Castle (2009–2016): Season 8, Episode 20 - Much Ado About Murder - full transcript
Castle and Beckett team up to find the killer of a celebrity who was in town starring in Hamlet, while Kevin gets carried away with his daughter's kindergarten play.
To be, or not to be,
that is the question.
Whether it is nobler...
Whether it... Whether it's... What?
Whether 'tis...
Whether 'tis... 'tis... 'tis.
Connect to the words. Connect to me.
Connect the words to me.
To be, or not to be,
that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the
mind to suffer...
Hello?
Who's there?
Yes!
Wow,
I haven't seen you this excited since,
uh, well, earlier this morning, so...
You know what this is, Beckett?
Uh, no, but I know that a very
secure messenger just brought it in.
Oh, my.
It's absolutely beautiful.
What is it?
The YOLO card.
Like, "Dude, I just drove my mom's
car into the river... hashtag YOLO"?
No, no, no, this...
This work of art
will forever release
YOLO from Internet jail.
You see,
each card was painstakingly handcrafted
by an international team of artisans.
Note the flecks of actual black diamond
embedded in the card.
The state-of-the-art
radio frequency I.D. chip.
The... The best part...
Only 10,000 people in the world
were chosen to have a YOLO card,
and I'm one of them.
Castle, it's just a credit card.
Just a credit card?
I think not, my good woman.
This is a YOLO, as in,
"You only live once."
It is a way of life.
- No, it's a way to be obnoxious.
- Oh, is it?
You see, for every dollar
I spend seizing my own day,
YOLO matches it to help
someone less fortunate
seize their dreams.
Oh, okay.
Well, that's a little less obnoxious.
That's what I thought.
So, you want to try it out,
take it for a spin?
Might help you with tonight.
Hmm? What's tonight?
Come on. Don't tell me you forgot.
Our weekly date night.
It's new. It's our thing.
It's...
It's your turn to arrange it, remember?
Yeah.
Of cour... Of course I remember.
I don't need a YOLO card
to help me out with that.
I've already got it planned.
Oh, do you?
So, tell me, how are you gonna top
my American Revolution
evening I arranged
with the carriage ride to see
"Hamilton" on Broadway,
the dinner served by waiters
dressed as Founding Fathers?
Yes, that was fun.
Except for when Ben Franklin
started hitting on me.
That's nothing.
George Washington slipped me his digits.
What?!
So, what are we doing tonight?
Uh, well, it's a surprise, Castle.
Oh, I love surprises.
At least tell me what to wear.
On a wardrobe scale of 1 to 10...
10 being James Bond,
1 being "Big Lebowski"...
Give me a number.
For now? 5... crime-scene casual.
Hey. Beckett.
Uh, yeah.
That's great. Thanks.
Is that Zane Cannon?
Yep, star of the "Apocalypse Runner"
movie franchise.
I love those movies.
Yeah, me too, even though...
No disrespect to the dead...
This guy couldn't act to save his life.
Quite literally, by the looks of things.
Yeah.
Was Zane rehearsing "Hamlet"
alone this morning?
Actually, it was last night.
The M.E. places the time of death
between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m.
A quill pen.
Odd choice for a murder weapon,
unless, of course,
the murderer was the ghost
of William Shakespeare
killing Zane for butchering his words.
It's all the talk on Broadway
that Zane had no business
performing the Bard's most famous role.
Why cast him, then?
Because movie stars sell tickets.
Just ask my mother.
She can't stop talking about
the Hollywood-ization of Broadway.
Hold on.
Hey, what are you doing?
- Give me that.
- I was just...
Nice try.
I already uploaded it to the cloud.
Hey, Officer,
escort this dirtbag out of here
and confiscate that jacket.
That... That... That's my phone.
You...
You legally can't have that phone.
Hey, give me my phone!
See that? Our victim's fame
is already turning this
into a media circus.
Hey, fellas,
may I introduce to you Erin Cherloff?
She is the play's director
and a true artist.
Your production of
"Antigone" was a revelation.
Oh, well, thank you.
I-I can't believe this is happening.
Zane and I finally get a
chance to work together
after all these years, and this happens.
- The two of you were friends?
- Yeah, since theater school.
Zane dropped out to go to Hollywood,
but we stayed close.
Do you know what he was doing here
in the theater by himself last night?
He was terrified... of "Hamlet."
He really wanted to show his
acting chops in this role.
Sometimes he would come here
after hours to work more.
Was Zane having problems
with anyone you know of?
It's no secret he had a reputation
for sleeping with his leading ladies.
Are you saying Zane was sleeping with
the actress playing Ophelia?
Naomi Fox. Mm-hmm.
They had a messy breakup recently.
She sort of went all "Fatal Attraction."
So she took a baseball bat to his DB9.
He had me take photos for his insurance.
Oh!
- Did he report that to the police?
- No.
Look, I-I've worked with Naomi before,
and she's crazy,
but actor crazy, not murderer crazy.
However, there is one teeny,
tiny, little thing
you should know about.
Naomi's a method actor,
meaning she doesn't play the characters.
She becomes them.
Do you know where we can find her?
I just hope I wasn't
too obvious back there.
I'm just such a big
fan of Erin Cherloff.
- Who, the director?
- Yeah, she's amazing.
I'm... Just speaking with her,
I got this great idea
for the play at Sarah Grace's preschool
where I'm a parent volunteer at.
Wait, preschools have plays now?
My preschool was going to
work with my mom every day.
Oh, same here.
I grew up in hallways just like this.
Spending time in my
mother's dressing room,
experimenting with her costumes,
her makeup.
Oh, get over it.
Anyway, maybe our method actress
has gone a little too method.
In the play, Hamlet drives Ophelia mad.
If this is life imitating art
and she's gone full Ophelia,
we should be ready for anything.
Ms. Fox?
Ms. Fox?
NYPD.
We need to ask you a few questions.
Ms. Fox.
Um, may I?
Ophelia?
Aye, my lord?
These fair gentlemen are constables
and wish to speak with
you in matters regarding
the murder most foul and
unnatural of Zane Cannon.
'Tis too much to bear to think on it.
How now, fair Ophelia?
We have queries, and thou shall answer,
or we shall force perforce be
moved to make a star chamber...
Stop.
We are so not doing this.
Look, Naomi, we know that you were
having a show-mance with Zane.
He dumped you,
and then you busted up his car.
My lord,
he speaks with a curious tongue.
Car?
It's what he's gonna
put you in the back of
when he arrests you for murder.
So stop the Daniel Day-Lewis
routine and start talking, or...
Okay, look, I wasn't in my right mind
when I smashed up Zane's car,
but I didn't kill him.
You have to believe me.
I was out late last night
bar-hopping with some of the cast.
You can check it out.
Bar-hopping? So you're not full method.
Unless she was drinking mead
and eating with her fingers.
Look, I really cared for Zane,
but he was acting like
he was cheating on me,
showing up at my place at
all hours of the night,
lame excuses.
So I confronted him, and he blew up,
told me never to ask
where he goes again.
Any idea who this other woman might be?
No.
But whoever she was,
she brought out his dark side.
We have breaking news
on the shocking death
of Hollywood megastar Zane Cannon,
whose body was found
this morning onstage
at the off-Broadway Citizens Theater.
So, why is there a video
of Zane's body on the news?
A stalker-azzi snuck
onto the crime scene
wearing an NYPD Windbreaker.
A source at the scene reveals
that leading the investigation
into the star's murder
is none other than acclaimed
mystery writer Richard Castle
with an assist from the
NYPD's 12th Precinct.
1PP has been on my ass about
keeping media under control,
and now my husband is the
face of the investigation.
- It's not all bad news, Beckett.
- How?
That's a great photo of me.
Do we have a suspect?
Not yet. Naomi's alibi checked out.
But we do have a lead
on this mystery woman
that Zane was seeing.
His financials came in.
They say that he rented
a limo yesterday morning.
Which makes sense,
since Naomi trashed his DB9.
- And where was this limo going?
- I don't know yet.
I'm still waiting for the
driver to call me back,
but hopefully he knows
who this woman is.
I have already found her.
It turns out that Zane
was renting a suite
at the Black Door Hotel
under a fake name.
- Ah, the Black Door. Yes, very fancy.
- Mm.
Known for being discreet...
is what I've heard
from other people who were once single
and now married.
Well,
they certainly seem to be living up
to that reputation.
Wouldn't say a word until I
accused them of obstruction.
But Zane has had a suite
there for the past two weeks,
and he was with a woman
there every night.
Okay, who is this woman?
No idea. She's not a registered guest,
but get this.
Not only did she arrive after
our time-of-death window.
She's still there.
Privacy light is on.
She must still be here.
NYPD.
Could you open it, please?
- NYPD.
- Police.
Psst.
There's a ginger in the bed.
Mother?!
