The network guy (Patrick Fabian), Peter Monroe, is happy with neither the marketing nor the fact the NYPD is outside. Beckett (Stana Katic) on the other hand has trouble believing that a light saber would be appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Looks like Castle’s (Nathan Fillion) going to have to rethink his gift.
The murder victim, Hannah, was killed by being stabbed in the back. Of course, she was a personality on the show but the show wasn’t filming in the area. Ryan arrives to tell the group his hen has a fever and is very bossy. Caskett go to talk to the producer of the show who can only think about the ratings. He shows them a video with Hannah that shows her wearing the same clothes as she was found in and looking very upset. The producer tells them that the reality show is more reality-ish (parts are scripted) and he considers Hannah to be part of the family before accusing her actual blood relative.
Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) bring in the brother and he tells them about a fight he had with his sister a couple of days before her death. He hated the way Hannah lived her life on national television and that that was before the affair. With Penelope’s (Torres) husband. Captain Gates (Penny Johnson) walks in and catches the team up on the plot points of the fake show and Castle is disappointed that she isn’t interested in more sophisticated fare.
The chip on Penelope’s nail matches the nail polish they found on Hannah. Penelope is outraged that she was arrested on camera. Beckett confronts her with the information about the DNA matching. In another room of the station, Penelope’s husband, Bob (Chris Butler), tells R+E that Hannah and he were in love. Penelope says that she wanted to kill Hannah (“Hell yes I wanted to kill her”) and they had had a dispute but it was before the death when Hannah asked for her job back one night after taping confessions. Penelope yanked her hair and broke a nail but did not kill her. She saw her walk away.
The knife that killed Hannah had never been used before or at least not often. Espo has found a photo of Hannah outside of Margo’s place which Capt. Gates recognizes from the show. Confronting Margo (Gail O’Grady), she tells them that what went down was an apology not a fight. She had hired Hannah for her talent and to get some more screen time but when Hannah was really late to a shoot, she fired her. Hannah came over to apologize and left alive. Margo called her entertainment lawyer not long after, and spent over forty minutes talking to him over a spin-off.
Castle notes that hundreds of thousands of people knew that Hannah was outside Gale’s because of a fan site that uploaded the photo. Espo has found evidence that she was at a dive bar instead of the important meeting she had missed with Margo which caused her to lose her job. After finding she disappeared for twenty minutes, they go see Lanie (Tamala Jones)who tells them that the victim went to Madagascar, at least in that she touched a plant. The scratches on her wrist are from her tennis bracelet on the other hand which leads them to believe that her hands were tied which in turn leads the team to the conclusion that she was kidnapped.
This opens almost more questions than it answers. Castle asks if this was her Valentine’s gift to him; a complex mystery where nothing makes sense. Gates has talked to one of her contacts and found that the plant is used in green sustainable buildings. Castle comments to Gates about her usual involvement in the case before she tells them all to watch The Wives of Wall Street. Castle invites Beckett to a viewing party before telling her that his gift is going to kick her gift’s ass.
“One of the perils of dating a gift ninja.”
Castle shows his mother (Susan Sullivan) and his daughter (Molly Quinn)the earrings he’s bought for Beckett. Alexis has Valentine’s plans with her boyfriend to study and stare into his eyes. Rick invites his family to watch the show to which both ladies agree but neither woman seems invested. Martha quips that she wishes that they had those in her day so that she could over act and scream at people on tv. The next morning he’s still watching.
The sketch from the bar has come back and is of the head of the other reality show on the network. Instead of going to her meeting with Margo, she went to talk to the head of the Shark Pool. He was ready to recognize her line and fund it. She told him she was considering leaving the show to which the guy had replied without the show, her brand was worth jack.
Off-camera cops have found the building. And Castle puts his earrings in the wrong jacket. Oops. Maybe Gates will finally love him. They go to the building and hear a loud banging. Bursting into one of the rooms they find Penelope and her husband Bob back together again. I swear that innuendo was unintended when I started that sentence.
Gates has trouble believing that the pair is back together. Ryan has found a hidden account created soon after Bob started his affair with Hannah. Withdrawals from Penelope’s account match the deposits to Hannah’s. Because of how domineering his wife is, they decide to send Beckett interrogating as she has never interrogated before. After Beckett throws the table, Bob admits that he was never in love with Hannah. It was Penelope’s idea to pretend they were having an affair for the ratings and the fact that she wanted more screen time. Hannah told them at the apartment after the confession taping that she didn’t want to lie any more so they tied her up. A day went by and they realized they couldn’t hold her forever so he made a call to Peter Monroe, the producer of The Wives of Wall Street. He said that he’d take care of it and the next thing they knew, Hannah was dead.
They bring Peter in, who of course denies knowing anything, and then he tells Caskett in his office that Penelope and Bob had called him. He let Hannah go when he got to the apartment. He offered her more money, her own series, and every decent pitch he had. Beckett suggested that he killed Hannah which he denies by saying he went to the bar. They confirm this and Castle thinks that this is all now down to Margo.
Margo had to have lied to them when she called because she was at a bar across town at the time she was buzzed up. Castle tells Beckett what happened with the earring, asks if he put a note, and then asks if he put her name on it. If Gates finds out, she thinks they will be split. I don’t think Gates would do that at this point. Maybe at the beginning but I don’t think now; they’ve all been thru too much together to let Castle go. Besides, he has proven his worth to the department time and again. And I’m fairly certain they don’t pay him so that’s not even a consideration.
They go up to Margo’s apartment and Caskett ask if her son Stone was there the night Hannah was killed. She asks to talk to her attorney and Ryan has found a bought ticket out of the country in Stone’s name. Gates takes off her jacket and finds the earring box. She opens it and is amazed. She looks at the card and her face falls.
Stone is caught at the airport and brought back for Caskett to interrogate. He claims to know nothing about Hannah’s death in fact, they were in love. His supposed love interest, Ashley, was something arranged and in fact what he and Hannah bonded over; the fact they had both been forced to do things they didn’t want to. Hannah had shown up hysterical and wanting to leave town. His mother came home and threw Hannah out of the apartment. Hannah begged him to come with her but he couldn’t. He ran out to catch up with her where he kissed her but she told him it was too late. He was still the last one to see her alive a block from where she died.
Ryan had found a wedding registry and the knife was listed. The problem with that theory is that the gifts don’t go to the groom. They bring in Amanda (Heather Ann Davis) who tries to leave hysterically but eventually confesses when she can’t find her keys. She put an end to the threat of her happy life.
As they take down the murder board, Beckett asks Castle why Gates hasn’t said anything to them. Lanie walks up from the elevator looking all sexy in her red dress and goes right to Kate before Javier comes over and tells her about his plans at a French restaurant. At that moment Gates strikes calling just Castle into her office. The earrings lay on the desk and she lays into him. She doesn’t know that they were meant for Beckett and berates him for flirting because she is a married woman. She demands respect and he gives it to her. He receives back the earrings but can’t give them to Beckett.
Beckett tells him that he’s not any worse off. Rick tells her that he is sorry about giving Gates the earrings because I’m guessing; now she can’t wear them at the station. He asks about his gift and Beckett takes him over to a drawer which he feels the sides of before she tells him that the drawer is his gift.
“I know it’s not the light saber.”
“No, it’s perfect.”
She then requests he takes his clothes off, put them in the drawer, and meet her in the bed. His cuff link sticks and the viewers are left wondering why network tv has to only be an hour long.
Next week: Alexis has been kidnapped.
