To Be Or Not To Be Castle Recap

We open the show with a guy on an empty stage practicing Hamlet--and he stinks at Shakespeare. Someone is watching him and he eventually hears a noise and goes to investigate and is stabbed.

Cut to the loft where Castle is talking about how it's Beckett's turn to think of a date for them. She's supposed to top the Founding Fathers date he did for her which was pretty elaborate. Beckett lets him think she's got something planned. (I'm really really going to miss Caskett moments. It's so sad to watch them now!)

Castle goes to the murder scene where a stalkerazzi already has a picture of Zane the murder victim's body on the stage. They actually show that on the news and say that Castle is the face of the investigation. Beckett does not seem amused.

The director of the play is an old theater friend of Zane's (and also someone that Ryan is totally stoked to meet) and she says that he was in a "showmance" with the leading lady named Naomi. Apparently they had a fiery breakup and she took a baseball bat to his car.  She's also a method actor and really gets into her role. When Espo and Castle go to question her, she's speaking Shakespearean English and pretending not to know what a car is, but Espo isn't having any of it and forces her out of her "role." She says she didn't kill him, but he'd been sneaking off a lot lately and got mad when she questioned him about it.

Ryan tracks down a discreet hotel room that Zane had rented and when they go there to catch his mistress, it's none other than Castle's mother, Martha. She'd been giving the guy acting lessons, not sleeping with him. Another dead end.

The show-stealer tonight was totally Ryan. He's decided to make his preschool daughter's play into something quite elaborate and he's having trouble helping everyone associated with the preschool dance see his vision. He dances for them and tells them all about it, but they don't seem too impressed. But the cutest moment of the whole show was when his wife and kids come in and Ryan sings the song with his little girl who is dressed as a flower. Adorable!

Anyway, back to the murder of the week. The team finds a connection with Zane and his step-brother who just got out of prison. The step-brother took the fall for a B&E and Zane never came to visit him. He apologized, though, and was going to make amends to his brother right after he took care of his money problems. He was going to be broke in a few months because of the taxes he owed, but he had a plan. Now to find out what that plan was exactly.

Ryan and Espo are outside getting some food and chatting when they notice the stalkerazzi guy filming them. They convince him to show them his footage of Zane since he'd been following the guy around for a month and find some film of Zane exchanging money and a burner phone with a scary looking guy. Espo recognizes him as a guy from a drug-running group. The boys pull him in and with some conversation about moving little brother to a prison closer to home, they get him to talk. He gave Zane a burner phone to connect to El Oso, a wanted drug cartel leader. And Zane's phone call didn't go that great, he says. Since El Oso kills a lot of people, they team is thinking maybe they have their guy.

Since Beckett is going to be late working the case, they postpone the date and Castle realizes she didn't really have anything planned. He thinks the competition between them is fun, she doesn't look so sure. He decides to take Martha out to dinner while she's working, but while he's in a parking garage, he's kidnapped. Again.

He seems pretty calm about it, though, when his hood is taken off and he's standing in front of El Oso. Considering how many times Castle has been kidnapped, it's probably old hat now. He gets his hands untied and they sit down like old friends. El Oso says Zane wanted the rights to his biopic and he wanted Zane to prove he was a serious actor, so that's why he was doing Hamlet. Now he's dead, though. El Oso thinks Castle can do it. Just sit down and typey typey typey. Haha. Now that made me laugh.

Beckett and the team track him down with the chip in his YOLO card that was in his wallet. Castle sees El Oso about to get away and trips him, so now he's worried that El Oso will have him killed. But if El Oso didn't kill Zane who did? Castle is talking about rivalries with Beckett and figures out that Zane must have been playing on an El Oso rivalry--and he was! El Oso has a brother who is double-crossing him and sleeping with his wife. He offered Zane money to lead him to his brother like a Trojan horse which would hopefully lead the authorities to him and then he'd be able to take over. Just like a Shakespeare plot! Only the brother didn't kill Zane either. He just said Zane could star and direct the movie about El Oso. Who would be mad about that?

His old theater director friend. She admits to the killing after Zane told her he'd be directing the movie instead of her. I totally called that one as soon as they showed her.

Back at the loft, Beckett has planned a night in for their date. They're enjoying themselves when there's a knock at the door and a box is delivered. El Oso has given Castle everything he needs to write his biopic. The look on Castle's face was priceless and he throws over their date to start on the project and TYPEY TYPEY TYPEY! LOL

We're down to the last two episodes of Castle. I'm really going to miss the show and most of all, Caskett. It's hard to imagine what my Monday nights will look like next season!

Did you watch the show last night? What did you think?