It’s Thanksgiving week on Castle‘s “The Good, the Bad & the Baby” and Castle and Beckett are preparing to host her father along with his family when they get called to a particularly weird crime scene: a man who’s been shot has stumbled into a church and handed a priest a baby before dying.
It’s a convoluted case that makes no sense until suddenly it all does, so let’s cut to the chase: the victim, Cameron Ducane, has a criminal past but has put that behind him and built a new life until his former partner, out on parole, shows up at the car service where he works. His boss then uses Ducane’s past as leverage to make him help with a conspiracy to rig the lottery. A complicated process with ping pong balls and argon gas gives them a set of rigged lottery balls, though I have a question here: I understand how the gas expanding the balls would make sure only the unexpanded ones popped up, but how did they make them pop up in the right order? Anyway, they bribe the head of security at the TV station where the lottery is drawn to help them, but they take more drastic measures with Miranda Vail, the lottery announcer who is the one to pick with “random” set of balls is used: they kidnap her husband and infant son and tell her that they’ll be released once they’re out of the country with their winnings. But Ducane really is reformed, and when he realizes that his co-conspirators actually plan to kill the whole Vail family to cover their tracks, he tries to free both father and baby and, failing that, grabs the baby and runs, getting shot in the attempt but still managing to get the baby to the safety of the church before collapsing.
I really liked this case anyway, but of course the opportunity it provided for everyone, especially Castle, to interact with a baby made it particularly delightful. Experienced father Castle is head over heels for the baby and takes over, calling him Cosmo, dressing him in a Thanksgiving-themed outfit, and buying him all kinds of baby supplies. Beckett: “I’m suddenly getting a clear and frightening visual as to what my future will look like.” By the time CPS shows up, Castle is attached to baby Cosmo and worried about letting him go to a foster family. But Beckett confesses to him that she’s kept her distance not just to stay unattached, but because she’s never really been a baby person, though she assures him she’ll feel differently with their own child someday.
Lanie is also charmed by baby Cosmo, though Esposito remains disinterested, and Ryan decides holding the baby would be good practice for his own imminent fatherhood, but Cosmo cries whenever Ryan takes him. He starts panicking about not being ready for fatherhood – and this panic is also evident in his belief that he can and should win the lottery to provide for his child’s education – and Esposito tries to calm him down: “Well, you care. That already makes you one hundred times better than the dad I had.” Aww.
Of course, it’s Thanksgiving (and this is TV) so there are no foster families to be found, so rather than doubling up cribs in a crisis center, Castle convinces the CPS worker to leave Cosmo in police custody – which basically means Castle gets to take him home. Castle and Beckett have a tough night with the baby, but they make it through with some help from Martha, and Martha and Alexis babysit the next day while Castle and Beckett finish solving the case. By the time Cosmo – who is actually named Benny – is returned to his actual family, Castle and Beckett are both feeling pretty warm and fuzzy about the whole baby concept. Castle tells Beckett that his uncertainty about her “not being a baby person” stemmed from the way Meredith was never really involved when Alexis was a baby, but she reassures him: “When the time comes, there’s no way I’m going to let you take care of our baby on your own.” Of course, Alexis hilariously points out: “Hey, if you guys have kids in a few years and I have kids in a few years, they can grow up together.” Ha. Indeed.
The Castle family makes it home in time for their happy blended Thanksgiving, with a twist: earlier in the episode, Castle had tried to convince Beckett that his family always dresses up as Puritans and Native Americans for Thanksgiving, and while she was suspicious, she went with it and showed up in the Pocahontas costume he told her she should wear – but also bought him a John Rolfe costume she made him wear. Well played, Beckett. And speaking of holidays, it seems that the show is now off until January 6th, so everyone enjoy your holidays and I’ll see you then!
(Image courtesy of ABC.)