Castle and Beckett are called to investigate when Amber Middleberry, a contestant in a beauty pageant, is found strangled and every suspect has a motive to commit murder.
- Alpha Bitch: Amber blackmails Baron to help her win, otherwise he will be exposed for their affair.
- Everyone Has Standards: Discussed. Beckett admits that her pageant-obsessed former roommate Debbie would be disgusted by Amber's immoral actions in trying to win a pageant.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Victor Baron (played by Michael McKean, whose entire career is almost exclusively made up of playing corporate sleazes) is a Trump Expy, running a beauty pageant where one of the former winners is now his much younger wife. Bonus points that Trump's youngest son is named Barron. Note that this was before Trump ran for president.
- The pageant host is a Bob Saget Expy, America's TV Dad with a much more adult personality off-screen. Although unlike Sagat, he's not just ruder in real life, he's an aggressive wannabe ladies man with a string of sexual harassment lawsuits.
- Stage Mom: The victim is a long-time pageant contestant who was pushed into competitions by her mother at the age of nine. After her mother died, she continued with pageants (to her father's slight regret) to feel closer to her mother's memory, sadly turning into an Alpha Bitch in the process.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Esposito and Ryan screw with Castle for a second after Montgomery announces he's retiring, only for Beckett to let him in on the secret: Montgomery retires and unretires every year.