Richard?
S08E20
Much Ado About Murder
I, um...
I got tired waiting for Zane last night,
so I just, uh, crawled into bed.
Never could I imagine
what happened to him.
Mother, why are you...
Why... Why...
Why were you in Zane's bed?
Because he was late for our session.
What kind of session?
Is that what they call it?
- That's enough.
- Okay.
Mother, are you saying you
were sleeping with Zane Cannon?
Oh, drop the gavel, Richard!
I was his acting coach,
certainly not his mistress.
The poor boy was out of his
depth trying to play Hamlet,
so he was referred to me.
Zane needed me to be
on call 24 hours a day.
So he had this suite
so that we could meet
comfortably at any time.
We turned this room into
a temple to the Bard.
It also became a temple to a new life.
What do you mean, "new life"?
Well, you know I'm a life coach.
I helped Zane to just clear
out the clutter of stardom
so that he could focus on his craft.
Did he ever mention having any enemies?
No, but he did have some demons, though.
There was something in his past
that was a real block for him.
Certainly he told you
what the block was.
No, he was very secretive about it,
frightened, even.
Oh, of course I encouraged him
to engage with those demons, and...
Wait a minute. The last time we spoke,
he said that he had made
arrangements to do just that.
Oh, dear God.
Don't tell me that I might
have pushed him into something
that got him killed.
No. No. Nothing like that.
No.
- No?
- No, come on.
Let's get you home. Come on.
Ryan, wait.
Hey, listen.
It's my turn to plan date night,
but I forgot,
and Castle's gonna lord it over me
if I don't outdo what he did last week.
So I need a few ideas.
Wait for Castle? Yeah.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
The, uh... The guy who, uh,
took you on an urbanspelunking adventure
through the city subway
tunnels last Halloween,
and then he hired actors
to re-enact scenes from the movie
"C.H.U.D."
Yeah, I can't...
I can't come up with stuff like that.
Yo.
I just heard back from that limo driver
that Zane hired the
morning of his murder.
You'll never believe where he went...
Sing Sing Penitentiary.
Why did he go there?
To pick up a newly released inmate...
Johnny Toro, who also happens to be
his estranged older stepbrother.
How did we not know that
Zane had a stepbrother?
Different dads, different names,
and according to Zane's publicist,
he kept it quiet.
He didn't want to be
associated with this guy.
- Then why'd he show up at the prison?
- I don't know.
According to the limo driver, though,
it was far from a happy family reunion.
The privacy screen was up,
but he could tell that
Toro was yelling at Zane.
He served 12 years for a B&E.
Where he stewed on how
much he hated Zane.
Check out the prison
psychologist's notes.
Apparently, there was a lot
of built-up rage against Zane.
You know, evidence suggests that
this break-in was a two-man job.
Cops suspected Zane
but only had evidence against Toro.
And then Toro took the fall.
And Zane moves to Hollywood
and becomes a movie star.
All right, get him in here.
This what it's gonna be
like now I'm on parole?
Just can't go a day without
being harassed by the cops?
Not when you set a record
for fastest recidivism.
You were out all of 10 hours
before you murdered Zane.
See?
Soon as I saw the news,
I knew y'all were gonna hang that on me.
Really? That's your response?
Not...
Not, "Boo-hoo, my stepbrother's dead."
Screw you.
I'm busted up over what happened to Z.
No, you're pissed that
he let you take the rap
all those years ago.
I don't know what the
hell you're talking about, man.
I was the big brother.
I made Z keep his mouth shut
on that B&E we pulled, man.
Told him to make something of himself.
Come on, bro. Your prison shrink noted
that you had a giant hate-on for Zane.
He abandoned me.
And not one visit.
No calls.
Didn't put any money on my books.
Nothing.
Just went off to become a star,
and he left me to rot.
Limo driver said things got pretty
heated when he picked you up.
Yeah,
but what the limo driver didn't hear
was us squashing our beef,
'cause he apologized,
said he would set me up
for the rest of my life.
Just had to get his financial
problems figured out.
What financial problems?
Zane had $10 million in the bank.
He owed the IRS 15 mil in back taxes.
He was gonna be broke
in like two months.
Then why'd he walk away
from an $8 million payday in that
"Safe Word" movie
to go do Shakespeare?
He said he had a plan to get paid.
Something big, man.
Sounds like whatever money-making
scheme Zane was involved in
is probably what got him killed.
Only question is...
What the hell are you doing, Kevin?
Yeah, figured it out.
- What he was involved in?
- No, no, no, no, no.
The, uh, new choreography for
Sarah Grace's preschool play.
Oh, good.
Why don't you keep working on that
while I solve our homicide?
Let me get a plain... plain hot dog.
Hey, Javi.
Yeah?
We are being filmed.
That's that stalker-azzi I
chased off the crime scene.
Hey, buddy, what's your name?
This is a public street.
I have the right to film here.
Oh, cool, cool, cool.
We just want to know
why you're filming us.
Well,
I want the same thing you guys do...
An ending to Zane Cannon's story.
Wait a minute.
You've been tracking our
investigation by tracking us?
I've been working on an exposé on Zane
ever since he dropped out of the movie
"Safe Word"
to play Hamlet.
I knew that pretty boy was a
train wreck waiting to happen.
You've been following Zane?
On and off, ever since he
got to New York a month ago.
So, did you see him on
the night of his murder?
Look, come on.
You want an ending to your story?
Why don't you show us what you got?
Maybe we can do you a favor.
Yeah, I don't work for favors.
I want an interview with the killer.
Yeah, and I want
a baby unicorn with a rainbow tail
for my daughter.
We're both gonna be disappointed, pal.
Come on, man. Show us what you got.
If it's any good,
when we make an arrest,
we'll let you film the perp walk.
Deal?
Let's go for a walk.
I filmed this yesterday at
the theater around 4:00.
That's about six hours
before Zane was killed.
- Oh, yeah, it's right here.
- You got what I need?
Who's the guy with the tats?
No idea.
Have him give me a call ASAP, all right?
Cool?
No guarantees, man. Here you go.
- Who... Who's that, Zane?
- Yo!
Why'd you pay him all
that cash for the phone?
Come on!
Come on. Give me that camera!
Give me that camera.
You're gonna get me killed.
Hell,
I thought Zane was just being dramatic.
I guess I was dead wrong.
Okay, we're gonna need you
to leave the room, Jake.
Heck, maybe get that facial recognition.
- We'll print out something.
- Yeah... No, no, no.
Leave the laptop.
No way, lady. This is my property.
Jake. Now.
Geez.
What the hell did Zane
get himself mixed up with?
There's only one way to know.
We got to find this mystery man.
Yo, L.T., have you seen Ryan?
I think he's in the box.
Ãlodie, thank you very much
for taking time to Skype with me.
I just... I wanted to share with you
my vision of the play.
Your vision?
Yeah, I see the kids as
embodying the circle of life.
It's just a flower dance.
Let me just show you what I mean.
Okay, so, the kids...
They're stacked up,
and then flower, flower.
They're...
They're exploding, fanning out.
Flower, flower, flower!
Fun!
♪ Flower growing in the sun ♪
And then... Then they circle back.
Kind of a, you know,
Busby Berkeley thing.
Kevin.
Kevin. The oldest kids are 5.
We'll be lucky if they
can just sing the song.
I think we need to think
outside the box here.
Think outside of the box next year,
after my kid has graduated.
Oh, well, hey, élodie,
if you're gonna be like that,
maybe we need to look into
your unpaid parking tickets,
run them through the system...
Kevin. See if there's any lien...
We've got that, uh,
case that we're working.
Yeah, okay, bye.
Stop.
Step away from the laptop.
Yeah, that's the same guy
that Zane bought the
burner phone off of.
This footage is dated four weeks ago,
so obviously he and Zane
had an ongoing arrangement.
Hold up. I-I recognize this guy.
Yeah, that's Alejandro Guzman.
He's a big shot-caller
for a gang called Los Malditos...
The Damned.
They operate out of Spanish Harlem.
That's the same neighborhood
that Zane grew up in.
Maybe the two of them knew
each other back in the day.
Before Zane got famous
doing all those
"Apocalypse Runner" movies.
We'll go up to Spanish Harlem
and see if we can track down this guy.
I know nothing about nothing.
Well, we got you on video
having a meeting with Zane
on the day he was murdered.
You got me on video killing him?
Yeah, that's what I thought. May I go?
- Not yet.
- No.
See, we did our homework.
Yeah,
we know that your little brother Antonio
is doing a little stretch
upstate at Fishkill.
That's a long way for your
mother to travel on visiting day,
especially with her bad knees.
How do you know about my mama?
Oh, I, uh... I got an old Army buddy
who works for the Federal
Bureau of Prisons.
He slipped me your file.
