Previously, on Castle, there's a minutes worth of previously, on Castle.
That sentence totally just blew my mind.
Then we jump straight into it. Castle (Nathan Fillion) wants to know if there's an antidote. There is, but it was stolen too. Can they make more? No. Where is Beckett (Stana Katic) with the case? Nowhere. Castle tells her about Dreamworld and then a doctor comes in. Beckett goes to talk to her mentor (who, if you recall, I refer to as WBAE) and WBAE (Lisa Edelstein) says that they are retracting Jack Bronson's (the dead framed guy) steps, because he must have come into contact with the real criminal at least once. Beckett mentions Dreamworld. The doctor injects Castle with something that will slow the effects of the toxin and give him more time. He'll keep giving it to him every four or so hours, but eventually it will stop working and Castle will die. DUN DUN DUN.
Beckett's boss doesn't really believe in Dreamworld. Shouldn't detectives be open-minded? But wait! A tech guy has found something in the Pentagon archives. A reporter called Brad Parker tried to publish an article called 'Inside Dreamworld' but it was eaten up by national security dragons (literally, I swear) and disappeared. Beckett's Boss (official title) wants Beckett and WBAE to talk to the reporter and Castle appears. He wants to help. Everyone is reluctant to let him help, but then Beckett convinces her boss to agree and Castle is allowed to help. Hooray! Beckett and WBAE go off to talk to Brad Parker but Castle has to stay behind.
WBAE is being a bit more sympathetic in this episode, and I don't dislike her so strongly anymore. I might even find out what her real name is. They find Brad Parker and say they want to talk to him about his article. He asks if they're really going to do this again and says that he still won't give up his sources. Beckett tells him that one of his sources was murdered, and other people's lives are in danger. Parker agrees to talk. Title credit... thing! They go to a cafe, where he provides exposition in a hoarse whisper. Dreamworld is somewhere in Afghanistan and he doesn't really know a lot about it. He tried to talk to Bronson about it, but Bronson was afraid that people would find out what he'd done and refused to talk. Eventually, the Secretary of Defence called Parker to shut the story down. Parker suspects that the Secretary of Defence is in on it all... whatever it is.
If you thought the obvious next step would be to confront the Secretary of Defence, congratulations! That's exactly what we thought!
Naturally, WBAE and Beckett go to talk to him about this secret government base, because he's absolutely going to be willing to share secrets with them. Oh wait! He's actually going to pretend the base is just a myth, and make everything about their conversation hypothetical in a way a lawyer would be proud of. Beckett and WBAE try to convince him that thousands of lives are on the line. After staring suspiciously at them and their eye make-up (seriously. It's practically caked on there! And don't say 'it's for the camera' because you don't see any of the male actors looking like a combination of an ancient Egyptian and a raccoon, do you?) the Secretary of Defence gives them some 'off the books' information. Bronson did some mission to do with killing a high-up terrorist in a high-up terrorist group. (You know which group it is. Don't make me try to spell it.) The group in question is probably retaliating. That was a helpful chat. It's terrorists! But wait, didn't we already know that?
Back at the HQ (that's totally what it is) Beckett's Boss says that they need to find any members of the terrorists on the ground. So... they'll look into that. Castle's mother calls, and he has a pretty heart-wrenching conversation with her and Alexis, in which he doesn't tell them that he's dying but does tell them that he loves them and stuff. Martha (Susan Sullivan) and Alexis (Molly Quinn) are left vaguely concerned and confused. The doctor reappears to give Castle another shot.
Meanwhile, Beckett has found something. The extended family of someone with an unpronouncable name, who I assume is the terrorist that Bronson killed, are living in America. Or some of the extended family, at least. Two cousins are in DC. They followed Bronson's movements and found that one of the cousins, Rasheed, was following him out of a coffee shop. The plot thickens? Rasheed has dual Afghanistan/American citizenship (I have dual citizenship too! Yay! Oh except I'm not a terrorist.) and he's an engineering student. Five of his cousins were killed in the air-strike that Bronson helped with. Oh I see, it killed lots of people, not just the one. Whoops. My bad.
Golly, aren't these guys inconspicuous?
Men in black come for Rasheed, and Beckett and WBAE charge towards him yelling "Stop!" He doesn't stop. Beckett tackles him epically and searches through his backpack, but the toxin isn't there. Some time later, Rasheed is in interrogation. Castle is worried he won't talk. Beckett's Boss says that they have people searching his apartment for the toxin and the antidote, and also that he thinks he should be in Castle's next book. Castle agrees. Beckett and WBAE show up and say that they couldn't find the toxin anywhere. It might already be in place and ready to deploy.
