Castle: Resurrection (7x14)

Dun dun dunnnnnnn...

I'm going to be brief, going through the plot of this one. There's really only one thing we need to talk about, after all.

Basically, Lanie notices that a murder victim has had some plastic surgery done, and she thinks the work was done by Dr. Kelly Nieman, the plastic surgeon who also just happened to be Jerry Tyson's (3XK's) girlfriend. What does this mean? As they try to figure out what happened to this dead girl, they find someone else who looks just like her, and figure out that Dr. Nieman must have made one of the girls look like the other, just like she did with Lanie and Espo. When they go to find a guy named Michael Boudreau, they are instead confronted with Jerry Tyson!

They bring Jerry in, but here's where it gets weird - Jerry Tyson says he's Michael Boudreau, and that he's had some work done, so that's why he looks like the supposedly dead serial killer. The rest of the episode is basically just them trying to prove that the man they have in holding is in fact that serial killer 3XK. Every line of inquiry falls flat. They even get some old DNA from some baby teeth saved by Jerry's mother, but the DNA doesn't match the man they have in holding. They are forced to let "Michael Boudreau" go.

A bit earlier, Beckett had run off to find one of the girls caught up in this whole case - the person who the victim was changed to imitate. As "Boudreau" and Kelly Nieman leave the precinct together, hand in hand, Castle still can't get an uneasy feeling out of his head. "Boudreau" winks at him just as the elevator closes on him. Castle tries to call Beckett, to no avail - she won't answer her phone. We see Beckett on the street, as she is injected with something and taken away, unconscious.

If I were to have a qualm? I don't understand why 3XK needs Dr. Nieman to change the women to look like other people. I mean, I get the idea of looking for victims who won't be missed as much, so as to get away with it better. But are there no naturally pretty and blonde ex-con women out there? The plastic surgery makes for a creepy narrative element, but I'm a little fuzzy on why 3XK needs that in the first place.

Other than that, I guess the only annoying thing is that the whole episode just felt like buildup to the twist at the end. It was all just a waiting game, and the same story could have been told in much less time to get to the punchline, as it were. This is a difficult thing to explain. I think it'll work better when we have part two of this episode and we can feel the story as a cohesive unit.

I did genuinely enjoy this episode, and I'm seriously pumped for next week.

First of all, Alexis and Martha were so funny at the start of the episode. Martha apparently got an acting job, and she tells Castle that she's in his debt, because Castle told her to go for it. Of course, Martha completely ignores the large amount of monetary debt that she really is in, because she lives with Castle without paying rent. Alexis, on her way out the door, informs her father that she "signed up for an escort service, and that she has to "meet a client." Of course, this freaks Castle out.

Alexis also gives Beckett a kiss on the cheek, which is new. This causes Castle and Beckett to talk about the possibility of having their own children someday. Obviously, this sweet little conversation is a way to juxtapose thoughts of a future with the possibility of Beckett's life coming to an early end next week. (Yeah right. But still, the angst should be enjoyable).

Despite being a bit unclear as to the point of the plastic surgery, I still think it works really well as a scary story element. All of the scenes with Boudreau/Jerry Tyson were really creepy. It seems pretty clear that this man really is 3XK, but at the same time, there's this lingering uncertainty. Even though Castle feels confident, he can't know for sure. It's unsettling to watch this man talk, not knowing if he's a mass murderer or an innocent bystander. The actor playing Boudreau/Jerry is very talented at toeing the line. Is he being genuine? Is he just a good actor? You don't know for certain what all is going on until that sinister wink right at the very end. Then, of course, you know shit is going down.

That promo for next week has me seriously freaked out. I mean, I know they won't kill Beckett, but I do think they're going to kill someone who's been surgically altered to look like her. That's going to be so traumatic for Castle. After all of the guilt that Castle has felt for letting 3XK get away with things in the past, can you imagine what it will do to him if he thinks this man has killed Beckett? Yikes!

Other smaller things to note: I loved the way that Gates let Castle come back to work on this one case, because of course Castle knows more than almost anybody about 3XK. It was cute to see how excited Beckett was to bring Castle in, even given the terrible circumstances. Also, we did get a bit of Ryan and Esposito's reactions to all of this. Remember when Ryan's gun was stolen and used to kill people? Well, Ryan has quite the vendetta against 3XK for that, as well he should. Everybody in the precinct is horrified at the thought of letting that man go, when they feel like they know, instinctively, that he is a serial killer.

I think that's all I've got. Next week is going to be interesting!

8.5/10