Castle recap by Donna Kauffman: Quixotic for the win

Only three episodes left this season. So we're all wondering ... will they tie the knot this season, or, you know ... not knot it. I'm thinking it's either the epic finale ... or we wait till fall.

I do know that after the wacky deliciousness that was last week's '70s-inspired throwback, tonight we're going back to Castle: The Dark Side. And, that's fair. I guess. Oh, OK, so we like dark and gritty Castle, too! I just hope we don't lose the fun couple banter entirely. The icky gross stuff is always more entertaining when our favorite mystery writer is cringing right along with us.

So, what will it be this evening? Decapitation? Horrifying decomposition? Something even more disgusting that my admittedly fertile brain hasn't pictured yet but will never be able to forget thanks to ABC's special effects department? (And, really, that's a different sort of World's Grossest Job, you know? "Can you make a body that looks like it's been buried in sea muck for 10 weeks with maggots crawling out of the eye sockets?" Yep. I'll get right on that. In my next life. Or maybe the one after that.)

Tonight we take on the world of extreme sports.

We open with a skateboarder huffing it through the mean streets of NYC in the foggy late-night hours. he's being followed by a black-clad mystery figure on a dirt bike. Biker comes around the corner, loses skateboarder ... who then inexplicably reveals himself in a mad dash across the street behind the biker, who, far more explicably follows the kid, shoots him in the back and sends him crashing through some large glass window into ... somewhere we'll find out shortly.

But for now, we switch to Casa de Castle, and our writer is hunched over a Scrabble board. A board he's apparently been hunched over all night as he strains to find the 9-point word combination that will let him beat Beckett and retain his title as the Great Unbeaten Scrabble Player in the family. Writers. We might take words, oh ... a little seriously. At times. On occasion. But given they put food in our mouths, it's a relationship we cherish. Admittedly a little too feverishly at times.

Mom Martha and daughter Alexis are both in house to observe the Big Defeat, which he has yet to concede. But I will say, he's looking rather rugged and studly in that morning-beard-shadowed-jaw kind of way, don't you think? The inevitable call comes for the murder, and he says he's willing to allow Beckett to claim victory pending their rematch that evening. Yeah, Beckett, dressed in yet another very fine coat, is having none of that.

Espo strolls over with the story on the victim. Skateboarder, age 21, from California according to his driver's license, shot sometime between 3 and 4 in the morning by someone chasing him on a motorbike, and the only eyewitness is a very wasted street person. Beckett wonders what the kid was doing out at the time of night and Laney (yay!) strolls by with, "Well, if he was looking for fresh air, he got some by way of three holes in his back from 9mm hollow points ..." That would do it.

Beckett asks if anyone found a hotel key on him, receipts, something to indicate where he was staying in New York. Ryan says they found a key around his neck and a scrap of paper in his pocket with a West Village address. She sends him and Espo to check that out, then runs over to Laney to make sure she had her fitting for her maid-of-honor dress. So ... it's looking like the answer is Epic Season Finale Wedding! I'm all for that. Espo strolls by and we recall last week when his tongue was dragging the ground over her Foxy Brown outfit, so ... have things rekindled further? Well, we don't know, because that's not why Espo strolled over. He wanted to confirm that they just overheard Laney is going to be Beckett's MOH, and, you know ... did she happen to know if Castle has picked his best man. She's all, "Seriously? You think it's one of you two?" and walks away laughing. See? Gritty crime and laughter can go together.

The argument between Ryan and Espo over which one Castle will pick continues as they find the address on the scrap in Dead Skateboard Dude's pocket. They find a young woman there who was his friend when she lived in L.A. I'm already thinking she's not going to be that "First Interview Who Seems Innocent But Ends Up Being the Killer" plot device, but the night, it is young. She reveals that he wasn't staying with her, the key isn't to her apartment, that he just stopped by when he got in town. He had called out of the blue to say he was coming to NYC and asked if he could ship a box ahead to her. She said it was his skateboard tools and such and he didn't want to carry it on because he always got hassled over them by TSA. She's thinking it wasn't skateboard tools because he was antsy when he came to pick them up and freaked out when it looked like the box had been tampered with. She didn't see what was in it. She does tell them why he was in town — for the extreme sports competition being held down by Chelsea Piers. Turns out he was a pro boarder.

