Castle 5×15 “Target” just finished airing. Read our recap and watch the promo for next week’s episode, “Hunt.”

Tonight’s Castle opened with the typical murder mystery, with the added bonus of a kidnapping of an Egyptian college student attending Columbia. Rick is trying to reconcile the thought of Alexis being independent with his need to protect her. In the beginning of the episode, Rick is constantly questioning the need to protect his daughter, which is not subtle, knowing what is coming next.

While Rick and Beckett are looking into the missing girl, they discover that Alexis was also taken. In that moment, an entirely different Rick Castle appears: a broken father. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito kick the search into to high gear trying to find Alexis, but Rick can’t stay out of it and discovers that the kidnappers knew where to find Sarah, the target, because of Alexis’ blog. In a gut-wrenching moment, Rick tells Beckett not to promise him she will bring Alexis home unless she actually can, because he wouldn’t be able to forgive her any more than he could forgive himself.

We finally see Alexis and Sarah, who are being kept in a strange room with a bathroom and clean clothes. They are also being given food. Alexis manages to keep her wits and calm Sarah down. The two begin to try and figure out where they are and realize with the lack of sound, they can’t be in the city anymore.

Beckett and Rick find the driver of the getaway car. He won’t talk to Beckett, so she gives Rick a moment alone with him. It is one of the most gut wrenching moments of the show, as he explains to the kidnapper that he is the girls’ father. Rick does manage to get an address from the man, and the FBI heads there, only to find out it is empty. One of the kidnappers was found tortured and no one knows why, but using a little logic, we could guess that papa Castle may have had something to do with it.

This episode of Castle was loaded with emotion, and as it is one of those painful two-parters, we have to wait until next week to see this resolve itself. And next week is going to be amazing!

Ep 5×16 “Hunt” — In the powerful conclusion of a two-episode story arc, when the FBI fails to get his daughter back, Castle takes matters into his own hands, reaching out to a shadowy fixer to help him recover Alexis. But Castle soon learns that his daughter’s kidnapping may be part of an even more sinister agenda, on “Castle,” MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25 (10:01-11:00 p.m., ET). Emmy and Golden Globe-winner James Brolin (“The West Wing,” “Marcus Welby, M.D.”) guest stars in the episode as Castle’s dad.