TV Review: CASTLE – Season 5 – “Cloudy with a Chance of Murder”

By ANNE LOUISE BANNON / Contributing Writer

Posted: October 3rd, 2012 / 09:06 AM

Stars: Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic, Susan Sullivan, Molly Quinn, Tamala Jones, Seamus Deaver, Jon Huertas, Penny Johnson Jerald
Writer: Elizabeth Beall
Director: Kate Woods
Network: ABC, Monday nights, 10 p.m.
Original Telecast: October 1, 2012

For all those who have complained (with some reason) that their light-hearted whodunnit had been co-opted by the drama monsters the past few season, the old CASTLE is back with “Cloudy with a Chance of Murder.” But it’s even more fun now that author Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Det. Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) are lovers. The only problem they’re having is trying to keep it quiet.

See, Kate is worried about a lot of things, but is claiming NYPD policy since she and Beckett work together. Sort of. At least, that’s what she tells Castle as she gets dressed for her first day back at work after her suspension and naturally, gets called to a scene before she can say more. Turns out the vic is a popular TV weather reporter, Mandy Michaels (Candice Mann), found shot to death someplace far away from all the other places she goes. Detectives Ryan (Seamus Deaver) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) are on the job, but Esposito is still rankling at Ryan for his part in messing things up in last season’s finale.

The rest of the murder part of the story is the usual bring in all sorts of different suspects, each one adding a little bit to the weather girl’s final hours, but every now and then hinting at the perils of secret romances. That, and medical examiner Lanie Parish (Tamala Jones) has figured out that Beckett has been gettin’ some, though Beckett and Castle both do a pretty good job of covering up with whom.

Enter entertainment reporter Kristina Coterra (Jodi Lyn O’Keefe), who rubs herself all over Castle and strong-arms him into going on her show that night. Well, Castle does have to promote his latest Nikki Heat novel.

In the meantime, it looks like there’s a perfect suspect in basketball play Reggie Blake (Kevin Daniels). They’ve identified him as someone who secretly called Michaels, who owns a car that witnesses saw her get into shortly before she was killed and he’s got a major motive for hiding the affair – his wife will get everything in the divorce, thanks to a no-cheating clause in the pre-nup. So Esposito and Ryan go to get him only to get knocked around by Blake’s bodyguards.

This being far too early for a resolution, turns out Blake is another red herring, but he leads the detectives and Castle closer to the real bad guy, via a ride from the emergency room, where she’d been treated for an asthma attack.

After Michael’s co-worker Miles Haxton (Josh Randall) gets questioned about her, he reveals they had a secret romance going, which “imploded” from the weight of telling too many lies. In the meantime, Kristina invites Castle on a date on the air and the dope agrees. But then Kristina shows up at his place with bubbly and oysters, and starts pushing herself on Castle, who’s trying to dodge her without saying why. And then she butt dials Castle’s phone, calling Beckett and it doesn’t sound good. Which is why you don’t butt dial a cop.

Beckett comes rushing over, gun in hand, just in time to see Kristina straddling Castle. Okay, so he knows who killed Michaels, that’s not quite going far enough to appease Kate (for obvious reasons). But it’s far enough for her to bring in Haxton, who wasn’t lying about the secret office romance, just with whom. What he killed Michaels over was that she wanted to turn in some investigative research the two had done to the EPA, which would kill his big scoop and his career.

So Beckett and Castle wrap things up with Esposito and Ryan, then leave separately. Ryan and Esposito see that their dust up with Blake’s bodyguards made it onto the sports news and Esposito sees that Ryan took a punch for him. Time to make nice? Oh, you betcha. With beer and Espo buying.

Even though Kate is still peeved at Castle for catching him getting straddled, she does let him into her apartment, where she confesses she’s really just scared silly because she has no clue how to do a relationship. Castle is not in much better shape, but does say that they will figure it out and if people find out, then they find out and they’ll make it work. Sniff, sniff, it was so sweet. It’s hard to believe this guy messed up three marriages, but then he’s never had a woman like Beckett before.

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