A plastic surgeon is found dead in his car, having been tortured before being cruelly murdered. Turns out he's not just a surgeon to the stars, he's also a surgeon to protected witnesses.
- Bittersweet Ending: Another day, another case solved thanks to Castle and Beckett. But all is not well: Castle admits to Beckett that he's been re-opening her mother's case, and one can tell she's not going to take it well.
- Both Sides Have a Point: After witnessing a suspect who has done one too many plastic surgeries on herself, Castle insists to Alexis that she doesn't need to improve her appearance and she's beautiful the way she is. However, his mother also justifies that it doesn't hurt for a girl to embellish her looks every now and again (especially when it's in moderation).
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The victim was unable to break through the thin plastic used to suffocate him because his fingernails were all torn out and all his fingers broken.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: Beckett shows up with a donut (with sprinkles) to ask for a favor from her FBI ex.
- Fang Thpeak: Jacey Goldberg, the woman who wanted more plastic surgery than the victim was willing to provide, has a pronounced lisp thanks to the prosthetics used to render actor DeLane Matthews into a caricature of herself.
- Friend in the Black Market: In order to find out the identity of the witness the mob are looking for, Castle goes to talk to a guy he knows in the mob.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: The suspect mentioned below was trying to sue the victim for refusing to perform plastic surgery on her because he was the best in his field and she felt entitled to his services.
- Inconvenient Hippocratic Oath: Inverted with the victim refusing to operate on a woman because he feels the very large number of surgeries she's had indicate a mental illness and going along with her would feed into her issues and make her less healthy.
- It's All My Fault: Beckett blames herself after the FBI car carrying Morran gets gunned down by the Spelanos.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The guy in Witness Protection who the Spelano Family is hunting is Jimmy "The Rat" Morran, who used to be a big player but got squeezed out when the boss's son took over the organization.
- Plastic Bitch: Played with. One suspect is a woman who has gotten one too many plastic surgeries, to the point that even Beckett can't help but make a low-key jab at her unnatural appearance. As it turns out, she's not the culprit, as she has an air-tight alibi discussing surgery with another doctor in another part of the city.
- Torture Is Ineffective: The victim was tortured before he was killed, but he didn't give up the information his killer wanted.
- Twerp Sweating: Castle looks forward to the time honored tradition of torturing Alexis's date to prom. Ryan reminisces on his own encounter and Beckett realizes her dad this to her own prom date without her knowing. Ultimately, though, Alexis prevents Castle from following through on his over the top, theatrical performance.Alexis: Dad! No! No severed heads!
