Castle season 6, episode 22 brought Kate’s ultimate foe, Senator Bracken, and put her life in serious danger as she once again tries to put her mother’s killer behind bars.
The Murder
Kate is seen doing surveillance on a man who later turns up dead in an alley. The victim, Jason Marks, is the only connection between Senator Bracken and the Future Funds campaign that the drug ring was funneling money into for Bracken’s presidential campaign.
The Couple
Rick is on his Derek Storm book tour in Chicago and chastises Kate for going out to follow Jason without backup. Rick wants to bring in Ryan and Esposito, but Kate insists it is too dangerous. Rick and Kate are planning to get married in two weeks.
The Case
Ryan checked in with Mark’s office and they didn’t know he was in town. Esposito found footage of Mark being driven by Vulcan Simmons, who most likely killed him. He was the drug dealer that tried to kill Kate.
Kate feels that Bracken is killing off the dots that connect him to the past and killing her mother. Gates pulls Kate off the case because of her past with Vulcan. Ryan calls Kate to let her know that they had to let Vulcan go. She is upset and decides to find the car herself.
Kate finds the car and Vulcan is there. Vulcan taunts Kate and she says she wants answers. The next morning Vulcan is found dead, tortured. Kate insists she had nothing to do with the murder, but there is a bullet from her back up gun found in the body.
Internal affairs arrives looking for Kate. She manages to escape the precinct before they catch her. Rick is questioned and told Kate is a murderer. As he is leaving the precinct, Ryan and Esposito corner him to get all the details. Ryan canvassed the area around Mark’s hotel and people saw a man resembling Smith speaking to Mark.
Smith was the man feeding information to Rick to protect Kate from Bracken. It seems Smith faked his death and has reemerged. Kate confronts the doctor that helped Smith fake his death. Kate’s picture turns up on the news and the two leave without getting any answers, but Smith calls Rick so they can meet up.
Smith tells Kate there is a recording that Bracken wants found where he admits to murder. No one seems to know where it is, though. Smith tells Kate and Rick to run because there is nothing else they can do. He will kill them.
Gates goes to Ryan and Esposito to find out why Kate is being set up. They bring her up to speed on the murder of Kate’s mom. Rick wants to leave town with Kate and regroup. Kate wants to take the fight to Bracken.
Kate and Rick go back to her apartment to go through the things she has of her mother’s. As Rick is looking through her mother’s notebook, he realizes there is a hidden message in the shorthand. Before they can figure out where the tape is, internal affairs busts in to arrest Kate.
As Kate, Rick, Esposito, and Ryan are brought into the precinct, Kate laments over them getting caught. Kate looks at her desk and realizes that the elephants on her desk used to be her mother’s. She runs to them and discovers the tape. Bracken openly admits to killing and blackmailing people.
Kate goes to Washington D.C. where Bracken is holding a press conference. He is stunned to see her alive and she gets to arrest him on live TV.
For now it looks like the saga of Senator Bracken is over.
Next week is the season finale, “For Better or for Worse,” Rick and Beckett’s long-awaited wedding is almost here, but when a shocking surprise threatens to ruin the big day, they are sent on a wild mission filled with masked men, angry bikers and a charming ne’er-do-well from Beckett’s past. The big question is whether or not we will actually see the wedding.