Castle Goes Kindergarten Cop

I loved this week's Castle.  What could be cuter than Castle and little kids?

We start off the show with an ice cream truck weaving in an abandoned warehouse type area and they show the driver, dead, and someone runs out the back.  Seriously, who would kill an ice cream truck driver?

Cut to a dinner scene with the Castle family.  Alexis is hovering over Castle, her and Martha got his favorite ice cream even, potato chip fudge. Ew. He does give a bite to a doubtful Beckett, who actually likes it. It sounds gross to me, though. Alexis and Martha are heading over to do dishes and Beckett is trying to get Castle to see that the hovering isn't healthy.  But the phone rings.

They head down to the murder scene and there aren't a lot of clues to go on, but they do have the murder victim's name---Anton. They question his parents and the mom noticed her son came home from his night class acting upset, so our team goes to question his graphic design teacher. She remembers Anton getting on his computer and getting really upset before he up and left. She saw him later in the parking lot with a guy in a bright green car.  She managed a partial license plate and the boys track it down, but not before the teacher tells them that Anton deleted his entire portfolio.

Ryan also has some evidence that someone was hiding inside the ice cream truck and may be a potential witness.  Since there was a permission slip from Mrs. Ruiz's second grade class the team heads to the school.

Even after questioning, none of the kids will confess to being there, so Castle volunteers to gain their trust and help in the classroom.  Since he's 90 percent kid and all.  He heads down to the classroom, but Mrs. Ruiz isn't having any of his shenanigans.  And when he tries to call her Leslie, she shuts him right down.  It's Mrs. Ruiz.  I really liked her.  She's protective of her kids and doesn't want someone messing with them, no matter who they are.

Castle can respect that.  He says he has a plan and starts by asking the kids if they know any writers.  One kid pipes up that Castle is a writer and another kid says, "My dad says your books suck." Haha. You'd be surprised how many times authors get that. And what should the author say to that? Oh, sorry. It's always so awkward when that happens. Poor Castle.

He does get the kids to write a story and starts looking for clues.  He finds a lead with Jack who wrote about an evil giant threatening to hurt people. Castle heads outside to play soldiers with Jack in the grass.  With some questioning finesse, Castle manages to get it out of Jack that he was watching the scary giant on TV.  And when Castle sits up, his pants are wet and the kids all start pointing that he wet his pants and laugh. It was funny, I have to admit.

Beckett and the boys are running down some traffic cam footage of the green car which belongs to a retired cop named Joffe.  He has a spotless record and they can't figure out what he was doing with Anton. They track the pair to a dead drop post office box and the manager there remembers Anton freaking out when he was told that someone was calling and asking about his post office box. The team finds out that the bodega next door let Anton use the phone and that he called a mob enforcer named Dmitri. The plot thickens.  Of course it thickens further when they go to Dmitri's house and find an overpowering stench because Dmitri's been dead for a few days. Ick.  They find evidence that Dmitri was torturing someone who probably got loose and killed Dmitri.  He had the same two taps to the chest as the other victims.

In another twist, Anton's parents call to tell them that their house was tossed while they were out.  His dad brings in an envelope full of blank passports.  Well, I think we know what Anton was into now, don't we? *shakes head*

Meanwhile, back at school, the kids play keep away with Castle's wallet, and one kid throws marbles all over the floor and Castle falls flat on his back.  All I could think was, he's going to be sore tomorrow.  A little girl gives his wallet back and says bad things happen sometimes, but before she can elaborate, her mom calls her.  Beckett checks her out and finds that her brother was supposed to be watching her, so she could be the witness.

That leads us to the cutest scene ever.  Castle having a princess tea party with Emily.  They're waving wands and creating ice castles and talking about how princesses help each other. It was SO. ADORABLE.  I could totally imagine him as a dad to a little Alexis.  Emily finally does open up to Castle about how Jason bullies her and he says sometimes people are mean because it makes them feel strong.  He advises her to use her inner strength to let it go.  She happily skips outside for the rest of recess and Mrs. Ruiz compliments him on gaining the children's trust---until they hear a child screaming outside.  Jason has a bloody nose and Emily used to "strength" like Castle told her to. Oops.

The principal isn't too happy and Castle has to go.  He's packing up his stuff and saying goodbye to the kids when he sees a picture of an ice cream truck stuffed in his jacket pocket.  He shows it to Beckett and they search the children's desks.  Jason is the culprit.  Of course, he's the one who said his dad thinks Castle's books suck and has been making faces.  Beckett questions him, saying Castle the jerkface thinks Jason's too scared to tell what happened.  Brilliant.  Jason finally says he knows who was in the truck---his sister.

His sister is the graphic design teacher and she's scared.  She admits to being there when Anton was murdered.  They were forging passports to help immigrants get back home after they get here and their papers are confiscated so they can be forced into pretty much slave labor.  (The cop worked Brighton Beach and knew how awful it was for these people so he offered to help.)  Then Anton recognized one of the clients as a guy who is wanted for war crimes and decimated Anton's village in Russia. His name is Polkovnik, but no one has a picture of him and that's when the team realizes that's what the killer is after.  Polkovnik doesn't want anyone to have his picture. Natalie tells them where she hid the picture in her house, but it isn't there.  And Castle realizes it's at the school.  Then we cut to the creepiest scene EVER---Polkovnik is UNDER THE BED listening to them talk about the picture being at the elementary school.  *shiver*

Beckett and Castle find the picture on Jason's desk, but Polkovnik is right behind them and attacks Kate. Castle jumps in to help, but is thrown down and kicked for his trouble.  Castle manages to throw the marbles down, and Polkovnik does just what Castle did and falls to the floor. Kate cuffs him.  Whew.  A little too neatly tied up, but whatever, it was an awesome scene.

Castle brings cupcakes for the kids the next day and Kate gives Mrs. Ruiz a medal of service for putting up with Castle for a couple of days. It was a really cute scene when Mrs. Ruiz tells Kate that sometimes the most difficult kids are the most rewarding.  *sniff*  Jason puts a paper that says Jerkface on Castle's back, but Castle put a paper on Jason's as well that says frog breath. LOL Castle gets a text from Alexis telling him to come straight home. She's even put a tracker app on his phone. He knows it's time to talk to her.

They have a heart to heart about how he felt when she came home from Paris and he didn't want to let her out of his sight.  She understands that she has to let him live his life and not hover, but "being an adult sucks."  Well, at least she seems back to her old self after the debacle with her boyfriend last year.  Yay!

So, all in all, it was an awesome episode for me.  Did you watch? What did you think?