated
-The driver sets off the bomb before Bracken gets in the limo. After all that planning, to screw up so badly right at the end is just ridiculous.

Final Thoughts
Because of who he is, I thought Michael Dorn's part would be much larger, but he really only shows up for about thirty seconds at a time. It's very odd.

Esposito's been getting a bit darker this year. He threatened to murder a small-time hood, dated a suspect, and thought about standing aside while some nutjob murdered a Senator. Meanwhile, Ryan's settled down into married life and is acting like a good Catholic while he tries to become a father. Plus, Beckett saved Bracken's life when Castle says he would've just stood back and watched. I guess we know who's who when they play 'Good Cop-Bad Cop'.

I'm not really buying Bracken as an arch-villain. Jack Coleman's a big, imposing guy, but the Senator's just not evil enough to be much of a threat. He's had people killed, but when he talks with Beckett, he seems far too much like an everyday politician who spends his days slinging bullshit with a smile on his face. They teased the idea of him running for President in the future, but the next US election isn't for almost four years and I honestly don't expect this show to last that long, so the threat of him in the White House rings somewhat hollow.

With so much time devoted to a villain who I just don't find credible, the episode really fell flat for me.