After the dark and serious “Dial M for Mayor,” Castle took a break for a light and wacky episode with “An Embarrassment of Bitches.”
The mystery itself is fairly thin, when it comes down to it. When famous dog trainer Francisco Pilar is found murdered – strangled by a leash – at a dog show he’s judging, all clues lead to Kay Cappuccio, a barely-veiled Kim Kardashian figure played by guest star Hilarie Burton. The team finally figures out that Pilar had a sideline training drug-sniffing dogs, and the Argentinian Vasquez heroin cartel felt threatened. Kay’s boyfriend Reggie Starr, who was trying to get in good with the Vasquez family, hid a surveillance camera in Kay’s dog’s collar and arranged for Pilar to train the dog in order to get the opportunity to spy on him. When Pilar figured out that he was under surveillance, Reggie killed him.
The relatively slight mystery leaves plenty of times for adorable dogs, Jason Bateman jokes, and Esposito falling into a bit of puppy love himself with Kay. It’s unexpected but really nicely done when he’s the one who breaks through Kay’s reality show exterior to reveal that she’s actually insecure and lonely. She seems to like him, too, and promises to call if she ever has issues with the paparazzi, so I hope that means they’re open to bringing Hilarie Burton back for another episode in the future.
Pilar’s dog Royal is found near Pilar’s body, and Castle suggests that he might have attacked Pilar’s murderer, so they take the dog back to the precinct to swab his mouth for DNA. Once he’s there, of course, Castle wants to keep him. Castle: “We could use a mascot.” Esposito: “I thought that’s what you were.” Heh. Beckett agrees to keep Royal around until they find him a good home, and she and Castle both want to take him home for the night. They apparently can’t hear the millions of shippers screaming that the obvious solution is for them to all go home together, so they agree to share custody. This leads to an extremely cute scene when Castle dropped Royal off at Beckett’s house and Beckett resigns herself to being the strict parents after discovering that Castle gave the dog steak and let him cuddle on the couch. (Of course, she gives in on the couch issue as soon as Castle leaves.) And Castle and Beckett have a Moment when he holds her hand a little too long as he tries to demonstrate the way Royal likes to be rubbed between the eyes. At the end of the episode, they decide to let Royal decide who he wants to live with – but instead of either of them, Royal runs to Kay. Aww.
Alexis is gone for most of the episode – off visiting colleges with her unfortunately named friend, Buttons Dutton – but when she returns at the end, Castle announces that he wants to get her the dog he always denied her when she was a child. She shoots him down, claiming that it’s just a ploy to get her to visit more often once she leaves for college, but I wonder if part of it was a ploy to get Beckett to visit more often, too.
Next time: The long-awaited noir episode!
(Photo courtesy of ABC.)