It was as close to a flashback episode as we’ve ever gotten on CASTLE this week. Kate and the boys head back to their old stomping grounds — the police academy — when one of the recruits is found dead with the bullet dug out. Beckett takes over the task of investigating the 7 recruits without alibis for the night of the murder. One of them — a young, smart, and stubborn girl — reminds everyone of Beckett at that age. Turns out the young recruit was fraternizing with the victim.
With video footage recovered of the victim’s whereabouts the night of the murder, it appears that he was meeting with mob boss Lucky Jack Flanaghan. When asked about it, the mini-Beckett reveals that Lucky Mike is actually her biological father, and he tried to leverage her into becoming his spy for the police. Her boyfriend decided to take matters into his own hands and offer himself up in her place, which explains the video, as well as his corpse.
But, after Lucky Jack is confronted by his daughter (and her gun), he truthfully admits that he didn’t have anything to do with the death of her boyfriend. Beckett then has to talk the girl down from pulling the trigger, but she eventually relents and they go back to the academy to try and find some answers. It’s here that Beckett is talking to her old recruit officer when she gets the call from Espo saying that they tracked the car outside of the victim’s last known location to the very officer Beckett is talking to. She pulls her gun and he does the same, but after a quick confrontation he says that he hasn’t driven his car in days — in fact, he lent it to a friend of his.
This “friend” turns out to be a man high up in the pecking order at the academy whom the victim caught siphoning funds. Beckett corners the killer in the recruit simulation and, with the lights out and cardboard cut-outs popping out randomly, it is an intense game of real-life laser tag for a few minutes. But she eventually takes him down and the bad guy is brought to justice. The recruit she has taken such a liking to also agrees to stay at the academy to finish her training.
On a more personal note, Beckett and Castle are finally ready to stop lying to one another. After a close call from Rick’s mom in the morning, the two meet up and Rick (after some persuading by Haylee) tells Kate that he knew about Locksat during his missing time and wiped his memory to keep her safe. He goes on to tell Kate that he doesn’t want to be left on the sidelines in this case anymore, especially now that he has such a personal connection to it. She agrees and says she needs him with her on this. “This is our fight now”, she tells him. And oh what good TV this new fight will give us!
Catch an all new CASTLE on April 4 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
