Castle Season 4 Episode 15 “Pandora” TV Recap and Review
This week’s episode is the first part in a two part series that deals with Castle and the C.I.A. coming together to help solve a case that could have massive repercussions on the world if it came to pass.
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The episode begins with a look of an exterior of a building, but overhearing of what sounds like two men fighting. Overheard is a series of grunts, punches being hit and connecting till there is nothing but silence and then sound of glassing shattering as a man is being thrown out a window.
Meanwhile Castle as at home making a special dinner for Alexis and himself so they the chance to reconnect due to not being able to spend time together because of Alexis’s two internships not including the latest one she has just required that he wasn’t even aware of until Martha told him. Martha is under strict orders from Alexis not to reveal what the latest internships is about, but gives her Martha seal of approval, which just gets Castle even more worried. Castle receives a phone call from Beckett to meet him at their latest crime scene where he runs into Alexis who just happens to be apprenticing under Lanie at the Medical Examiner’s office. Castle is shocked and upset, but not for the reasons you think. First of all, Castle doesn’t want Alexis to disturb the “delicate” balance between his work life and his home life. Second, he doesn’t want her encroaching on his territory. Seems like someone is a wee bit jealous.
Lanie says their victim was not only shot and stabbed before he fell to his death, but he was choked and stabbed with a pencil in the neck as well. I agree with Castle on this statement, “overkill!” Beckett and Castle follow a blood trail which seems to be from their killer leading away from the crime scene and to the main road. Through some video surveillance, they see their killer, later to be identified as a Thomas Gage (David Chisum) getting into a cab with a hostage victim, a Tina Masay. The team hurries to her apartment where they think she is being held and bust down the door finding a cool and collected Thomas sitting down eating a sandwich while his hostage, Tina is gagged and tied to a chair. Can we say disturbing?!
Back at the station, Thomas waves his rights and tells Beckett and Castle that they know nothing and any charges that are against will go away. They receive information that Thomas Gage is not his real name and so far there is no record for this man anywhere and after speaking to the hostage they understand that this man is whole lot more dangerous than they have previously thought. The duo head downstairs with Lanie to see about their dead victim and Lanie tells them on the way over that so far his fingerprints have come back with nothing and this man has old battle scars covering most of his body. When they reach her lab, the body is gone and Alexis who has just stepped out a minute previously, has no idea where it could have gone and find out that Gage is just pulled a Houdini from his cell and has disappeared as well.
Ryan and Esposito find video of Gage leaving the precient not only through the front door but in a cop’s uniform. They also find evidence of Gage looking through their database for an address on a Tray McGrath. Both Castle and Beckett race to Tracy’s house hoping to arrive there on time, but sadly they are too late and they instead find Tracy’s dead body on her living room floor. Beckett tells Castle to remain put while she checks the rest of the house. She goes into the kitchen noticing there is a mug filled with hot teal still steaming and Beckett immediately draws out her gone, sensing something is quite right. She decides to head out and turn from around a corner to see Castle standing there with a black hood over his head and is too late to react when a gun is pointed to her own head and a black hood pulled over her head as well. Castle and Beckett are then taken an undisclosed location where their hoods are taken off inside in elevator to a floor that looks like it was directly taken out of Alias and are greeted by woman, a Sophia Turner (Jennifer Beals) who seems to know Castle, and welcomes them both to the C.I.A.
Meanwhile, Kevin and Esposito are trying to figure out the connection between McGrath and Gage. They decide to talk to Tracy McGrath’s employer and find out that she had a PhD in mathematics and was a model employee. He does however remember that she left her office unexpectedly for two hours they day before her death. Back at the C.I.A remote location, Sophia explains to Beckett that Castle and her know each other, when Castle researched her as his inspiration for the character “Clara Stryker” from the Derek Storm novels. To say that Beckett is a bit jealous of the pair and finding that she wasn’t his first muse is an understatement. Sophia then goes to explain the reason that they are here. Thomas Gage is actually Gary Cooper a former Navy seal that was a remarkable agent before he gone rogue. According to Ryan and Esposito who call Beckett during her stay at the C.I.A and are seemingly unware of their friends predicament and that they are on speakerphone, they explain that McGrath had in calendar “Pandora” scheduled in and drove out near Newark Airport during the two hours she disappeared the day before her death. Sophia explains that “Pandora” is the code name of his doomsday mission.
