Review of Castle: Daddy Dearest Returns

I was torn last night between watching Castle and The Blacklist, but I chose Castle and I was glad I did. Some of my kids were still up when it was showtime and The Blacklist was very, very violent, more violent than I am comfortable with so I was glad I didn't watch that with my kids anywhere near the room.  I hope it doesn't have many more episodes like that because I can't watch that level of violence at all.  Sad!  Don't ruin a good show for the shock factor!

Ahem.  Okay, on to Castle.  Kate and Rick are trying to settle on a wedding date, but nothing is working.  Martha suggests they elope and Beckett's phone rings.  They've caught a case. It starts out with a dead guy in the shower and someone calling 911.  The team is called in and Castle finds a secret compartment in the floor with a laptop in it.  The laptop has a high level encryption system and the team finds out the victim was a convicted hacker.  The search leads them to Anderson Cross, a "banker" but just before they meet him, Castle gets a phone call from his dad which says something is about to happen, but don't react, and then Anderson Cross a.k.a Castle's dad Jackson Hunt walks out.

Castle is so torn between wanting to tell Beckett who he is and keeping his dad's secret.  I think the funniest part of the whole show was when Beckett is laying out the case and looking for a crazy theory from Castle, but he's so rattled he just says something logical like, we don't have enough evidence to draw any conclusions.  The look on her face was funny. (There was also a funny scene where Ryan is showing pics of his baby girl and Beckett says, hey, don't you think Sarah Grace looks like Esposito? Ryan's reaction was hilarious.)

Castle meets up with his dad and gives him some information about the case after reminding him how dangerous his life is.  I mostly like James Brolin, but there are times when his acting is a bit stilted.  Beckett eventually realizes where she has seen Anderson Cross before--- when Alexis was kidnapped. Then the team gets footage of where the victim was killed and they also see Anderson Cross right behind the guy so they're pretty sure they've got a solid suspect. Castle tries to frantically meet with his dad, but he doesn't show at the meet.  Castle goes home to talk to his mom and the doorbell rings---it's Hunt with a gunshot wound.  Martha and Castle treat his wound and I admit I winced when Castle was digging the bullet out.  There's some good wordplay between Martha and Hunt, and they still had spark I thought.  Kate comes to the apartment and Castle introduces her to her future father in law.  She's mad and wants to take him in.

Hunt convinces them that a mole has stolen the CIA's deep cover list and is going to sell it to Iranians.  He has to stop the exchange, but Castle doesn't think Hunt is in any condition to do any of it and says he and Kate will do it.  They go to the library to hijack the wi-fi and Castle is taken hostage.  Before Castle is hurt, his father swoops in and kills the mole.  Kate comes down to the basement looking for Castle and when he goes to show her the body, of course it's gone.  The murder weapon was left behind, however, so the NYPD can close the hacker's murder case. The episode ends with Rick and Martha talking while looking out the window of the loft and Hunt is watching them from the street below.  Creeper!  I'm not sure if I'd like to see him back.  He's one of those characters that are tough to like at times, but you want to anyway.  I guess we'll see where they take us.

One of the best scenes of the episode was when Martha tells Castle that his father gave her two of the greatest gifts of her life---the first one was Rick and the second was closure.  Awww. Loved that.

The second was when Castle says they'll get married in September, book tour or not. Awww.

Did you see it? What did you think?