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Linchpin (2) - Recap

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The scene continues with after Blakely is shot dead at the port, and the car in which Beckett and Castle were sitting has been rammed into the water, the car is getting filled up to the roof. Beckett struggles to free herself from the seat belt, and Castle is trying to figure out a way to cut the strap. They have lost everything that could be handy in this situation in the jolt, but Castle is able to find a flashlight. He goes into the rear end of the car, and dips his head into the water trying to find something useful. However, he has to stay too long there, and time is running out. The car keeps sinking, and after a while, Castle is nowhere to be heard from. Beckett tries to force her way out of the jammed doors, but fails. The water level rises, and chokes her unconscious.

In the next scene, they have been rescued by FBI, and are standing by the water, afraid that whoever pulled the trigger on Blakely is out on a roll. He is getting increasingly dangerous, and harder to catch. Before long, Esposito is giving them grief because they are not revealing what they are up to as yet. Esposito used to have classified for breakfast, and he doesn’t understand why they have to rescue them from the water, and still be kept in the dark. However, he is glad the two are alright. Before they know it, CIA chief Sophia Turner has arrived, and is livid about Blakely’s death. She orders Castle and Beckett to get in the car, and after they reach there, she is livid about why she wasn’t informed they had Blakely. Beckett tries establishing they have found at least something – the fact that Blakely was working on a theory of economics, which would be highly relevant in finding out what could trigger Pandora. She thought Castle had changed. But he is still the self-centered, immature, reckless jackass he once was. And there is no next move. They are off the case now.

Later, when Beckett and Castle are at FBI, Esposito and Ryan have dug up another alias of Blakely from fingerprint matching. However, his past moves untraceable. The address on the records seem to be fake, and no one in the neighborhood recognizes him. Castle points out he plays chess, which his far from being a sole game. The detectives plan to canvas the chess parks around the city, and hope to find his companion. Before long, it turns out Blakely’s body has gone missing from FBI custody. It was intercepted by CIA, and they took it away showing court orders. After Beckett gets back home, his daughter is curious about Sophia Turner. However, he is not talking about it. If he has secrets, then she might keep some too. After she gets out of the scene, Castle discovers Sophia on a couch in his living room. She is being cheeky about Beckett, and already knows his men are canvassing chess parks in the process of following up with Blakely’s aliases. However, she wants him to use a lead on Blakely. The CIA has found several account numbers, and since only the FBI has the authority to check them, he better get back to what he was doing. And this time he should be careful about getting killed. She is still fond of him.

Castle gets back to FBI the next day, and finds out Esposito and Ryan are out canvassing chess parks for Blakely’s chess partner. However, Beckett is in the office trying to get her car insurance. However, hardly can she claim it because she lost her car into the Hudson River while she was on a classified mission. Then Castle reveals the lead he has on Blakely. When he lets on how he got it, didn’t Sophia call him a reckless jackass? Castle tells her she must have been posing for her colleagues, who disapproved of hiring Beckett and Castle for investigations. Meanwhile, Ryan and Esposito are busy at a chess park, when one of the players identify Blakely by some other name. Although he can tell Blakely was a world class chess player, the detectives should be asking Yanni – another player. They spent a lot of time together lately.

As Beckett reveals what she has found from Blakely’s accounts, he received $2 million, and about a million probably for Pandora, but the accounts are a dead end. They have all been closed. Before long, Ryan and Esposito reveal what they have found about Yanni. He is an economics professor at a well-recognized university, but when brought to interrogation, he can only say that Blakely was deeply interested in geo politics, economics and the history of it. Later, he says did not know where Blakely lived, but once when he forgot his chess board at the park, and went back, he saw Blakely enter a building. Can he identify the building? He can.

Before long, Castle and Beckett at an apartment, where they discover a bizarrely set up room, filled with strings going crisscross, and millions of newspaper cuttings. It relates to World War III, and the trigger required to cause it. Weirdly enough, they find the picture of a ten-year-old Chinese girl with Pandora written at the bottom, and at the vertex of the string pattern “Pandora’s killer”. Before they can figure out anything that is set to happen, Gage has them at gunpoint, and asking them to run. And then a grenade lands in the room, when the detectives manage to get out, and Gage is saving their lives. Wasn’t he the bad guy? If he was, Castle and Beckett would be dead by now. Gage is finding it hard to make them trust him, but tells them the safe way out of the building. He escapes with them in a van, after reaching a temporarily safe point, he wants to know who their target is. Neither Castle nor Beckett is trusting him. Time runs out, Sophia arrives with forces, and has Gage arrested.

Back at CIA, Sophia is trying to explain Gage is pretending, and when she enters the interrogation room, Gage is telling her the mole is on her side. She leaves, but soon, on the computer floor, it turns out Gage needs to be checked once more. However, he has been shot dead by now. Why did no one see it? The camera program has been hacked. Who has done it? It is hard to tell, but before long, the experts have an IP match. However, it turns out the one whose IP it is, is being framed. Now with a passcode match, they have a surer way of knowing – it turns out to be Martin Danberg – the person who has been working for Sophia and bringing Castle and Beckett in and out of the facility. He tries saying he is loyal, but for a moment has no way out, but until he uses a young female operative as hostage, and manages to escape.

Before they know it, Castle comes up with a genius way of identifying what the picture of the 10-year-old Chinese girl has to do with Pandora. Instead of trying to identify the girl, they should use the hills in the background to identify through terrain sampling. It is a long process, but they decide to use it. After roughly 32 hours, the terrain turns out to be a place in Xing Jiang in China. They run matching with all the school symbols with the crest on the girl’s blazer. Before long, they are able to use a face matching system to identify the girl, and her parents. It turns out the father is an influential figure in China, and often shapes the economic policies. If his daughter is the target, then this is Pandora – the blame comes to US, he stops the loans China gives US, and as US will be compelled to take austerity measures, it will pull out troops from conflict zones. And then, a world wide trend of conflict could destroy the planet. Before long, it turns out the girl’s father is in the US now, and is about to attend a meeting.

Castle, Beckett, Sophia and her man leave for the facility. However, it turns out the real mole is Sophia when she point her gun at Castle and Beckett. Her man goes off with his gun to pull the trigger on Pandora. Castle is flabbergasted, and when he asks why World War III, Sophia reveals some people are ready to pay any price, and this was never her country. Just as she is about to kill Beckett and Castle, Danberg kills her. Then he takes them where the other mole is about to kill the little girl. In the nick of time, they have him arrested.

Later, Danberg cannot tell who the other people behind Pandora might be, but the least he can do is show Beckett her car keys. He has it repaired, and probably she would find it better than new. After he leaves, Castle wants to know how she feels about saving the world. She is not sure, but she does feel great about saving a little girl’s life. The episode ends.