Castle - At Close Range

One late night of Ryan's (Seamus Dever) part-time work as a security guard for his brother-in-law's (David Conrad) company ends in tragedy when the Congressman (Ricardo Chavira) he was protecting and the speaker (Annie Little) at the event are both shot on his watch. Based on descriptions from both Ryan and the Congressman of a radical blogger (Charlie Hofheimer) fleeing the scene, the NYPD is able identify the likely shooter although Ryan channels his inner Castle (Nathan Fillion) and believes there's far more to the story and the blogger, despite his motive and actions, is nothing more than the perfect fall guy for the crime.

With the help Castle, Beckett (Stana Katic), Esposito (Jon Huertas), and Tory Ellis (Maya Stojan), Ryan is able to prove his hypothesis and discover the woman who died in the shooting, and not the Congressman who lived, was actually the primary target of the shooter. But when evidence points to the involvement of Ryan's brother-in-law in the conspiracy Ryan is forced to face the possibility that his sister's (Heather Mazur) husband may be a killer.

The emotion and tension of "At Close Range" work well enough but the mystery was one of the weakest of the show's seven-year run. I guessed the secret of Ryan's brother-in-law well-before the opening credits rolled along with the affair and the likely involvement of the Congressman's wife (Reiko Aylesworth) in the crime. The late twist involving the true motive for the crime not being an affair but an assistant's (Ali Hillis) job security was unexpected, but it's so last-minute it feels almost tacked on and doesn't effect the investigation into the crime over the previous 55-minutes.