Beckett and WBAE go to interrogate Rasheed. He says he's innocent, and doesn't agree with his dead family's terrorist ways. They ask him why he was following Bronson, and he protests that they're wrong - Bronson was in fact following him. Uh, why? That's what Beckett wants to know, anyway. Rasheed tells how he was in Afghanistan the night his cousin's house was blown up. He was the first on the scene, checking for survivors, and he saw Bronson holding the body of a woman who had been a servant in the house. Bronson drew his gun on Rasheed, said that he knew where Rasheed lived and threatened to kill him if he ever revealed that he had seen Bronson there. Then Bronson left... with the body. Later, he tracked Rasheed down and asked Rasheed who he'd told. Rasheed didn't tell anyone. Suspicious. Okay, theory time. Valkyrie is the dead girl and Bronson was romantically involved with her. Boom. How'd you like them apples?
The team is sitting around the table, where Beckett's Boss confirms what we mostly already knew - no intelligence agency can link Rasheed to terrorism and he has a solid alibi for the night of the break-in.
Just look at the innocence of this face.
Castle figured that he's a dead man, because they still have zero information. Beckett corrects him - they have information, they just need to piece it together - and basically tells him to keep his chin up. They're going to have the mission documents for the air-strike sent over and see what they can figure out. Um, problem! The mission documents, when they finally arrive, are full of blacked-out words. There are more blacked-out words than readable words, and half of the readable words are things like 'and' and 'but'. Castle suggests a word search for 'Valkyrie'. If it does appear, it's blacked-out. Castle then suggests looking for an eight-letter word the same size as Valkyrie. Aren't all eight-letter words the same size, asks WBAE. She should only pitch in if she has something useful to say, or I'll start disliking her again. Castle explains how in a font, each letter is a different width (and he also says that lowercase i is the narrowest, while uppercase W is the widest. Useful bit of trivia there) so the word 'Valkyrie' will be a specific size. Tech guy is impressed and starts searching. BOOM! Valkyrie there, there, there and there. It's everywhere, but they can't work anything out with all the blacked-out words.
But wait! Tech guy (ooh, he has a name. It's Richmond. I like him, so I will call him Richmond) has an idea. He can access some mainframe that he used to work with which has the audio files from fighter jets in it. Or something. I'll happily admit I'm bad at following technological jargon. Give me someone spouting a bunch of complicated sentences about genetics, though, and I'll be happy. Martha calls Beckett, but Castle tells her not to answer.
Ooh, it's the precinct! The for real precinct, not the mysterious blue HQ. Ryan (Seamus Dever) always thought that he and Esposito (Jon Huertas) would have kids together. He... didn't mean that how it sounded. He thought they'd have kids at the same time and co-coach t-ball teams. Suddenly, Martha confronts them. Something's wrong with Castle, which she knows because she's not an idiot, and she needs Ryan and Espo to find out what it is.
The doctor is with Castle again. Castle is anxious, but he doesn't want a sedative. As the doctor leaves, WBAE comes in. She asks if Castle wants coffee, and he makes a joke about how he'd rather die. Everyone winces. Too soon? Yeah. Castle asks WBAE how Beckett is doing at her new job and WBAE is all sympathetic-like and says Beckett is going great and she will be fine.
Starting to like me now, Zaffie?
Shut up. Okay, I admit it, she's been a lot better this episode. And her name was said so many times in this last scene that I may as well write it down. It's McCord. Everyone got that? WBAE will be called McCord from here on. Don't be confused or anything, because that would be lame. So Richmond the cool tech guy comes in again, and tells everyone he's found the audio from the air strike. Yay! Everyone goes to listen to it. They're talking about how Valkyrie is still inside the building and they want to get her out. They argue a bit, because Valkyrie isn't responding to her signal. It seems that she's an American intelligence agent! Oho! The Secretary of Defence (oh yeah, he's the guy giving the orders) authorises the strike while Valkyrie is still inside. The building explodes. I assume she died. Orders are given for Bronson to take her body and get it back to Dreamworld. So she was the servant! Damn I'm good. Anyway, the chaps talk about how this is why the documents they were given were so heavily policed - the Secretary killed an American operative and ordered Bronson to cover it up.
In the office of Beckett's Boss, McCord and Beckett are playing him the audio (which also has visual, in case you were wondering). McCord hands Beckett coffee. Symbol of love? I think that only works between Beckett and Castle. Beckett wants to go and question the Secretary, because she knows he has something to do with it, but her boss disagrees. He says that while the Secretary might have motive (he murdered Bronson to cover up his failure with Valkyrie which would have hurt his political career) they can't just question him like that. Beckett is annoyed. I can tell because she's gritting her teeth. She heads out of the office and runs into Castle, who says he's fine but obviously isn't. Uh oh. I'd be worried about him dying if he wasn't the title character of the show. Sorry guys. There's just no suspense here.
