Okay,
here’s my review for Swan Song. I’m usually not a fan of the whole
documentary-style episodes, but Castle managed to pull it off. The facial
expressions in the episode were priceless.
We begin
the episode with the band Holy Shemp (what kind of a name is that) who are
being filmed for a documentary and find one of their band member dead. When
Castle, Beckett and the boys arrive Beckett asks Ryan to get rid of the cameras
which he fails to do. The cameras are also at the crime scene, much to
everyone’s dismay (love how Espo threatened them). Castle on the other hand
takes full advantage of the cameras to promote his book (and himself). Beckett
is clearly not as eager to be on TV as she tries to hide her face behind her
coffee while Lanie explains that the victim is James Swan, the lead guitarist. And
when the cameras start to focus on her, Lanie shows us that she doesn’t mind at
all. From Castle I expected this, but Lanie? Ryan, who’s not as comfortable
with the cameras as Lanie and Castle, finds out from the roadie that there was
a white van circling the victim’s trailer. As Castle keeps talking, they hear a
noise coming from the closet, which turns out to be a half-naked groupie.
Unfortunately she’d partied to hard and doesn’t remember anything but the sound
of horse hooves crunching in the snow. When Castle and Beckett are discussing
the case, Beckett notices the cameras and tells them to get out. But then the
producer shows up with a piece of paper that states that they can in fact film
their investigation. Gates is also not happy with this, but since the order
came from city hall, they can’t do anything about it. Gates then gives a little
speech saying that everyone will be accommodating, but that clearly does not
involve Beckett. When Kate later complains to Castle about the cameras, he says
he wants them to see what he sees. Aaaw. When they interview the band members,
they find out that James had told them that he thought someone was following
him and that he also had purposely ditched the cameras the day he died. Espo
then shows them footage and photos of the guy (and his white van) who had been
following James.
We then see
Ryan and Espo in the car on their way to pick up the stalker (pretty sure this
is the first time we’ve seen them in a car together) and they are constantly
bickering as they’re both trying to look good for the cameras. Esposito is
clearly over his resentment for the cameras as he then tackles the guy and
gives a speech at the precinct about the stalker not hurting anyone ever again.
Castle and Beckett are watching from observation as Espo and Ryan interrogate
him, but it turns out that all he wanted was his daughter (the half-naked
groupie). Later Ryan and Espo start to bicker as to whether or not picking up
the fake-stalker was a bust but Espo then says that since he was following him,
he knew that James was at a bank in Soho and then went into a residential
building. This convinces Castle that the murder was about drugs. Beckett then
gets a text from Lanie and Castle makes her explain who Lanie is (don’t they
already know that since she was at the crime scene). In the morgue Lanie, who
clearly changed shirts, shatters Castle’s drug theory and tells them that James
never got any of the standard immunizations. Espo then tells them that James
was at the residential building for Sam Speer who has a lawsuit running against
the band. Espo takes Castle with him to pick up the guy which also turns out to
be a total bust since Sam and James had made up. James had asked Sam to write
music for him, and Castle and Espo suspect that this means that James wanted to
go solo.
Later
Castle and Beckett go confront the band, who are already trying out new
guitarists. Keith is not happy with being accused of murder and storms off. Castle
points out that his shoes make the sound of horse hooves crunching in the snow.
Castle lets Beckett do the interrogation alone because he wants to give her
room to operate (there’s a first). In the interrogation Keith says that James
hasn’t been the same since they performed in Ithika and his alibi for the
murder is that he was with a girl. He says that he may not remember her name,
but he has a sex tape to prove it. When Gates shows up and complains about the
fact that watching that sex tape at the office is inappropriate work behavior. She
also says that the time stamp on the video could be faked, in which Kate
replies that that’s not the only thing being faked. O snap! But Esposito says
that he was able to verify the time stamp since the news was playing in the
background. Ryan then tells them that James didn’t have medical records or any
other papers until he was hospitalized at 17 in Ithika, which happens to be the
place where he was born. Turns out that James grew up in a cult. The leader
John Campbell flew in the day that James was killed. Coincidence, I don’t think
so. Gates asks Espo and Ryan if there’s any leads on Campbell, and after they
both try to come off as the smartest of the two, Espo says that Beckett’s
following an angle. That angle looks a lot like Castle. The cameras film them
in the break room as Castle cups her cheek (don’t forget that Gates isn’t
supposed to see you) and Kate holds his hand, but the sweet moment is over when
she pulls away as she sees the cameras. This of course makes Kate extra mad at
the camera crew, as she tells Ryan and Espo that they can talk to someone else
who escaped the cult. The girl who escaped tells them that she heard Campbell
swear he’d get revenge on James. Ryan then tells them that James had met with
Campbell the day he died, and the girl says it was probably to buy his freedom.
She then tells them about a youth hostel where Campbell might be.
When they
question him he denies everything and Beckett (almost) gets into a screaming
match with him. He then says that if they ever contact him again, he’ll sue them
for religious persecution. When they discuss the conversation with Gates, she
gets a call from the TV director. Gates explains that she’s going to review all
the footage shot at the precinct to make sure it reflects well on the police
department. This freaks out Castle and Beckett, because that includes the
footage of them close together. We then see a conversation between the couple
and the director which I’m sure is about that footage. We then see Espo and
Ryan discuss who should tell Beckett a certain piece of information which turns
out is the fact that someone disappeared from the cult after the band left
Ithika. That person is Buck Cooper, which means that James wasn’t trying to buy
his own freedom, but Buck’s. We then find out that that Buck is the roadie who
Ryan talked to at the crime scene. When they interview Buck he tells them that
Campbell isn’t the killer, since he had promised not to bother them anymore
after he got the money. They learn that Buck was the one who taught James how
to play the guitar. They figure out that James wanted to bring Buck into the
band, which I’m sure didn’t sit well with the guy who was getting the boot.
Castle figures that whoever killed James, is the band member who couldn’t play
the new sheet music. They then question Zeek, who says he can play the sheet
music. But when they hand him a guitar, he has to admit that he in fact cannot.
He then goes into a huge rant, in which he admits to the murder.
When Buck
thanks them for what they did for James, we see Keith invite Buck to join the
band (since they now need to replace two members). Castle and Beckett are then
called into Gates’ office, for what they think is a talk about the footage she
saw. Which is correct, only it’s not about the footage they were thinking
about. Apparently Castle thought it would be funny to jump into the screen when
Gates was giving an interview. Gates on the other hand, didn’t find it that
funny. Kate then silently thanks the cameras for hiding the tape of her and Castle,
and she hilariously high fives him. We then see Keith, Buck an Espo jamming in
the precinct. Espo’s voice is not as bad as Castle said. Kate then takes the
cameras aside saying that she knows she’s not that easy to get to know, but
that she wants to show them something that no one knows about, not even Castle.
She ends up showing them the broom closet (I’m sure Castle knows about that
place) and locks them in there and thus concluding this very different episode
of Castle.
