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Castle 6×8, “A Murder is Forever” Recap/Review: The Law of the Jungle is…the Lioness Rules!

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“A Murder is Forever” is thus far my favorite season six Castle episode.  It had a great case, fun Caskett, cool Ryan & Esposito, Captain Gates, Lanie and not a sign of Pi or Alexis.  Really, that’s pretty close to perfect!

Castle 6x8 lead article 2 500

I’ve done a focus review on how great it was to get back to basics on Castle, so I won’t get into here. (You can find that article HERE.)  Instead, let’s go through the recap and review the specifics of  what made this episode shine!  As a recap/review you can expect there to be SPOILERS for Castle season six, episode 8 – “A Murder is Forever.”

The show opens up at an auditorium where the speaker is introducing Alice Clark.  She’s a famous relationship coach who studied the “Mighty Silver-Back Gorilla.  She applied her findings to the “Alphas of our Urban Jungles.”  Her book is called, “Mating Rituals, A field Guide to Relationships.  As the introduction is going on her assistant is frantically trying to get her on the phone.  It’s no use.  In the silence of a parking garage cell a phone rings.  A woman (presumptively Alice) sits in her car lifelessly staring ahead.   Next to her a dark-haired man looks at her grimly.  He reaches out and silences her phone, then pulls out a knife…. That opening set up was creepy!  Seriously creepy.  The sudden cut to silence in the garage was a great touch.

The book title is a good one considering what’s going  coming up in this episode. There is a certain ritual in how most relationship come together – even the unconventional ones.  Castle has essentially been taking viewers through the steps and rituals that build occur in the process of building a life-time love, from first meeting, to where we are now.   Having a relationship coach – or rather her book – become part of the ritual discussion is an amusing way to look at a relationship rite of passage – cohabitation.  Alice is supposed to be the relationship coach to the rich and powerful – based on the study of the “Silver-Back Gorilla.”  That’s significant, because the Silver-Back Gorilla is just an adult male gorilla.  (Yes, I looked it up.)

There’s a reason that Ms. Clark would be applying her theory to the rich and powerful.  Here’s a brief description of how they operate.

The silverback makes the decisions on when his group wakes up, eats, moves and rests for the night. Because he must protect his family at all times, the silverback tends to be the most aggressive. (www.defenders.org)

Why am I focusing on this?  Because this is a very well constructed script and nothing is random.  This is the next scene.


While silverback is aggressive, bossy, and tells everyone what to do.  Best selling author Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is no gorilla.  He’s rich, yes, but powerful?  Not so much.  Castle claims the lion as his totem, and it fits him well.  For example, do you know why the male lion have a mane? To get the female’s attention.  No wonder Castle’s so obsessed with his hair! See, while we all have this idea about “the king of the jungle” a study of lions will tell you that the lioness rules!  Reading about lions it quickly became clear that not only is Castle the lion, but  Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) is the lioness!   A pride of lions is run by the females, not the males and it’s the lioness that hunts and protects – not the lion!  I had such a good time reading about lions I’m going to give you the link, trust me, I giggled the whole time as I applied it to Castle and Beckett:  www.thebigcats.com

Another note about that scene, and really the entire episode – one totally unrelated to lions – I don’t know what they did, but Stana Katic’s makeup is flawless!  She always looks great, but now it’s even more so. I don’t know if they switched to a more matte foundation or what, but her no-makeup look is extra smooth.  Kudos to the make-up department!

At the crime scene Detective Kevin Ryan (Seamus Dever)  fills them in on the victim.  She was killed by single gunshot wound to the chest – not a knife, which is interesting since we saw the man with the knife.  M.E. Dr. Lanie Parish (Tamala Jones) gives them the time of death – between 6-8 the previous night.  The victim’s car has been ripped apart – as in the seat cushions have been sliced open. Clearly the killer was looking for something specific as everything else of value was intact, included ten thousand dollars in cash and her cell-phone.  The cell phone has a message reminder that keeps going off and flashing a set of letters and numbers.  (Now, some people might have recognized what they were – I did – but it’s a specific kind of thing, not exactly common.).   Also at the crime scene we see Castle beginning his campaign to keep his picture of “Linus” in the bedroom.   In fact, he later goes out and gets the victim’s book to help him convince Beckett to let Linus stay!

The victim’s isn’t the only thing of hers that was searched.  Much to the assistant’s surprise, her office has also been tossed.  The only thing that appears to have been accessed are her client files.  As Castle points out:

The most intimate details of the world’s elite? People have killed for a lot less.