Beckett, being emotionally fragile, decides to drive up to the Secretary's house and talk to him. She's stopped by a bodyguard, who ignores her pleas that it's a matter of national security, but then the Secretary (and also his wife) spot her. The Secretary wanders over to talk to her. She tells him that she knows he's withholding information and if so much as one person dies it will be his fault. He tells her she's barking up the wrong tree and not to start a war she can't win. Even though he and his wife were getting into a car a second ago, they now both go back inside the house. Weird. Ryan and Espo call Beckett's mobile (cellphone, if you're American) and ask her what's going on. She says that everything is fine (in the most unconvincing way ever) and hangs up.
Oh yeah, everything is sooooo totally fine.
Back at the HQ, the doctor is teaching Castle how to breathe through his... breathlessness. It's like yoga, apparently. Beckett is in trouble, unsurprisingly, but what is a surprise is that the Secretary called the Attorney General to complain about her. Beckett thinks that if he was behind it, he wouldn't have made that call. She's smart. Her boss is a lot impressed. Aha! McCord has found something! The identity of Valkyrie, which she got from a photo of the dead people. Valkyrie is an American citizen, yes, but what's interesting is who signed for her body when it was sent back to America (along with a phony cause of death). It's Brad Parker, the journalist from earlier! He was her fiance. Okay, so, new lead! Everyone now jumps on the 'Brad-Parker-did-it' ship. They can't find him though. Beckett is going to his apartment. Castle is coming with.
They barge into the apartment and things move very fast. No one is there, but they find blueprints of the lab and information on the toxin. Information on the Secretary of Defence is lying around too, and they realise that he is Parker's next target. McCord finds something saying where the Secretary will be today - addressing a bunch of new cadets. In twenty minutes. No pressure, then. On their way, Castle is dying in Beckett's car. He's still sharp, though, and he and Beckett theorise. Parker hasn't been spotted in the press line. They think it might be another cover-up, because he's good at those. Castle wonders if he intends to do to the Secretary what the Secretary did to him. It's the Secretary's wife who is in danger! Beckett chucks in an epic u-ey and roars off towards the Secretary's house. (For those who don't know, to chuck in a u-ey is the Australian version of making a u-turn - or doing a basic 180 directional reverse and driving back the way you came. Everyone clear? Cool.) She tries to call on her way there, but gets put on hold. Castle is getting worse.
At the Secretary's house, Brad Parker has shown up. Everything seems normal except for the sinister music. Beckett finally gets through on the phone, but Parker is already in with the Secretary's wife. She gets a phone call, but hangs up. Fail. She's going to pour them some tea, and earlier in the episode someone mentioned how potent the liquid version of this toxin is, so I assume that's how it's going to go down. Castle is still getting worse but they're almost there. As they arrive, he hops out of the car and collapses. Beckett charges over to him and bends over him as he lies on the grass - kind of like when she got shot and he did the same thing. Hm. Then she stands up with a look that screams revenge.
Okay, that's it. You're so totally unbelievably dead now.
Beckett runs inside and points her gun around, even though Parker is fighting with a toxin. The Secretary's wife is on the floor and she's not breathing. Beckett points her gun at Parker, but has to pause to explain herself to the bodyguard, and Parker runs. Beckett runs after him. Outside, by a cheerful fountain, she yells at him but he's disappeared. As she rounds a corner, he reappears behind her (like every horror movie ever) elbows her in the face and steals her gun. Then he threatens her. Beckett pleads with him for the antidote, and says that he's going to kill her fiance like the Secretary killed his, but Parker is not impressed. Hold up! McCord appears suddenly and points a gun at him! Ha! Remember how I used to call her Worst Backup Agent Ever? Yeah. She got better.
Everything fades to black and we hear Beckett whisper, "Castle." Then we see a hospital heart monitor thingy. Castle is lying in a bed and Beckett is staring at him. She says his name again and he grunts. Then he opens his eyes. He had a strange dream, and Beckett was there. Martha and Alexis are also in his hospital room (and in his dream. Was the dream reality?) and oh look, it's Pi. He's appeared once before in this episode but I didn't mention him because he's annoying. He continues to be annoying and claims credit for healing Castle. Nope. Everyone who isn't romantically involved with Castle leaves, and he and Beckett talk. I hear that awesome music that I like. Beckett looks identical to my aunt (only taller and less blond) and it's a bit weird. Everything about her facial expressions is the same. Castle delivers some deep and meaningful pain-killer induced life lessons and then he falls asleep.
In the hallway, Beckett chats with McCord. The Secretary's wife will survive, and the Secretary himself will get no punishment. Beckett finds that really annoying. They have a brief conversation which leaves with Beckett looking thoughtful and job-quitty. Will she quit? I hope so. And that wraps up another Castle episode! Hooray! Next week, more stuff happens. Excited? You should be. Till then.