Castle - Episode 5.03 - Secret's Safe With Me - Review

Hi, here’s my review for Secret’s Safe With Me. Since I started to confuse myself with all the case talk in my last review, I’m going to try to tone it down a bit (not on the main character stuff of course). Let’s see if I manage to do that for longer than a 10 minutes.

We start the episode with a woman writing a message in blood, her own blood, right before she dies. I don’t mean to sound presumptuous here but I’m just gonna assume that that will be the victim. At the Castle loft Alexis is packing for college and Castle reminds her that she doesn’t have to take everything with her. Martha on the other hand disagrees. Martha and Castle reminisce about the old days when Castle used to check under Alexis’ bed to see if there were any monsters. Castle says that now the monsters are the boys in her dorm and Marta reminds him to have ‘the talk’ with Alexis before she leaves. Castle says they already had that years ago (really, like how many years ago) and the he learned so much. But Martha says that she’s referring to the ‘Beckett-sex talk’.  He tries to deny it but Martha says that she knew from the first morning that Beckett was hiding in the closet. This makes me wonder… did she actually see her in the closet? Or did she see the bra on the floor? Or did she see her sneak out? So many questions… Castle’s reaction is hilarious though. Martha tells him that he should probably tell Alexis before she finds him and Kate ‘out of the closet’, probably a good idea, and right on cue Alexis asks “Tell me what?”.

We skip to Castle and Beckett where we find out that he did in fact tell Alexis (I kinda feel cheated that we didn’t get to see it) and Kate freaks when she realizes that Martha also knows. According to Kate if Alexis tells Lanie, Lanie will tell Esposito, who will then tell Ryan, who will blow it out of proportion, which will make Gates find out, who will make sure that Castle and Beckett can no longer work together. Everyone still with me? Castle tells her to trust him and when Kate asks how Alexis reacted, he tells her that she was too busy with to move to even comment (I have a feeling we have not heard the end of this). When Castle brings up all the boxes, Kate also agrees with Alexis and Martha saying it’s comforting and reminds her of her past. Which of course makes Castle asks “You’re kinky past?” in which Kate responds by saying that she has that box too (and here come the fanfics).

Now on to the dead woman, whose name is Wendy Dupree and was killed by a gunshot. Castle, being a writer, is of course fascinated by her bloody message. He starts to speculate on why she wrote LIE, even suggesting that it was a spelling error (I love it when he goes all grammar on us). In the room they find 4000 dollars and her phone, which contains a threatening message. They guy who sent the message is her boss, whose restaurant apparently has the best cheesesteak in Philly (something Castle doubts), and he tells them she stole the 4000 dollars from him, but he was still on the train to New York when Wendy died. Kate tells Castle they’re checking his alibi and Castle tells her to also check whether or not it is in fact the best cheesesteak in Philly. Kate ignores him and they continue speculating as to what Wendy’s big emergency was. While Kate goes to get more coffee, Castle tries to figure out what the LIE stands for, one of his guesses was Love Is Everything (aaw to be in love). Kate’s phone rings and Castle picks it up. Lanie tells him he’s not allowed to answer Beckett’s phone and Castle insists that he is, but when Lanie asks since when he says “Since I…” (I’m going to finish that sentence for him “.. am sleeping with her). Lanie tells him she found some trace DNA and while Castle is looking for a pen to write this down, he finds a creepy doll in Beckett’s desk. Enter Kate, who asks him what he’s doing. Lanie tells him he’s in trouble and Kate gets upset over the fact that he was answering her phone and going through her stuff. But he reminds her that he’s already seen her ‘stuff’. She insists that some of it is still private and Castle starts guessing the origin of that creepy doll. And failing to guess right. Ryan comes up to them and gives them a location of where Wendy went the days she was killed. It’s a self-storage unit and they figure out that LIE is actually storage locker 317. Unfortunately it’s being auctioned off at that very moment and they can’t get a warrant in time to stop it. The only way to make sure they don’t lose the stuff in the locker is to bid on it. Luckily Castle carries around 2000 dollars in his pocket, not really safe, and they almost win until another guy shows up and outbids them. Kate has the genius idea to trade a check signed by Castle for money. She ends up getting 1600 dollars in cash, in exchange for 2000 dollars on a check and the promise that Castle will name one of his characters in his next novel after the guys mom, whose name is Eunice. Castle then uses his ‘poker skills’ to win the auction.

