Wrapped Up in Death

**Writer**: Alexi Hawley

**Director**: Bill Roe

#### DUSTJACKETS BLURB

A Mayan mummy is brought back to New York to be exhibited, but might also be linked to a series of mysterious deaths. And if all who look upon the mummy's face are cursed to die, what will happen to Castle, who of course was unable to resist doing his best Indiana Jones impersonation?

### Guest cast

* Currie Graham - STANFORD RAYNES
* Navi Rawat - RACHEL WALTERS
* Erick Avari - RUPERT BENTLEY
* Gil Birmingham - CACAW TE
* Steve Cell - CHARLES TAYLOR
* Kevin Foster - WILL MEDINA
* Al Vincente - NORTON GRIMES

### Literary and other references

* The New York History Museum doesn't actually exist, but it's clearly supposed to be the American Museum of Natural History, and the scenes in the museum were actually filmed on location.
* There are several Indiana Jones references in the episode, including the hat Castle puts on when he looks at the mummy.
* Several of the themes (apart from the curse) explored in this episode are very real issues for archaeologists and museums. Native populations are often opposed to the excavation of their ancestors' burial places, and there is often contention over whether artifacts should be displayed in US museums or given to museums in their native countries - there's been a debate going on for decades between the British Museum and the government of Greece regarding the Elgin Marbles that came from the Parthenon. In addition, the theft of antiquities - both by looters and by museum workers - is a real problem. In addition to the obvious issues of criminality, such theft is a problem because it removes artifacts from their context (in the case of things stolen from archaeological sites) and breaks the chain of provenance (in the case of things stolen from museums) which basically erases the historical worth of the artifact - without context very little can be learned about or from the object.
* Scooby-Doo is an animated television series that has been running on American TV in various forms since 1969. It is about four teenagers - Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and Velma - and a dog, Scooby-Doo, who solve supposedly supernatural crimes by exposing the human perpetrators. 'And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids" and "ruh-ro" are common phrases from the show.
* The cab driver's dialogue at the beginning is apparently a shout-out to the film *Midnight Cowboy* (Alexi Hawley commentary).

### Memorable moments

* Alexis smashing the tomato.
* Castle donning a handy fedora and opening the Mummy's tomb.
* Deducing the girlfriend from the vic's apartment.
* Beckett, Ryan and Esposito teasing Castle about the curse.
* The publicity discussion with Bentley.
* The breaking chair and the exploding coffee machine.
* Castle's pants (or lack thereof).
* Castle in the elevator.
* The non-chase in the museum.

### Quotable quotes

* BECKETT: And who's to say that book isn't his? *Castle gives her a 'what man would read this book?' look*
RYAN: Oh, I love that book!
* BECKETT: Either you're being a good cop, or you just want to go to the museum.
CASTLE: They have dinosaurs there.
* BECKETT: You know, Castle, sometimes I forget that you have such a capacity for pure innocence in your life.
CASTLE: Yeah, plus it was a great place to pick up chicks.
BECKETT: And then you open your mouth and you ruin it.
* ESPOSITO: We hit the girlfriend jackpot with the photos.
BECKETT: He was sleeping with a mummy?
* MARTHA: It's lucky your father doesn't believe in the curse.
ALEXIS: Why?
MARTHA: Because he's going into a building filled with guns.
* BECKETT: (*about Esposito and Ryan*) Whenever you two are done being cute.
* BECKETT: You go through enough doors, at some point you're going to find a dog on the other side.
* MONTGOMERY: You know what kind of hell I'd catch if Castle got eaten in the line of duty?
* CASTLE: Little friendly advice - next time you kill someone, skip the part where only you could have covered it up.
* RYAN and ESPOSITO: (*in unison*) Because there's no upside in messing with things you can't explain?

### Just the facts

* Alexis is taking a class (probably physics) where she is studying the practical applications of science.
* When Alexis was little, she and Castle would go to the history museum every Sunday.
* Castle asks Beckett to watch out for Alexis if anything happens to him. And also to throw out the porn collection in his closet. (Esposito magnanimously offers to take care of this for him instead.)
* This is the first episode since 2x02 "The Double Down" that Ryan and Esposito have been to the morgue (Seamus Dever commentary).
* None of the Mayan names in the episode are real people, and the writers took a "fair amount of creative liberty with Mayan history, including the role mummification played in their culture" (Alexi Hawley commentary).

### Oops

* There's not a New Yorker on the planet who would refer to 6th Avenue as Avenue of the Americas.
* They consistently misuse the word 'Mayan' throughout the episode - 'Mayan' refers to the language group, the people are 'Maya', and the word doesn't change for pluralization or as an adjective. So it should be 'the Maya king' not 'the Mayan king'. It's a pretty common mistake, but certainly the archaeologist and Cacaw Te should have known.
* They also seem to conflate the two mummies in the episode - the supposedly cursed one is the king, and the one Medina was trying to sell was 'slave girl #6'. It was the slave girl mummy that went missing, but they seem to have been looking in the king's coffin when they discovered that the mummy was missing, hence Castle's comments about it being out seeking vengeance on the streets of New York.
* The 'Scottish play' curse generally only applies when one is in a theater, so it shouldn't matter when Alexis says it in the apartment.
* It seems unlikely that Lanie would be able to tell that the mummy had been dead for four months, as long range estimates of time of death are generally done through insect activity and decay, which wouldn't be present in a mummified body.

### Branch libraries

News

Reviews

* CliqueClack - Castle--Death Awaits The Robber Of Graves (6 Apr 10)

Promos