The team investigates the death of Jack "Jackie" Coonan, an Irish mobster who worked for the Westies. Evidence points to the blademan of the Westies' rivals, the Latin Kings, but he was too short to deliver the stab wounds to kill him. And since no one in either mob is talking, Castle and Beckett need to find other avenues. They find one in Coonan's girlfriend, Molly, who gives them a key to a bus locker filled with self-help DVDs of one Johnny Vong. Except they're not filled with DVD's, but heroin. Questioning Vong, the team discovers his act is just that, and that he needed whoever Coonan was trying to bust to take his act national. But he's so scared of him that he'd rather clam up than be killed. Then Beckett discovers why, after Dr. Clark Murray, Castle's Dr. Death, makes a startling conclusion: The man who killed Coonan also killed Beckett's mother.
The shock sends Beckett into a deep contemplative state, and it takes a long talk with her father and a short talk with Castle to get her back on the case. They get Vong to talk, and he gives them Jackie's brother Dick, who he says hired a professional named Rathborne to kill Jackie. Dick, confident that they have no evidence, gets to the heart of why Beckett is chasing this case and makes her a deal: he gives up his assassin, and he gets immunity in his brother's murder. The deal goes down: Coonan contracts Rathborne to put a hit on Vong, with a $100,000 fee for the service. Beckett balks at that payment, but Castle ponys it up himself. However, the plan fails: Rathborne doesn't show, and Dick Coonan's a free man. Except that he specifically said her killer when Beckett never told her the gender of who she lost...and he's not covered for her murder. Coonan immediately grabs Castle and uses him as a hostage for safe passage out of the precinct. But Castle headbutts him in the nose, giving Beckett just enough time to shoot him. Unfortunately, the shot is fatal, meaning Beckett still doesn't know who hired him to kill her mother.
Tropes:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Beckett gets a Heroic BSoD when she learns the victim of the week was killed by the man who killed her mother.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Castle recognizes that Laney is holding something back during the first visit to the morgue. Turns out, she recognizes the stab wounds as matching the killer who murdered Beckett's mother.
- Blatant Lies: The Latin Kings' blademan who, after Beckett and Castle literally walk in on him having the shit kicked out of him by a rather angry member of the Westies, blithely attempts to persuade them that he fell. And hit his badly-battered eye on a door. And put his hand on a grate to steady his fall.
- The Bus Came Back: Dr. Murray, who Castle asked to look at Beckett's mother's murder, is called in to consult by Laney, because she recognizes the stabbings.
- Cain and Abel: The victim was killed by his older brother for turning on the Westies.
- Call-Back: Dr. Clark Murray is a consultant to Castle, whom he asks to work clandestinely on Beckett's mother's case in "A Death in the Family".
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Castle's proposed strategy for getting Vong to talk is to "force him to watch Paris Hilton Videos." The actual punishment they use is simply letting him go, knowing there's a man out there who'd kill him if he knew he was talking to the cops.
- Double-Meaning Title: The victim was caught by surprise by his killer (his brother), but Beckett is the one hit extra hard by the fact that the killer also murdered her mother back in the day.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Westies may do a lot of bad things, but they do not sell drugs.Castle: Turns out, the Westies have done a pretty good job with the war on drugs these past few years. Talk about zero tolerance. The punishment for dealing drugs in their neighborhood is death.
- Failure Is the Only Option: Subverted in that Beckett does find out who killed her mother. The failure shifts to who hired him to kill her.
- Fauxreigner: Johnny Vong. He's an MIT-educated Californian who pretends to be an immigrant because Rags to Riches stories sell better (though, in his case, not well enough to keep him from making deals to improve his profit margin).
- Fingertip Drug Analysis: Beckett tastes the drugs hidden in the Johnny Vong DVDs and determines it's heroin.
- Gallows Humor: "We who are about to die salute you," from the detective playing Vong during the sting.
- Heroic BSoD: Beckett gets a brief one when she realizes the case is directly connected with her mother's murder. She gets a more serious one when she has to kill the man who killed her mother, preventing her from finding out why her mother was killed.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Montgomery offers Beckett a hip flask after she learns the current case involves her mother's killer. She takes a swig.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Beckett realizes Rathborne doesn't exist and Dick Coonan was Johanna Beckett's killer because she never mentioned in Coonan's hearing which relative Rathborne killed, but Coonan referred to said relative as a "her".
- The Irish Mob: The Westies, to which the Body of the Week belonged.
- Mood Whiplash: What is basically a light, humorous episode turns dark on a dime when Lanie and Clark reveal what they've found.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Beckett learns she's now dealing with the man who murdered her mother, Capt. Montgomery invites her into his office and offers her a hip flask full of "the poor man's painkiller"... and she takes a drink.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Johnny Vong breaks his faux Laotian accent once he hears Jackie Coonan's dead.
- Oh, Crap!: Castle knows what it means when Laney brings Dr. Murray in to consult and spends the next scene silent. Laney closes her eyes in sorrow as Murray reveals the truth to Beckett.
- Put Down Your Gun and Step Away: Castle is made hostage yet again...and gets out of it, yet again. This one is nearly played straight by Montgomery, had Castle not headbutted Coonan.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: As befits his well-established Fiction 500 status, Castle funds the sting to catch Rathborne.Dick Coonan: Look, you wanna catch her killer, the price is 100 grand.
Beckett: I can't just shoot that kind of money out into space without any hope of getting it back.
Castle: You can't. I can. This one's on me. - Self-Made Lie: Johnny Vong claims to be a foreigner who went from Rags to Riches after coming to America by boat. When the team brings him in for questioning, they find that he’s not a foreigner, but a Californian MIT-Graduate who got rich by getting involved in a drug smuggling ring.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Beckett calls out Lanie for keeping her in the dark regarding the case's relevance to her mother's death; Lanie fires back that Beckett's reaction to Castle doing the same thing awhile back didn't exactly seem enduring to do the opposite.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Inverse: The plan to catch Rathborne is spelled out and goes horribly awry.
- You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When Beckett walks out of the precinct for her 10-Minute Retirement, Castle calls after her. "Beckett! ... Kate!"
