This week’s Castle, “Death Gone Crazy,” is all about fathers, young adult daughters, sexuality, and expectations, as Castle deals with these issues both at work and at home.
Our victim of the week is Beau Randolph, the founder of the College Girls Gone Crazy empire, strangled with a $250 bra in the bathroom of his own club. There are plenty of people who might have wanted Beau dead, from his ex Tiffany Shaw to Voices of Decency protester Ronald Armstrong to Beau’s own bodyguard Scarlett Jones, who clearly isn’t what she seems. But it turns out that what got Beau killed was not his sketchy business but the fact that he was trying to go straight. He had a one night stand with Armstrong’s daughter Candice Mayfield – without either really knowing who the other was – and when she wound up pregnant, he decided to shut down College Girls Gone Crazy and try to be a good role model for his child. But his longtime cameraman Troy felt that this was a betrayal and killed Beau so he could continue running the business himself.
We have something of a spotlight on Esposito again this week, as he becomes smitten with bodyguard Scarlett Jones, who of course turns out to be a suspect. Esposito: “She is perfect. Why’d she have to be the bad guy?” Aw. When the police discover that she used her access to break into Beau’s safe, Scarlett claims that she was trying to destroy a sex tape Beau had made of her friend without permission, but they eventually realize that she was a corporate spy sent by the CEO of Little Frog Enterprises, a children’s media company in which Beau wanted to invest, to find dirt that he could use as leverage to keep Beau out of the company.
While Castle’s Googling himself (of course), he is alarmed to discover that Alexis has started a vlog, because he’s worried that she’s compromising her safety by talking about her life online. Martha brushes off his concerns and is happy when Beckett calls: “Maybe she has a nice murder to distract you from your parental paranoia.” Beckett thinks the vlog is fine too, but my real question here is why no one brings up Castle’s fame in regards to Alexis’s online privacy and safety. That should be a much bigger issue. No one cares about a random college kid’s vlog, but a famous author’s kid? That could get some attention, especially as we know he’s had readers who take things a bit too seriously. Anyway, Castle doesn’t want Alexis haunted for years by things she puts online thoughtlessly, but Alexis points out that her generation “grew up in a digital fishbowl” and insists on defining herself – she’s careful and smart but she needs to live her life her way. I’ve seen some people say they thought she was overly whiny here, but honestly, she just struck me as a very typical college freshman.
There was a bit of an odd scene at the end of the episode, when Beckett asks Castle whether he thinks Ronald Armstrong will be able to accept his grandchild.
Castle: “Absolutely.”
Beckett: “What makes you so sure?”
Castle: “Because a father would do anything for his daughter.”
This played as very heavy foreshadowing, so I’m wondering if there’s some sort of Alexis-centric plotline coming up. Personally, I wouldn’t mind that, though I know a lot of fans disagree. (It is of course possible but less likely that this was referring to Beckett and her father somehow, or to a possible pregnancy. We’ll find out!)
Castle‘s off next Monday, but it will be back in February with the annual two-parter! Whee!
(Image courtesy of ABC.)