Hey, Javi, I bet your old Army buddy
could get his brother
transferred closer to the city,
make those visits a
little easier on mama.
Yeah,
but he'd have to be willing to talk.
I don't make deals with police.
Oh, that's... That's fine.
My buddy also tells me that
there's a bunch of openings
at a federal penitentiary in Georgia.
It would be, like, what,
a 13-, 14-hour bus ride?
At least.
Kind of rough on mama.
All right.
I'll talk about Zane,
but I'm not giving you names.
I'm not ratting anyone out in my crew.
Keep talking.
I knew Zane back in the day.
Just a neighborhood punk.
A month ago, he shows up out of the blue
asking to get in touch with my boss.
Who's your boss?
Hold up, are you talking about...
the boss boss?
El Oso?
I said no names.
Wait, El Oso? Head of the cartel?
The Mexican government,
the D.E.A., the FBI...
They're all looking for this guy.
He escaped from prison in
Mexico three months ago.
Are... Are you saying that you
know where El Oso is hiding?
Of course not.
Then why would Zane come to see you?
Because I got a little bird,
and I put out my little
bird to the right people
until the message gets to you know who.
Clearly,
you charge for this littlebird service.
10 grand gets you a burner.
If the boss wants to talk,
you get a phone call.
And a month ago,
Zane wanted to talk to your boss.
Why?
Some kind of business proposition.
Zane even got himself a
face-to-face with the boss
'cause he's a movie star and all.
Only, from what I hear,
it didn't go so good.
So why did Zane buy
another burner from you
on the day he was killed?
I don't know.
But if he pissed off
the boss a second time,
it's not on me he ended up dead.
Jorge "El Oso" Zamacona.
He's part folk hero, part demon,
the rest pure monster.
The man kills anyone who crosses him...
Cops, journalists, politicians.
Zane must have been
real desperate for money
to want to do business with this guy.
Maybe he wanted to be El Oso's
new drug pipeline to Hollywood.
Well, chances are we'll never find out.
I mean, if the D.E.A., FBI,
and the Mexican government
can't find him,
then what chances do we have?
I'll reach out to my Fed contacts.
Well, we'll drill down all of
El Oso's stateside connections.
Okay.
Well, I suppose that puts
the brakes on our date night.
Uh, yeah. Sorry, Castle.
Oh, no, I'm sorry for you.
You're the one who put all the
planning into our special evening.
Yeah, I-I did.
I...Yeah, I did.
You know what? I think I'll
take my mother out to dinner,
maybe cheer her up after all this.
You're such a good son.
And you're such a good everything.
Uh...
Hey, buddy.
Parked a little close.
Hey.
You look...
Okay, don't mind me.
I'm just gonna go out
the passenger side.
Catch a... Oh. Didn't mean to...
Meant to do that.
Oh, now you move? Thanks, you idiot.
Um...
Who are you guys?
What do you want?
Where am I?
Buenas noches.
Hi.
Do you know who I am?
El Oso.
Listen, you get me a lead on Zamacona,
and we will run it.
Yeah.
Okay, I got to go. Bye.
- Hey.
- Hi, darling.
I know you're busy, but is Richard here?
No. I thought he was at dinner with you.
Yeah, well,
he didn't show up,
and his cell went right to voice-mail.
So I figured he must be
here immersed in the case.
Well, he's probably out playing
with his fancy new credit card,
but let me check in on him.
Alexis put new tracking
software on my laptop.
I'll just ping his cell.
There we go.
There we go. 7th and 53rd.
That's the parking garage
across from the restaurant
where we were supposed
to meet an hour ago.
Uh, you know what?
Just give me a second.
Hi, uh, this is Captain Beckett.
I need a unit at 53rd and 7th.
I saw you on the news.
You're working with the Federales
to investigate Zane Cannon's death.
You mean his murder.
Well, I mean, uh, we know that
Zane, uh, was in contact with you
about a business proposition
and that you were in contact with him
just hours before his
un-untimely demise.
You think I killed him.
You have been associated
with a fair amount of violence
in your past.
I believe the adjective you're
looking for is, uh, "epic."
An epic amount of violence.
Some might even say biblical.
So you can see why your
involvement with Zane
would have the police curious.
If I wanted him dead,
I would have cut him open
when he was standing where you are now.
I wouldn't kill him with a pen.
That's cute.
Do I look like a man who kills cute?
No. No, certainly not.
You also don't look like the sort of man
who needs to resort to
cheap scare tactics.
I mean, why don't you just untie me?
We'll sit down,
and you tell me why you brought me here.
Thank you.
You think Zane contacted me about drugs,
no?
What else is there?
Yo. Yo mismo. El Oso.
The most infamous
cartel boss in history.
Zane wanted the rights to your
life story... the El Oso biopic.
He thought portraying me
would win him an Oscar.
- So what happened?
- I said no.
He may be big box office,
but the man cannot act.
He got upstaged by a CGI aardvark
in that película De fantasía.
So I-I made him an ultimatum.
You're the one who made him drop
"Safe Word" and do "Hamlet."
I needed to see that he was serious.
That he really could act.
So I told him if he got a
good review in the Times,
my life rights were his.
But he had contact with you
before the show premiered.
He wanted to meet again.
- Why?
- I don't know.
He said it had to do with the movie,
but I could smell his, uh,
desperation through the phone,
especially when I said no.
And later that night, he was dead.
Pero Mira.
I didn't bring you all the way out here
to talk about Los muertos.
You didn't?
No, no, no, no.
When I saw you on television,
I knew fate had put you in my path,
Richard Castle.
I'm a man of the people.
You are a popular writer.
You write for the people.
That's why you must tell my story.
You want me to write the
script for your movie?
Sí! Sí! It will be fun!
I-I will tell you all about myself.
And then you will just typey,
typey, typey.
It should only take six months,
maybe a year.
And you will stay here with me!
Or I will mail your body home...
piece by piece.
We got security footage from the garage,
and it's not good.
Oh, my...
Oh, my God.
The Escalade is
registered to a shell corp
that's a known front for El Oso.
You can track the SUV, can't you?
We can, but they probably swapped
cars at least once by now,
and with a two-hour head start,
we're looking at a
100-mile search radius,
and we still have no idea
what we're looking for.
There must be something that you can do.
This... This is Richard's life.
YOLO.
That's cold, Beckett.
No, uh, Castle's new credit card.
The kidnappers left his
cellphone by the car,
but he might still have
his wallet with him.
And the new YOLO card has
an upgraded RFID chip in it.
And if they passed within range
of a tollbooth or a gas station...
Then it'll pick up the chip,
and we'll be able to track his movement.
All right,
I'll call the credit-card company,
see if that card's pinged anywhere.
Oh, poor Richard.
I-I-I can't even imagine
how he must be suffering.
Your life is, without a doubt,
a Shakespearean drama.
I've always felt a strong
connection to Macbeth.
Ambitious but tortured
by his conscience.
With your relationship to torture,
I think you're a little
more Richard III,
am I right?
The hunchback?!
I-I was thinking more along the lines
of Sir Laurence Olivier.
A man does not achieve what I have
without great personal cost!
Jorge, I-I only meant you...
Do you think I cannot see
that the stains on my soul
appear upon my sleeve, as well?
Are you the royal fool
who dares believe he can
mock the king he serves?!
No,
I'm just the funny kind of court jester.
Then give me proof of your humility
by giving me your life!
Oh, Ricardo!
I wish you could see your face!
It's priceless!
Yes, good one.
Richard III had no sense of humor,
but I do.
These are the facets of...
of my character that you must capture.
You know, you should really
play yourself in this movie.
Oh, if only...
But sadly, I'm a fugitive,
persecuted and misunderstood.
Until you tell my story, that is.
Now let's talk money, huh?
Will $5 million be enough?
Jorge Zamacona,
this is the D.E.A.
We have you surrounded.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
No, no, no, no!
Jorge, wait, wait, wait!
You remember how "Richard III" ended.
You could write your own ending here.
An artist must be true to
the material and himself.
Aah!
Open the hatch!
Hey, over there!
He's down! He's down!
Three down. Castle's here.
Are you hurt, Mr. Castle?
No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I...
But I may not be for long.
It was just instinct.
He was running by, and I tripped him.
- You did good, Castle.
- No, not good!
I... Not good at all!
I tripped a drug lord.
It's my fault he got caught.
The D.E.A. had the building surrounded.
El Oso wasn't getting away,
even if you didn't trip him.
Sadly, despite your abduction
being a fantastic story,
we're still no closer to
finding out who killed Zane.
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
The D.E.A. confiscated a dozen
burner phones from El Oso's barn.
One of those phones was the
one he used to call Zane
the day he was killed.
So they have Zane's burner phone number,
which means we could find
out if he called anyone else.
We can, and he did.
An international line in Mexico,
and you won't believe
who it belongs to...
