Castle – Linchpin

• Title: Castle – Linchpin
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After almost drowning Beckett (Stana Katic) and Castle (Nathan Fillion) are able to escape the watery grave Gage (David Chisum) left them in but Dr. Blakely (Timothy Carhart) is dead, they have no idea what the linchpin he was working on that could threaten the safety of the entire country, and Sophia (Jennifer Beals) is less than thrilled with the results of Beckett and Castle’s investigation.

Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas) track down an economics professor and two-time chess champion (Jim Turner) who spent time with Blakely before his death which lead Beckett and Castle to uncover the first domino in Blakely’s theory in the form of the young daughter of an influential Chinese business man.

Beckett and Castle also finally catch up with Gage who it turns out is the fall guy for Pandora, not the man behind Blakely’s death and the attempt to start WWIII. Even with Gage captured the threat isn’t over as a mole within the CIA (Josh Stamberg) still plans on going through with the scheme.

Before the episode ends we’ll get the explanation behind Blakely’s theory and one more twist which will hit Castle close to home and leave him with more questions than answeres about the woman he once loved and the mysterious father he never knew.

The second half of the two-parter doesn’t disappoint Aside from the chase to prevent a war, the episode has a couple of fun moments including Castle and Beckett’s dust up over his relationship to Sofia – which takes place in front of Lannie (Tamala Jones) and Alexis (Molly C. Quinn), and Beckett and Sophia’s heart-to-heart about Sophia’s regrets concerning her relationship with Castle.