Castle: Private Eye Caramba! (7x12)

Okay! Castle the Private Investigator! The fun continues. Let's get going.

When a telenovela star gets murdered, Castle is super envious of Beckett's case. However, before long he gets sucked into it. One of the other stars of the show hires him to help track down a diamond-encrusted clutch purse that the victim had with her the night she was murdered. It's worth 500,000 dollars, and the woman who hires Castle needs it back so she can return it to the people she got it on loan from.

The two cases, that of the murder and that of the missing purse, end up running quite parallel to each other. Eventually, Castle finds the limo where he believes the victim left the purse. He almost dies when he's found by one of the bad guys, but Ryan and Espo show up and save him.

In the end, Castle does find the purse, but it turns out to be a cheap knock-off. It looks like the woman actually wanted what was inside the purse. But she's not the bad guy - her and the victim wanted to start a rival television network, so the producers for the telenovela are not happy about that. The case solved, Castle decides to continue sticking with this PI thing, even if he might not get very many interesting cases.
 

The only real subplot here is that Esposito is totally obsessed with the telenovela. He keeps saying that it's his tia who's interested, but eventually admits that he loves the actresses and the shows.

Hm... complaints? I guess I missed Alexis. Oh, and Ryan's whole bit with him trying to act like Castle was funny for one episode, but I'm already getting a little sick of it. I think it's time for another Ryan and Espo bromance-centric episode. Those are always my favorites. Another little thing: I don't like Perlmutter. He's annoying and he has one bit: hating Castle. Seriously. It doesn't matter because he's really not around all that much, but still.

Mostly, though, another winning episode!

First of all, Martha didn't have a lot to do in this episode, but she did have a funny scene at the beginning, when she and Beckett both express their concern that Castle's business isn't going so well. He gets calls, but they're usually from people who want to meet him because of his books, or people looking for their missing pets. Stuff like that. Martha and Beckett are a good team when it comes to caring about Castle and looking after him.

I also loved Esposito's enthusiasm for telenovelas. It was super obvious from the beginning that he was the big fan, not his tia (aunt). I loved it at the end when he asked for the one woman's autograph and then he just started babbling to her about all the great shows she'd been in and which ones were his favorite. Oh, Espo. It's so random and hilarious that Esposito would be into something like Spanish soap operas.

Castle and Beckett are such a cute married couple! I loved the little role-playing scene they had, where Beckett pretends to be a new girl to the big city, while Castle plays the suave PI. The fact that they got interrupted during their make-out session by Castle's client was also pretty hilarious.

The case itself was pretty fun! I like the way we're seeing logical reasons for Castle to still be involved with the cases, while we still stick with this idea that he can't work with the NYPD. It's a nice balance. Castle's case and Beckett's were both really interesting, and both had a couple of good twists. Of course, the ultimate twist is that the cases are the same thing... I was genuinely shocked when the woman came in and pulled a gun on Castle, even if it did turn out to be a prop gun.

I think that's it for now. Lots of great stuff in here. I can't wait for more! (Give me my Ryan and Espo episodes now, please).

8/10