CASTLE’S “Dead Red” is All About Spies and Family Ties

By Geannie Bastian

How is everyone doing after our Castle double dip this week? Our favorite characters came through pretty well. Ryan and Jenny are getting cool baby swag (sadly, not the baby Kevlar vest. Keep it, Castle, you may need it one day), Castle’s giving Beckett “time” on a daily basis and sometimes twice. See note above on that baby vest. And Espo is trying on new catch phrases. Stick with Yo, Espo.

If you’re struggling to recall your “I know who the killer is!” moment from last night, you’re forgiven. Guest stars totally stole the show here. More on that in a bit, but first, here’s your case primer to get you up to speed:

The son of a Russian diplomat was killed, and by that I mean killed bloody. Turns out, he was trying to find out the truth about his mother’s death. Because, this is Castle, and the universe likes to send Beckett memos in the form of the victim of the week. Plot twist: Mom’s alive, plus she’s a Russian sleeper spy. Turns out, the diplomat killed his own stepson because the he – and mom – caught on that he was selling secrets. Mom tried to get revenge, sniper style, but she hit the wrong target.

That error, plus diplomatic immunity made it seem like the killer was in the clear. But, Russian justice prevailed, sort of. If you can’t jail them, banish them to the coldest place on earth. Beckett wasn’t totally thrilled, but she was down for a little Frozen Heat.

From Russia with Castle Love

Speaking of Frozen Heat, or really all things Castle as writer, our first scene stealer of the night was Nick E. Tarabay as Vasily. Vasily is like, the biggest Castle fanboy ever. Also, a massive Caskett shipper. If you were anywhere near Castle social media last night, the “The Russian Guy is the fandom!” posts were swift and plentiful, and very, very true.

How true? Vasily was totally sad about the whole separation thing. But the not working together anymore news? Vasily could not even deal. So he called in the big guns. Both Castle and Beckett got calls – Beckett from the commissioner, and it seemed like Castle from the mayor. Except he called him Bill, not Bob. Which may have been an error, or possibly a dimensional rift opened up between the Castle universe and our own, allowing Castle to get instructions from real NYC mayor Bill de Blasio. You decide. But the gist was that they’d really like Castle and Beckett to work together on this. Naturally, Castle and Beckett were super bummed about this idea. Not.

Vasily might have been a clean up man for Russian intelligence, but he was also a true blue Castle fan intent on getting Castle to hear his pitch for Castle’s next book – which involved a charming Russian spy, of course. Why not? The Villain spot goes to the Sunday night super fan, Joanna, but the quirky guest spot might be free. Hopefully, theirs a future guest gig for Vasily on Castle, too. He was hilarious, and can grace the screen anytime.

Highlights abound, but Vasily’s heart eyes reaction to Beckett was super cute. She went from Natasha (because “Castle without Beckett is like Boris without Natasha!”) to “NIKKI HEAT!!” which Beckett took in pretty good stride, to Katherine the Great. We love her too, Vasily.

The Return of Rita

It turned out that our killer wasn’t the only Step-spy in play this week. When Captain Beckett realized this case was knee-deep in spy craft, she decided she needed her curtains cleaned. Which, as a reminder, is spy code for “Hey, Rita, I need a family meeting, stat.”

Building on viewers’ knowledge of just how well Castle and Beckett’s “fake up” is working, Rita totally bought the split until Beckett gave up the truth and Rita made “sexual subterfuge” the newest fan catchphrase in under a minute.

That was not all of the intel Beckett gave up though. She came clean with Castle about Rita’s relationship to him, and the fact that she’s been helping with the LokStat investigation. Castle is really over everyone – especially his wife – pushing him away for his own safety.

But he’s also being pretty cool about it. When Castle gets a moment with Rita, he admits he still gets angry about the whole situation sometimes, but he knows Beckett acted out of love, and at the end of the day she’s worth it. They also got to talk about Castle’s Dad, from whom, says Mrs. Hunt, Castle gets his eyes and mischievous smile. Hunt doesn’t really talk about his son much – because that’s how he deals – but is crazy proud of him, says Rita.

Castle asks if he will see his father or stepmother again she shakes her head no. Here’s hoping she’s wrong, at least about her own return to the storyline. Ann Cusack is stellar, and she told Beckett the two families should get together someday. Plus, her badass takedown skills would probably be handy when it comes to busting LokStat.