There were three deaths in this week’s hour of CASTLE, but only one victim. And that victim happened to be alive at the end of the episode. How? Well, Castle tries to argue immortality, but the doctors say it was just luck.
The victim, Allan Masters, drank poison first, and the NYPD was called in just like always. Lanie pronounced him dead and the team searches the apartment when, all of a sudden, Allan wakes up. Rightfully confused, they take him to the doctor, where Castle throws out superhero theories and ideas about super-cell regeneration, while Beckett and the team focus on who tried to kill him.
While Espo and Ryan track down a man Allan recently fired from the waste management plant where he worked, Castle brings Allan back home with a protective detail parked outside the door. However, that protective detail doesn’t stop the rigged electrocution trap on Allan’s bed. Lanie comes once again and this time pronounces him dead for real. Until, that is, Allan jumps up and asks if anyone has been cooking barbecue in his house.
The case continues to confound as the now seemingly immortal Allan tries to think of anyone who would want him dead. They interview another suspect who had access to the poison and two bags packed for Mexico, but it turns out he was worried that whoever was after Allan was after him as well. This man informs Beckett and the team that apparently the mob plays a role in this. Allan doesn’t care, though, as he finally (with Castle persuading him) gets up the nerve to ask a girl he likes from work out on a date.
While at dinner, a man named Horatio who works for a company that Allan had recently investigated for a big chemical spill shows up. He is Allan’s arch-nemesis, as Castle claims. After vague threats, Horatio makes an offer to protect Allan from further attempts on his life, but Allan refuses, saying he won’t work with Horatio.
The team is finally able to identify two gangs, the triads, usually at war, who have signed a peace treaty for some reason. Allan seems to have stumbled into something he doesn’t quite understand. But, with Lanie’s help identifying a substance Castle recovers from one of the triads’ business fronts, they piece together the puzzle.
It turns out synthetic heroin was being made in the US. This drug is more addictive, has less painful side effects, and is domestically made, which all equals more money for the manufacturer. This is why the traids were at peace and this is why they were after Allan. The chemical plant where they make one of the elements of the drug had a spill and if Allan put together the chemical spill with the news reports of this new drug, they would be exposed.
With this new information, Allan is afraid that the girl he took on a date is in danger. He rushes out to save her, but when she pulls out a gun and reveals she is the head of the drug operation and, consequently, the one trying to murder him, things take a turn for the worse. She puts a bullet right through his forehead just as Castle and the police arrive.
But, because this is the luckiest man in the world, the bullet apparently didn’t puncture any brain tissue or skull fragments. After another visit to the hospital Allan is declared completely fine.
Whether it is believable or not, Allan Masters is one lucky character.
While the case is solved, Kate had her own personal case to deal with. Her IT man was able to ID someone working for Locksat, and this same man comes to visit Kate and threaten her life if she continues to persue this mystery. Kate fires back with a threat of her own, but also an offering of peace if this man will work with her. The final minutes of the episode have him meeting back up with Kate and Castle, handing over a phone with a time and place of where Locksat calls him every month.
This could be the big break that Kate needs to solve the mystery of who is behind Locksat. But, given actress Stana Katic’s recent firing from her role as Kate Beckett, this could spell out a dangerous and painful way to write Beckett out of the show. Here’s hoping Kate Beckett can survive through the rest of the season!
Catch an all new CASTLE on May 2 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on ABC!