El Oso's younger brother,
Hector Zamacona,
a legit businessman who publicly
condemns El Oso every chance he gets.
If he's in Mexico,
how did Zane connect with him?
Both ends of that call from Zane's phone
pinged off of towers here in the city.
Baby bro's in town.
- Do we know where he is now?
- Not yet.
Hector Zamacona might have been
the last person to speak to Zane,
which means he may know something.
Hey,
what's your wife doing here?
I don't know. Excuse me.
So, what's up?
Ãlodie from the preschool
called about the play.
It seems some of the parents
have some... concerns.
Ah, yeah. Um, they're, uh,
struggling with my vision.
I'll...
I'll call élodie in the morning.
I'll walk her through it.
Actually, they have decided
to go a different direction.
Wait, they're firing me?
The play's tomorrow.
It's that élodie, isn't it?
PTA's not enough for that mom-ster.
She has to...
Kevin, it's all the parents.
Oh.
Everybody loves your enthusiasm.
It's just, they're preschoolers.
They're not Broadway stars.
So no soft-shoe?
No. No soft-shoe.
- Okay.
- Come here.
- It happens.
- Yeah.
So, other than pissing
off a homicidal drug lord,
how did you enjoy our
surprise date night?
Are you saying you planned
my abduction by a
fugitive cartel leader?
Yeah, complete with the
daring rescue and everything.
It was fun, huh?
I don't think date night counts
when it's a candlelit dinner
with the butcher of Guadalajara.
Well, I'll... I'll plan something else.
Something else?
You didn't have a plan!
Do you realize how
pressure-filled this is,
always trying to top each other?
That's half the fun of it.
Our rivalry is what fuels
the passionate fire...
- Rivalry.
- What?
Rivalry.
Between two brothers.
What? What rivalry?
The one between Jorge "El Oso" Zamacona
and his brother, Hector.
A rivalry would explain
why Zane was working with both brothers,
but how... how do we prove it?
I just need to find
one piece of evidence
to see that I'm on the right track.
And that could be it.
All right, my Spanish is a little rusty,
but my handy translator says...
Hector Zamacona's been sleeping
with his brother's wife.
They have been shacking up
ever since El Oso went on the run.
So Zane might have been caught
in a rivalry between the brothers,
and that's what got him killed.
Hector wants more than
just El Oso's wife.
According to the D.E.A.,
all of his, uh,
"legitimate" businesses...
They're suspected fronts
for money laundering.
So with big brother on the run,
Hector can make a play to
rule the family in his place.
But Hector can never
truly own the throne
until his brother is dead.
A powerful family,
a cartel for a kingdom,
two brothers locked in
a battle for control.
Guys, this is just like the play.
Hamlet's father is
killed by his brother,
who then takes the throne
and marries the dead brother's wife.
There's a reason they
say Shakespeare endures.
This is a real-life "Hamlet."
Okay, so, thematic similarities aside,
why would Hector need
Zane to take down El Oso?
Because Hector didn't know
where to find his brother.
And movie star Zane had a
face-to-face with El Oso.
Making Zane the perfect Trojan Horse
to lead Hector to his brother.
Why would Zane agree to do that?
He wanted to star in the El Oso movie.
Money.
Hector's worth hundreds of millions.
Zane needed the money now,
not in three years,
when the movie could get off the ground.
So Hector offers to solve
Zane's money problems
in exchange for Zane
leading him to El Oso.
But El Oso refuses to meet with Zane.
Then, rather than wait to see if Zane's
"Hamlet" reviews
are good enough to meet with El Oso,
Hector decides to cut his losses.
Which, in this family,
translates to murder.
My brother's bloody hand has
brought shame on our family.
We're better off with
him back in a cage.
Well, yeah, I mean,
you're definitely better off.
You didn't even have to pay
for Zane Cannon's tax debts.
Why would I
pay a movie star's taxes?
To get him to lead you to your brother.
That way you could kill El Oso
and take over the family business,
much in the same way you
took over the family bed.
And when Zane couldn't get a
second meeting with El Oso,
he was a loose end, so you killed him.
I did not kill Zane.
We know that Zane called
you from a burner phone
hours before he was killed.
We also know that you put $15 million
into a holding account.
The exact amount of his tax bill.
Let's say I did have a deal with him.
Why would I kill him a week before
"Hamlet" previews?
According to you,
good reviews would have gotten him
another meeting with my brother.
But that would have put
Zane out in the cold
for his Oscar-winning role.
And even with a big payoff,
it would have been tough
to get him to walk away from that role.
Unless you promised him
he could keep it anyway.
With your brother dead,
the life rights would revert to you.
I could care less about
the El Oso biopic.
I told him he could
direct it for all I cared.
Wait, you... you told Zane
he could star in and
direct his dream project?
Only I guess Zane had
already promised the job
to someone else...
Someone who would not
be happy to lose it.
O, woe is me.
T'have seen what I have seen...
No. Y-You've got to feel it more.
This isn't just some guy who
broke up with you on Snapchat.
Hamlet betrayed you.
He... He never loved you.
"Get thee to a nunnery," right?
Hamlet took everything from you.
That's certainly a
scene you can relate to,
isn't it, Ms. Cherloff?
Uh, this is a private rehearsal.
We have a break in 20.
Can you let us finish?
I think maybe you are finished.
All due respect to the Bard,
we're here with a tale of our own...
One with betrayal and jealousy,
though sadly classic.
A truly gifted director watches
as her former classmate's
star rises in Hollywood,
while she fought like hell
for every opportunity.
I love what I do.
So what if Zane made millions
because he chose the
gym over acting school?
I make art.
But when Zane asked you
to cast him as Hamlet,
you told him no, didn't you?
Yes, until he convinced me
he was right for the part.
By offering you your big break
directing the El Oso biopic?
But it was a Hollywood promise.
Not worth a damn.
Tell me, did he confess to you
that he would be directing
the picture on his own,
or did he just tell
you you lost the job?
Neither.
Because it didn't happen.
I-I don't know anything
about an El Oso project.
Then how do you explain the
browser history on your laptop?
Or the shoes in your closet
with Zane's blood on them?
You have no idea what a risk it was
putting Zane in this play.
A-And the only thing
that made it worthwhile
was directing that movie.
A-And then he tells me that...
that he's gonna do it
a-and I'm left with maybe
the worst production
of "Hamlet" in history.
I mean, my career is as good as over.
Do you have any idea how
difficult it is as a woman
to break into directing film?
A-And he took away my
shot like it was nothing.
I heard him that night
torturing maybe the most beautiful words
ever written for the stage,
and I just snapped.
This way, Ms. Cherloff.
Is that a wrap on rehearsal?
You still mad about being fired
off Sarah Grace's preschool play?
Ah, only at myself.
I swore I'd never be that dad.
What,
the kind that makes an ass of himself
by dancing around like a
flower for his daughter?
No, the kind...
the kind who gets caught
up in what he wants,
not what his kid does.
Yeah, okay, let's go.
- Daddy!
- Hey!
Look at my little sunflower!
- Hey!
- Uncle Javi!
Ohh! Hey, baby.
Hey. I was just leaving.
Aren't you guys already
supposed to be there?
Uh, she didn't want to go.
Wouldn't say why. She just wants you.
Uh... hey, sweetie.
Look, y-you don't have to
sing if you don't want to.
That's the law.
But you'll be sad if I don't.
What? No.
I think it's
more she forgot the words.
Oh, do... do you want me to
help you remember the words?
Okay, I'll do it with you. Ready?
Okay. Get your hands ready.
♪ Flower, flower ♪
♪ Flower fun ♪
♪ Flower growing in the sun ♪
♪ Raindrops fall
from clouds up high ♪
We spin around!
♪ And all day long,
the bees buzz by ♪
- Yay!
- Yay!
Hey!
Nice!
Yay!
I think you're ready, S.G. All right?
So we'll go to the play?
- Yeah.
- She's ready.
Yeah.
This time I want to...
Mmm!
This date night is everything
I dreamed it would be.
Aww.
Well, given all the recent excitement,
I thought that a quiet night
in would be nice for a change.
Ohh!
You did plan something. What is it?
Flash mob, treasure hunt, land shark?
No, no, I swear.
I don't know who's at the door.
Oh. Thank you.
Oh, no.
Castle, is that another credit card?
Because I am YOLO'd out.
Not a credit card.
Script notes, biographical materials.
It's from El Oso.
Beckett, you know what this means?
He still wants you to write his script.
And he doesn't want me dead.
Until he reads the first draft.
Well, there's that.
"These materials only cover
the first two acts of our movie.
The third act is yet to come,
and it starts with a bang."
Hey, Espo.
Seriously?
El Oso just escaped federal detention.
What?!
They should call this guy El Houdini.
Hey, wait, Castle, where are you going?
- Date night's not over yet.