As they are dragging in the, well let’s call it what it is, crap from the storage locker Castle tells Beckett that she’s so going to owe him for this. Beckett tells him that the department is probably not going to be able to reimburse him for all of it, but Castle says that’s not the kind of owing he meant (here come even more fanfics). Apparently the locker belonged to a guy named Johan Flemming. They start to go through the stuff and Esposito asks if he can have the climbing gear. Castle says no just as Gates walks in demanding to know what is going on (Kate’s face is priceless). She starts to yell at Castle but stops when she sees the doll in his hands. Suddenly scary Gates is replaced my nice Gates (who is even creepier if you ask me). She says she’s been collecting those dolls since she was a little girl and when Castle tells her she can have it, it seems like Gates is warming up to Castle. So this is what it looks like when hell freezes over. They then find tax returns stating the real name of the owner of the storage locker. It’s Wendell Dupree and it turns out that he’s the twin brother of the victim.

 Ryan and Esposito agree with me when they call Gates’ softer side creepy (it’s so good to see them get along) and Ryan tells Espo that Wendell had a tough life and that he died when he was hit by a subway train. Since the security camera’s in the subways station were broken at the time there’s no way to tell if it was an accident or not, so they could be looking at a double murder. They also find out that Wendy didn’t think it was an accident and that right before Wendell died, he called his sister to tell her it was over and that all their problems were over. Castle and Beckett go to question Wendell’s former boss Angelica Henley (with a silent ‘G’) who says she had no idea his name was actually Wendell and that she was heartbroken when he died (really, somehow I doubt it). When they ask if she knew if he was in any trouble, she says that the police cleared him of the burglary at her house (which happened right before he died) where her pink diamond bracelet was stolen. Castle and Beckett immediately assume that Wendell stole the bracelet and that that is the reason he was killed.

Back at the Castle loft Alexis is clearly upset when she cancels their last dinner before she heads of the college and when Castle tries to convince her to go by saying that it was very hard to get those reservations, Alexis interrupts him by saying “If it’s the reservations you care so much about, why don’t you just take your girlfriend.” and walks off. Told you we hadn’t heard the end of this. Back at the precinct Castle apparently told Beckett that Alexis hates her (you really couldn’t put that more delicately?) and Castle thinks it’s because Alexis feels like she’s being replaced. He says that she’s never done this before, not with Gina or the 100s of super-hot girls he’s been with and Kate says that she doesn’t want to hear that (where’s your tact today, Castle?). Castle tells Kate that he’ll handle this and when Ryan and Esposito ask “Handle what?” they say “Nothing”. I can just see Esposito wondering what’s going on between them. Ryan hands them the case file of the burglary at Angelica’s (with a silent ‘G’) house and Castle says it’s a beauty, clearly stating that he’s referring to the bracelet. I guess he wants to avoid a repeat of last week’s episode (though I doubt Kate’s worried about someone who’s probably older than Martha). Ryan tells them that the burglary was a two man job. They immediately suspect the man who was trying to outbid them at the auction.

When Beckett and Esposito get to the suspects house he tries to attack them with a baseball bat. He says he thought they were thieves (did they not yell NYPD and since when do thieves announce themselves) and that he’s a collector (of junk). He also tells them that a man asked him to bid on that storage locker and he agrees to work with a sketch artist. Back at the precinct Castle has searched through all of the stuff, with no luck. Castle makes another guess at the origin of the creepy doll he found in Beckett’s desk saying something about a gypsy woman (it was a solid effort). Gates walks up to them saying that she loved Frozen Heat and has ordered the entire Nikki Heat series. She also asks if he can sign her book (still super creepy). Once again, Kate’s face is priceless.

