An arson case puts the lives of two detectives in danger.
Recap:
Jenny calls Beckett, looking for Kevin, and Beckett doesn’t have any good news to share.
Flashback to 12 hours earlier…
They’re all headed to a crime scene within a burned building, and Castle is excited. Jenny’s called three times today; she’s three days past her due date and insists on checking in with Ryan every few minutes. Mark Kimball, building inspector, urges the detectives to get out of the building as soon as possible because of the shaky foundation. The victim was burned to a crisp, making ID a little more difficult. The fire investigator, Delia, is still searching for the source of the blaze.
The owner, Art Turino, has no clue as to who the victim might be; his building has been abandoned for quite some time. And he’d recently stopped renovating his highly insured building. Beckett thinks that he torched his own place, as he was formerly part of the Maneri crime family, but he says he has since turned his life around.
Lanie determines that the cause of death was a gun shot wound, but still can’t identify the body. He had a metal plate in his left leg, and Lanie plans to use this to track down some information, but she won’t have to, as Delia identifies the body as Blake McCann, a fire investigator and her former partner.
Delia found the source of the fire and matched it to ten other arsons in the area. McCann was working on identifying the arsonist; he even took some vacation days to investigate it. She sends over his files. All of the previous buildings were empty at the time. He made note of one name—Adam Ferguson—and Beckett brings him in.
Ferguson, another serial arsonist, one that McCann had arrested, was also the last person to speak to him. According to Ferguson, McCann phoned him the night prior to his death to ask for help in identifying the unknown arsonist in exchange for cash and photos of the fires. Ferguson looked up to the Phantom; his fires were large and encompassing, with little accelerant. He told McCann that any arson artist would be nearby after setting a fire.
Esposito found McCann’s car, and inside are files for buildings McCann suspected would be the next target. He was right about the one he died in, so Esposito and Ryan check out the next building on his list.
Ryan is antsy, checking his phone every two seconds.
Before they leave, Ryan notices that the old building has an oddly shiny new lock inside. Once broken open, they find blasting caps and loads of accelerant, as well as an alarm. Scratch that. BOMB. They run out, with two seconds left to spare.
Castle finds footage of the fire, and it’s on the arson site, Pyroligious. Milo Pavlick owns the site and claims that the file was sent to him anonymously. While chatting with Beckett and Castle, he receives a text alert about a factory that is now up in flames. They leave Milo once they realize it’s the same building Esposito and Ryan were supposed to check out. By the time they get there, the flames are still going strong.
The fire chief can’t send any more guys inside until the fire is more contained. Jenny phones Beckett because she can’t get in touch with Kevin, and Beckett is forced to tell her about the explosion.
The whole department is now on the arson case. Esposito and Ryan are alive, but Ryan’s legs are stuck underneath debris. Esposito is able to unearth Ryan, but they’re in a subbasement and the firemen have all moved away from the building.
Jenny’s arrived on scene and is in labor, but refuses to leave.
Ryan finds a phone in the basement and is able to contact Beckett. The subbasement isn’t on the building’s plans, leading Castle to believe that the basement was created as an escape route.
The captain interrogated Milo for any clues leading to the identity of the arsonist. He said that he’d communicate with the arsonist online, but didn’t know his real identity.
Ryan is able to talk to Jenny while she lies in the ambulance. He wants to name the baby Javier, if it’s a boy, and Sarah Grace, if it’s a girl. Awww.
Esposito uses his last bits of oxygen for a joke. “You’re going to name a white, Irish kid Javier?!”
Delia finds the connection between all of the buildings: the building inspector, Mark Kimball, signed off on all of the buildings, and he’s there now, filming the catastrophe. After some gun-to-the-head prompting, he tells them of the escape route. The firemen take both Esposito and Ryan out, alive, just in time for Kevin to meet his new baby girl, Sarah Grace.
Review:
I adored this episode, and I’ll admit, I teared up watching the scene with Jenny and Ryan on the phone and LOLed with Esposito’s Javier comment. Very well-done episode, considering the fact that we knew (okay, were almost positive) that they wouldn’t kill off my favorite bros.
– Lindsay
