- Title: Castle – Death Wish
- wiki: link
“I prefer fantasy-augmented.”
Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Beckett (Stana Katic) are on the case when sonar operator and part-time tomb raider recently-returned from Turkey is found tortured and beheaded in a New York apartment. Learning that the victim had uncovered King Solomon’s tomb whose prizes included a lamp of legend sends Castle’s imagination into overdrive concerning genies and wishes while Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) try to focus on the more logical motives and suspects for the crime like both the victim’s partner and the unknown financier of the dig.
When a mysterious woman (Carolyn Stotesbery) appears to Castle on more than one occasion with both helpful information and and a few white lies, Castle begins to suspect that she might be the genie. Unfortunately for the mystery writer, Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) ends the fantasy by uncovering his genie’s true identity and her connection to the smuggled artifacts.
The wackiness of the episode, including Castle seeing the woman appear in a puff of smoke at one point, reminds me of the show’s earlier seasons. Given the various antics and the focus on the smuggling and missing lamp the murder of the week is largely overshadowed which wastes Star Trek: The Next Generation alumn Denise Crosby in an unmemorable role. Of course the episode wouldn’t be complete without a little Ryan family drama (which feels severly truncated for time) as the detective’s family gets a new addition in the episode’s closing scene.
