Castle Episode 3.02 He's Dead, She's Dead

Castle and Beckett investigate a case nobody could have seen coming, except for maybe the psychic who was stabbed to death with an ice pick.

Vivien Marchand was found dead and stuffed into a sleeper-sofa by her daughter, Penny. Clients Paula and Marina Casillas were two of the last to see Vivian alive. They had an appointment to chat with their dead husband/father, Emilio. Who says families don't talk to each other anymore?

The team gets hold of a letter from Vivien that was dated the day of her death. It describes details from the crime scene. Castle loves this. He says, "The psychic predicted her own murder!" Beckett, however, suspects the note was written by the killer to throw the police off track. She's such a skeptic.

A man named Steve Adams confronted Vivien as a part of a plan concocted by Cody, the producer of the reality show "You've Ruined My Life." Catchy title, right? Steve believes Vivian's bogus psychic clues got him wrongly accused of murder. Vivien asked Cody to bury the incriminating TV footage he shot. In exchange, she'd give him the opportunity to film her confronting a murderer.

Castle and Beckett use Cody's reality show footage to track the taxi Vivien took that day. She went to the home of Toni Johnston, who says Vivien showed up from out of the blue and knew that she was cheating on her husband, Nick. Toni says her lover told Vivien everything in a dream. Who's her lover, you ask? It's Emilio Casillas, the deceased husband and father of Paula and Marina!

Emilio's autopsy report shows signs of selenium poisoning. Since Emilio and Nick worked together at a vitamin factory, Castle and Beckett theorize that Nick might have poisoned Emilio. Nick says he went to Vivien's office (at her request), but nobody answered the door. He knew about his wife's affair with Emilio, who said he would leave his wife for Toni. But the guy had a heart attack before that could happen.

Penny tells Beckett that she inherited some of her mom's psychic ability. She says Beckett will meet someone named Alexander and he will be extremely important to her. Skeptic Beckett doesn't know anyone named Alexander. Penny returns with another psychic message. She had a dream where she and Vivien were eating dinner in a Masonic hall, and mom urged her to "ask the Masons what happened." Hmm.

As it turns out, Paula and Marina were having dinner at a place called Mason's the night of Vivien's murder. Paula left for a spell to snag some wine. Beckett says they checked with the liquor store. Paula's receipt shows a purchase made hours earlier in the day for wine and an ice pick.

Castle explains that Paula hid the wine, left dinner, killed Vivien with the ice pick, and then returned to the restaurant. She murdered Vivien out of fear that the psychic would expose the earlier murder of her cheating husband. So, Castle and Beckett solve the case but still can't agree on who wrote that mysterious letter.

Castle is a big believer in the possibility of fate, psychics, unicorns and the like. Beckett…not so much. She may have to adjust her belief system though when Castle reveals his middle name is Alexander. Isn't that the name of the important man Penny said would be coming into Beckett's life? Maybe, just maybe, he's already there.

In other news, Martha receives a proposal of marriage from her steady beau, Chet. She's sporting a pretty big diamond engagement ring even though she hasn't said yes. Martha knows that she'll have to return the ring since the magic is gone. Sadly, Chet passes away before she can see him again.

Martha feels horrible that she was all set to break a dear man's heart. Fortunately, Castle is there to comfort her. By not rejecting Chet's proposal right away, he says she gave the guy one more day of hope. This seems to make Martha feel a little bit better. She says, "Richard, whatever mistakes I made in my life…I raised a good man." Agreed.