Castle's Christmas Episode

Last night I was finishing up addressing my Christmas cards and when the Castle family came on and the first thing they were talking about was how everyone had to come up with a poem for their family Christmas card, I thought what a great idea! But it was too late for my family card.  Maybe next year. Of course, Kate hadn't gotten around to hers because she thought it wasn't a big deal.  Shouldn't she know by now that most stuff like that in the Castle household is a big deal?

Well, the first scene was actually of some guy (who could run really fast!) running away from a car.  The car has several advantages on the runner, the first being speed, and the second that the driver shoots the runner.  The victim crashes through a storefront window and the driver gets out (in a Santa suit! Yeah, I was glad none of my kids were still up.) and shoots the victim one more time for good measure.  Yikes.

The team is on it and figure out that the victim was an ER doctor named Eric Mercer.  His co-workers tell the team that he missed work to help his uncle, only he doesn't have an uncle.  When they track down the address that Eric was secretly going off to, they find out that he was actually moonlighting as a mob doctor for the Carlucci family.  Not surprisingly, Castle has a connection to the now head guy of the Carlucci family, Dino, (he sure knows a lot of mob guys from his research. I found that a little unbelievable, but I digress.)  They go to Dino's headquarters, which is a strip joint.

Oddly, they show Rick enjoying the strippers dancing while he's with HIS NEW WIFE.  Beckett tells him if he doesn't quite staring he'll have to get the two drink minimum and he doesn't even hear her.  I didn't like that part actually. He's a newlywed for Pete's sake.  Why do they have him doing that in front of her? Yuck.  But, anyway, one of the stripper's touches Castle's shoulder on her way by and Beckett is all, really? Yeah, that's what I was saying, too.

They get to talk briefly to Dino, but things get a little chilly when Castle introduces his wife (I still love that he can say that now) and she informs them she's NYPD.  His head of security (Rocco) and number two guy (Christopher) join the meeting, but Dino says he has no info for them.  Beckett is continuing to try to question the guy when she gets a call from Ryan.  They found Dino's number two guy Christopher's car with a Santa suit and blood on it.  She brings Christopher in for questioning.

Christopher isn't talking and even the mob crimes detective they bring in to consult (who was oddly a very stiff actor) doesn't really have a lot to add to the circumstantial evidence.  Dino calls Castle to a meeting and after a discussion with Beckett about being careful about mob people, Castle goes.  This was a very strange meeting. Dino is giving his daughter Jane a wad of money when Castle comes in.  And Dino then tells Castle he knows Christopher is being set up, that he raised Eric as his own, and wants to find out who is behind all of this.  Well, he wants Castle to find out who's behind all of this.  And in order to make sure that happens, he quickly cuts his own hand and cuts Castle's, then swears a blood oath. Ew.

Beckett gives the okay for Castle to keep investigating their closed case (why did they close that so quickly? They sure didn't have much) and Castle goes to talk to Christopher who now sings like a bird.  Eric needed some surveillance equipment and Christopher sent him to his friend, Rita. Rita actually provided Eric with a bunch of stolen credit cards.  Which the team try to track, but no joy. They do get something from the lab, Lainey found out that the crystals on him came from rock salt. Surprise! There's a rock salt warehouse near where Eric was killed.  Caskett goes there and finds Eric's backpack filled with bloody clothes with bullet holes in them.  Dun, dun, dun. The plot thickens.

The oddly stiff mob crime detective tells them that the owner of the bloody clothes could be Luka Tessaro, a guy from a rival mob.  He disappeared a few nights ago after gunfire was reported in his neighborhood. The team goes out to the underpass where the gunshots were supposedly fired, and find a slug and a bloody bracelet that the crime scene unit missed. Yikes.  Somebody getting fired over that I wonder?  Anyway, they match the blood on the bracelet to Jane, Dino's daughter.

Castle goes to Dino to tell him what he's found, but as soon as Castle points the finger in Jane's direction, Dino loses it and gets out a gun to shoot Castle. Luckily, Jane rushes in at the last minute and tells her father that she was there, that she was in love with Luka, he'd called her when he'd been shot and she'd tried to get him in her car to bring him to Eric to save.  But he couldn't be saved.  Hey, maybe the Tessaro family found out about that and killed Eric in retaliation? Hmmm...

Since Jane doesn't know who was after Luka or who killed Eric, the case is at a standstill until someone uses the stolen credit card.  Caskett follow it up and find Luka holed up in a warehouse with Jane. Seems they were faking his death to get out of "the life" and be together.  Eric was helping them and got the stolen credit cards to help them get away.  Luka talks about how before he was shot, he was supposed to be finding out who was moving in on their family territory.  Store owners were getting email demands for protection money and if they didn't pay up, their store was burned down.  No one knew who the guy was.  But Rita ends up helping the team track the anonymous guy's Cayman island account and it all leads back to . . . the odd mob crimes detective! I totally called that one since the guy was just so random.

Dino accepts his daughter and her Tessaro love and tells Castle he owes him one.  I'm sure that will come into play later this season.  Or, maybe not.  Anyway, Captain Gates comes up to tell Castle that while he was being transferred the mob detective guy (McBride I think his name was?) was killed and since Castle is connected to organized crime now, he can't work with the NYPD anymore. (I guess the mob killed him, so . . . that makes Castle guilty by association?)  The look on Castle's face was SO SAD. When Beckett comes up to him all happy with her poem, he puts on a brave front and doesn't tell her.  He just says nothing's wrong because she's there and goes over to the police station's Christmas tree and watches everyone dancing and happy.  *sniffle*

The other unhappy storyline is that Lainey had lied to her parents to get them off her back and told them that she was engaged to Esposito. They're flying in and she asks him to pretend they are engaged.  He agrees, and it ends up really cute with how much he wants them to like him.  But in the end, they both decide they don't love each other like that, and break up.  Wahhhh. I liked them together.  *sigh*

So, come January, Espo is a free man and from the previews, Castle is starting his own PI business and is in competition with our favorite team from the Twelfth Precinct.  Now that could be really fun. I can't wait!

Did you watch? What did you think?