They’ve got photos of a dark-haired man heading up to Dr. Clark’s office after hours.  He’s deliberately got his face turned away from the cameras…. Castle 6x8 suspect 500

That’s when Captain Victoria Gates (Penny Johnson Gerald) interrupts them.  The boyfriend of Alice Clark, Matt Lanchet (David S. Lee) has arrived.  Now at this point the viewers have three suspects – any one of whom could be in the photo.

Castle 6x8 three suspectsThe Car Man                      The Assistant                  The Boyfriend

 This is one of ways that the case is really solid.  It may seem like an obvious thing, but sometimes the issue of plausibility isn’t as tight as it should be.  The most extreme case of this was in season four’s “Dial M for Mayor” which was great except for one thing.  The suspect was described by all the witnesses as being a white male, but the number one suspect for the police was the mayor – who was black!   It’s fine if you want the audience to know someone is innocent, but the cops missing like that is unlikely.   In this case, the police don’t know about the man in the car yet, so the boyfriend really looks like he could be a match. Beckett plays it cool though, asking him if the victim’s had any issues with clients recently.  Of course, there’s one, but he doesn’t know the name because Alice was always discreet. Beckett is also aware of the need for discretion.  When Castle makes yet another pitch for keeping Linus in his bedroom, she looks around before answering him.  It’s a priceless moment with both Stana and Nathan at their sexy comic best.

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Beckett: “If you want to be invited into my territory again, you should probably rethink that.

That is my line of the night!  Between Stana’s delivery and Nathan’s reaction  I laughed so much that  later I had to go back on my DVR after to make sure I didn’t miss anything important directly after.  I did.  Castle shakes off that slam-dunk by Beckett and gets right back to being Castle – suggesting that their professional assassin was hired to keep certain secrets from coming out…like “nuclear launch codes, that the moonwalk was a fake…”

Castle 6x8 That Silly Man She Loves

“This silly, annoying man that…I’m so in love with!”

Ryan shows up just in time to hear Castle’s list of theories.  You’d think he’d be used to Castle’s crazy theories by now!

Castle 6x8 The things Ryan walks into...

Ryan lets Beckett know that the boyfriend’s alibi checks out.  He’s also found out what that number was on the victim’s phone.  It was the tail number of a private jet. (Growing up I lived near a private airport.  Apparently the tail numbers of small planes have left a definite imprint on my brain because I saw it on the phone and went, “airplane.” )  She had paid the pilot of that plane fifty thousand dollars – in cash – to be on stand-by ready to go on the night she was murdered.  Between that and the ten grand in cash she had on hand, it’s clear to the team that Alice Ward knew she was in trouble. Esposito comes in with another lead, the suspect from the building was seen leaving the building in a blue van that a traffic cop cam happened to get the license plate number of.  It doesn’t take long for them to track down the owner.   Ryan and Esposito bust the van, but before the guy surrenders he wipes his computer hard drives clean and shreds a picture of the victim – as Ryan and Esposito are watching him.  Get this, the guy is our mysterious knife wielding car guy!

Turns out the man’s a man named Barrett Hawk (Anthony Ruivivar) – a notorious “fixer” a la Olivia Pope on Scandal – only in NYC.  He’s known to do whatever it takes to handle things for his clients.  Beckett thinks he killed Alice, but there’s no proof.  Gates says until they can figure out what he was looking for and for whom, they’ll never get him. So it’s back the assistant.  He’s gone through the files and the only thing missing is one client file: Andrew and Monica Spencer.

Andrew Spencer is a hotel and real estate billionaire.  According to the assistant, the Spencers are getting a divorce and the records had been subpoenaed by Mrs. Spencer’s attorney.  Because Alice wasn’t a therapy, she wasn’t protected by therapist/client privilege. While Mr. Spencer turns out to be an arrogant jerk – the typical alpha male that Alice’s book catered to.  Alice had given him the file because he’d reminded his wife that they’d both be compromised if that file came out. He’s got witnesses.  However, she’d asked a favor in return – a room in one of his hotels for a couple of days – one that there would be no record of her being there. Private jets, secret hotel room stays… what the heck is this woman up to?  Castle and Beckett goto search the hotel room.  Castle figures out that she got the room not to stay in, but to hide something.  Sure enough, the hidden safe has been used.  The hotel uses an over-ride code and bam!

Castle 6x8 Beckett & the Diamond

And Beckett thought the rock in her ring was big!

I liked how Castle corrected her on the value of the diamond – not millions, but “tens of millions.”  He is the guy who just a few months ago was pricing diamond rings, so he’d be up on those numbers!

