"Castle" Episode 8, "Murder Most Fowl"

Fans of the ABC series "Castle," about a best-selling novelist who follows a New York homicide team, will be happy to learn that ABC has ordered another two episodes for season 3, bringing the total episodes for this television year from 22 to 24. The popularity of the show is part great writing and acting, and part on-screen chemistry between Nathan Fillion (Castle) and Stana Katic (Detective Beckett).

In episode 8, "Murder Most Fowl," that aired Monday, Nov. 8, at 10 pm Eastern, Castle has an emergency at home, where his daughter has lost the pet rat she's been taking care of for her boyfriend, but is called out to join Beckett and her team at a murder in Central Park. The victim was a Transit Authority worker, Len ("Light Bulb Len") Levitt, whose job was changing light bulbs. They find a long feather in his coat pocket. After a couple of false starts, Beckett and Castle discover that he was in the park looking for a pair of red-tailed hawks, but no camera is found in his apartment or with his body. Castle believes that Len's sprained wrist, which the ME thought could have been caused by the BMX bikers who rode over his body, was actually caused by the strap of a camera. They return to the site of the body, and find the camera up in a tree.

On the camera, they find not only pictures of the hawks, but also photos of a kidnapping. The kidnapped boy was taken from the park by an armed man, who also shot Levitt after realizing that Levitt had seen them, and the last photo is a picture of the gun pointed at Levitt. The boy, identified as Tyler Donegal after Castle notes that his socks show he was playing soccer, was staying with his father for a few days, but his father has been missing from work, and they don't find him in his apartment. Because the parents are divorced, and because they found that the father, Dean Donegal been checking flights to Indianapolis on his work computer, they first assume that despite the gun, it's a custody issue, but when they find Dean at a motel near the apartment, they learn that the boy was kidnapped, and Dean got home to find a phone with text messages telling him what to do if he wanted his boy back alive.

Dean is a custodian in a downtown office building. The kidnappers order him to meet them on the 37^th floor. In a "proof of life" video that arrives with the demand, Tyler tells his father he's OK, and asks him to "remember to feed Ace." Since the boy has no pets, Dean knows his son is sending him a message. Castle and Beckett figure out that he's referring to a point on the subway line, where the A,C and E lines come together - directly beneath Dean's building. While Ryan and Esposito take Dean to the office building, Castle and Beckett go to the subway beneath the building to find Tyler. They find a door with light showing along the bottom, and use Len's safety innovation, a breaker that cuts power to their piece of subway. With the kidnaper in the dark, Beckett is able to rescue the boy. Captain Montgomery, along with Ryan and Esposito, stop the elevator on the Lobby floor, before the kidnappers can kill Dean. Tyler is restored to Dean and his mother, and Castle heads for home to continue the rat hunt.

This is a typical episode of "Castle," with enough twists, turns, and red herrings to make a Sherlock Holmes fan happy, and with a hint of romance and comedy to please the rest of the viewers. Stay tuned for next Monday, when Lyle Lovett helps the team find a criminal.

(Sources: http://abc.go.com/watch/castle/SH559040?CID=google_sem_1, http://abc.go.com/shows/castle, http://castletv.net/)

(NOTE TO YAHOO! Editors: Both the spellcheck on my Word program and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Vol. 3 state that "kidnaper" and "kidnaped" are correct spellings. Kidnapper, kidnapping, and kidnapped are alternate spellings. BOTH are correct. I'm not a complete idiot, and I DO use spellcheck, even when I think it's wrong.)