Castle Season 4 Episode 20 “Headhunters” Recap
Finally, a new episode of Castle and what an episode it is with fellow Firefly co-star Adam Baldwin!
The episode begins, with a homeless man coming across a dead body of a young man beneath an overpass. The homeless man sees a bag near the body and with curiosity getting the best of him with the prospects of finding something valuable the man goes to open the bag, but instead of finding something of monetary value he finds three severed heads.
Back at Castle’s home, Castle is acting possible scenes in the new Nikki Heat book by using “action figures” aka a Barbie doll and a Godzilla replica. Martha walks in on his researching and just shakes her head. She hands over some of Alexis’ possible acceptance letters, but Castle promptly stashes them away. He explains that he is fearful of another rejection letter that would cause Alexis’ depression to return again, but more importantly he doesn’t want to see her go.
When Martha tries to bring up the Beckett, Castle quickly dismisses the entire subject, stating that there is nothing going on and with her being involved in a court case he needs to find something to occupy his time. That is when he Castle sees the news report on the severe heads and more importantly video of Detective Slaughter, Castle’s possible new muse.
Castle heads down to the station to say hi to Beckett, but to get information on Detective Slaughter. Beckett seems upset with the idea of a possible new muse and Castle shadowing another detective, but ignores her emotions to tell Castle where he can find Det. Slaughter…..mostly likely near the dead body. Cut to the Medical Examiner’s office where we see a very gruff and tough Detective Slaughter not only trying to make a horrible sexists pass at one of the M.E’s, but doing a pretty poor job of being interested into the case.
Castle shows up, offering some insights into the Castle much to Slaughter’s opposition about the heads being dug up and then severed. Castle tries to get a ride along, but Slaughter’s says no, but then Castle gives Slaughter his jacket as a “gift” in hopes of being involved in the case, but still Slaughter’s says no even though he still takes the jacket. It isn’t till Castle mentions he is good friends with the mayor and offers to owe Slaughter a flavor that convinces Slaughter to let Castle on the case.
Castle and Slaughter go to interview the Brian Riley, the deceased’s father. Brian doesn’t seem to terrible upset and that is when Castle is informed that Brian is part of the Westies Irish gang. Slaughter and Castle follow Brian with hopes that Brian is out finding the man who killed his son. They follow Brian to a bar and see him carrying a gun. Slaughter decides to follow him in and gives Castle a gun to “protect” himself. He “convinces” Castle to go into the front, while he goes through the back.
Following Slaughter’s instructions, Castle rushes in the front shouting “NPYD” (yes, Castle misspelled NYPD) and provides enough of a distraction for Slaughter to get the drop on Brian. While Brian is in custody, the man Brian was pointing a gun at attempts to flee, but with Slaughter’s instance Castle “tries” to stop him. Castle jumps, punches, and grabs at the man legs, but nothing works until Castle smashes a beer bottle over the man’s head. With the man unconscious, Castle stumbles to the ground after the ordeal, gaining Slaughter’s approval and a new nickname, “Sherlock”.
At the station, Kate and the team feel somewhat disturbed by Castle’s interest into another detective. As Esposito and Ryan quietly discuss the reasoning behind Castle’s sudden curiosity, Beckett sees Castle and Slaughter stepping out the elevator, with their two suspects. Slaughter and Castle walk through the “bullpen” in slow-mo showing how badass the two are. Beckett goes to talk to Castle who explains what happened and Beckett tries to reason with Castle trying to express how much danger he is in, but Castle dismisses her fears. Castle joins Slaughter in the interrogation room, where they talk to the supposed killer of Glitch aka the victim. Their suspect says that Glitch was frozen out the gang, after too many screw-ups and said Glitch vowed to get back in the Westies good graces.
Castle with the help of Esposito (plus a little basketball side court bribery) learns the heads belong to Jamaican gang members. Castle theorizes Glitch went after the dead bodies, because the Jamaicans are enemies of the Westies, but with no real proof it is just a bunch of “what ifs.” Slaughter decides to set up a meeting with one of his informants from the Jamaican gang to find out some intel. Meanwhile, Kate is in her therapist’s office ranting about Castle’s behavior and trying to figure out why he is acting so differently. Her therapist points out that maybe Castle is trying to “emotionally protect himself” from Kate by acting out since he doesn’t believe she shares his feelings. Kate doesn’t know what to do, and her therapist simply asks “what do you want to do?”
Castle and Slaughter are waiting at set meeting location to talk to Slaughter’ informant when Slaughter starts talking inappropriately about a red-headed girl that started working in the M.E’s office not too long ago aka Castle’s daughter Alexis. Castle informs Slaughter that the girl is her daughter, to which Slaughter replies “she has a great ass.” Without missing a beat, Castle punches Slaughter in the face defending his daughter. Slaughter just laughs it off, but quickly turns back on the “professionalism” when his informant arrives.
Slaughter makes Castle the lookout, while he goes to talk to his informant inside a building. Minutes pass by and a car filled Jamaican Gang members, Castle acts nonchalantly trying to act unaware of their presence. The car rolls on by and shortly afterwards a series of gunshots can be heard from inside the building. Slaughter runs out with Castle trailing behind asking what happened, but only getting “we were never here” type of response back.
