CASTLE: A DANCE WITH DEATH (TV)
Summary
One in this comedy-drama series about a New York Police Department detective who grudgingly lets a rugged mystery-books author help solve murder cases. In this episode, a contestant on "A Night of Dance," Odette, is found murdered backstage. Parish, a fan of the show, explains that Odette was a favorite to win and was known for her reformed-bad girl persona. The other contestants state that she mysteriously left the set for half an hour the day she died and was behaving in a secretive manner, and when they question her brother, he said she began partying and behaving irresponsibly after the death of her wealthy grandfather, who raised her, but turned her life around after a narrow escape in a train derailment. They track down a belligerent former dance contestant, Eddie, who openly threatened Odette after he was eliminated from the show because of her and is eligible to return now that she is dead, but he provides an alibi and says that she had been behaving suspiciously. They discover that her credit cards were very recently maxed out, and her business manager, Lynchberg, says that she used to spend wildly, often buying extravagant gifts for friends, but stopped after he intervened. Her bills suggest that she was buying clothing in a size not her own, and Castle guesses that she was buying for someone else who then gave her cash. When they investigate further, Odette's friend Jasmine admits that she was blackmailing her because she suspected her to be in a relationship with the show's host, Brad, which would have gotten them both fired. Brad, however, says that he caught Odette with drugs again and vials are indeed found in her room, but the detectives are baffled when her tox screen proves clean.
Elsewhere, Martha invites theatre critic Oona Marconi over for dinner and attempts to sweet-talk her into helping promote her acting school, but bad memories of Marconi's harsh review of Martha from years ago ruin the evening. The detectives learn that Odette simply met a friend for coffee during the missing half-hour and that the vials contain only insulin rather than drugs. When they find fingerprints belonging to a woman who apparently died in the train derailment, Barbara, in Odette's apartment, they realize that Odette is actually the one who died and Barbara stole her life. Castle begins to theorize that they were twins separated at birth, but then learns that they were not blood-related and Barbara was a former stripper. Esposito and Ryan happily head off to the strip club to investigate, with Ryan testing his appeal with women by asking Esposito to wear his wedding ring. A coworker of Barbara's confirms that she recently got an elaborate makeover and had a scammer of a boyfriend, Jason. She flirts with Esposito despite the ring, and Ryan concludes that he is a "lost cause" to women because he is so clearly in love with Jenny, and Esposito soon discovers that the ring is stuck on his hand.
Castle and Beckett discover that Odette paid for Barbara's cosmetic surgery, and they conclude that she used her money to make a "double" of herself to complete her more unpleasant tasks, including her court-ordered community service. When Odette died on the train, Barbara took advantage of the situation and was killed when someone discovered the truth about her. They question Jason, who says that Barbara confessed everything to him, but he denies killing her, saying that Odette's secrets were catching up with her. They then find the friend with whom "Fauxdette" met that day, Suzanne, who explains that her father, Carson, was Odette's grandfather's butler. Alexis and Parish confirms that the grandfather looks to have been murdered, and they begin to suspect the butler, thinking he then killed Odette—really Barbara—when she learned the truth. Carson swears his innocence, however, saying that at the time he died, there was tension in the home because the grandfather disapproved of Odette's boyfriend, and suspecting that someone smothered him. They then realize that Odette, wanting her inheritance, distracted Carson while her grandfather was smothered by her boyfriend and accomplice: Lynchberg. When they interrogate him, he admits that Barbara offered to keep his secret if he would keep hers, and he killed her for trying to take Odette's place. With the case closed, Castle muses about discarded dreams, and Beckett reveals that she was pre-law before her mother's murder spurned her into police work. She solves Ryan and Esposito's ring problem with ease, and Castle returns home to find that Martha and Marconi have made up, thanks to Martha's promise that Castle would look over Marconi's novel and send it on to his publisher, much to his dismay. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: March 19, 2012 10:01 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:42:51
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 107418
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/detective; Comedy; Writers
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2009-2016
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- David Amann … Executive Producer
- Armyan Bernstein … Executive Producer
- Rob Bowman … Executive Producer
- Laurie Zaks … Executive Producer
- Andrew W. Marlowe … Executive Producer, Created by
- Moira Kirland … Co-Executive Producer, Writer
- Howard Grigsby … Producer
- Alexi Hawley … Producer
- Marc Kahn … Producer
- Terence Paul Winter … Co-Producer
- Elizabeth Davis … Co-Producer
- Christine Boylan … Co-Producer
- Rob Hanning … Consulting Producer
- Kevin Hooks … Director
- Robert Duncan … Music by
- Mark Kilian … Music by
- Nathan Fillion … Cast, Richard Castle
- Stana Katic … Cast, Kate Beckett
- Susan Sullivan … Cast, Martha Rodgers
- Jon Huertas … Cast, Javier Esposito
- Seamus Dever … Cast, Kevin Ryan
- Tamala Jones … Cast, Lanie Parish
- Molly Quinn … Cast, Alexis Castle
- Penny Johnson Jerald … Cast, Captain Victoria Gates
- Adam Harrington … Cast, Brad Melville
- Tim Ransom … Cast, Max Renfro
- Larry Sullivan … Cast, Samuel Lynchberg
- Millicent Martin … Cast, Oona Marconi
- Mike Faiola … Cast, Paul Morton
- Bruce Gray … Cast, Charles Carson
- Neil Brown Jr. … Cast, Eddie Gordon
- Arlene Santana … Cast, Jasmine
- Erin Chambers … Cast, Suzanne Steiner
- Lauralee Bell … Cast, Pam Francis
- Shelli Boone … Cast, Chantal
- Krishna Cole … Cast, Santino
- Anna Lunberry … Cast, Jeanine
- Braeden Marcott … Cast, Pierre Dubois