Castle - Episode 5.02 - Cloudy with a Chance of Murder -Recap

The lovely Kate Beckett is looking at herself in the mirror and asks Castle what he thinks of her outfit. “Sexy.” He doesn’t like the other one and she correctly guesses that he just wants to see her take her shirt off again. Castle insists that no one is going to find out even though he doesn’t see why Captain Gates would have a problem with them dating. Technically he isn’t paid so they aren’t co-workers. Castle and Beckett quibble over whether their co-workers will notice his lack of bringing her coffee (they did by the way) And Castle says of the new vic that he likes her “assets”. Nobody watched her for the weather. Laney notices something new about Beckett and Ryan and Espo are still feuding.

The vic was last seen doing a spot a children’s hospital. Tracking the phone they find it across town which they surmise sounds like their mugger. Espo calls the phone to narrow down the apartments in the hall they’re in and they find a scared looking man going thru her purse who then claims it’s his phone and presumably his purse as well. Espo goes into interrogation armed with the knowledge the man has been accused of stalking and assault for which he has an answer and then a creepier one for why he has the purse.

Beckett called Mandy’s’ parents, they were no help. But all the evidence point to a mugging. “This isn’t a mugging” Laney says before noticing Becketts’s sex glow before she and Castle interrogate who. On the case front, they find lighter make-up on her collar and the makeup was formulated for HD cameras. After a story about how your morning coffee could be killing you the cameras pan back to the editor talking to Castle and Beckett about how the new meteorologist and Mandy got into a bit of a scuffle. This being TV, it was all caught on camera. Pervy sports guy hits on Becket which she shoots down gracefully. The footage shows the two girls starting a fight but then the camera man shut off the camera to stop the fight. He later left them talking which Castle concludes that it must have been one hell of a conversation because an hour later she was dead.

Rebecca, the other girl, gets to complain about Mandy, the dead girl calling her an untalented big boobed bimbo. Ms. Fog then tells them how the “set dressing with cleavage” broke into her office and stole some equipment. Her alibi is that she has the 4 am shift and was at home asleep. It’s checked out by a cabby that confirms he dropped her off before Mandy was killed.

Beckett can’t help but smile as Castle screws around in front of the weather green screen. And then a report from Rick’s past walks up and flirts/invites him to an interview since “Fred Willard cancelled on me.” Nice nod to Mr. Willard who played a dead guy a season or two ago. Then the make-up artists cat about Mandy and the fact she was over 35. They then gossip about the mystery man Mandy would leave the room to talk to. They know that he’s a MVP basketball player that Castle recognizes the number of 17 Reggie Blake. The man drives a silver G-wagon, the same car the vic was last seen getting into. A man who looks like Chumley from pawn Stars stops Esposito with a punch in the face when he and Ryan went to talk to the player.

Back at the squad room Castle notices that they should have been back by now by Beckett brushed him off. They formulate a theory and then Ryan and Esposito walk about in having arrested a lot of people, each having a man by the arm and each sporting a fresh black eye. Reggie’s defense is that both he and his wife knew Mandy and that they were just friends. He was at the charity because he was dropping off some toys. They had the fact they were both on the downslide to bond over. Reggie tells them that Mandy wasn’t a bimbo and that she actually cared about the kids at the hospital as opposed to the photo op a lot of people use them for. Reggie was across town at the time of murder and he had picked her up from the emergency room as a patient.

Beckett and Castle debate whether men and women can be just friends. Castle thinks they can and Beckett reminds him they were supposedly just friend while he was trying to sleep with her. Ryan has added make-up to his look and invites Espo to judge him when it become obvious he can’t easily get out of it.

One of the guys Mandy worked with becomes a suspect and Beckett goes to talk to him about the secret office romance they shared. He describes the beginning of their relationship to a t as he describes his own and then he tells how it turned ugly because they both had so many lies to take care of. It looks like the make-up women were right about the secret romance but wrong about the whom. Espo calls and tells them about the emergency visit she had, it was because of her asthma which is the reason he couldn’t go up in the helicopter. Funny because that’s what she arrived in.

Asking the helicopter man they learn that she wanted to fly over New Jersey. Despite his initial trepidations the man took her up and over but then after a few moments they had to come back because she didn’t have her inhaler.

Meanwhile back in the studio the interviewer backs Castle into a corner over going on a date with her while Beckett watched from the sidelines. Our girl does not look happy.

Castle tries to get Beckett on board by telling her it’s the perfect cover and she asks how far he intends to go on the date. He responds that he thinks he’ll take the interviewer out to a restaurant to be seen but that wasn’t the response she wanted to hear

The tell Rebecca that Mandy was up in the helicopter and that she actually used the equipment. They turn it on and learn that there were high levels of a chemical that has been known to cause asthma in area Mandy surveilled Only one company in the area produces the chemical and as it would just so happen, the stationary matches the note they found in Mandy’s locker and the owner has a record of following thru threats.

Beckett and Castle bring the man in and when he refuses to talk they go over hi file. Beckett hands Castle the papers and recaps that Cazuli’s Carpeting was producing carpeting that was releasing the chemical. And that she was going to a chemical activist the night she was killed. The man tells them everything including that the note was only supposed to scare her off and he thought it worked because he never heard from her again.

Cazuli is pleading down on the chemical violation but they don’t have proof. What they do have is evidence she had a partner. Castle realizes that he’s late for his date and has to run. He asks the room if their okay with it and since the boys say they are Beckett doesn’t really have a choice in the matter.

The interviewer arrives at Castle’s apartment with oysters, wine, and chocolate covered strawberries. This woman is a master seductress but Castle can hold out against her right? Back at the squad room Espo and Ryan are telling Beckett that the woman is known for her seduction techniques involving her extensive bikini collection. At the apartment, the music turns predatory as Castle tries to put her off. It doesn’t work and she reaches her hand down the back of his pants inadvertently dialing Beckett in the process. She picks up in time to hear him yelling at the woman to get back. Beckett calls back (“Hey you’ve reached Richard Castle, lucky you.”)

The interviewer asks why he’s playing hard to get as she runs her hands over his chest, opens her dress, and practically attacks him on the sofa. Beckett bursts in and Castle proclaims he knows who the killer is. Unless he’s talking about the case of his own murder, one might be skeptical until you see there’s only ten minutes left in the broadcast.

Castle tells Beckett that he tried everything to get away from the woman but she’s the terminator of dating. Beckett tells him that she has 12 missed calls from pervy sports guy. Castle then runs the interview on the one man who turned Christina, the interviewer, down. Castle tells him that Christina found out that he had a boyfriend that no one knew about. Mandy uncovered the story of a life time and nearly turns it over to the EPA. They know he’s the killer they just need a confession. And he says that shooting his friend dead was an accident. That she fought him and shot her not knowing the gun was loaded.

Espo and Ryan have a loaded conversation about secret lives after which Castle offers to walk Beckett out. She declines and he chases after her. Ryan and Espo make up after Espo sees that Ryan took that punch for him.

Beckett opens her door to an apologetic Castle who tells her he should have declined but didn’t know how. She says she shouldn’t have to worry about him with other people and they both admit they don’t know how to handle it. Castle comforts her by telling her that they have to find their way in the relationship and that it doesn’t even matter if other people find out. Beckett goes to kiss him and but says she can’t because she keeps seeing Christina’s boobs in his face. She walks away and Castle gets that look on his face that says he knows how to fix that problem.

Next week: Storage Wars!