CASTLE: Inventing the Girl

Setting: It’s New York Fashion Week, and a beautiful model and her boytoy run into a fountain. Once the water stops, they discover a female body strewn atop the lights.

Cause of death: Stabbing; perhaps a botched robbery. Insert Castle’s 15-second rundown of who the victim actually is: a model since she’s thin and has way too much eye makeup. And hello, it’s the middle of Fashion Week! Come on Beckett, pay attention!

Flash forward to Beckett and Castle backstage at a (fake) high-fashion designer Teddy Farrow, questioning the designer, an older British gentleman with perfectly messy blonde hair. While the designer naively asks for the gown the model victim was wearing back — after all, in fashion one-of-a-kind pieces are worth more than a person’s life — we get a glimpse into Castle’s social life, maybe even a random hookup after one of his nights on the town. Her name? Rina, a twentysomething model who Castle met before .. and they must have shared some unforgettable memories (at least for her). But the question remains: What sort of insight will she bring to the case, if any? Beckett and Castle then question the model victim’s best friend, Sierra Goodwin, another model dressed in an expensive-looking white wedding dress, and while clearly overly distraught over her loss, she reveals that their victim was married.

Cue to one of the waiting rooms in the precinct. The husband, Travis, a young man with tossled blonde locks and clad in a plaid shirt, brown jacket and pants to give off the idea that he is an average Joe, airs his frustration to the pseudo partners. Subtly commenting on the lack of police precaution when it comes to seemingly low-level crimes, such as stalking (as it does at this point in the episode), Beckett and the team (including Ryan and Esposito) look into an overzealous fan bordering on creepy stalker as a possible suspect. Speaking to the vic’s character, she was just an innocent, simple girl who was too naive for a big, bad city like New York.

Castle arrives home with groceries and 15,000 copies of the latest Cosmopolitan, which he graces the cover of and which he first saw when Rina (more on her later) reintroduced herself to him backstage at the Teddy Farrow show. While he playfully and wittily banters with his daughter about his mother (who auditioned for a Broadway play and instead of getting the lead, got the dreaded role of the “crazy granny who dies in Act 1 .. offstage”), Alexis gives her father some unfortunate news. Rina, or better yet Katrina, was her babysitter. Yikes. Guess she’s off the list of Castle’s conquests — and he knows it. Regulated to the background and to actually provide some hard evidence to forward the case, Ryan and Esposito hear about Castle getting Rina’s digits. Unbeknowst to them, Castle didn’t actually see much of her .. or any of her for that matter.

Beckett and Castle bring in James, a casino worker at Atlantic City. Though he had pictures of Rina, that isn’t necessarily a crime — and that proved true as he was let off the hook after his alibi checked out. Funny how parking cars at a casino can actually save someone’s life for a change. Beckett and Castle talk to Rina’s distraught (or is he just faking?) husband at the precinct afterwards, trying to get him to provide more information about Rina and this stalker of hers. Even though they are holding James on stalking charges, their evidence is pretty thin to actually convict him of murder. There’s always something fishy about spouses .. I’m betting my money the husband had something to do with his wife’s murder .. but I won’t put any money down on it .. yet. Orrrrr, it could be the photographer. Damn these twists!

Beckett and Castle question Wyatt the photographer at a Teddy Farrow fashion event, but according to the photographer, they mended their differences quickly thereafter. There goes that theory, I suppose. As Teddy Farrow speaks about losing Jenna to a sea of hundreds, he announces the new face of his company, and — drumroll please — we find out it’s Sierra who gets the job Jenna was supposed to get before she was brutally stabbed. Guess the fashion world really isn’t cut out for the nice ones.

In classic Castle fashion, he gives out a hypothetical situation, that is assuming Sierra really did kill her good friend over a job and in a few quick moments, Beckett begins to see the reasoning behind his suspicion. At this point, however, it’s all speculation, but it ain’t lookin’ good for Ms. Goodwin over there. Castle and Beckett spot Rina and they get more information about Sierra, and by this point, Castle’s suspicion might as well be carved into the wall. Ryan and Esposito drive all the way down to the party to give Beckett a photo .. yes one lousy print .. Oh, and to see who this Rina girl is .. but thankfully, Beckett saves Castle from spreading more lies and spills the real story. Castle’s ego might still be bruised.

Beckett and Castle bring Sierra in for questioning. She tells them that Wyatt wanted her to sleep with him in order for the pictures to be done right. And apparently Jenna had a plan to make him do the job right. The two visit Wyatt at his apartment and while Beckett asks him some questions, Castle scours his place for any hint that Jenna was there. Those pink satin Louboutins? What about the Washington Monument-shaped murder weapon? Sure enough, a pair of horribly-hidden shoes underneath some furniture suddenly appear and voila, one of those monument-like awards Wyatt received for editorial photography is indeed missing. My friends, we may have ourselves a winner! But .. let’s keep the excitement to a minimum.

Wyatt finally admits in the interrogation room that Jenna was over at his apartment on Sunday night, but that she was alive when she left. He might have been stupid enough not to clean up his apartment afterwards, or smart enough not to. With 14 minutes left to go in the episode, I’m willing to bet it’s the latter. So who’s atop the suspect list now? Beckett finds the cell phone that Jenna bought the day she died in a dumpster. The fight that Wyatt rehashed before holds up with the recording on the phone, but the case isn’t cold. The recording keeps going, after she leaves Wyatt’s apartment, and there, her murderer is finally caught .. sort of.

We aren’t sure who the “he” both Beckett and Castle are referring to as they approach the interrogation room, but as they make the reveal a few seconds later, it’s Travis, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and looking worse for wear. It’s sort of a bittersweet ending. Even though Travis, who was blinded by misplaced jealously, thought his wife was going to leave him for Wyatt — and she wasn’t — thought it best to follow her after she left Wyatt’s apartment to get the real story. Oh love. It can get quite nasty, eh? (Side note: We all know “Castle” is a show that really likes to make you jump through hoops during each case/week, but this episode definitely tops it. Even though I had an inkling that the guilty party would ultimately be Jenna’s husband — there was just something .. about him — it was certainly a fun ride to get to the end.)

Am I getting a little worried about the long-term state of “Castle”? Of course. But that’s to be expected, especially with a soft show like this one. For now, I am going to enjoy each episode like it’s the last, and if tonight’s is any indication, we’re going to be in for quite a ride.

Castle-ism…

• “She was stabbed with the Washington Monument?”

What were your favorite parts of the episode? Who did you think killed the model when the episode started and were you right or wrong as the 60 minutes ended?

Philiana works at an entertainment trade publication in Los Angeles and recently graduated from the University of Southern California. Her favorite new shows are “Glee” and “The Vampire Diaries.”