Beckett finds out he was a rising star in the sport, favored to win his event, and Castle finds out he was originally from New York, raised in foster care when his mother went to prison, then took off for California and never looked back. Ryan comes in with the news that they were able to figure out the tires on the motorbike from the dirt tracks and it was an off-road bike. They ponder why the killer would have an off-road bike on the road and Ryan tells them that the event also has motocross and those are the kinds of tires they use. So he's off to check that out as Castle opines it would seem the murder was related to the event somehow.

Espo comes in with a lead. Turns out our DSD had beaten the reigning champ a few times over the past months and quite a rivalry had developed, complete with hard feelings on the part of the reigning champ. Beckett gets an inordinately pleased look on her face and glances up at Castle with a, "Hunh, a reigning champion who can't handle defeat ..." comment. Heh. A fan captured a fight between the two on their cellphone, showing Reigning Champ threatening our DSD and it turns out the RC, now sans his top rival, just won his event. So off they go to interview him.

Now, you and I both know it can't be him. We're not even at the theme music plunging pen part of the show ... but let's see how it plays out anyway. Beckett proves to know a bit of the lingo, and Castle asks if there are any extreme sports things he doesn't know about her. She says she thinks catching murderers is pretty extreme. That and marrying him. He pulls the fake humble, "Well, yes, I am extreme. Extremely handsome." To which she replies, "Yeah, with a high degree of difficulty." Oh, Show, thank you for continuing to put the fun in murder. And also for keeping the CSI forensic gore out.

They spy the RC and go to talk to him. The whole streetwise thing vanishes pretty quickly. Turns out he only threatened the DSD after catching him ransacking the head office trailer looking for something. RC was going to turn him in, but DSD begged him not to, to give him 24 hours, claiming it was life or death. "I guess he was right," he said. Aaaand, now we can cue plunging pen, theme music!

We return from commercial break to find Beckett strolling into Event Central to talk to the director of the event. They ask if anything was taken during the break-in, and he says his gun, a .45-caliber (not the murder weapon, then) and they ask if he thinks the DSD might have taken it. He looks very surprised at the suggestion, saying the kid was on his way to superstardom, so he highly doubted that. She asks if maybe he needed the gun for something else, and the guy recalls that when he first showed up, he took a call from someone from his NYC past, asking a favor, one he clearly didn't want to grant. So maybe he fell in with some of the old bad from his childhood. He said DSD was all, "The nerve of you asking that after all these years, don't ever call me again." So, I'm thinking the caller was "Mom who went to prison." You?

Back at the precinct, Castle is opining his Rollerball theory and the only rolling that is happening is Beckett's eyes, then Espo comes in and says maybe it has something to do with the Albanian mob. Beckett comes to attention then. Espo says that DSD took numerous calls from a local nightclub run by the Albanian mob, then gives Castle a vintage pen (you know, the kind where when you hold it up, the girl's clothes slide off to reveal scanty lingerie?) and he's all, "You know, because we're bros." Bros who suck up wanting to be best man. Ryan spies this and realizes the game is on, but has to give his report that DSD ordered from Grub Hub food service all week and had it delivered to some trust fund kid in SoHo who likes to hang with the extreme athletes. Thinking this was where DSD must have been staying, they head there. The guy's place is like a converted loft warehouse, big enough that folks are doing sport tricks in his living room. He used to skate with DSD back in the day, so he let him stay there, but didn't keep tabs on him.

