Castle 6×12 “Deep Cover” Recap

The moral of this episode: I’m glad I have no idea how to hack anymore. Apparently, the moral of this season: either you love it, or you hate it. At least that’s the feeling I’m getting from twitter. Okay, I’m definitely simplifying things. I apologize. But you have to admit, there are definite lines in the sand over this one. I hope I can at least offer some opinions that can make some things clearer, so let’s get to it.

Our victim, Ted Rollings, was shot somewhere and brought back to his apartment. A mystery person called the police and Beckett’s team was dispatched to the scene. It was soon learned that he wasn’t just a simple record store clerk, he was a wanted identity thief that might be back in the biz and wanted by the feds.

A laptop was found at Ted’s apartment, which Tory (Maya Stojan) managed to crack. That led them to a man named Anderson Cross at a business named Universal Banking Solutions. When they arrive, Castle gets a call saying he can’t react to what’s about to happen. Lo and behold, out comes Jackson Hunt, Rick’s long-lost super-secret daddy. Apparently the case is larger than it seems.

Things get complicated when Kate recognizes Jackson as the man in sketches tied to Alexis’ kidnapping. Things come together as Rick brings Martha up to speed, Jackson shows up at the loft with a bullet in his side, Rick and Martha do some makeshift surgery, and Kate shows up with her epiphany about Jackson being tied to Alexis’ kidnapping. Castle finally tells her that her suspect is her future father-in-law, and she’s a bit miffed.

Of course, as any good CIA agent does, Jackson makes sure to add a layer of surprise into his plan to uncover the actual bad guy. Turns out that Ted was working with them to find a man who had uncovered a list of agents that was going to be sold to a foreign agent. Jackson was tasked with getting his hands on the list before the exchange and taking out the mole.

At first, Kate doesn’t believe him, and Rick even has doubts. However, they learn just enough that they agree to participate in his plan. They intercept emails that detail a meet to exchange the list, and they set things up to log on at the location in order to download the list first and identify “Gemini” by using a WiFi app to apprehend him.

It’s an elaborate ruse to draw Gemini out using Rick and Kate as bait, and since Jackson planted a tracking device on his son (and Kate as well I assume), he finds him quickly and takes out the bad guy. Blam goes the daddy. Kate arrives and Rick leads her to the body – just to find that he’s disappeared into the ether. Back at the 12th, the boys got all the info that leads to the actual killer, but of course Kate & Rick can’t tell them how it all resolved. It’ll remain an open case, and now Kate’s in on the whole Jackson secret.

It was an intense episode, and Martha (Susan Sullivan) really shone. Her scenes with Nathan Fillion were especially good. Stana Katic as Kate was also amazing when she was angry on Rick’s behalf. When she declared that Jackson wasn’t Rick’s dad – he gave up that right when he left them, it gave me chills. So protective of her man.

Terence Paul Winter penned this episode, and he’s steadily becoming one of my favorite writers on staff. He also wrote “Number One Fan” from earlier this season, and “The Wild Rover”, the Kevin Ryan-centric episode from Season 5.

We’re back next week, January 20, 2014 with an episode entitled “Limelight”. Myko Olivier is back as Pi, which I *know* you guys are chomping at the bit for!