Guest Star Goodness: Castle “Significant Others” 

[Warning: Major spoilers for Castle “Significant Others”]

“Significant Others” brought back Castle’s whirlwind of an ex-wife. Meredith abandoned her vacation to Paris in order to take care of a sick Alexis. Problem is, Beckett’s apartment was being fumigated at the same time and she was staying at Rick’s place. Awkward. For Rick, anyway.

The thing that was most significant about this episode was the very end. Kate asked Meredith what went wrong in her marriage to Castle. She basically said what did them in was the fact that he knew everything there was to know about her. But she knew almost nothing about him. When she brought up never knowing his father he would change the subject. It definitely seems like that one brief conversation is going to make Kate wonder if the same thing’s happening in her relationship with Castle.

This hopefully means we’re going to get something on Castle’s never-before-seen dad. I know there’s an Andrew Marlowe interview out there that says it might not happen for a while, but I for one, am happy that this seed has been planted. Maybe Kate will start making inroads with her partner and get him to open up about his feelings for his MIA dad. However, the ending seemed a little ominous. I wonder what this all means for the future of this couple? Am I reading too much into things? I might be. I just think it’d be interesting to finally unravel the mystery of Castle’s father.

Having said that, this episode was actually very interesting to me. I liked the twist at the end with Billy Piper’s wife, Leann, having faked her death to get out of her husband’s clutches and sully his spotless reputation at the same time. Too bad she had to resort to murdering divorce lawyer Michelle Twohey to tie up loose ends. Except for the pesky little murder thing I didn’t mind her revegenda. That Billy golfer dude was an ass. Unfortunately, the “resurrected” wife will be languishing in a jail while he’s free to still be a douche.

Let’s get to the Guest Star Goodness. There was so much of it.

Actress: Darby Stanchfield

Photo Credit: Carol Kaelson/ABC

Castle Role: Meredith, Castle’s ex-wife. We’ve seen the ex before. She’s always been a so so mother to Alexis and kind of a pain in Castle’s side. As annoying and self-involved as she can be, I really enjoyed the Meredith-Beckett scenes. And, again, that last conversation is going to give Kate food for thought for a long time. So Meredith’s appearance wasn’t for naught. It actually provided a little nugget that will potentially drive some drama forward in the future.
TV Credits: Darby’s had roles on Jericho and Mad Men but in addition to playing Castle’s wife, I know Stanchfield from her work on two other shows: 1. She’s Abby on ABC’s hit series, Scandal. Abby’s a formerly abused woman who’s found her strength and a set of other messes working for Olivia Pope. She and David Rosen have this on-off thing going on that was punctuated with a strange sex scene at the end of last year. 2. She’s the late wife of Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS. The red-head often makes appearances in flashbacks/dream sequences etc. — the last time being in the hit show’s 200th episode, “Life Before His Eyes.”

Actor: Jack Wagner

Photo Credit: Carol Kaelson/ABC

Castle Role: Billy Piper, pro golfer suspected of killing his wife. It’s easy to see why considering his oh so (not) pleasant personality. But, in reality, his wife pretty much framed him for the bad deed. She faked her death and then fell in love with someone else before getting out of the country.
TV Credits: Where haven’t you seen him before? Two of his most popular roles of all time have to be Frisco Jones from the daytime soap General Hospital; and Dr. Peter Burns on the late great (original) Melrose Place. But he’s starred in so much more including a stint on a couple other soaps — CBS’ The Bold and the Beautiful and NBC’s brilliant but canceled Santa Barbara. The actor is actually an avid golfer in real life, so I thought it was appropriate to make him a golfer in this particular Castle episode.

Actor: Mark Deklin
Castle Role: Corey Francis aka Noah Kesswood. When we first spotted Deklin in “Significant Others,” he was the divorce lawyer turned victim’s boyfriend, Corey Francis. Later in the episode, it was revealed that he was really Noah Kesswod. Billy Piper hired him to get close to the lawyer in order to spy on her.
TV Credits: I love love love Mark Deklin. He’s a veteran actor that’s guest starred on Ed, Sex and the City, Charmed and Frasier. But, it wasn’t until he was a regular on the short-lived Fox series, Lone Star, that I really noticed him. And then he was on ABC’s GCB, a show I wished hadn’t been canceled. He’s made a few appearances as Stan, the guy who married Danny’s ex-wife, on CBS’ Hawaii Five-O. And he’s also been in a couple of episodes of TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland.

Actress: Victoria Pratt
Castle Role: Jane Garrison/Leann Piper. She’s the one that killed Michelle Twohey, the divorce lawyer. The victim was on to the fact that Piper had faked her death to get away from her husband (her new name was Jane Garrison).
TV Credits: “Significant Others” had such a wealth of guest stars, right? Pratt often plays a badass. In the syndicated series, Mutant X, she was Shalimar Fox, a character with superpowers. One of her co-stars was Castle alum, Victor Webster. She did a couple episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess and starred in Cleopatra 2525 alongside another badass chick, Gina Torres. Pratt was also in a season 7 episode of NCIS called “Jet Lag.” She actually played the flight attendant/bad guy who tried to get the best of Ziva and Tony at 30,000 feet in the air.

Actress: Nancy Lee Grahn

Photo Credit: Carol Kaelson/ABC

Castle Role: Samantha Voss — a very bitter woman because she lost her divorce case and subsequently lost a lot of her money and holdings. So we saw her go all War of the Roses on her husband’s expensive things. Castle and Beckett found themselves in the middle of the wreckage.
TV Credits: It was great to see Nancy Lee Grahn in this type of role. She got to be very over-the-top in a good way. The soap star has probably had a few scenes just like that on her current show, ABC’s General Hospital, where she plays Alexis Davis. While she’s become well known for her GH role, Grahn first entered my TV radar when she played the oh so awesome and fierce Julia Wainwright Capwell on Santa Barbara. Not sure which couple I love more: GH‘s Ned and Alexis or SB‘s Mason and Julia. It’s a toss-up. I pretty much worship both those couples and the common denominator is Grahn. Over the years, the actress has also appeared on the original Melrose Place, Seventh Heaven and Murder One.

Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC. And make sure to tune into PodCastle Radio on Tuesday, January 15 when TV Goodness makes its own guest star appearance (well, actually, Kara and I do).