Castle asks if he knows anything about DSD being involved with the Albanian mob, and the guy is all, "Wow, do you think the Albanian killed him?" Um ... what Albanian? Turns out Ex-con Mommy Dearest (didn't I tell ya?) dated an Albanian dude at some point who was hard core into drug dealing and the like. Turns out DSD had a big hand in sending Albanian BF to prison, and ABF was all, "I'll kill him if it's the last thing I do." Turns out he just got out of prison the week before and was a regular at the club shown on DSD's recent calls list. Turns out the Albanian found God in prison and was contacting the kid to make amends as part of his 12 steps. DSD wouldn't talk to him, then finally said he would, but only if he gave him $3,000. He wanted to talk to him, so he paid the kid's price. Said DSD showed up with a gun, maybe he was afraid of him, but took the money, said he had to do something before it was too late, and split.

Cut to Ryan tracking Castle down in the corridor ... to give him his wife's grandmother's secret Shepherd's Pie family recipe that Castle coveted. "Because I think of you as family." Yeah. Here we go.

Espo comes in with more details on DSD's movements the night of his death. He went back to the loft after midnight, so after his meeting with the Albanian, then took off again on his skateboard with a heavy black duffel bag. Bag wasn't at the crime scene, so did the killer take it? Beckett sends them out to track the route from the loft to the crime scene to see if maybe it was dumped somewhere. Castle calls it a day and asks if Beckett is ready to go home. She's beat, so definitely ready. He gives her the eyebrow wiggle. "Not too tired I hope ...?" And, no, not sex. The Great Scrabble Rematch. Cut to hours into the match, Beckett is so done, Castle is trouncing her and enjoying toting up his every point. She's all, "Aren't there more important things than winning?" and he's all, "That's just a notion made up to soothe those who lose" or something like that, so she goes the seduction route, which he's all for ... just as soon as he finishes winning the game. She concedes, but he's having none of that. Winning by default isn't winning in his book. So she plays the word quixotic ... and pulls out a narrow margin of victory. She says she's sorry, and the pouting, now two-time losing Castle picks up his wine glass. "I think I need to be alone."

We return to the precinct where Espo tells Ryan that they need to make the best man decision for Castle, meaning Ryan should defer to Espo, as he could clearly design the better bachelor party. Ryan poo-poos that idea, as we knew he would, saying that as a family man, he brings a higher moral standard to the ceremony, and there's that part where he photographs better than Espo. In walks Beckett and a subdued Castle. Both Espo and Ryan vie to cheer him up with new information on the case, catching Beckett's notice with their sucking-up-i-tude. Ryan says he found out the key they found on DSD belonged to a gym locker and that the kid was there the night of his murder the hour before his death. His member card was swiped in and out close to the same time, so they assume he was there to drop off the duffel. They go in, and they find it. It has wall-climbing gear, which is what he did when at the gym, according to the trainer, along with the gun he stole from the event director. A packet of tools that include a glass cutter. Everything he needed to break in to ... somewhere. If those were the tools he sent ahead, that means he was a thief before arriving back in NYC, or he knew he was going to be one while in the city before he got there.

At the precinct, Beckett comments that if he'd turned to a life of crime at some point, they still had no evidence that he stole anything. Ryan comes in with a receipt found in his bag for the day of his murder from an electronics store. He bought an old camcorder, but they can't figure out why he went old school. I'm temporarily distracted by Beckett's natty riding jacket and tie combo and her hair once again being pulled up and away from her face, as it was the day before. What's with the new severe style? It looks good on her, but then what doesn't? Except the hideous designer wedding dress from earlier in the season, of course. But no one could pull that thing off.

