It takes a lot to rattle Detective Kevin Ryan, and that’s just what happens in this week’s episode of Castle.

Let’s recap, shall we?

So, when an episode starts with Ryan smashing a mirror, you know we’re in for some intense stuff. Flashback six hours to when Ryan is leaving the station to moonlight as Security with his brother-in-Law, Frank: Castle tries to get the truth of whom Ryan is protecting, screaming, “It’s not One Direction, is it?! You’d tell me, right?!”

Espo assures Castle that they are touring in Hong Kong.

That moment was perfect.

The rest of the night was not-so-perfect, at least for Ryan.

He is protecting a Congressman, whom everyone believes will be the next president, at a “Pure Water” press rally. Ryan has several close encounters with guests, and just when he thinks all is clear, shots fire out and two people are gunned down: the senator and the woman who ran the Pure Water Campaign. They were shot three times and the shots went through her back into the congressman’s chest.

Remember that, it’s important later.

Ryan thinks he saw the guy and chases him down to the lobby of the hotel. The shooter escapes, but Ryan has a clear image of the guy in his mind, even noticing that he was wearing a press badge. This seems like a clue; unfortunately it leads nowhere as the press badges were flowing as freely as the champagne.

When they question one of the victims, after the investigation turns to homicide, he tells the NYPD gang that he saw the guy who looked like he seemed shifty. He is an activist, who was adamantly against the views of the senator. He is taken into custody, but refuses to speak to the NYPD as he believes they are in on the conspiracy.

Tori, the tech whiz, finds footage of the guy they believe is the shooter popping into a storage cupboard, which should have been locked, and a hotel employee leaving a few minutes later. They question the waiter, who tells them he saw the guy talking to a man about how they would take down the man they believed would be the future president and they wanted to stop that from happening.

However, it comes to light that Karolin, the victim, had been the intended target after all.

While the guys look into her past, Tori finds more interesting information: a video of the press pass being dropped into the mailbox of the supposed shooter—but Ryan works out that he could not have killed Karolin because physics.

Science, yo.

Ryan also recognises the guy in the video, and goes to confront his brother in law, but it turns out he has gone missing.

Ryan goes to investigate. After all, this is a family matter.

Eventually, Ryan finds Frank and gets him to come into the station. The moment is tense, and Frank says he just sold press passes to pay for his daughter’s education. He didn’t kill anyone.

While Kate is going through Karolin’s purse, she finds out she was a workaholic…and that she had a secret phone.

Castle and Beckett confront the Congressman’s wife, who says she knows that Karolin and her husband were having an affair for years and they had an arrangement. She would rather not bring her girlfriend into things, but Beckett tells her she needs to provide the alibi.

However, by the end of the episode, we discover that it was the senator’s right hand woman who did the deed, as she was nearly ousted form the campaign after years of hard work and service on the words of a woman who had only been in the background for years.

She is taken away and Ryan’s brother-in-law returns home and the episode ends.

But Castle fans, wasn’t it great to get a Ryan-centric episode? He’s long been a favourite supporting character of mine, and has great comedic value, but when Ryan snaps it’s just mesmerising.

Also, Beckett’s so going to go into politics, right?

What did you think Popwrappers? As always, let us know!

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