When a contestant on a popular TV dance program is murdered, Castle and Beckett look to her troubled past to find her killer and uncover a secret that turns the case upside down. [Just a side note: There are spoilers from the preview for next week’s episode at the very bottom in my Review part, so if you don’t like spoilers, stop reading when you see Review!]
Recap:
It’s Night at the Dance! We’re introduced to the host, Bill, and 3 judges. Tonight, it’s a dance-off for elimination. The dancers are: Santino vs. Odette. As their intro music is played, Santino appears, but Odette does not. You guessed it! She is found dead in her dressing room.
Jump with me to read more.
Over at the Castle household, Martha has decided to invite the previously hated theater critic, Oona Marconi, to dinner, overlooking Marconi’s scathing review of one of Martha’s performances.
Now at the crime scene, Lanie finds that Odette died instantly from a gunshot wound. They collect the list of guests at the show and go see Paul, Odette’s brother, at the station.
Ryan and Esposito talk to the other contestants; they say Odette left rehearsal unexpectedly at 11am and didn’t come back for a half hour. With his wedding ring attached, Ryan can’t seem to hold the attention of any single women. Poor thing.
Paul tells the detectives that, in recent months, Odette has been ever so happy. It’s a significant change from a couple of years ago when their grandfather passed away and she got in with the wrong crowd. But ever since she nearly lost her life in a train accident, she’s made a change for the better. When they ask for enemies, he can only think of Eddie Gorton, an eliminated contestant on the show.
After speaking with Paul, Castle and Beckett talk to the judges, who agree with Paul; Eddie was very angry when he was sent home. They watch his elimination interview, where he vows revenge on Odette. They’ve got their first suspect!
Eddie’s brought in for questioning but swears he left his troublesome life for dance, and he has an alibi; he was meeting with his agent at the time of her murder. He does say that he saw Odette last week, meeting with a shady guy in the alley and she handed him a roll of cash. Eddie is able to provide them with a sketch, but it’s too generic to narrow down.
Odette’s bank accounts show no large withdrawals, but she maxed out all of her credit cards. Mr. Lynchburg, her financial manager, says he had been worried about her spending after her grandfather passed; she made large, impulsive purchases. All of that changed when she found dance. Recently, however, all of her excessive credit card spending had been on clothing. Beckett asks for the receipts, and upon examining them, finds that Odette was buying clothes, but not in her size. And none of the clothes were in her apartment, either. Beckett remembers seeing one of the purchases, a faux-rabbit purse, on Jasmine’s desk back at the studio. She, at first, claims that the bag was a gift, but then confesses that it was in exchange for not telling the producers about Odette’s fight with Brad Melville, the host. Jasmine recorded the fight and plays it back for Castle and Beckett; on it, Brad threatens to kill Odette.
Brad’s reason for the threat – he found Odette shooting up on two separate occasions. After letting her off with a warning, he threatened to tell the producers, but she would tell them he knew of her drug habits, thus ending his career.
In Odette’s jewelry box, the detectives find two needles, but Odette’s tox screen came back negative for any of the usual drugs.
Oona Marconi joins Martha, Castle, and Alexis for dinner. At first, the dinner goes well, until Marconi brings up Martha’s bad acting and her review. Martha, no longer interested in taking the higher road, fumes.
The detectives find out what happened during Odette’s disappearance from rehearsal; she shared a latte with an old friend, Suzanne Steiner. Those needles in her apartment only contained insulin, but Odette’s doctor said she wasn’t diabetic. And the prints from Odette’s apartment came back; the only ones found are from a Barbra Landau, officially dead for a year in the train collision with Odette. That means Odette died in the collision and Barbra assumed her identity.
Castle’s theory – they were twin girls in foster care and wound up with two different families and found each other on the train, which all makes for a great story, except Barbra and Odette weren’t related.
They find Barbra’s original address, at a strip club. Castle is all too eager to accompany Ryan and Esposito, but Ryan wants to test his appeal without the distracting writer.
They talk to the bartender, who says Barbra had dreams of becoming a Broadway dancer and had a weasel of a boyfriend, Jason. Even while wearing Ryan’s wedding ring, the girls still love Esposito. And so does the ring. It won’t come off!
Odette paid for Barbra’s plastic surgery so that they’d look like twins. And since they looked so much alike, Barbra could fill in for Odette with old friends and meetings with her financial manager.
Jason is brought in to the station, and they accuse of trying to cash in on Barbra’s secret. He knew of her secret, but only because she went to se him. She was lonely and said she found out some terrible secrets from Odette’s past.
Looking for answers, they bring in Suzanne Stein; she says Odette (Barbra) only asked about the night of her grandfather’s death. Suzanne wasn’t in the house at the time, so she gave Odette her father’s number.
Lanie and Alexis examine the autopsy report and find some anomalies that indicate Mr. Morton could have been smothered. Charles Carson, Suzanne’s father, was on the guest list for Night at the Dance. Carson was very close to the family and suspected that Mr. Morton was smothered. He saw Morton right before he set the bed for his nap, clear of pillows, but was distracted when Odette started a small fire downstairs in the kitchen. When he returned to the room, he found Morton dead next to a pillow. Odette never left his sight, but that’s because she had an accomplice.
Odette had a boyfriend that her grandfather didn’t approve of, so much so that he threatened to cut her out of the will if she kept seeing him. Beckett asks Lynchburg if he can recall the name of the boy, but he can’t seem to remember. Fortunately, Paul told them that the boyfriend was Lynchburg himself! He killed Morton so Odette wouldn’t lose their inheritance, but she kept the money and left him. When Barbra uncovered this secret, she tried to use it as blackmail, but Lynchburg murdered her and was dumb enough to dump the gun by his office.
Upon arriving home, Castle finds that Oona and Martha are now the best of friends. That friendship, however, is going to cost him; Martha agreed that he would read Oona’s novel and send it to his publisher. The things we do for family. Oy.
Review:
Cute episode. I always enjoy Ryan and Esposito’s scenes together. They’re hilarious!
I shouldn’t have watched the preview for next week!!! But I did, and I’m sooo excited!!! Finally, Castle will know she remembers EVERYTHING! And he’ll get all cute and mad at her! Is it Monday yet?!