Anyway, back to the murder ... New info comes in with camera grabs from the gym showing that it wasn't DSD who logged the bag in, it was another kid who was staying at Trust Fund's loft. Turns out he's also a competitor. One who has a record for breaking and entering and happens to compete in motocross. The plot, it thickens. Turns out DSD hired the kid to help him break into some 15th-floor office. DSD paid the guy the 3K he'd gotten from the Albanian, but for the trouble, he wanted more. DSD told the guy he wasn't breaking in for money or to steal but to make something right for a friend who had died, and the guy believed him. He doesn't know who the dead friend was.

Espo is making all chummy with Castle and asking him to tag along to the skate park, but Ryan intercedes with news that he found out the building DSD broke into was a law office, which sends Castle and Beckett off to find out what was going on there and why the break-in wasn't reported. Espo glares, Ryan is smug. The battle, it continues. At the law office, Castle wonders if Beckett has noticed how weird Ryan and Espo are acting and she's all, "Oh, they just feel sorry for you because of the beat-down I gave you in Scrabble," but then they're inside and time to talk to lawyer guy. They notice a new window being installed, but the lawyer claims there was no break-in and that the window was damaged during a "bird incident." They flash DSD's photo, but no dice, then ask if they can look around, also no dice. They want to know who was in the office the night of the "beak-in" and he's all, "Get a warrant," so out they go.

Back at the precinct Beckett opines that the lawyer is clearly covering something up, and I'm momentarily pulled away from Beckett's natty attire to wonder why on earth Castle is wearing the loud red shirt under his jacket, but there's a murder to be solved, so sartorial pondering must be put aside. They decide to go see DSD's prison mama, and Castle takes a moment to tell Ryan and Espo that he knows why they are being nice, and it's just making it harder, so they need to go back to normal. Of course, he's talking Scrabble beat-down aftermath, and they're thinking he's torn over the best man question between the two, so naturally they go to Laney to get her help in fixing the problem. She refuses to do the choosing for Castle, leaving Espo to ponder another solution and Ryan standing there in a very blue suit. What's with the neon primary colors this evening?

Cue the prison chat with mama who is grieving the loss of her son. They ask if there was anyone that DSD knew who died under unusual circumstances and she tells them about a kid from the old neighborhood, a few years younger, that DSD used to look out for. They formed a skate crew and DSD thought the kid had more talent than he did. The kid was killed six years ago at age 12 at a construction site, crime never solved, and DSD took the loss hard. They can't find any connection to the lawyer. Ryan comes in with the camcorder, found ditched and empty, but with a bullet hole in it, so DSD had it on him when he was shot. The killer apparently wanted what was in it. Castle has an epiphany on why DSD needed the camcorder. He said he didn't want to record something, he wanted to watch something. There is a piece of tape still in the machine that was left behind when the killer tore the cassette out. It's from the date the kid was killed six years ago and shows the event director threatening DSD if he ever told anyone what he saw ... which was the director killing the kid. Ooooh, did we see the event director being The Bad Guy? I don't think we did!

Back at the precinct, Castle says that the event gave the DSD the chance to finally make things right and expose the kid's killer, but Beckett still wants to know why the tape was at the law office and how that ties in to the murder. Ryan finds out that the lawyer represents the Killer Director and pulls them both in.

Beckett goes after Killer Director showing them the tape piece and claiming she has enough to lead a jury to a conviction. Slimy lawyer advises him to keep quiet and Beckett says if he's covering up the kid's murder she'll have him disbarred. Killer Director is crumbling, saying he's not going to go down for murders he didn't commit, and the lawyer is all, "Stop digging our graves here," but the Not Killer Director wants to come clean, so Beckett kicks the lawyer out. He refuses to leave his client, so the client fires him, and out he walks. Back to Not Killer Director for the real story. He says he began his career filming skateboard videos and the kid was a natural, but one of the other kids in the video wasn't as good, lost his cool when the kid trash-talked him and banged his head so hard he died. Turns out that other kid? Yeah, it was Trust Fund Kid. DSD wanted to go to the cops, but he and the director dude were all trying to get out of the neighborhood, make a name for themselves, so decided they'd get nailed for the murder and didn't call. Instead, given there was video proof, they struck a deal. Five million for the tape. But Trust Fund wouldn't get his hands on that money until he turned 21 ... which is happening during the current event. Which was why DSD was there and why he had to steal the tape before director dude destroyed it for the 5 million, and the proof would be gone forever.

