A pickup artist is found stabbed to death in his apartment, with many potential suspects. Meanwhile, Ryan and Esposito continue to work out their differences.
- Amoral Attorney: The divorce lawyer, Lindsey, paid the victim, Scott, to seduce her clients' wives in order to trigger the infidelity clauses of their prenups and exempt them from having to pay out in the subsequent divorce. When Scott gets second thoughts and threatens to expose the scheme, she had him killed to keep him quiet.
- Becoming the Mask: Averted. While watching the livestream of Castle's undercover conversation with Lindsey, Beckett becomes genuinely worried that their separation might have caused Castle to consider divorce, but at the end of the episode he assures her that he still has hope in their relationship.
- Confetti Drop: While Beckett is touched by the balloons and dinner invitation Castle set up in her office to celebrate their anniversary, she is less than enthusiastic about the exploding confetti.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Scott tried to expose Lindsey's scheme, but she broke into his apartment and stabbed him to death before he could.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Non-lethal variant. Ryan takes a bullet that would've hit Esposito at close range. Luckily for him his notepad stopped the bullet. This act ends up reconciling the two partners after their fighting all episode.
- Internal Reveal: Castle sees one of Vikram's messages to Beckett regarding their Loksat investigation, confirming that she's hiding something from him.
- Pocket Protector: The notepad Ryan had been using to write down all of his grievances against Esposito stopped the bullet he took for him.