Back at the station, Castle is trying to hide from Slaughter and tries to talk to Esposito about what happened, but only to get interrupted by Slaughter. Castle tries to get away, by saying he has to go to the bathroom, but ends up getting Slaughter to follow him instead. As he makes his way through the station, Castle sees the supposedly “dead” informant alive and well making his way to Slaughter to say hello. Castle confronts Slaughter on what is up, but he says that the gunshots were all a ruse, since his informant is actually an undercover cop, plus he wanted to see how loyal Castle was. After a nice laugh about the whole ordeal (serious who laughs about the idea of fake killing someone) the pair head down to talk to a couple of Jamaicans who was supposedly involved in Glitches death according the informant/undercover cop.
The Jamaican suspects says they have no idea what happened, but when slaughter shoves one in a garbage compactor and starts turning it off and on, the suspect starts talking right away. He says that Glitch was running his mouth about his plan to sever some heads, so a couple of him and his fellow gang members were waiting for him outside the cemetery, but when they noticed witnessed a Mexican gang opening fire on the Glitch they ran off. With the little help of Ryan and subsequently lending of Castle’s Ferrari for the weekend, Castle receives information that proves the Jamaicans story, but also points him and Slaughter in a direction, a Mexican Gang run by Cesar Valez.
Slaughter decides to head on over to Valez’s salvage yard, without backup much to Castle’s apprehension. Back at the station, Ryan informs Esposito about the information on Valez he looked up for Castle and how he believes Slaughter is leading Castle into a dangerous situation. Meanwhile, at the Salvage Yard, Slaughter and Castle finally meet the mysterious Valez, but thanks to Slaughter’s big mouth the tension level is starting to rise with Valez’s men surrounding the pair. Before any member can make a move, Esposito and Ryan show up with backup to assist Slaughter and Castle, but more importantly to ensure Castle’s safety.
After Ryan and Esposito rip into Slaughter for taking an civilian in hostile situation, Slaughter informs Castle that this was all part of his plan to escalate the things to point out a the weakest link in the gang, which it did, a young kid with the potential to give up the goods on Valez. The next day Castle meets up with Slaughter who has the kid in the trunk of the car. After making some donut holes in the car and asking Castle to put in a good word for him at Civilian’s Review Board, Slaughter finally stops the car and releases the kid from the trunk.
Slaughter then proceeds to threaten the kid saying he knows about the boy’s younger brother and how he could make life harder for him if he didn’t give up the goods on Valez. The take him back the precinct, where he goes on about Valez plot to make it seem like the Jamaicans killed Glitch so there would be an all-out war between the Westies and the Jamaicans so Valez and his gang can step in and take over all the territories. He describes the night, about Glitch being shot by Valez twice, but quickly changes his story to three when he notices Slaughter giving him cues. This action doesn’t go unnoticed by Castle who quickly confronts Slaughter of his coercion, but Slaughter says he has the opportunity to put a dangerous man behind bars and that is good enough for him, the only thing left to decide is whether Castle himself is “in or out?” Castle says out effectively taking himself off of the case and better yet away from Slaughter, but still doesn’t help him with the dilemma of witnessing Slaughter using coercion tactics.
Castle finally reaches out to Ryan and Esposito for help, the two say they are busy with another case, but tell him to talk to Beckett. Swallowing his pride, Castle asks Beckett for her help. She asks why since she told him to stay away from Slaughter and he explains how wrong he was not to have listened, but just wants to set things right and ensure a man who isn’t wrongful sent to prison. Beckett shows him a photo she had Ryan recover from a red-light camera showing Valez car blocks away from the crime scene during the time the murder would have been taking place, indicating Valez didn’t shoot Glitch, but even so it is still circumstantial.
Castle is stunned to know that Beckett still had his back when he turned his own. Beckett and Castle then proceed to the crime scene, where Beckett believes that Glitch’s death wasn’t due to some turf war, but something else. Slaughter drives up to the scene to confront the two after finding out Beckett’s interceding involvement on his case. He threatens to tell inform the chain of command, to which Beckett replies go ahead. With only an hour a so, the pair most find their missing pieces of information to ensure the right killer goes behind bars and to ensure Kate’s job still remains intact.
Castle and Beckett restage the crime, Glitch was running away from Valez out of fear, so he hid under an overpass for cover, but why did he stay? He could have run to the subway tunnel, which was not too far away, unless he was waiting for someone. That is when the two notice a payphone and believe they caught their break. A little while later the two are back at the station informing Slaughter over the developments before he makes any formal statement to head honchos. They explain what they found out and more importantly explain who the real killer is, Brian Riley, Glitch’s father.
Beckett and Slaughter bring in Brian into the station to interrogate Brian. They tell him that they know that Glitch made a phone call to Brian to pick him up from the underpass due to phone records. They also inform Brian that they found out that Glitch was kicked out of the Westie’s gang by the leader because of too many screw-ups and the only reason Glitch wasn’t killed sooner was because of Brian’s mostly likely revenge on anyone who would dare try to kill his son. Brian then goes to confess saying he did kill his son, because he was tired of his son making mistakes and making himself look like a fool.
Brian is charged with his son’s murder and hauled away in handcuffs. Slaughter punches Castle in the stomach as payback for not having his back, all the while Beckett is threatening Valez with a whole lot of trouble if he doesn’t leave New York City. Slaughter semi thanks Beckett and Castle before he leaves and tells Beckett that if she ever wants to have a good time, to come and see him.
In the end, Castle thanks Beckett once again before deciding to head home. There he sees Alexis reading her acceptance letters, especially focusing on the one from Stanford. She doesn’t know whether just to accept it and move and be happy even though the first time she received a letter from the college it was actually a rejection. Castle asks, “do want it badly enough to move past over being hurt” Alexis thinks she can, but the real question is can Castle?
Originally posted on Affairs Magazine