- It is for me.
I got to start writing this script.
Typey, typey, typey!
that is the question.
Whether it is nobler...
Whether it... Whether it's... What?
Whether 'tis...
Whether 'tis... 'tis... 'tis.
Connect to the words. Connect to me.
Connect the words to me.
To be, or not to be,
that is the question.
Whether 'tis nobler in the
mind to suffer...
Hello?
Who's there?
Yes!
Wow,
I haven't seen you this excited since,
uh, well, earlier this morning, so...
You know what this is, Beckett?
Uh, no, but I know that a very
secure messenger just brought it in.
Oh, my.
It's absolutely beautiful.
What is it?
The YOLO card.
Like, "Dude, I just drove my mom's
car into the river... hashtag YOLO"?
No, no, no, this...
This work of art
will forever release
YOLO from Internet jail.
You see,
each card was painstakingly handcrafted
by an international team of artisans.
Note the flecks of actual black diamond
embedded in the card.
The state-of-the-art
radio frequency I.D. chip.
The... The best part...
Only 10,000 people in the world
were chosen to have a YOLO card,
and I'm one of them.
Castle, it's just a credit card.
Just a credit card?
I think not, my good woman.
This is a YOLO, as in,
"You only live once."
It is a way of life.
- No, it's a way to be obnoxious.
- Oh, is it?
You see, for every dollar
I spend seizing my own day,
YOLO matches it to help
someone less fortunate
seize their dreams.
Oh, okay.
Well, that's a little less obnoxious.
That's what I thought.
So, you want to try it out,
take it for a spin?
Might help you with tonight.
Hmm? What's tonight?
Come on. Don't tell me you forgot.
Our weekly date night.
It's new. It's our thing.
It's...
It's your turn to arrange it, remember?
Yeah.
Of cour... Of course I remember.
I don't need a YOLO card
to help me out with that.
I've already got it planned.
Oh, do you?
So, tell me, how are you gonna top
my American Revolution
evening I arranged
with the carriage ride to see
"Hamilton" on Broadway,
the dinner served by waiters
dressed as Founding Fathers?
Yes, that was fun.
Except for when Ben Franklin
started hitting on me.
That's nothing.
George Washington slipped me his digits.
What?!
So, what are we doing tonight?
Uh, well, it's a surprise, Castle.
Oh, I love surprises.
At least tell me what to wear.
On a wardrobe scale of 1 to 10...
10 being James Bond,
1 being "Big Lebowski"...
Give me a number.
For now? 5... crime-scene casual.
Hey. Beckett.
Uh, yeah.
That's great. Thanks.
Is that Zane Cannon?
Yep, star of the "Apocalypse Runner"
movie franchise.
I love those movies.
Yeah, me too, even though...
No disrespect to the dead...
This guy couldn't act to save his life.
Quite literally, by the looks of things.
Yeah.
Was Zane rehearsing "Hamlet"
alone this morning?
Actually, it was last night.
The M.E. places the time of death
between 8:00 and 11:00 p.m.
A quill pen.
Odd choice for a murder weapon,
unless, of course,
the murderer was the ghost
of William Shakespeare
killing Zane for butchering his words.
It's all the talk on Broadway
that Zane had no business
performing the Bard's most famous role.
Why cast him, then?
Because movie stars sell tickets.
Just ask my mother.
She can't stop talking about
the Hollywood-ization of Broadway.
Hold on.
Hey, what are you doing?
- Give me that.
- I was just...
Nice try.
I already uploaded it to the cloud.
Hey, Officer,
escort this dirtbag out of here
and confiscate that jacket.
That... That... That's my phone.
You...
You legally can't have that phone.
Hey, give me my phone!
See that? Our victim's fame
is already turning this
into a media circus.
Hey, fellas,
may I introduce to you Erin Cherloff?
She is the play's director
and a true artist.
Your production of
"Antigone" was a revelation.
Oh, well, thank you.
I-I can't believe this is happening.
Zane and I finally get a
chance to work together
after all these years, and this happens.
- The two of you were friends?
- Yeah, since theater school.
Zane dropped out to go to Hollywood,
but we stayed close.
Do you know what he was doing here
in the theater by himself last night?
He was terrified... of "Hamlet."
He really wanted to show his
acting chops in this role.
Sometimes he would come here
after hours to work more.
Was Zane having problems
with anyone you know of?
It's no secret he had a reputation
for sleeping with his leading ladies.
Are you saying Zane was sleeping with
the actress playing Ophelia?
Naomi Fox. Mm-hmm.
They had a messy breakup recently.
She sort of went all "Fatal Attraction."
So she took a baseball bat to his DB9.
He had me take photos for his insurance.
Oh!
- Did he report that to the police?
- No.
Look, I-I've worked with Naomi before,
and she's crazy,
but actor crazy, not murderer crazy.
However, there is one teeny,
tiny, little thing
you should know about.
Naomi's a method actor,
meaning she doesn't play the characters.
She becomes them.
Do you know where we can find her?
I just hope I wasn't
too obvious back there.
I'm just such a big
fan of Erin Cherloff.
- Who, the director?
- Yeah, she's amazing.
I'm... Just speaking with her,
I got this great idea
for the play at Sarah Grace's preschool
where I'm a parent volunteer at.
Wait, preschools have plays now?
My preschool was going to
work with my mom every day.
Oh, same here.
I grew up in hallways just like this.
Spending time in my
mother's dressing room,
experimenting with her costumes,
her makeup.
Oh, get over it.
Anyway, maybe our method actress
has gone a little too method.
In the play, Hamlet drives Ophelia mad.
If this is life imitating art
and she's gone full Ophelia,
we should be ready for anything.
Ms. Fox?
Ms. Fox?
NYPD.
We need to ask you a few questions.
Ms. Fox.
Um, may I?
Ophelia?
Aye, my lord?
These fair gentlemen are constables
and wish to speak with
you in matters regarding
the murder most foul and
unnatural of Zane Cannon.
'Tis too much to bear to think on it.
How now, fair Ophelia?
We have queries, and thou shall answer,
or we shall force perforce be
moved to make a star chamber...
Stop.
We are so not doing this.
Look, Naomi, we know that you were
having a show-mance with Zane.
He dumped you,
and then you busted up his car.
My lord,
he speaks with a curious tongue.
Car?
It's what he's gonna
put you in the back of
when he arrests you for murder.
So stop the Daniel Day-Lewis
routine and start talking, or...
Okay, look, I wasn't in my right mind
when I smashed up Zane's car,
but I didn't kill him.
You have to believe me.
I was out late last night
bar-hopping with some of the cast.
You can check it out.
Bar-hopping? So you're not full method.
Unless she was drinking mead
and eating with her fingers.
Look, I really cared for Zane,
but he was acting like
he was cheating on me,
showing up at my place at
all hours of the night,
lame excuses.
So I confronted him, and he blew up,
told me never to ask
where he goes again.
Any idea who this other woman might be?
No.
But whoever she was,
she brought out his dark side.
We have breaking news
on the shocking death
of Hollywood megastar Zane Cannon,
whose body was found
this morning onstage
at the off-Broadway Citizens Theater.
So, why is there a video
of Zane's body on the news?
A stalker-azzi snuck
onto the crime scene
wearing an NYPD Windbreaker.
A source at the scene reveals
that leading the investigation
into the star's murder
is none other than acclaimed
mystery writer Richard Castle
with an assist from the
NYPD's 12th Precinct.
1PP has been on my ass about
keeping media under control,
and now my husband is the
face of the investigation.
- It's not all bad news, Beckett.
- How?
That's a great photo of me.
Do we have a suspect?
Not yet. Naomi's alibi checked out.
But we do have a lead
on this mystery woman
that Zane was seeing.
His financials came in.
They say that he rented
a limo yesterday morning.
Which makes sense,
since Naomi trashed his DB9.
- And where was this limo going?
- I don't know yet.
I'm still waiting for the
driver to call me back,
but hopefully he knows
who this woman is.
I have already found her.
It turns out that Zane
was renting a suite
at the Black Door Hotel
under a fake name.
- Ah, the Black Door. Yes, very fancy.
- Mm.
Known for being discreet...
is what I've heard
from other people who were once single
and now married.
Well,
they certainly seem to be living up
to that reputation.
Wouldn't say a word until I
accused them of obstruction.
But Zane has had a suite
there for the past two weeks,
and he was with a woman
there every night.
Okay, who is this woman?
No idea. She's not a registered guest,
but get this.
Not only did she arrive after
our time-of-death window.
She's still there.
Privacy light is on.
She must still be here.
NYPD.
Could you open it, please?
- NYPD.
- Police.
Psst.
There's a ginger in the bed.
Mother?!
Richard?
S08E20
Much Ado About Murder
I, um...
I got tired waiting for Zane last night,
so I just, uh, crawled into bed.
