Castle 3.05 “Anatomy of a Murder” Recap

Another great episode. Honestly, Castle never disappoints me. I have yet to see a bad episode on this show because it seems that they’re on a winning streak since season 1. Last night’s ‘Anatomy of a Murder’was fun, entertaining and a great shout out to Grey’s Anatomy. It was so much fun catching all the little winks and nudges to Grey’s, even though I’m no longer a fan of the medical drama. All those ‘seriously?’and a doctor named Rhonda Chimes? Brilliant.

And on another happy note, what seemed to be a very depressing episode for Castle/Beckett shippers after the sneak peeks released last week, turned out to be a hopeful message for shippers everywhere. There is definitely something brewing between the two leads. Who cares if they’re currently in a relationship with other people?

This week’s poor victim was Dr. Valerie Monroe, an attending physician at County Hospital. Her body was found in rather unusual circumstances: inside an occupied casket during a Jewish funeral. The team gets called in and not even Lanie can pinpoint the cause of death right away because there are simply no marks on her body.

Back at the Precinct, Castle receives a package; when Beckett asks why he’s getting mail at the precinct, he explains that Alexis wanted to take her boyfriend Ashley to a Taylor Swift concert that was sold out, so he pulled a few strings and managed to get them for her. Esposito interrupts them saying he found something unusual in Valerie’s financials. Apparently she bought coffee every morning at a coffee shop twenty blocks from her apartment and in the opposite direction from the hospital.

While Esposito and Ryan leave to check this new lead, Kate gets a call from Lanie asking them to come down to the morgue. She has found grey nylon — carpet fibers — on Valerie’s clothes and hair and she also discovered the cause of death. Someone injected Valerie’s carotid artery with an empty syringe, which means they pushed air directly into her brain, which caused a fatal air embolism. That mode of operation points to someone with medical training, so Castle and Beckett go over to the hospital where Dr. Monroe used to work.

Once there, Castle and Beckett discuss the theory that doctors usually sleep with each other, just like it’s shown on several medical dramas — like Grey’s Anatomy. Castle is a firm believer in this theory, but Kate says it’s bull. According to her, four in five doctors prefer to sleep with people outside of their profession. When Castle asks if she knows any who likes detectives, she says that she knows one. Apparently, motorcycle boy — as Castle puts it — is a cardiac surgeon.

They talk to the medical director who is very upset about Valerie’s death and says that everyone liked her. The only unusual thing that had happened was that she had had a private meeting with Nurse McClintock, who had seemed upset afterwards. They ask to speak with said nurse and Castle already starts spinning a tail of a love triangle and jealousy that ultimately led to Valerie’s death. When Nurse McClintock finally shows up, they’re surprised to find out that they were talking about a male nurse, Greg McClintock, who seems to be very, very popular with the female staff at the hospital. When asked what his meeting with Dr. Monroe had been about, he says that she asked him to stop flirting with her female residents and that was it.

When his alibi — he was having coffee with one of the doctors — checks out, they’re back to square one. However, after talking to the staff at the hospital, Ryan finds out that Greg was very close with several female doctors. Castle promptly labels him McSteamy, but Ryan says that all the women said the relationship is strictly platonic. So they come to the conclusion that either Greg is working an angle or hiding something. Beckett says he’s not the only one. Valerie had an over four hundred thousand dollars debt in student loan, which she had been making minimal amount payments since she graduated med school. Then suddenly, she started paying ten thousand dollars a week without any apparent change in her income at the hospital. There was no way to track where the money came from because the payment was made in money orders. Captain Montgomery interrupts, saying they just got hospital surveillance footage that showed Dr. Monroe leaving the hospital with a man, just like Greg had said. So that mystery guy could have been the last one to see her alive, which makes him a suspect.

Castle goes home, excited to give the tickets to Alexis and make her happy. His happy bubble is burst, though, when Alexis announces that Gina had gotten her the tickets with backstage access. Castle is hurt and, after Alexis leaves the room, criticizes his second ex-wife/current girlfriend. He complains that she should have checked with him first because he had gotten tickets as well. Gina gets pissed off and leaves.

Meanwhile at the precinct, Beckett is still working when Esposito comes back bringing new information. He went to the coffee shop that Valerie used to go everyday, which was right next to a hotel. When he showed the hotel manager Valerie’s picture, he recognized her and said she spent every single night there with a guy named Cesar Calderón, a famous drug lord.

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