ABC’s ‘Castle’ season 7, episode 12 review: Was ‘Private Eye Caramba!’ a dramatic case?

Well, wasn’t Monday night’s new episode of “Castle” quite a series of mysteries? “Private Eye Caramba!” had a variety of different things going on, and we have to say, there is a part of us that was somewhat-disappointed that there was not a story that forced Richard Castle to go undercover as a telenovela actor. (Sure, this was a story on “Psych,” but we wouldn’t have minded some lack of originality here.)

Castle started things off tonight by getting what was his first real case, and it was over a stolen purse. Of course, did you really think that was all it would entail? It of course somehow managed to weave itself into everything else that was going on throughout the episode, and that included the death of a telenovela star that Beckett was investigating.

The mystery had its standard twists and turns, so rather than recount that, let’s go through what were some of the best individual moments of the episode.

1. Castle learning that Beckett sent him over the purse case, almost out of pity.

2. Esposito trying to mask at the end of the episode that he was snagging an autograph for himself.

3. The fact that the words “private dick” managed to somehow make it past the censors.

4. The narration that Rick provided throughout the episode, made even funnier by the fact that “Castle” has done stories that were so much closer to a noir over the years.

5. The multitude of times Castle tried to throw someone under the bus in order to protect his own hide.

We were probably expecting this episode to ultimately be even funnier than it was (not enough telenovela for us), but at least the mystery was solid and the show is not abandoning the private-eye twist yet. Grade: B-.

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