Never could I imagine
what happened to him.
Mother, why are you...
Why... Why...
Why were you in Zane's bed?
Because he was late for our session.
What kind of session?
Is that what they call it?
- That's enough.
- Okay.
Mother, are you saying you
were sleeping with Zane Cannon?
Oh, drop the gavel, Richard!
I was his acting coach,
certainly not his mistress.
The poor boy was out of his
depth trying to play Hamlet,
so he was referred to me.
Zane needed me to be
on call 24 hours a day.
So he had this suite
so that we could meet
comfortably at any time.
We turned this room into
a temple to the Bard.
It also became a temple to a new life.
What do you mean, "new life"?
Well, you know I'm a life coach.
I helped Zane to just clear
out the clutter of stardom
so that he could focus on his craft.
Did he ever mention having any enemies?
No, but he did have some demons, though.
There was something in his past
that was a real block for him.
Certainly he told you
what the block was.
No, he was very secretive about it,
frightened, even.
Oh, of course I encouraged him
to engage with those demons, and...
Wait a minute. The last time we spoke,
he said that he had made
arrangements to do just that.
Oh, dear God.
Don't tell me that I might
have pushed him into something
that got him killed.
No. No. Nothing like that.
No.
- No?
- No, come on.
Let's get you home. Come on.
Ryan, wait.
Hey, listen.
It's my turn to plan date night,
but I forgot,
and Castle's gonna lord it over me
if I don't outdo what he did last week.
So I need a few ideas.
Wait for Castle? Yeah.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
The, uh... The guy who, uh,
took you on an urbanspelunking adventure
through the city subway
tunnels last Halloween,
and then he hired actors
to re-enact scenes from the movie
"C.H.U.D."
Yeah, I can't...
I can't come up with stuff like that.
Yo.
I just heard back from that limo driver
that Zane hired the
morning of his murder.
You'll never believe where he went...
Sing Sing Penitentiary.
Why did he go there?
To pick up a newly released inmate...
Johnny Toro, who also happens to be
his estranged older stepbrother.
How did we not know that
Zane had a stepbrother?
Different dads, different names,
and according to Zane's publicist,
he kept it quiet.
He didn't want to be
associated with this guy.
- Then why'd he show up at the prison?
- I don't know.
According to the limo driver, though,
it was far from a happy family reunion.
The privacy screen was up,
but he could tell that
Toro was yelling at Zane.
He served 12 years for a B&E.
Where he stewed on how
much he hated Zane.
Check out the prison
psychologist's notes.
Apparently, there was a lot
of built-up rage against Zane.
You know, evidence suggests that
this break-in was a two-man job.
Cops suspected Zane
but only had evidence against Toro.
And then Toro took the fall.
And Zane moves to Hollywood
and becomes a movie star.
All right, get him in here.
This what it's gonna be
like now I'm on parole?
Just can't go a day without
being harassed by the cops?
Not when you set a record
for fastest recidivism.
You were out all of 10 hours
before you murdered Zane.
See?
Soon as I saw the news,
I knew y'all were gonna hang that on me.
Really? That's your response?
Not...
Not, "Boo-hoo, my stepbrother's dead."
Screw you.
I'm busted up over what happened to Z.
No, you're pissed that
he let you take the rap
all those years ago.
I don't know what the
hell you're talking about, man.
I was the big brother.
I made Z keep his mouth shut
on that B&E we pulled, man.
Told him to make something of himself.
Come on, bro. Your prison shrink noted
that you had a giant hate-on for Zane.
He abandoned me.
And not one visit.
No calls.
Didn't put any money on my books.
Nothing.
Just went off to become a star,
and he left me to rot.
Limo driver said things got pretty
heated when he picked you up.
Yeah,
but what the limo driver didn't hear
was us squashing our beef,
'cause he apologized,
said he would set me up
for the rest of my life.
Just had to get his financial
problems figured out.
What financial problems?
Zane had $10 million in the bank.
He owed the IRS 15 mil in back taxes.
He was gonna be broke
in like two months.
Then why'd he walk away
from an $8 million payday in that
"Safe Word" movie
to go do Shakespeare?
He said he had a plan to get paid.
Something big, man.
Sounds like whatever money-making
scheme Zane was involved in
is probably what got him killed.
Only question is...
What the hell are you doing, Kevin?
Yeah, figured it out.
- What he was involved in?
- No, no, no, no, no.
The, uh, new choreography for
Sarah Grace's preschool play.
Oh, good.
Why don't you keep working on that
while I solve our homicide?
Let me get a plain... plain hot dog.
Hey, Javi.
Yeah?
We are being filmed.
That's that stalker-azzi I
chased off the crime scene.
Hey, buddy, what's your name?
This is a public street.
I have the right to film here.
Oh, cool, cool, cool.
We just want to know
why you're filming us.
Well,
I want the same thing you guys do...
An ending to Zane Cannon's story.
Wait a minute.
You've been tracking our
investigation by tracking us?
I've been working on an exposé on Zane
ever since he dropped out of the movie
"Safe Word"
to play Hamlet.
I knew that pretty boy was a
train wreck waiting to happen.
You've been following Zane?
On and off, ever since he
got to New York a month ago.
So, did you see him on
the night of his murder?
Look, come on.
You want an ending to your story?
Why don't you show us what you got?
Maybe we can do you a favor.
Yeah, I don't work for favors.
I want an interview with the killer.
Yeah, and I want
a baby unicorn with a rainbow tail
for my daughter.
We're both gonna be disappointed, pal.
Come on, man. Show us what you got.
If it's any good,
when we make an arrest,
we'll let you film the perp walk.
Deal?
Let's go for a walk.
I filmed this yesterday at
the theater around 4:00.
That's about six hours
before Zane was killed.
- Oh, yeah, it's right here.
- You got what I need?
Who's the guy with the tats?
No idea.
Have him give me a call ASAP, all right?
Cool?
No guarantees, man. Here you go.
- Who... Who's that, Zane?
- Yo!
Why'd you pay him all
that cash for the phone?
Come on!
Come on. Give me that camera!
Give me that camera.
You're gonna get me killed.
Hell,
I thought Zane was just being dramatic.
I guess I was dead wrong.
Okay, we're gonna need you
to leave the room, Jake.
Heck, maybe get that facial recognition.
- We'll print out something.
- Yeah... No, no, no.
Leave the laptop.
No way, lady. This is my property.
Jake. Now.
Geez.
What the hell did Zane
get himself mixed up with?
There's only one way to know.
We got to find this mystery man.
Yo, L.T., have you seen Ryan?
I think he's in the box.
Ãlodie, thank you very much
for taking time to Skype with me.
I just... I wanted to share with you
my vision of the play.
Your vision?
Yeah, I see the kids as
embodying the circle of life.
It's just a flower dance.
Let me just show you what I mean.
Okay, so, the kids...
They're stacked up,
and then flower, flower.
They're...
They're exploding, fanning out.
Flower, flower, flower!
Fun!
♪ Flower growing in the sun ♪
And then... Then they circle back.
Kind of a, you know,
Busby Berkeley thing.
Kevin.
Kevin. The oldest kids are 5.
We'll be lucky if they
can just sing the song.
I think we need to think
outside the box here.
Think outside of the box next year,
after my kid has graduated.
Oh, well, hey, élodie,
if you're gonna be like that,
maybe we need to look into
your unpaid parking tickets,
run them through the system...
Kevin. See if there's any lien...
We've got that, uh,
case that we're working.
Yeah, okay, bye.
Stop.
Step away from the laptop.
Yeah, that's the same guy
that Zane bought the
burner phone off of.
This footage is dated four weeks ago,
so obviously he and Zane
had an ongoing arrangement.
Hold up. I-I recognize this guy.
Yeah, that's Alejandro Guzman.
He's a big shot-caller
for a gang called Los Malditos...
The Damned.
They operate out of Spanish Harlem.
That's the same neighborhood
that Zane grew up in.
Maybe the two of them knew
each other back in the day.
Before Zane got famous
doing all those
"Apocalypse Runner" movies.
We'll go up to Spanish Harlem
and see if we can track down this guy.
I know nothing about nothing.
Well, we got you on video
having a meeting with Zane
on the day he was murdered.
You got me on video killing him?
Yeah, that's what I thought. May I go?
- Not yet.
- No.
See, we did our homework.
Yeah,
we know that your little brother Antonio
is doing a little stretch
upstate at Fishkill.
That's a long way for your
mother to travel on visiting day,
especially with her bad knees.
How do you know about my mama?
Oh, I, uh... I got an old Army buddy
who works for the Federal
Bureau of Prisons.
He slipped me your file.
Hey, Javi, I bet your old Army buddy
could get his brother
transferred closer to the city,
make those visits a
little easier on mama.
Yeah,
but he'd have to be willing to talk.
