Castle 5x18: The Wild Rover

There's been a murder. But not a murder most foul, a murder most delicious. A local baker was shot in the back and then drowned in his industrial mixer. The baker's assistant mentions that he saw a '68 Charger park nearby before his boss sent him on a delivery, and it seemed to make him nervous. A search of the premises turns up $50,000 in a briefcase, and a check of the bakery's financial records shows the baker had large purchase orders for expensive equipment that wouldn't even fit in his shop.

When a records shop shows that the Charger belongs to Irish mobster Bobby S, the gang thinks that the baker was probably laundering money. Phone records show that a woman named Siobhan who runs a bar frequented by Bobby S. phoned the bakery nine times before the murder, so Beckett brings her in for questioning. In typical mob fashion, Siobhan ain't sayin' nothin'. As she's being taken to a holding cell to stew for a while, she notices Ryan and runs up and kisses him while calling him Fenton. Unfortunately, Jenny's there, delivering Kevin's forgotten lunch, and he gets five across the eyes for having a wife.

Then he gets five more for being a cop.

Kevin has some 'splainin' to do. First to his wife and then to the rest of the team. It turns out that before he joined the homicide squad he was undercover in the Irish mob for 18 months. He dated Siobhan and was good buddies with Bobby S.

After Ryan's finished spilling his story, an FBI agent arrives and tells the team that both the dead baker and Siobhan were informants, and the baker was going to deliver 'The Bible', a list of the mob's contacts and transactions just before he was killed. But now he's dead and Siobhan is screwed. The FBI guy refuses to put her in witness protection unless she delivers The Bible, so Ryan offers to go back in and help her get it. He gets a haircut, some new clothes, and Fenton O'Connell is reborn.

Praise Jesus!

His return to the bar isn't as welcoming as one would hope as Fenton is greeted with a solid right cross from a woman named Maggie who just so happens to be the wife of Bobby S's new number two. He's not off to a great start, but he manages to convince Bobby that he has a drug connection out in Chicago, and that makes everyone much happier to see him.

Back at the station, the rest of the team tries to tie Bobby S to the baker's murder. Unfortunately, it looks like he might have a solid alibi since he was at the track at the time of the murder. His car was definitely outside the bakery, though, so something fishy is going on. Esposito meets with Ryan to tell him that someone is trying to frame Bobby and he should consider walking away. However, Fenton's been invited over to Bobby's place to shoot pool, and it may be his only chance to grab The Bible, so he has to stay in.

At the pool game, Bobby's number two gets a phone call telling him that there's a rat in the organization. Fenton excuses himself to go to the bathroom and manages to grab The Bible while he's gone, but before he can get out of the house, the number two stops him and says they need to take a ride down to the docks.

There isn't a lot to do there at night.

The rat they're out there to drown isn't Fenton, though, it's Siobhan. One of Bobby's goons broke into her apartment and found out that she'd been talking to the FBI. Fenton is there to prove that he knew nothing about it by shooting her in the face. Obviously, Ryan can't just murder a woman, but he has no qualms about shooting Bobby. But when Bobby starts to chuckle with a gun pointed at him, it rapidly becomes clear that it's not loaded; it was all a test, and Fenton failed. Luckily, Ryan's a smart guy. He picked the number two's pocket, stole his cell phone, and then secretly called Esposito while they were driving. Just as he's about to get a lead salad, Ryan calls out Esposito, Beckett, and even Castle.

He forgot his vest.

They're still slightly outgunned, but backup arrives seconds later and all the bad guys drop their weapons. The Bible Ryan stole helps the feds build a case that should put Bobby S and his crew away for a long, long time, but that still leaves the little matter of the baker's murder. Bobby's number two's metro card was used by whoever was driving the Charger down by the bakery, but he has a rock solid alibi. That leaves only one possibility.

It was Maggie! Dun dun dunnnnnnnn.

After he sends Siobhan on her way, Ryan goes home to talk to Jenny. She's still upset that he went undercover, but he assures her that he's done with all that. Which is good, because she's pregnant. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn!

Meanwhile, Castle has been saying the name 'Jordan' in his sleep, and he refuses to tell Beckett who it is. After some cajoling, he tells her that he paid someone to write a paper for him on the Jordan Motor Company, and he still feels guilty about it. It's sort of silly.

What I Liked
-Castle refuses to fist bump Esposito after he makes a 'playing doctor' joke at Lanie's expense. Never joke about how a woman lets you see her naked... in front of her.
-Esposito can't pronounce 'Siobhan'. While it's a little far-fetched for an NYPD detective to be unfamiliar with that name, I empathize with his plight. I was actually having a discussion with someone a couple weeks back about how neither of us knew how to pronounce it at first, either.

Seriously, where does the V sound come from?

What I Hated
-Ryan has to have a dangerous meeting at a diner with Esposito so they can exchange information. It's 2013, not 1925: He could have just sent him an email.

Final Thoughts
While I was typing this, I mistyped Bobby as Booby about ten times. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Throughout the entire episode I thought "Man, they're gonna kill Ryan. His wife's gonna be pregnant, and when the kid is born, she'll name it after him." Especially since Seamus and Juliana are married in real life, and it would seem fitting to have her around for moral support on his last days at work. But Kevin survived, and now the Ryan baby won't have to grow up without a father.

I can't really remember an episode where the main focus was on Ryan. It's usually the Castle and Beckett show, so it was nice to get a little back story on him. There wasn't really anything exciting or memorable about the episode, though.