Guest Star Goodness: Castle “Reality Star Struck” 

[WARNING: Major spoilers for this week’s episode.]

It was the Valentine’s episode of Castle as Rick and Kate celebrated their first one as an adorable couple; Kevin was on baby-making duty; and Espo had some mysterious plans. Let’s break it down, although full disclosure, Castle is one of the only shows where I liberally use supercouple names. I just can’t help it.

Castle & Beckett: Of course, Castle turned the whole Valentine’s gift-giving experience into a competition. He was damn sure his gift for Beckett was going to be much better than the one he would receive from her. It wasn’t a shock when it all went wrong. The self-proclaimed “gift ninja” slipped the beautiful earrings into the pocket of Kate’s coat. Only, it wasn’t Kate’s. It was Gates’ coat. Thankfully, the romantic note he wrote wasn’t name specific. So Gates thought he was just sucking up to her. Accidentally outing his relationship with Kate to their boss could have been bad. So glad it didn’t happen. Although, how cute was the ending to “Reality Star Struck?” Beckett’s present to Castle gave us such a wonderful Caskett moment. She gave him a drawer at her apartment. It was a simple but perfect gesture, one Castle sincerely appreciated and loved.

Kevin & Jenny: Like I said earlier, Kevin’s on baby-making duty so life for him right now is decidedly not romantic. He’s arriving late for work. He’s having to duck out during an investigation. It’s all about the end game — getting Jenny pregnant. I thought a disheveled Kevin was pretty cute. He looked exhausted but it all worked itself out when Jenny took the pressure off for Valentine’s Day. Only thing that was missing was an appearance from Jenny. That would have been nice.

Espo & Lanie: Castle was uber interested in Espo’s Valentine’s Day plans for some reason. The sizzling hot detective kept them on the down low, however. At the end of the episode, Lanie walks into the precinct looking stunning in a red dress. She was there to meet up with her former BF who was taking her out to dinner at a French restaurant. Castle was a little upset because Beckett knew about this rendez-vous and kept it to herself. But, man, I appreciated this little Esplanie moment. Need. More. Now. Hopefully, this dinner and whatever means the two are back together. Plus, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — More Tamala Jones Please. We know next to nothing about Lanie. It’s time the show devotes an episode (or four) to her. We’re currently in season 5 here. It’s overdue.

OK, time to get to our Guest Star Goodness.

Gina Torres

Castle Role: Gina played Penelope Foster, one of the stars of the faux reality show The Wives of Wall Street. She and her husband, along with Hannah, the victim of the week, lied about a fake relationship/affair just to get extra airtime and higher ratings. When Hannah wanted to call an end to their trickery, Penelope and her hubby, Bob, held her hostage. But they weren’t the ones responsible for killing her. I assume the crazy couple were detained after they confessed to the kidnapping. There wasn’t much follow-up. Not quite sure what happened there.

The Actress: Torres currently plays the awesomely fierce and badass Jessica Pearson on USA Network’s Suits. And she has a recurring role in the upcoming NBC series, Hannibal, playing her real-life husband’s wife. Her real-life husband being Laurence Fishburne. But what made her Castle appearance so significant is that she and Nathan were fellow castmates on the short-lived series, Firefly, as well as the big screen sequel, Serenity. Having said that, I was actually a bit disappointed with this particular Firefly reunion. Torres and Nathan Fillion barely shared screen time together and they certainly didn’t share any special moment together either. I wasn’t expecting the quality time that Fillion spent with Adam Baldwin in last season’s Firefly reunion episode, but I was expecting more. Regardless, Torres is terrific in anything she does. So if you don’t watch Suits, you really need to get with the program and catch up.

Gail O’Grady

Castle Role: O’Grady was another one of the nasty Wives of Wall Street. She was Margo, a high-powered businesswoman who was trying to bankroll a fashion line Hannah designed. It all went wrong, of course, especially since Margo’s son fell in love with Hannah. This wasn’t cool considering on the reality TV show, said son was engaged to Ashley, who ultimately ended up being the killer. Don’t mess with her man, it’ll get you stabbed in the back.

The Actress: This veteran actress was Donna Abandando during NYPD Blue‘s early days. She was also Brittany Snow’s mom on NBC’s American Dreams. More recently, she played Wanda Perkins on the CW’s one-season series Hellcats and she’s guest starred on Necessary Roughness, Desperate Housewives, Hawaii Five-O and CSI: NY.

Patrick Fabian
Castle Role: Peter Monroe — the producer of The Wives of Wall Street. He was pretty sleazy but did one good thing. When Penelope and Bob turned to him after admitting they were holding Hannah hostage, he released her from captivity. Sure he tried to buy her silence shortly afterwards, but that’s a minor detail.

The Actor: Fabian was Professor Hank Landry, Veronica’s Intro to Criminology teacher in college on UPN’s Veronica Mars. He sort of became a mentor to her before becoming embroiled in one of the show’s mysteries. Fabian has also guest starred in a ton of TV shows including: NCIS (he was in the “Corporal Punishment” episode), Hawaii Five-O, Longmire, Criminal Minds and The Newsroom.

Chris Butler
Castle Role: Bob Foster, husband to Penelope and in a fake affair with Hannah, the victim. Let’s just say he didn’t wear the pants in the family when it came to his marriage. Penelope did. And in order to get information or a confession out of him, Beckett had to resort to Penelope-sized behavior. It worked.

The Actor: Love this guy. I know Butler best from his work on CBS’ The Good Wife, where he plays one of the assistant district attorneys for the city of Chicago. His boss is Chris Noth’s Peter Florrick. He was also a shapeshifter friend of Sam Merlotte’s during season 4 and 5 of HBO’s True Blood. Unfortunately, an anti-supernatural group killed his character. He’s also guest starred in 24, NCIS: Los Angeles, Rizzoli & Isles and Bones.

Castle airs Mondays at 10/9c on ABC.