Welcome back, Kate and Rick! “Castle” returned to ABC Monday night after being on hiatus since November. Fans were happy to reunite with the crime-stopping husband and wife team in episode 9, however things were not exactly back to normal between them.

After some drama during the first half of Season 8, Rick (Nathan Fillion) and Kate (Stana Katic) are finally back together. But there is a catch. Because Kate is still trying to take down LokSat — and Rick wants to help – the two are keeping their relationship a secret. That means they have to sneak around and lie to their friends.

The crime-of-the-week involves the murder of a theater janitor named Robyn (Reilly Stith). Rick’s mother, Martha (Susan Sullivan), was one of the people that discovered the body, which is Rick’s way into working on the case. However, with their relationship to protect, Kate gives Rick a “hard time” about being in her precinct. She storms into the building and tells him that he’s on a short leash. And that’s not all. A short time later she also slaps him in front of Esposito (Jon Huertas) and Ryan (Seamus Dever)!

Esposito and Ryan are shocked to find the situation between Kate and Rick so hostile and they encourage him to leave. Rick agrees — but not before taking a photo of an emoji-filled text message sent to the victim.

Alexis (Molly C. Quinn) helps decipher the emoji’s and accompanies her dad to check out the location that Robyn was supposed to meet. The building is dark, abandoned and scary. After seeing a couple of people dart by, Rick makes the executive decision to text “911!!” to Esposito. But Rick didn’t walk into a dangerous situation — he walked into an underground a capella organization!

Turns out that Robyn was part of a group called the Aca-cons. They have no idea that Robyn was killed, but they give the police a good idea of where to start looking.

As Rick helps Esposito and Ryan look into a former member of the Aca-Cons, the two detectives start questioning Rick about the tense situation with Kate. They’re protective of Kate and think that Rick did something to her — like cheating. With the pressure on him, Rick is unable to come up with a good excuse. Instead, he tells the guys that he DID cheat on Kate … with a Russian model named Svetlana. The lie keeps his relationship with Kate safe, but unfortunately alienates his friends who choose to be on Kate’s side of the “breakup.”

Esposito and Ryan try to get Kate to open up about her feelings about Rick. They threaten to throw him down a flight of stairs and give him the cold shoulder. But Kate tells the detectives that she thinks that her breakup with Rick is for the best —

Because she’s dating someone too! Kate quickly makes up that she’s been seeing someone new, a Dr. Livingstone.

Throughout all the shenanigans of keeping their relationship a secret, Rick and Kate are able to discover that the husband of the Aca-Cons founder accidentally killed Robyn after she approached him about something his wife was responsible for years ago. He’s locked up, but Rick is still on the outs with Esposito and Ryan. That’s fine with him though, because he gets a visit from Svetlana (aka Kate) later that night.

“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” Kate says when she see’s her beau with a stethoscope around his neck.

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