After a one month hiatus tonight CASTLE returns to ABC with its Winter premiere called “Significant Others.” On tonight’s show while investigating the murder of a powerful divorce attorney, Castle’s ex wife returns, throwing his personal life into chaos. Did you see the last episode before the hiatus? We did and we have a full and detailed recap here for you.
To catch you up on the last show when a bearded, rotund man in a red Santa suit with an ID reading Kris Kringle fell from the sky in Central Park, Castle and Beckett were on the hunt to find the person who killed Santa. But everything wasn’t holiday cheer, as they discovered St. Nick may have been more naughty than nice. Meanwhile, Castle and Beckett prepared for their first Christmas together.
On tonight’s show When a powerful divorce attorney who only represented women is murdered, Castle and Beckett are confronted with a plethora of angry ex-husbands, any one of whom could be the murderer. Meanwhile, Castle’s ex-wife (Darby Stanchfield, “Scandal”), Meredith, moves into the loft to take care of Alexis while she recovers from Mono, and to make matters worse, Beckett is also forced to move in while her apartment is being fumigated, causing tension, humor and more than a little awkwardness.
Tonight’s episode is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of ABC’s Castle tonight at 10 PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know what your think of Castle season 5, so far? Enjoy some pics and a sneak peek video of tonight’s episode below!
A woman waits in her car staring at a piece of paper with a name and address scrawled on it. Someone gets in her backseat and stabs her – her throat explodes in a spurt of blood. Meanwhile Alexis is spurting as well – she’s got mono and had to bail on her trip to Paris with her mom Meredith. And by the way, Beckett’s staying there with them
while her apartment is fumigated.
There’s a knock at the door and it’s the evil ex Meredith, luggage and all. She’s come to nurse Alexis back to health. Wow! Looks like five’s a party. At the murder scene, Beckett’s grousing to Castle about letting his ex stay. She’s not happy.
Turns out the vic died from an ice pick to the neck. They find the ice pick and a paper clutched in her hand. It was R. Garrison in Scarsdale. They call in her boyfriend who has no idea what happened. He says she’s working on some high profile cases.
They show him a sketch of the guy they saw fleeing the scene. He doesn’t recognize him. He also doesn’t know who R. Garrison is. Ryan and Esposito are in Scarsdale checking the address. There’s a lady at the door and she tells them R. Garrison is her husband Rob. He explains that he’s a forensic accountant who helps out in divorce cases. Rob says he was scheduled to meet today but she obviously didn’t make it. He said it seemed urgent.
Beckett tells the guys to look at all her current cases to see if anyone was threatening the attorney. She also throws a jab at Castle and says “Men are known for doing stupid things when it comes to their ex-wives.” Ouch.
Castle apologizes about Meredith and says he’s going to take care of it. Beckett gets a call to see Laney in the morgue and Castle says he’s going to go take care of the ex. Laney tells Kate she needs to take care of it because Castle used to have hot ex-sex with her for years. She tells her it’s war and Beckett’s losing.
Back to the case, Laney tells Kate she found trace amounts of someone else’s blood on the victim’s jacket. She’s running DNA.
Ryan says the staff at her law office seemed on edge because they said Michelle was stressed about a case. Beckett wants to know which case and Ryan says all of them and starts tacking up photos of clients and exes. They theorize that the man fleeing the scene could have been hired by one of the angry exes, but then Esposito comes in with good news.
He found Herman Poquille – the guy who ran away from the car because he used his credit card to pay for the subway he took. He says he used to work with Michelle (the vic) as a photographer. He says she called and asked him to help with a big case, but when he showed up, she was already dead. He didn’t want to be wrapped up in it, so he took off. They check Herman’s phone messages and texts and it substantiates what he was saying. There’s a video message from Michelle begging him to help her – saying a life hangs in the balance.
Castle comes home and finds Meredith making soup. She thanks him for letting her stay and says it means so much to her. He brings up Beckett and she congratulates him on their secure relationship and her not minding that she’s staying there. She starts whining about how much she appreciates him letting her be there since she wasn’t always a great mother. She tears up and he caves.
Beckett’s not happy that Castle hasn’t resolved the ex-wife issue.
Ryan comes to tell them it may be an ex-wife, not an ex-hubby that killed Michelle. Samantha’s blood was found on her jacket.
Samantha lost big in her divorce. She explains that her blood got on Michelle’s jacket when they had a little scuffle in court.
Can I geek out for a minute? Samantha is being played by Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis from General Hospital) – love her!!