Gates comments that the diamond doesn’t even look real, but a jeweler assured them that it was.  So now there are two questions.  The first is why would a successful therapist suddenly decide to become a jewel thief, and secondly, where did she steal it from?  Ryan reports that no one has reported a diamond like that missing! Castle supposes it’s because the owners can’t, perhaps because they got it by illegal means.  Then, he goes even further, saying that a diamond of that size has to have a story, like the Hope diamond, giant diamonds are famous.  Someone has to know something about it.  Beckett hands the diamond to Ryan.  He’s going to be the one to go find that person who can help identify it.

Just a quick pause here.  Notice the look he gives Beckett as she hands him the diamond?  He’s just come from running down the local precincts and the FBI for news about a missing diamond and discovered not only was not one currently missing, but that there was no history of a diamond like it ever stolen.  Now Beckett is sending him back on in the field again.  There’s been a running theme of Ryan being slightly resentful at times about Beckett being back in charge.  I doubt it’s accidental.  I think at some point this season there’s going to be more backlash about Beckett leaving and then coming back.  If so, just remember, they did lay down some groundwork.

Ryan and Esposito goto a diamond expert who confirms the diamond is unheard of, and that it’s one that should be in fact known.   He tells them that the stone must have been set in a piece of jewelry since there was some glue residue on it.  As for it’s value…conservatively it’s worth sixty million dollars!  When Gates hears that she does her version of panicking!

Whoo hoo!  Beckett isn’t the only one who’s badass!  Hands down, that’s the best action sequence on Castle ever!

After that attack Gates tells Castle and Beckett to check for a link between any of Alice’s clients and countries that produce diamonds – while the guys go help track down the SUV that shot at them. Trying to shoot down cops in broad daylight, knowing that they had the diamond and where they were, this is more than someone trying to get back stolen property….

You would think that Castle would be more concerned about finding out who sent in the clowns – but nope. He’s back on trying to convince Beckett again!


Notice that Beckett is never particularly annoyed at Castle’s attempts at this.  In fact, she seems to be more and more amused by it. That’s because she’s the lioness.  She’s not being mean about it, but Linus will be moving out of the bedroom.  There’s an underlying American relationship thing going on through this.  As the holiday season is fast approaching I think it’s okay to mention  A Christmas Story – you know the one where the kid wants a BB gun and his mother says no because,  “You’ll shoot your eye out.”?  In it the husband gets wins this tacky lamp shaped like a woman’s leg.  The wife is mortified, and murmurs “Couldn’t we talk this over” but it’s the 1950’s so no dice.  Somehow though…she accidentally breaks the lamp.  Let’s be honest, women usually get to control the shared living space.  The whole concept of a “man-cave” or “den” in a family home comes from the idea that the man should get to have one room in his home that he has control over.  Kind of like Castle’s office….

Getting back to the case, Castle suggests that Alice got the diamond while in Rwanda, with theory that actually seems plausible – until Beckett finds a picture of one of the couples Alice worked with.  Steven (Jason Antoon) and Janet (Tina Morasco) Warner were at a charity ball two nights prior and Janet is wearing the diamond around her neck! Beckett has them brought in for questioning, but they flatly deny knowing anything about the diamond. In fact, Mrs. Warner says the necklace in the picture is a piece of costume jewelry!

Castle 6x8 The Warners

Obviously, they’re lying.  What Beckett wants to know is why? That’s when Esposito returns with some good news.  One of the doormen at the Warner’s says that Barrett Hawk visited the Warners on the day Alice was killed.  He was there that morning and she was murdered that same night.  Beckett hauls him back in for questioning.  He’s just as cool as before  – until he’s hears about the assault on Ryan and Esposito and Beckett gets in his face about it.

Castle 6x8 Beckett Questions Hawk

He tells Beckett to turn off the mic and when she does he spills everything.  Not that he’s guilty of murder.  All the Warners asked him to do was find the diamond.  Alice was already dead when he tossed her car.  Hawk explains that the Warners were mugged two nights prior. The only other person who knew the diamond wasn’t a fake was Alice.  However, she didn’t do the mugging, it was definitely a man.  Alice had a partner!

From here things come together quickly.  A 911 call three blocks from where the mugging occurred – a “hit and run” where the person that was hit got up and ran (very clever bit by the writers!) – yields the fingerprints of the Warners’ attacker.  They turn out to be those of a Leo Wyngaard, who’s been in and out of jail in South African prisons and is on the United States terrorist watch list.  They also receive some interesting information about the diamond.  Their expert gets back to them with the results of the diamond’s test.  It is flawless – completely flawless.  This means it’s a synthetic diamond.  The kind that’s been around for years, but never to the size and perfection that this stone is.