I don't make deals with police.
Oh, that's... That's fine.
My buddy also tells me that
there's a bunch of openings
at a federal penitentiary in Georgia.
It would be, like, what,
a 13-, 14-hour bus ride?
At least.
Kind of rough on mama.
All right.
I'll talk about Zane,
but I'm not giving you names.
I'm not ratting anyone out in my crew.
Keep talking.
I knew Zane back in the day.
Just a neighborhood punk.
A month ago, he shows up out of the blue
asking to get in touch with my boss.
Who's your boss?
Hold up, are you talking about...
the boss boss?
El Oso?
I said no names.
Wait, El Oso? Head of the cartel?
The Mexican government,
the D.E.A., the FBI...
They're all looking for this guy.
He escaped from prison in
Mexico three months ago.
Are... Are you saying that you
know where El Oso is hiding?
Of course not.
Then why would Zane come to see you?
Because I got a little bird,
and I put out my little
bird to the right people
until the message gets to you know who.
Clearly,
you charge for this littlebird service.
10 grand gets you a burner.
If the boss wants to talk,
you get a phone call.
And a month ago,
Zane wanted to talk to your boss.
Why?
Some kind of business proposition.
Zane even got himself a
face-to-face with the boss
'cause he's a movie star and all.
Only, from what I hear,
it didn't go so good.
So why did Zane buy
another burner from you
on the day he was killed?
I don't know.
But if he pissed off
the boss a second time,
it's not on me he ended up dead.
Jorge "El Oso" Zamacona.
He's part folk hero, part demon,
the rest pure monster.
The man kills anyone who crosses him...
Cops, journalists, politicians.
Zane must have been
real desperate for money
to want to do business with this guy.
Maybe he wanted to be El Oso's
new drug pipeline to Hollywood.
Well, chances are we'll never find out.
I mean, if the D.E.A., FBI,
and the Mexican government
can't find him,
then what chances do we have?
I'll reach out to my Fed contacts.
Well, we'll drill down all of
El Oso's stateside connections.
Okay.
Well, I suppose that puts
the brakes on our date night.
Uh, yeah. Sorry, Castle.
Oh, no, I'm sorry for you.
You're the one who put all the
planning into our special evening.
Yeah, I-I did.
I...Yeah, I did.
You know what? I think I'll
take my mother out to dinner,
maybe cheer her up after all this.
You're such a good son.
And you're such a good everything.
Uh...
Hey, buddy.
Parked a little close.
Hey.
You look...
Okay, don't mind me.
I'm just gonna go out
the passenger side.
Catch a... Oh. Didn't mean to...
Meant to do that.
Oh, now you move? Thanks, you idiot.
Um...
Who are you guys?
What do you want?
Where am I?
Buenas noches.
Hi.
Do you know who I am?
El Oso.
Listen, you get me a lead on Zamacona,
and we will run it.
Yeah.
Okay, I got to go. Bye.
- Hey.
- Hi, darling.
I know you're busy, but is Richard here?
No. I thought he was at dinner with you.
Yeah, well,
he didn't show up,
and his cell went right to voice-mail.
So I figured he must be
here immersed in the case.
Well, he's probably out playing
with his fancy new credit card,
but let me check in on him.
Alexis put new tracking
software on my laptop.
I'll just ping his cell.
There we go.
There we go. 7th and 53rd.
That's the parking garage
across from the restaurant
where we were supposed
to meet an hour ago.
Uh, you know what?
Just give me a second.
Hi, uh, this is Captain Beckett.
I need a unit at 53rd and 7th.
I saw you on the news.
You're working with the Federales
to investigate Zane Cannon's death.
You mean his murder.
Well, I mean, uh, we know that
Zane, uh, was in contact with you
about a business proposition
and that you were in contact with him
just hours before his
un-untimely demise.
You think I killed him.
You have been associated
with a fair amount of violence
in your past.
I believe the adjective you're
looking for is, uh, "epic."
An epic amount of violence.
Some might even say biblical.
So you can see why your
involvement with Zane
would have the police curious.
If I wanted him dead,
I would have cut him open
when he was standing where you are now.
I wouldn't kill him with a pen.
That's cute.
Do I look like a man who kills cute?
No. No, certainly not.
You also don't look like the sort of man
who needs to resort to
cheap scare tactics.
I mean, why don't you just untie me?
We'll sit down,
and you tell me why you brought me here.
Thank you.
You think Zane contacted me about drugs,
no?
What else is there?
Yo. Yo mismo. El Oso.
The most infamous
cartel boss in history.
Zane wanted the rights to your
life story... the El Oso biopic.
He thought portraying me
would win him an Oscar.
- So what happened?
- I said no.
He may be big box office,
but the man cannot act.
He got upstaged by a CGI aardvark
in that película De fantasía.
So I-I made him an ultimatum.
You're the one who made him drop
"Safe Word" and do "Hamlet."
I needed to see that he was serious.
That he really could act.
So I told him if he got a
good review in the Times,
my life rights were his.
But he had contact with you
before the show premiered.
He wanted to meet again.
- Why?
- I don't know.
He said it had to do with the movie,
but I could smell his, uh,
desperation through the phone,
especially when I said no.
And later that night, he was dead.
Pero Mira.
I didn't bring you all the way out here
to talk about Los muertos.
You didn't?
No, no, no, no.
When I saw you on television,
I knew fate had put you in my path,
Richard Castle.
I'm a man of the people.
You are a popular writer.
You write for the people.
That's why you must tell my story.
You want me to write the
script for your movie?
Sí! Sí! It will be fun!
I-I will tell you all about myself.
And then you will just typey,
typey, typey.
It should only take six months,
maybe a year.
And you will stay here with me!
Or I will mail your body home...
piece by piece.
We got security footage from the garage,
and it's not good.
Oh, my...
Oh, my God.
The Escalade is
registered to a shell corp
that's a known front for El Oso.
You can track the SUV, can't you?
We can, but they probably swapped
cars at least once by now,
and with a two-hour head start,
we're looking at a
100-mile search radius,
and we still have no idea
what we're looking for.
There must be something that you can do.
This... This is Richard's life.
YOLO.
That's cold, Beckett.
No, uh, Castle's new credit card.
The kidnappers left his
cellphone by the car,
but he might still have
his wallet with him.
And the new YOLO card has
an upgraded RFID chip in it.
And if they passed within range
of a tollbooth or a gas station...
Then it'll pick up the chip,
and we'll be able to track his movement.
All right,
I'll call the credit-card company,
see if that card's pinged anywhere.
Oh, poor Richard.
I-I-I can't even imagine
how he must be suffering.
Your life is, without a doubt,
a Shakespearean drama.
I've always felt a strong
connection to Macbeth.
Ambitious but tortured
by his conscience.
With your relationship to torture,
I think you're a little
more Richard III,
am I right?
The hunchback?!
I-I was thinking more along the lines
of Sir Laurence Olivier.
A man does not achieve what I have
without great personal cost!
Jorge, I-I only meant you...
Do you think I cannot see
that the stains on my soul
appear upon my sleeve, as well?
Are you the royal fool
who dares believe he can
mock the king he serves?!
No,
I'm just the funny kind of court jester.
Then give me proof of your humility
by giving me your life!
Oh, Ricardo!
I wish you could see your face!
It's priceless!
Yes, good one.
Richard III had no sense of humor,
but I do.
These are the facets of...
of my character that you must capture.
You know, you should really
play yourself in this movie.
Oh, if only...
But sadly, I'm a fugitive,
persecuted and misunderstood.
Until you tell my story, that is.
Now let's talk money, huh?
Will $5 million be enough?
Jorge Zamacona,
this is the D.E.A.
We have you surrounded.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
No, no, no, no!
Jorge, wait, wait, wait!
You remember how "Richard III" ended.
You could write your own ending here.
An artist must be true to
the material and himself.
Aah!
Open the hatch!
Hey, over there!
He's down! He's down!
Three down. Castle's here.
Are you hurt, Mr. Castle?
No, I'm fine. I'm fine. I...
But I may not be for long.
It was just instinct.
He was running by, and I tripped him.
- You did good, Castle.
- No, not good!
I... Not good at all!
I tripped a drug lord.
It's my fault he got caught.
The D.E.A. had the building surrounded.
El Oso wasn't getting away,
even if you didn't trip him.
Sadly, despite your abduction
being a fantastic story,
we're still no closer to
finding out who killed Zane.
I wouldn't be so sure about that.
The D.E.A. confiscated a dozen
burner phones from El Oso's barn.
One of those phones was the
one he used to call Zane
the day he was killed.
So they have Zane's burner phone number,
which means we could find
out if he called anyone else.
We can, and he did.
An international line in Mexico,
and you won't believe
who it belongs to...
El Oso's younger brother,
Hector Zamacona,
a legit businessman who publicly
condemns El Oso every chance he gets.