Castle and Beckett watch in horror as Samantha destroys a priceless painting and some other art. She tells them she can get revenge without murder and continues breaking things. She tells them that Michelle was completely distracted and blew her case. She tells them Michelle had personal problems but she doesn’t know what they were. She says Michelle came to court late and crying.
Samantha’s ex comes in and calls her a bitch and starts breaking stuff of hers. Beckett tells them the next person to break something is going to jail. At the precinct, she marches both of them in – guess the breaking didn’t take a break.
The guys ask Castle if he ever had divorce problems like this and he says both of his were amicable. Beckett adds in – a little too amicable and Ryan and Esposito’s jaws drop.
Castle wants to know why she was crying. They find a café receipt for breakfast and decide to follow up on that.
Ryan and Espo want to know what Beckett’s on about. He fills them in on the ex and Beckett both being at his loft and they are floored. They tell him he’s on the edge of a steep cliff. Beckett says the café owner recalls her arguing with a tall, blue eyed guy. Was it the boyfriend? They agree to bring him in. He had said he hadn’t seen her for a week.
Castle tells Kate he’s booked them a luxe suite at the Four Seasons. She wants to know why he’s arranged that and he says his apartment is overrun by red heads. The spat is cut short by Ryan and Espo who say the boyfriend is in the wind – fake name, fake address, no way to find him.
Castle remembers he was wearing a New York college ring – it had a cathedral on it. It’s University of New York. Ryan said it may be part of his cover story and Castle mocks because that’s a lame cover.
Beckett’s mad about the hotel room and tells him to send Meredith instead of her to the Four Seasons. He tells her it would be heartless to send her away. Kate counters that he just tried to send her away instead and he’s flummoxed. She tells him they’re going home.
At the loft next morning, Kate’s making coffee in a French press – just enough for her and Castle – but Meredith decides to help herself. Meredith tries to launch some girl talk – Kate’s not happy because she’s in a t-shirt and panties. Castle comes in and Meredith hands him a cup of coffee. She bogarted the credit for Kate brewing the joe. What a bitch! Beckett storms out for work.
Castle comes in sheepish. He tries to tell her the coffee thing meant nothing. She lashes out and says Meredith seems too comfortable in his home and with him. Kate says he should have sent her to the hotel. He offers to send Meredith and Alexis to the hotel and to hire a concierge doctor. Beckett says no – they’ll just tough it out.
Kate’s flipping through the university yearbooks and finds Noah – he was a prior military intelligence officer. They find large wire transfers into his account about the time he started dating Michelle. The attorney who hired Noah could be risking disbarment, so he’s a good candidate for a murderer.
Ryan and Esposito find Schuster – a criminal attorney who was sending Noah the funds. They ask him to come downtown and he says he knows his rights and says forget it. He’s stonewalling and they stay on him about the money he sent Noah and accuse him of funding her murder. He caves and says a client of his had him send the money to Noah but he won’t tell them which client because of attorney client privilege.
But attorneys are on public record for cases, so they dig through his clients for the last five years and find famous pro golfer Billy Piper whose wife “fell” off a boat. Michelle was repping Billy’s wife Leann for a divorce, but her death stopped it. They figure out that Michelle was investigating Leann’s death and theorize that she got too close and had to be eliminated.
Castle and Kate head to Billy Piper’s. They ask him about Michelle and he says he doesn’t know who that is. They remind him she was his dead wife’s divorce attorney and that she had come to visit him last month. He says he doesn’t recall any visits. They said this was about the time he hired Noah and he plays dumb on that too.
Beckett tells him it’s awfully suspicious and he clarifies that he wanted to work out his differences with Leann because he doesn’t believe in divorce. He said they went off sailing to try to work on their marriage, but she got drunk and fell overboard.
Okay – geeking out again – they’ve got another General Hospital alumn on the show tonight – Jack Wagner is playing Billy Piper. OMG – GH-gasm!!!
He tells them when Leann died, he lost all of his endorsements and golf deals. Castle comments that he didn’t mention his wife among things he misses and he tells them she wasn’t his favorite trophy. Burn!
Back at the station, they agree they need Noah to turn on Billy. They find Noah on Billy’s garage security cam and get his plate. It’s part of a fleet and they’re tracking him down.
