Castle 4×20 ‘The Limey’ recap: Of jealousy and murder

“The Limey: was a good episode with a nice, solid case. It really was. There was intrigue, there was murder, there were fancy parties and good champagne and there was even a Detective Investigator from Scotland Yard. If they had added a self-centered, drug addict private investigator and a nice sweet sidekick, it might have even been a Conan Doyle’s book. But I had a somewhat hard time focusing on the case when I was getting my Castle/Beckett heart broken at the same time.

The episode starts with a woman lying dead in a motel room, while a man searches through it. Strangely enough, he kisses her cheek before leaving. He wouldn’t seem all that dangerous if it wasn’t for the fact that he is, you know, digging through a room with a dead woman by his side. The cleaning lady who almost walks in on him seems to be of the same opinion, since she merely looks annoyed and it isn’t until after she enters the room that she screams. Loudly.

Meanwhile, Beckett and Lanie are having a heart-to-heart about Castle and Kate’s feelings for him. Beckett says she feels he’s pulling away, but she’s afraid of losing what they have if she tells him how she feels. Lanie tells her she can’t ask Castle to wait forever. Eventually they’ll have to put their feelings in the open. The conversation is interrupted by a phone call, letting Beckett know about the murder. She’s off the hook.

Except that she isn’t. Lanie doesn’t seem to think a crime scene is a bit of a morbid place to discuss love, so she keeps insisting that Beckett needs to open up her heart to Castle. And guess what? It works! Or it would have if Castle hadn’t chosen precisely this murder and this crime scene to bring a date he met in Vegas. Because, you know, he’s back to being the kind of guy who flies to Vegas for a change of scenery and hooks up with complete strangers. Nine year old on a sugar rush makes a comeback.

Needless to say, Beckett isn’t pleased. She asks Castle if everything’s okay and he says it’s never been better. Which we totally, absolutely believe. It’s not like he’s madly in love with her or anything.

Once inside the motel room, we begin to get our first answers: the victim is a 25 year old British woman named Naomi Allen, the cause of death is strangulation, it wasn’t a robbery and the maid apparently got a clear enough view of the man who stormed away from the room to describe him to the NYPD sketch artist. Kudos for memory. All I got from the one minute I saw him was ‘hey, hot guy’. Ryan finds the victim’s business card, letting them know she worked in Manhattan.

Cut to Castle and Beckett interviewing Naomi’s booking agent. Apparently, Naomi was one of the top models of the firm, but lately she had been taking rather unconventional gigs. Basically, that of an escort. Her agent says she had asked her to get her into a party the night before, but she didn’t have any connections to pave the way.

Back in the precinct, Beckett asks Castle if he’s thinking what she’s thinking. And what does Castle say he’s thinking? That they should throw a party and hire a bunch of models. Which, goes without saying, isn’t what Beckett is thinking (or really, what Castle himself is thinking, in my opinion). She says she was thinking that Naomi might have found a way into the party and met her killer. Castle mentions it’s weird- they’re usually “more in synch than that”. Ouch. Next time just shoot me, will you?

Ryan comes bearing the news that they found who the man from the motel is- he was identified as one Colin Hunt. Beckett and Castle go to the hotel where he’s staying and walk into his room, where they find him coming out of the shower. Beckett tells him to put his hands in the air- looking more than a little amused, Hunt obeys. And the towel around his waist, which so happens to be the only thing he’s wearing, slides down his legs. Castle covers Beckett’s eyes (aww). However, not affected as I was by a shipping heart, Hunt formally introduced himself- as Detective Inspector Colin Hunt, from Scotland Yard.

It turns out Hunt’s first partner had been Naomi’s father, and he had promised his family to look after her. The previous night, Naomi called him and told him she needed help. He says he took the first plane, but was late anyway. When Beckett questions his decision to flee the crime scene and investigate on his own, he asks them what would they do if they were in a foreign country and somebody they loved was killed. Castle and Beckett share a look.

Hunt tells them he found a message to him stashed in her jacket – a message about the killer he will only share with them if they let him in on the case. Sneaky. I like it. Beckett accepts, but only if Gates approves of it. She does, and Hunt is officially on the case. While Beckett is talking to Gates, however, Hunt makes a comment about the party gigs not sitting well with the Naomi he knew- and Castle says sometimes it’s the people we think we knew best the ones that we don’t really know at all. Cue my heart lying shattered on the floor.

Beckett later demands to know what message Naomi left for Hunt. He shows them a key, one that is used mainly for train stations and health clubs. While Beckett is saying she’ll have Ryan scan the area around her apartment and the motel and look for businesses with lockers that use that kind of key, Esposito arrives with the news that Naomi did get into the party, but was kicked out by security for getting into a fight with the host, a female rapper known as Nikki J. Castle tells Hunt that he and Beckett should conduct the interview together- he has a date anyway.

