Did You SEE Castle Last Night?

We actually rewound the ending of Castle last night and watched it again.  That twist at the end was AWESOME!  But let's start at the beginning.

So, to recap from last week, Jerry Tyson, the 3XK serial killer, is back but trying to make everyone think he's just Michael Boudreau, a schmuck who got plastic surgery to look like a serial killer.  Both Beckett and Castle KNOW it's 3XK but they can't prove it.  Beckett goes to see a girl who says she's scared of Boudreau/Tyson---and gets a needle jabbed in her arm and then she's kidnapped for her trouble.  Castle figures it out just a bit too late and the gang rushes to where Beckett's car is, but she's gone.  There's a message written on her car windshield, though--Help her.  oh man, the look on Castle's face! Poor guy.

Ryan and Castle go over to Boudreau's apartment and he lets them in to look, but she's not there. Castle can't keep his cool, however, and Ryan has to pull him out of there. "You're not going to help her like that."  I love level-headed Ryan.  Dr. Nieman is telling Espo the same story---they don't know where Beckett is. Besides, they were both conveniently at the precinct, so there isn't any way they could be involved.  Yeah.  Sure.

The gang is all standing around the murder board trying to think of anything at all that might give them a lead.  Gates says maybe this guy really is Boudreau and the real 3XK is out there, but Castle knows it's him. It's all about the game.  Then Castle gets a phone call from Beckett begging for him to help her. They trace the call to a payphone (they still have those?) and there's a recorder of Beckett's voice taped to it. 3XK is totally playing them. The tech girl figures out that the tape was just spliced together from interviews Beckett gave while Castle was missing (which made me wonder when they are going to address that, but I digress.)

Castle decides to take matters into his own hands and goes to Boudreau's apartment building by himself. He puts on a hideous beanie and heads inside, busting in and giving Tyson/Boudreau a nasty cut over his eye.  Boudreau pulls out a board with nails on it after Castle knocks him around a bit and Castle pulls out a gun, ordering him to tell Castle where Beckett is.  This guy is good, begging Castle to believe him that he's just Michael Boudreau, giving his parents' names and childhood home address. Castle doesn't believe him for a second, but before Castle can shoot him, the police break in and take Castle into custody.

Boudreau decides to press charges and after Castle is booked, Gates comes to see him and says that she couldn't see what Beckett saw was so great about having Castle on the team. He gives her this look like, thanks a lot. Then she says that Beckett told her that Castle can see the story.  She sees the evidence, Castle sees the story.  Gates says he has to figure out Tyson's story, then they'll find Beckett.

But then the chase is back on.  Castle gets another phone call from Tyson, and when they trace it, it says it came from Castle's loft. They rush over there, but Alexis and his mother are safe. He hustles them out of the country so he can concentrate on finding Beckett.  The team gets a lead on the van that was seen driving away with Beckett in it and it leads them to an industrial area.  They have a visual on a woman that looks like Beckett tied to a chair.  When the team rushes in, Beckett's voice yells out, no, it's a trap! And then the woman in the chair, who they believe is Beckett, is shot.  The look on Castle's face was so ripped apart.  He rushes over to cradle her face, devastated, when he realizes it isn't Beckett.  That it was all staged. Relief and horror are on everyone's face at how Tyson is willing to sacrifice anything and anyone to make Castle suffer.

After all that, Castle decides that playing Tyson's game will get them nowhere. He goes to see Tyson's old cellmate and offers him revenge against Tyson if he'll just tell him where Tyson's hideaway is.  Once he has the information, he starts packing a duffel bag with a gun in it to head out there.  The whole time I am shaking my head going, have you learned NOTHING working with the police all this time? Never go and do stuff like this without backup!  Gah!

Castle pulls up and is checking out the place with binoculars and is almost immediately seen by Amy Barrett, the girl who lured Beckett out alone so they could grab her.  Castle doesn't have any problem putting her in the trunk of his car, though, and then he goes into the house by himself.  He sees an image of Beckett tied to a table on the laptop and while he's looking at it, Tyson comes in and tasers him.  My son who was watching with me was all, who lets their guard down when they're in a serial killer's house? Really? Then we were both shaking our heads.  Plot point!

Tyson gets Castle in a chair and is gloating about how easy it was to lure Castle there and how predictable humans are.  But Castle has a surprise for him.  He lured Tyson out in the open and he came with backup!  We go back over the scenes where it looks like Castle is alone, but Ryan and Espo are with him every step of the way.  *fist pump*  Such a great twist! I was totally sucked in. Then Castle gives the signal and Espo shoots Tyson, who doesn't shoot Castle immediately and just stands there for a moment until he falls over dead.  Then they go to get Beckett.

Beckett has been dealing with the slightly unhinged Dr. Nieman who is going to take Kate's face and make it her own.  Gross.  Beckett manages to free one hand, however, and when Dr. Nieman realizes something is wrong on Tyson's end and goes to kill Beckett, she is shocked when Beckett fends her off. She had a terminator-style look in her eye, too, and Dr. Nieman looked pretty scared. I would have been, too!

When Castle, Ryan, and Espo burst into the room, Beckett is standing over Dr. Nieman's dead body in shock, really.  Castle hugs her and they all go back for the slow clap through the precinct.  Beckett is just sort of there, but not really, more happy to be safe than anything I think.  Captain Gates gives the news to them both that the DA will drop the assault charges against Castle if he performs 1000 hours of community service as a consultant to Beckett.  Yay! He's back with the team!

Later, at home in their bed, Beckett tells Castle she keeps seeing Dr. Nieman's face when she closes her eyes.  He is so tender and says he has the same problem sometimes and when he does, he just looks at her. She touches his face and says "thanks for coming to find me" and he says, "Always." Awww.  *sniff*  I love them. I love this show. And that was an amazing episode.

What did you think? Did you watch?