Castle - After the Storm

In Castle's Fifth Season premiere Beckett (Stana Katic) and Caslte's (Nathan Fillion) morning after bliss is interrupted by the unexpected return of Martha (Susan Sullivan) and a hungover Alexis (Molly C. Quinn). Later, alone in Beckett's apartment, the two are again interrupted by an overwhelmed Ryan (Seamus Dever) who needs help in looking for Maddox (Tahmoh Penikett) now that his team is all missing in action. The news that he imparts is disturbing when Castle realizes the hitman is after the one man (Geoff Pierson) who has been keeping Beckett safe for the past year.

Suspended and working alone, Esposito (Jon Huertas) works his own investigation by pressuring an old friend (Nick Hoffa) into searching into the past of the mysterious Maddox. This leads Esposito to the same office building where Maddox has cornered Castle and Beckett after torturing Smith for the location of his blackmail material. Although he gets there soon enough to save his friends, Esposito, Beckett and Castle corner the killer only to see him, and all of Smith's files, go up in smoke when the hitman triggers a bomb while retrieving the files.


After the three manage to lie their way out of Captain Gates' (Penny Johnson) interrogation on how they all ended up in the same building where Maddox accidentally blew himself up, Ryan shows up to delivering the tattered remains of the files. The four sit down and begin to piece together the remaining clues including a 20 year-old closed account for a dirty U.S. Senator (Jack Coleman) with his eyes on a future Presidential run.

Although she now knows the identity of the man behind her mother's murder, with the files destroyed and Smith dead, Beckett has no evidence to connect the Senator to the crime which leads her to make a rash decision to confront the man, at gunpoint. By the end of the emotionally-charged  episode Beckett may not have justice but she does have her badge back, and, thankfully, her relationship with Castle looks to be anything but a one night stand. It should be a very interesting season.