I’m beginning to get pissed off.

They interrogate Nikki J., who says the reason they got into a fight was because Naomi wanted her man. Seriously? Why do TV shows always portray women as idiots who think cat fights, for a man, no less, are a good idea? Sigh. Anyway, she has witnesses- her driver and the man she was fighting over, Biggie Slim (I’d like to point out I object to the notion of two sensible women fighting over a guy who goes by the name of Biggie Slim. Not that Nikki J. seems very sensible, mind you, but still). Our team interrogates Biggie Slim, who says Naomi told him she was being followed. They order to canvas the area, see if they can confirm this.

Hunt says he sympathizes with Nikki after meeting Biggie Slim, Beckett ventures that maybe she’s hoping he’ll change. He dismisses the thought, saying guys like him never do. She looks sad, until Lanie calls to say the autopsy’s ready. According to it, the killer is strong, probably a male. She’s able to narrow it down thanks to a partial print she found on Naomi’s neck. Hunt excuses himself, and in what’s probably one of my favorite scenes in the whole show, Lanie tears down every excuse Beckett has for waiting to tell Castle how she feels. I had to blink back tears during this scene, which is not hard to accomplish for this show, but I was especially weepy this time.

Beckett leaves the morgue and finds Hunt brooding in the hallway. He talks about Naomi, how she was as a kid, how from the looks of her life she never recovered from her boyfriend’s death, a doctor who was away for work. Beckett tells him that people change when you’re not looking. A phone call interrupts the conversation. It’s Ryan, saying they found a gym Naomi had gotten a day pass for the day before. When they arrive, they find a locker that is opened by the key she left Hunt. Inside, there’s a number and a photograph of a man.

They run the code through all the available databases and enlarge the picture. Hunt recognizes the symbol in it as a British seal, and realizes the picture is taken outside the British consulate. They pull a list of all its employees, to find out the man in the picture is Nigel Wyndham, Deputy General. He’s in charge of a complicated list of things (I don’t speak economics). He’s also married, which makes his seemingly romantic involvement with Naomi prime reason for murder. Castle spins a disappointingly reasonable theory (where did my alien-and-conspiracy-loving Castle go?), but it still isn’t enough to ask for Wyndham’s prints. He then concocts a complicated plan to get the prints without a court order (there he is!), but Hunt has a more plausible plan. One which involves tuxedos and Beckett in a killer black dress. He got them into a party at the British Consulate, where Nigel will be and they’ll be able to get his prints. Castle does not look pleased about this.

Once at the party, Beckett and Hunt dance. He flirts with her, which I’m not okay with. Then Wyndham flirts with her, which I’m even less okay with. Partly because he’s a murder suspect and partly because seeing Maxwell Sheffer as the bad guy is a bitter pill to swallow. After a few failed attempts, they manage to get his fingerprints, right in time to get kicked out.

It seems things are picking up, but they get blown up in their faces again when it turns out the print on Naomi’s neck isn’t Wyndham’s at all. They’re sure he’s behind it, so they imagine he must have hired someone. Castle arrives and tells them they have to figure out the number- only, hold on, he already has. He showed the blonde from before (I refuse to call her his new girlfriend) a photo of the evidence files, and she recognized it as the code of a diplomatic pouch. Castle and Beckett have an argument about it. It hurts. A lot.

This pouch was sent to Uganda a year ago, where coincidentally (not really) Naomi’s boyfriend was killed. Looks like the girl was just trying to solve her boyfriend’s murder and ended up becoming a murder victim herself. Hunts pretends to be conducting an inspection at the airline and searches through the place until he finds the pouch. And what does he find when he opens it? Missiles.

As it turns out, Wyndham was illegally trafficking missiles to Uganda, and the person supplying him with them was no other than Darius Young- also known as Biggie Slim-, who in turn got them from his military cousin. When he found out that Naomi was investigating, he followed her back to her motel and killed her.

Hunt leaves, not without inviting Beckett for a drink. She turns him down, but isn’t too happy with this decision when Castle leaves for yet another date with the blonde he picked up in Vegas. She mentions she doesn’t seem like his type and Castle goes in for the kill, saying that she’s funny and uncomplicated, and that’s what his life needs right now. Beckett then calls Hunt and accepts his invitation.

These two crazy kids better work things out soon and start acting like adults again. I can’t handle seeing them heartbroken so often.

Anyhow. What did you think of “The Limey”? Liked it? Hated it? Couldn’t hear much over the sound of your heart breaking?