The group is now thinking that Alice was coerced into the theft by one of the big diamond cartels in order to keep the news of the diamond secret.  If people knew it were possible to make real diamonds of quality it would cause havoc with the diamond trade.  So when they see the photo of Leo Wyngaard it all makes sense.  Leo Wyngaard is Matt Lanchet – Alice’s boyfriend!

Leo had to have killed Alice,  used her and then killed her.  It was a great set-up.  Only that’s not what happened!

That’s right folks, the killer was not the boyfriend!  The shock that went through twitter when that was revealed was huge!  Matt/Leo did love Alice and they were out to “change the world” ending the hold of the diamond cartels over various regions of Africa.   It’s like what Castle suggested earlier when they thought the cartels were responsible.  If it became known that it were possible to make good synthetic diamonds the power of the diamond cartels would be cut because they wouldn’t be as in demand. (FYI, they aren’t talking about cubic zirconias.  Real man-made diamonds are similar to  harvested pearls.  It’s just the production of them doesn’t happen by natural means.)

Beckett hauls the Warners back in, and who, for some reason didn’t want anyone to know about whatever cool process he’s created to make these diamonds. Beckett, of course, breaks him quickly.  However, this interrogation has a lot of informative moments that I see as being pertinent to Castle and Beckett, not just the case.  Pay close attention to the wife and Beckett throughout this.

The Warners when to the wrong therapist.  The earlier couple, the ones getting a divorce, likely did benefit from Laura’s therapy, because the husband is clearly an alpha – a “gorilla.”  Steve Warner is not.  He’s a lion – like Castle! Do you notice the way Janet jumped in when he was talking about the cartels – the anger and disdain she had for them?  Then there’s the look of pride on Janet’s face as he talks about discovering the process for making the large diamonds when trying to make her a gift because they were “going through a rough patch.”   Janet is the alpha, a lioness.  Now, she loves her lion.  The lioness will choose the strongest, healthiest lion to join the pride.  That’s right – they choose, and then make sure the lion is taken care of.  For instance it’s the lioness who hunts – yet she feeds the lion first.  Basically the lioness who does whatever they think is necessary to protect the family.

Janet told Beckett, “it’s not easy being a power couple.” In that interrogation room Beckett recognizes herself in Janet and Castle in Steve. Did you see how Steve looks to his wife before admitting he hired Hawk. I doubt Beckett missed it. Earlier he said wouldn’t know how to contact a man like Hawk. I put money on the idea that it was his wife who suggested that idea and knew how to find him Kate also knew that Steve made the diamond for his wife when they were having a rough patch, because she recognizes the creative gesture. It’s a Castle-like gesture… like starting an entire book series because he thinks she’s extraordinary.

Beckett also sees how Janet looks at Steve. She sees the love and concern in her eyes, the anger Janet shows about the diamond cartels buying his ideas, the pride about him making the diamond, and the regret about the rough patch they went through.  She relates to Janet, which is why she looks like this when she realizes Janet was the killer.

Castle 6x8 Beckett is shocked

Shock, disbelief – and is that a tear?

If Janet could get things so horribly wrong, Beckett has to wonder about herself as well.  She needs look at Janet and figure out where the woman, who obviously really does love her husband, got so turned around in how to show her love.  The first part Beckett’s been working on now for a while – learning to not keep big secrets. Janet felt she was doing what was best for them both – and protecting him from having to deal with it directly.  Beckett knows where such things can lead now, so that’s not a new lesson.

However, Janet ultimately felt her husband couldn’t do what was needed to be done and took care of it – for them.  Had Janet been working with a therapist who had studied lions instead of gorillas she would have known that once a lion becomes part of a pride, the lioness gives him specific tasks and duties – one of which roaring to chase intruders.  You could say that the lioness knows that although she runs things it’s important to let her lion…feel like the king of the jungle.  At the very least that means including him in your plans.

That’s what I loved about the ending.  Beckett lets Castle lead her into the room blindfolded, and when she sees his grand gesture she’s truly blown away.  More importantly, when Castle says that they’re both “alphas”  Beckett doesn’t laugh.  She just let’s him give his explanation.  It’s a good one,  very logical and appropriate.  However, we all know there is no way that Linus would be staying in that bedroom.  This lets Castle feel better about doing it, and a happy lion likes taking his lioness to his side of the lair and exploring her territory. It’s a win-win!

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The post Castle 6×8, “A Murder is Forever” Recap/Review: The Law of the Jungle is…the Lioness Rules! appeared first on Gossip and Gab.


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