Sophia tells Castle and Beckett that they are partners in this and that the two of them will continue to this case because they have found more information in the past couple days than her agents have. They also have installed two apps on their phones to Sophia’s direct line, Beckett happens to have the C.I.A logo, while Castle just has a giant panic button instead. She also informs that anytime of their stay her and what goes on between them remains confidential. Beckett is upset that she has to answer to someone and jealous that happens to be one of Castle’s former flings, while Castle is just excited at the prospect of playing spy!
Both Castle and Beckett head on over a parking garage where they find out Tracy kept a car parked at as was the place that she came to the day before death. They find in the trunk a military grade phone and scrambler, but when they are about to turn it on Gage is standing right behind them with a gun. Not only does he takes their phones and smashes them, but he locks them in the trunk of the car. Castle tells Beckett he was able to push the panic button before Gage took it and Beckett is less than please of the idea of being rescued by Sophia’s men nonetheless.
The two are brought back to headquarters where they are given new phones, but are able to witness how the C.I.A traces phone calls, which is pretty cool. They find out that Tracy made a call to someone in Brooklyn and through some fancy C.I.A intelligence techniques they are able to see video of who is on the recieveing call. The man who is talking on the other end is Dr. Nelson Blakely, who supposedly drown years ago, but apparently faked his own death. He used to work for the C.I.A developing the “Linchpin Theory” a way to find probability on what small events will bring world change for either the good or the bad. Castle wants to find Blakely, but Beckett wants to find Gage saying it is her duty as a homicide detective to bring Tracy’s killer to justice. Castle understands, but believes the right move is for them to go after Blakely and Beckett tells him that he is not her team, but on Sophia’s so he is on his own on this one.
Castle goes back to his place trying to figure out Blakely’s coded message from his phone call with Tracy. Martha tries to get him to open up about his argument with Beckett that she overheard from Alexis. He tells her it is nothing and that solving this piece to the puzzle is more important. Martha suggests that maybe the message isn’t a direct correlation to what he meant but has a double meaning. This gets Castle thinking so he goes to Beckett explaining that he is partners with her and no one else. The two decide to work together and end up decoding Blakely’s message to the location he was supposed to meet Tracy. The two head on over, where they confront Blakely and he agrees to go with him, but he request to be driven to Pier Thirty-Two. He explains to Beckett and Castle that he faked his own death knowing that he could never leave the C.I.A because his work would always be in demand and he just wanted to get back to helping people and the reason for all of this was because he found a variable in that could bring down the U.S. Economy so substantially that it would have repercussions for ages and that is the information that Gage’s wants.
Castle and Beckett try to get him to speak about what the variable is, but Blakely notices a flock a birds flying away indicating that they are spooked. So Blakely flees the car, only to be shot in the back. Castle and Beckett are in still the car when a big black SUV starts to ram them from behind and drives their car over their pier and into the water, thus ending the episode and leaving a “To Be Continued” sign to flash across the screen for next week’s episode.
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First of all, let me state that I really enjoyed this episode immensely. It was fast paced which I so greatly appreciated, from what seemed to be a steady stream of slow-going episodes. This one in particular also had great dialogue that wasn’t just reduced to great one liners or overly used puns, but dialogue with substance and slight humor to balance the show that was perfectly delivered and expressed by a great casting of guest stars, Jennifer Beals (Chicago Blue) and David Chisum (OLTL).
To make this short and sweet , what I like about this episode was that it wasn’t the typical “Castle” episode. Like I stated earlier, it was more than just the case of the day and a little tidbit at the end being about a character’s development. The plotline was centered on Castle and Beckett and had them dealing (subtly…or not, I should add) with the jealousy issues and the questions at hand than just dancing around the issue for an episode or three. It broke away from the monotony of the usual way of solving cases to something much more. It was heart thumping and incredibly thrilling that became more about the characters interactions, old and new, and how they handled the unusual situations that they were place in.
Honestly, as viewer and fan of Castle, episodes like these is what makes all the difference in the world for a show that can be easily pigeonholed as serialized crime drama, which it has being feeling as of late. I wish for more episodes like this in the future not only for Castle and Beckett, but for Ryan, Esposito, and Lanie instead of the case by case episodes then a jaw dropping great episode then a case by case one all over again. This episode just leaves you wanting more and I hope “Castle” takes notice of that. Check below to find the second part and conclusion to this two episode event for the promo of next week’s episode entitled “Linchpin.”
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