Kate gets a call from Meredith. She tells Castle that Mer wants to take her to dinner, just the two of them. She said yes and Castle wants to know why. She said it’s the same way Castle said yes to her – she was off guard. Espo and Ryan tell him he’s in deep trouble – when girlfriend and ex-wife get together, it’s a huge issue. They ask him if there’s anything Meredith knows he doesn’t want Kate to know and he runs out in a panic.
He chases down Kate and tries to talk her out of having dinner with Mer. She tells him they’ll be comparing notes and he starts to sweat.
Ryan and Espo have a line on Noah. The VP of pharmaceutical firm who owned the car Noah was driving went to University of New York – seems the ring was a cover – Castle has to apologize to Ryan. They’re ready to run him down and bring him in.
They find Noah on a crowded street and he runs from them. He fights with them and Espo gives him a roundhouse kick to the noggin and they draw down on him. Captured!
Back at the precinct, they’ve got Noah in interrogation. Kate tells him they know he’s working for Billy and killed Michelle on his orders. He tells them he has an alibi – University of New York was playing a game he was at. They want to know why he made himself disappear after she died.
He asks to take a walk to get a soda and talks to Kate in confidence. Noah says he works in intelligence not murder. He says Billy’s paranoid and when Michelle started asking questions, he thought she had a vendetta against him. He tells Kate that Michelle was close – she had been pulling records and DEA information. She tells him they’re going to hold him for 24 hours and he agrees, but says after that he’s gone for good.
Noah’s alibi is solid. Kate asks Ryan to find out what Michelle was talking to the DEA about. Kate tells them she’s leaving for her dinner date with Meredith and tells him not to wait up. At home, he’s pacing the floor and his Mom tells him to relax. He tells her his worlds are colliding – he’s in full panic mode. She tells him he should never have let Mer stay there – she says he can’t let freeloaders stay there – he asks if she sees the irony in the statement.
The ladies come in laughing and stress him out for fun. They hug it out and say goodnight. Castle grills Kate on what Mer told her about him. He apologizes to her and asks if Meredith told him anything he needs to worry about. She says that after dinner with Meredith she likes him better, but tells him Mer can’t ever stay there again and he agrees.
Ryan calls with the DEA info and they head back to the station. Ryan says she was asking about the DEA tracking efforts in the Caribbean. There are satellite images of Billy’s boat and another boat nearby. They figure out that he had someone else meet him and moved her body to the other boat to dump it while he headed back. They realize she figured it out when she saw the second boat in another divorce case – the Walter and Samantha break everything divorce case!
They head to Walter’s for a confrontation and bring him in. He says he had no reason to kill his wife’s lawyer when she screwed up the divorce and saved him millions. They confront him with the DEA photos of their boats. They confront him about being Billy’s accomplice in killing Leann. He asks for a lawyer and they’re done.
Castle and Kate agree their case is speculative and can’t figure his motive for helping Billy kill Leann. They find a call between Walter and Garrison – the forensic accountant – on the day Michelle was killed. What’s that about?
OMG! They look at the photos of Garrison’s wife and it’s Leann! She’s not dead. No wonder they couldn’t find her body… She’s married to the forensic accountant and living happily in Scarsdale under an assumed name and brunette hair. They bring her in for questioning.
They show her a photo of Leann and ask her who it is. She says she doesn’t know who it is. Kate takes her coffee cup away and bags it and tells her they’re going to fingerprint her. They tell her to drop the charade. Her hubby has already ID’s the murder weapon as an icepick from their house and that she was gone from their home while Michelle was murdered.
They want to know why. She tells them Billy was a hero on the golf course and a monster at home. She says when she moved to divorce him, the press vilified her. She says Walter helped her plan her escape. She snuck off their boat and on to Walter’s. She was going to leave the country, but then met and fell in love with Rob.
Michelle told her she couldn’t live with the injustice. Leann says Michelle knew what a monster Billy was but wouldn’t let it go – wouldn’t let her live her life.
Castle doesn’t want Kate to leave even though her apartment is done being fumigated. He doesn’t want to be left alone with the redheads. But Meredith is leaving for Paris – Alexis insists on it. Martha and Alexis gesture frantically to Castle that she needs to go.
Kate says she though Meredith had motives when she came there. She says she did. She had heard that he and Kate were serious and wanted to check her out. She approves. Beckett wants to know why it didn’t work out between them. Meredith said he knew all about her, but never really revealed himself to her – like how he felt about his dad. She said she couldn’t continue on that way.
Kate looks thoughtful. Castle ushers out Meredith and starts making Kate breakfast, but she looks pensive. Uh-oh!!