Cue Trust Fund Killer's b-day bash at the loft as Beckett and Castle come in and bust him, he makes a break for it, but Ryan slams him and cuffs him. Sorry, brah. Slightly anticlimactic, but then we're back at the precinct and Castle is wanting a rematch. Again. But Ryan and Espo come in and say they need to have a man chat with Castle. Beckett exits stage right and Ryan and Espo tell Castle they've decided to relieve him of the impossible task of choosing between them. By agreeing to both be his best men. Co-besties. They're all fist-bumping and proud, and Castle is all, "I'm flattered," and Espo is all, "You should be," while Ryan is, "We'll do this up right," leaving a flustered Castle to finally bust up the bro-fest with the revelation that he'd already chosen his best man. He asked Alexis. But he still wants them to be groomsmen. They'll be groomsmen, right? The two struggle to recover with dignity intact, not entirely successful, but humbly accept. Castle exits, and Ryan is all, "I didn't see that coming," and Espo is all, "I can't believe I gave him my pen," and Ryan is all, "I can't believe I gave him a secret family recipe," to which Espo is all, "I can't believe we got beat by a girl." Ryan sobers. "We will never speak of this again." "Speak of what?" says Espo. "Exactly," says Ryan.

Men.

Cut to Casa de Castle as Castle is setting up the rematch board. Beckett comes in, still in natty jacket but hair now down. She clears the table and says she wants to play a different game. Poker. Castle is all, "You want to play poker? Against me?" She perches across from him. "Strip poker." He can't deal fast enough. Fast-forward to Castle in red shirt and Beckett in a bra. She wants to go all in, and he's all, "I only have this shirt left." She wants to know what he's got, and he says who cares, then ... no more poker. "This is so much better than Scrabble." Yeah, it is.

Roll credits.

Pretty good episode, back to our crime-of-the-week solvers and keeping the relationship banter going. Good balance ... but only two episodes left! And next week we go back, once again, to the Mama Beckett Murder case. Sigh. So ... what's your verdict on the wedding? This season? Fall?

I have one verdict that I know the answer to — who won last week's Big Release Day Giveaway! Yes, my latest book, Half Moon Harbor, hit the stands today! So who won the awesome Half Moon Harbor canvas tote bag stuffed with signed copies of Pelican Point, the first book in the series, AND book two, Half Moon Harbor? You did, Brenda Brown! Send me an address to donna@donnakauffman.com and your prize package will be on its way.

Now, given it's actually THE Release Day, we have to keep the celebration going, don't we? Of course we do! Up for grabs, a signed copy of Half Moon Harbor and the specially designed clipper ship and hand-tied, nautical monkey knot bookmark charm for this release by the ever-fabulous Joyce Taber of The Cotton Thistle. (Yep, the very same one who designs jewelry collections for all of Nora Roberts' releases. I know! I'm a lucky girl. And I share!) So, to enter: drop me an e-mail to donna@donnakauffman.com with "I want to get lucky, too!" in the subject line. I'll draw a name from the stack and announce it in next week's recap. Don't forget to check back to see if you're the Big Winner!

For a photo of the bookmark charm and all the latest on the book release, check out my personal blog and my website for all the upcoming release information. And if that's not enough excitement for ya, you definitely have to join the party over on my Facebook Fan Page. That's where the day-to-day crazy goes on, with peeks into my daily hiking adventures (there were bear pictures this week. That I took. On the trail. Of my black bear buddy. Right next to me. Just sayin' ...) and, of course, our weekly Mark Harmon Moment, to name a few of the highlights ... Don't miss out!