Castle S8 Ep4 – What Lies Beneath

So, all right, this show is doing better than I thought it would at this terrible storyline. It’s still a terrible storyline, but provided it doesn’t last too much longer, things *could* be okay. Maybe.

I love these former altar boys.

This week’s case is that of Dave Johnson, a man shot to death in a church. Ryan, Espo, and Castle – working most of the same clues but not at the same time – quickly discover Johnson was a pathological liar who claimed to be both P.J. Moffet, a reclusive novelist who’s only written one novel which then became a huge classic (like a mixture of Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger, I guess), and a famous Irish mobster who sold out his crew and went into hiding.

As soon as I saw Ryan Devlin’s name in the guest stars, I knew he was going to be a bad guy. And he is – although not the murderer. Instead he’s the man who was skimming money from his job at City Hall. The “midnight run” sting operation that Castle suggests, Beckett approves, and he puts into action with Ryan, Espo, and Alexis is amusingly carried off. At least there was no sending of Alexis into highly perilous situations all but alone this week.

In the end, after all the anvils the episode dropped about how lying damages relationships, so you should really be honest with your loved ones, it turns out that it was Johnson’s wife who killed him. She was furious at him for lying about being P.J. Moffet, and more than that, forcing her to live in poverty when she could have married someone who was actually rich. (Classy.) As Castle says, a lie in a marriage is most damaging of all. Beckett looks very guilty when he says this, even though he’s not talking to her directly. But he sort of is. And all of us in the audience want to shake her/the writers for ignoring the easy way to resolve this. Or, you know, to have never started it in the first place.

This was a random but amusing scene. Also, I wonder if Ryan’s deal with Castle still holds.

Other plotlines: Ryan’s worried about being able to support his growing family, so Espo suggests they both take the sergeant exam so they can get pay raises. Ryan then lies and says all the spots for the exam are full, when there was one spot left that he was going to take. This makes Espo highly miffed. For a little while, I was worried they were going to break up both the OTP and the BroTP of the show at the same time, but they’re back on the same page by the end of the ep, when Captain Beckett points out that she can pull some strings to fit them both into the exam. Aw.

Also, in a cute moment/plotline that I didn’t want to be cute because the reason for its existence still makes me mad: Beckett tries to make herself a cappuccino at the beginning of the ep, only for it to turn out gross. But when Castle makes her one at the end, she says it tastes perfect. Because the secret ingredient Castle hasn’t told her about is looooove, okay?? Figure it out already, Beckett/writers!

For Kate’s secret investigation, not much new ground there tonight. No Vikram onscreen, even though he investigates some heroin from Vulcan Simmons’ recovered stash for her.

So what did you think? Is this still the same show you used to love, or are they running a con on their audience?