If he's in Mexico,
how did Zane connect with him?
Both ends of that call from Zane's phone
pinged off of towers here in the city.
Baby bro's in town.
- Do we know where he is now?
- Not yet.
Hector Zamacona might have been
the last person to speak to Zane,
which means he may know something.
Hey,
what's your wife doing here?
I don't know. Excuse me.
So, what's up?
Ãlodie from the preschool
called about the play.
It seems some of the parents
have some... concerns.
Ah, yeah. Um, they're, uh,
struggling with my vision.
I'll...
I'll call élodie in the morning.
I'll walk her through it.
Actually, they have decided
to go a different direction.
Wait, they're firing me?
The play's tomorrow.
It's that élodie, isn't it?
PTA's not enough for that mom-ster.
She has to...
Kevin, it's all the parents.
Oh.
Everybody loves your enthusiasm.
It's just, they're preschoolers.
They're not Broadway stars.
So no soft-shoe?
No. No soft-shoe.
- Okay.
- Come here.
- It happens.
- Yeah.
So, other than pissing
off a homicidal drug lord,
how did you enjoy our
surprise date night?
Are you saying you planned
my abduction by a
fugitive cartel leader?
Yeah, complete with the
daring rescue and everything.
It was fun, huh?
I don't think date night counts
when it's a candlelit dinner
with the butcher of Guadalajara.
Well, I'll... I'll plan something else.
Something else?
You didn't have a plan!
Do you realize how
pressure-filled this is,
always trying to top each other?
That's half the fun of it.
Our rivalry is what fuels
the passionate fire...
- Rivalry.
- What?
Rivalry.
Between two brothers.
What? What rivalry?
The one between Jorge "El Oso" Zamacona
and his brother, Hector.
A rivalry would explain
why Zane was working with both brothers,
but how... how do we prove it?
I just need to find
one piece of evidence
to see that I'm on the right track.
And that could be it.
All right, my Spanish is a little rusty,
but my handy translator says...
Hector Zamacona's been sleeping
with his brother's wife.
They have been shacking up
ever since El Oso went on the run.
So Zane might have been caught
in a rivalry between the brothers,
and that's what got him killed.
Hector wants more than
just El Oso's wife.
According to the D.E.A.,
all of his, uh,
"legitimate" businesses...
They're suspected fronts
for money laundering.
So with big brother on the run,
Hector can make a play to
rule the family in his place.
But Hector can never
truly own the throne
until his brother is dead.
A powerful family,
a cartel for a kingdom,
two brothers locked in
a battle for control.
Guys, this is just like the play.
Hamlet's father is
killed by his brother,
who then takes the throne
and marries the dead brother's wife.
There's a reason they
say Shakespeare endures.
This is a real-life "Hamlet."
Okay, so, thematic similarities aside,
why would Hector need
Zane to take down El Oso?
Because Hector didn't know
where to find his brother.
And movie star Zane had a
face-to-face with El Oso.
Making Zane the perfect Trojan Horse
to lead Hector to his brother.
Why would Zane agree to do that?
He wanted to star in the El Oso movie.
Money.
Hector's worth hundreds of millions.
Zane needed the money now,
not in three years,
when the movie could get off the ground.
So Hector offers to solve
Zane's money problems
in exchange for Zane
leading him to El Oso.
But El Oso refuses to meet with Zane.
Then, rather than wait to see if Zane's
"Hamlet" reviews
are good enough to meet with El Oso,
Hector decides to cut his losses.
Which, in this family,
translates to murder.
My brother's bloody hand has
brought shame on our family.
We're better off with
him back in a cage.
Well, yeah, I mean,
you're definitely better off.
You didn't even have to pay
for Zane Cannon's tax debts.
Why would I
pay a movie star's taxes?
To get him to lead you to your brother.
That way you could kill El Oso
and take over the family business,
much in the same way you
took over the family bed.
And when Zane couldn't get a
second meeting with El Oso,
he was a loose end, so you killed him.
I did not kill Zane.
We know that Zane called
you from a burner phone
hours before he was killed.
We also know that you put $15 million
into a holding account.
The exact amount of his tax bill.
Let's say I did have a deal with him.
Why would I kill him a week before
"Hamlet" previews?
According to you,
good reviews would have gotten him
another meeting with my brother.
But that would have put
Zane out in the cold
for his Oscar-winning role.
And even with a big payoff,
it would have been tough
to get him to walk away from that role.
Unless you promised him
he could keep it anyway.
With your brother dead,
the life rights would revert to you.
I could care less about
the El Oso biopic.
I told him he could
direct it for all I cared.
Wait, you... you told Zane
he could star in and
direct his dream project?
Only I guess Zane had
already promised the job
to someone else...
Someone who would not
be happy to lose it.
O, woe is me.
T'have seen what I have seen...
No. Y-You've got to feel it more.
This isn't just some guy who
broke up with you on Snapchat.
Hamlet betrayed you.
He... He never loved you.
"Get thee to a nunnery," right?
Hamlet took everything from you.
That's certainly a
scene you can relate to,
isn't it, Ms. Cherloff?
Uh, this is a private rehearsal.
We have a break in 20.
Can you let us finish?
I think maybe you are finished.
All due respect to the Bard,
we're here with a tale of our own...
One with betrayal and jealousy,
though sadly classic.
A truly gifted director watches
as her former classmate's
star rises in Hollywood,
while she fought like hell
for every opportunity.
I love what I do.
So what if Zane made millions
because he chose the
gym over acting school?
I make art.
But when Zane asked you
to cast him as Hamlet,
you told him no, didn't you?
Yes, until he convinced me
he was right for the part.
By offering you your big break
directing the El Oso biopic?
But it was a Hollywood promise.
Not worth a damn.
Tell me, did he confess to you
that he would be directing
the picture on his own,
or did he just tell
you you lost the job?
Neither.
Because it didn't happen.
I-I don't know anything
about an El Oso project.
Then how do you explain the
browser history on your laptop?
Or the shoes in your closet
with Zane's blood on them?
You have no idea what a risk it was
putting Zane in this play.
A-And the only thing
that made it worthwhile
was directing that movie.
A-And then he tells me that...
that he's gonna do it
a-and I'm left with maybe
the worst production
of "Hamlet" in history.
I mean, my career is as good as over.
Do you have any idea how
difficult it is as a woman
to break into directing film?
A-And he took away my
shot like it was nothing.
I heard him that night
torturing maybe the most beautiful words
ever written for the stage,
and I just snapped.
This way, Ms. Cherloff.
Is that a wrap on rehearsal?
You still mad about being fired
off Sarah Grace's preschool play?
Ah, only at myself.
I swore I'd never be that dad.
What,
the kind that makes an ass of himself
by dancing around like a
flower for his daughter?
No, the kind...
the kind who gets caught
up in what he wants,
not what his kid does.
Yeah, okay, let's go.
- Daddy!
- Hey!
Look at my little sunflower!
- Hey!
- Uncle Javi!
Ohh! Hey, baby.
Hey. I was just leaving.
Aren't you guys already
supposed to be there?
Uh, she didn't want to go.
Wouldn't say why. She just wants you.
Uh... hey, sweetie.
Look, y-you don't have to
sing if you don't want to.
That's the law.
But you'll be sad if I don't.
What? No.
I think it's
more she forgot the words.
Oh, do... do you want me to
help you remember the words?
Okay, I'll do it with you. Ready?
Okay. Get your hands ready.
♪ Flower, flower ♪
♪ Flower fun ♪
♪ Flower growing in the sun ♪
♪ Raindrops fall
from clouds up high ♪
We spin around!
♪ And all day long,
the bees buzz by ♪
- Yay!
- Yay!
Hey!
Nice!
Yay!
I think you're ready, S.G. All right?
So we'll go to the play?
- Yeah.
- She's ready.
Yeah.
This time I want to...
Mmm!
This date night is everything
I dreamed it would be.
Aww.
Well, given all the recent excitement,
I thought that a quiet night
in would be nice for a change.
Ohh!
You did plan something. What is it?
Flash mob, treasure hunt, land shark?
No, no, I swear.
I don't know who's at the door.
Oh. Thank you.
Oh, no.
Castle, is that another credit card?
Because I am YOLO'd out.
Not a credit card.
Script notes, biographical materials.
It's from El Oso.
Beckett, you know what this means?
He still wants you to write his script.
And he doesn't want me dead.
Until he reads the first draft.
Well, there's that.
"These materials only cover
the first two acts of our movie.
The third act is yet to come,
and it starts with a bang."
Hey, Espo.
Seriously?
El Oso just escaped federal detention.
What?!
They should call this guy El Houdini.
Hey, wait, Castle, where are you going?
- Date night's not over yet.
- It is for me.
I got to start writing this script.
Typey, typey, typey!