They manage to ID Wendell’s accomplice for the burglary, he’s name is Marco Vinstrolli. On the surveillance tape at the storage locker, they see Marco take a safe out of the locker. They manage to locate his van, and Beckett, Ryan and Esposito go, guns drawn, to arrest him. Beckett tells him to take his hand of his tool and Ryan and Esposito can barely contain their laughter. While Beckett and Esposito are questioning him, Castle and Ryan are watching as a …. handyman (don’t know the right word for it, sorry) lasers open the safe. Ryan once again reminds Castle that he won’t be allowed to keep the bracelet and Castle tells him (like a five-year old) that he knows that but just wanted this one moment. Marco says that all he did was disable the alarms and that he had no idea what Wendell’s plan was. Turns out that the safe is empty. Castle says it makes no sense that Wendell would be able to crack a wall safe (apparently they’re not that easy to crack) without the right equipment. Beckett discovers that Angelica (with a silent ‘G’) almost went bankrupt but that she managed to pay of her debt at the last minute right after she got the money from the insurance company. They figure out that she had lied about the stolen bracelet to claim the insurance money. Castle and Beckett get really close (kinda like in 3x01 and 3x12) before realizing they’re in the precinct and pull away.

They search Angelica’s (with a silent ‘G’) house and force her to open the wall safe where she had hidden the bracelet. When they question her, she admits to fraud but denies killing anyone and (of course) asks for her lawyer. Castle still thinks they’re missing something. When Castle asks if he can walk her out, she says she still has work to do. My heart becomes a puddle as Castle says “I so wish I could kiss you right now.” and Kate says “Yeah, I know.”. Instead he shakes her hand and says “This is me softly touching your face, pulling you in for a long slow kiss.” And Kate says “And this is me kissing you back, running my hand through your hair.” while her thumb rubs the back of his hand (like he did with her in 4x13). He says best handshake ever and she agrees while giving him a big smile. He then leaves, leaving Kate clearly wanting more. Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor.

The next morning Martha and Castle are saying goodbye to Alexis at her dorm room. Castle starts to talk about Kate saying that she’ll never replace Alexis, but Alexis tells him that that’s not what she was upset about. She says that she’s scared to live on her own and Castle tells her he’ll always be there when she needs him. Before Castle leaves, she asks him if he can look under the bed one more time. He does, making this my favorite moment of them together. Outside Martha asks him if he’s crying but he just brushes it off saying it’s allergies. They then cry together as Castle sees a girl with a backpack in the shape of a teddy bear, giving him a clue about the case. He says he knows where ‘it’, whatever that may be, is as he smashes Gates creepy doll. There’s nothing in it and when Gates walks in she almost kills him. She tells him that’s one that she bought herself, which makes Castle looking for the other creepy doll and also smashing it. As Gates almost has a heart attack, they find a USB drive and a glass eye inside the broken doll. I’m guessing that Gates is going to go back to hating him now. On the USB drive they find photos of the crime scene where Wendell and Wendy’s parents died in a car accident. On one of the crime scene photos they find a broken glass eye. Castle realizes that Wendell had become obsessed with finding out who killed his parents. He says that to compare the glass eyes to each other he had to steal the glass eye of who he thought had killed them.

Castle and Beckett go to Angelica’s (with a silent ‘G’, this is the last time I promise) house. Beckett let’s Castle take the lead and he finally gets to say “The butler did it”. (Note: see how they’re both wearing the clothes from the season 5 photo shoot.) He denies it at first but then finally admits that it was him who was behind the wheel of the car that hit the Duprees. He says he had put it behind him but then Wendell wanted to drag it all up again so he killed him and Wendy to keep them quiet. They later explain everything to Gates, who now hates Castle more than ever.

Castle tells Beckett that he’s done guessing the origins of the creepy doll and that just because they ‘shake hands’ a lot doesn’t mean that some things aren’t still private. And that she’ll tell him when she’s ready. Which, turns out, is right now. She tells him that she and her dad made it from the twigs they found on the beach at Coney Island when they went there after her mom’s funeral. She says that it’s both a good and a bad memory and that the doll is a reminder that even on the worst days there’s a possibility for joy. I kind of find it less creepy now. She asks if they’ll talk tonight and he shakes her hand and says that he can’t wait. Back at Castle’s loft, Martha promises him that she’ll always stay with him so that he’ll never have to be alone. How generous of Martha. Castle then sits down on the stairs holding the medal he gave Alexis when she first rode her bike.

Be warned, the review of the next episode will probably be twice as big and I’ll be freaking out twice as much. I mean, have you seen the preview?? And the sneak peek?? How do people expect me to focus in school that day? I hope you all liked the review.