Characters / Castle

The following are the characters from Castle. Spoilers may abound.

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Main Duo

Richard Castle

Richard Edgar Castle, birth name Richard Alexander Rodgers

Played by: Nathan Fillion

Bestselling-but-bored playboy mystery writer who, after helping Kate Beckett and the NYPD find a killer basing his murders off his books, pulled strings to get himself attached to Beckett's unit, ostensibly to research a character based on her but really because he likes solving mysteries and is attracted to Beckett.

He eventually becomes a Private Investigator in Season 7.

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• Action Dad: He handles himself well against thugs. See his brief partnership with Slaughter for details.
• Action Survivor: The more time he spends with the police force, the better he gets at surviving trouble.
• Agent Mulder: Castle loves wild theories. However, unlike the actual Mulder, Castle gives the strong impression of wanting to believe these things simply because it's more fun that way. Naturally, this sometimes leaves him a little gullible.
  • In one case involving zombies ("Undead Again"), he outright states that he keeps insisting on the possibility of zombies just to drive Beckett crazy.
  • He's genuinely open-minded to the possibility that things like ghosts and Bigfoot actually exist, but that is also in keeping with his overall attitude of "wouldn't it be cool if they did?!" rather than a hardened conviction that they do.
• The Alleged Boss: Of his PI business - Alexis and Hayley effectively hijack it from him treating him like an intern.
• Alliterative Name: His birth name is Richard (Alexander) Rodgers.
• Amateur Sleuth: His only experience comes from the books he writes, followed by his shadowing Beckett/serving as a consultant for Beckett's team.
• Amicable Exes:
  • As shown in "Always Buy Retail", Castle genuinely likes Alexis’ mother Meredith; he just doesn't want to be married to her. They appear to have a cordial relationship and very little custody friction.
  • Similarly with Castle and his second wife, Gina. She's still his publicist, and their first on-screen interaction consists of playful passive-aggressiveness in the middle of a book release party. However, they do fight when they try to start dating again in Season 3.
• Berserk Button:
  • He cannot abide poor grammar and has a compulsion to immediately correct any errors. He'll occasionally stop himself, but you can tell that it physically hurts him to keep quiet.
  • In "Last Call", you could feel the anger building in him once a twenty-something web tycoon told him he had mixed a 135-year-old scotch with root beer.
  • In "Famous Last Words" he goes into full Tranquil Fury when he realizes Ian, who had been a father figure to the episode's victim, had been raping her and killed her to cover it up. His voice stays level and even during the interrogation, but his expression makes it clear he's seething just looking at the guy.
  • Trying to hurt Kate is a bad idea.
  • His biggest button is Alexis, as Detective Slaughter discovered a little too late in "Headhunters". Also in "Target", when he tortures Douglas Stevens to find out where Alexis was taken.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Shown best in "Target", where he calmly enters a room and tortures an already-injured man to find out where Alexis was taken.
  • And in "Reckoning", when he calmly storms into Jerry Tyson's apartment with a gun, physically assaults him, and threatens to kill him unless he tells him where Beckett was taken.
• Brains and Bondage: Not shown on-screen but heavily implied. His safe-word is "Apples."
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Castle is fond of this while coming up with his theories.
  Castle: About JFK, was that the second shooter on the grassy knoll? Third shooter? Backed by the mafia? Castro? The mafia and Castro?
  Beckett: What was so special about our victim that our killer wanted to erase his identity? Don't say spy. Or mob hit.
  Castle: Mob hit of a spy?
• Bumbling Dad: Zigzagged from "Alexis is the one raising him" to "Pillar of Support" such as in "Vampire Weekend" when Alexis is at a party with spiked punch, and her friend gets drunk, and he acts exactly how every parent in the world would hope to. When it matters, he's the best dad in the world; when it doesn't, he's the best friend in the world. Which...again makes him the best dad in the world.
• Camp Straight: Castle was called a metrosexual in "The Third Man," though he's a pretty mild example. He just has a fine appreciation for good interior decorating and fashion.
• Character Development:
  • He's a lot more mature and grown-up after working with the police for a while than he was when the series began. This can especially be seen in "Tick, Tick, Tick" and "Boom!", two episodes in which, like the pilot, someone was inspired by Castle's novels to commit murder. It has been explicitly stated that these episodes were meant to show the difference between Castle from Season 1 and Castle from Season 2. Unlike the premiere episode, "Flowers for Your Grave" in which Castle was quite flippant and arrogant about the entire situation, Castle is appropriately devastated at the idea that someone has once again died because of his books—and that now Beckett, the inspiration for Detective Nikki Heat, is the killer's ultimate target. In fact, Beckett has to talk him down from taking blame for the entire situation.
  • Castle starts off doing "volunteer homicide detective" work because he thinks it's cool and because he's got a shine on his "muse,” and his flippant manner shows it. By "47 Seconds," Castle is working with the police because he honestly wants to make a difference in the lives of the victims and their families, despite finding out that Beckett lied to him about being aware of his feelings for her, making him question Beckett's intentions.
• Character Title: This is why he's The Protagonist.
• The Charmer: He has a lot of ex-girlfriends and a few former wives. He's on good terms with them.
• Chivalrous Pervert: Despite The Charmer, he's a Nice Guy.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Normally, as Beckett describes him, he's like a "9 year-old on a sugar high who doesn't take anything seriously" and always has crazy ideas about why crimes happen, but when Alexis is kidnapped and the man who took her won't talk, Castle tortures him...makes him scream out in pain. When Beckett tells him afterwards that she didn't think he had that side to him, he replies "Well, when it comes to the people I love, I do."
  • He's also saved Beckett's lives almost as many times as she's saved his, and proves a surprisingly good shot on multiple occasions.
• The Dandy: He loves to dress well, as well as indulging his love of original wainscotting. He isn't #9 on the New York Ledger's Most Eligible Bachelors list for nothing - although that is a drop from being #7 the previous year. Alexis is not amused at her father having the recognition.
• Deadpan Snarker: A large appeal of the show is the snarky banter between Castle and Beckett.
• Disappeared Dad: Castle doesn't know who his father is. Unlike many other examples of the trope, however, he seems quite free from bitterness or Wangst over this fact, because as he says, it gives him the chance to imagine his father as whatever he wants. This is shown in "Suicide Squeeze.” In "Linchpin" (4x16), Sophia Turner claims that Castle's father was in the CIA; however, Beckett considers this as one of the many lies Sophia has told them before revealing her true allegiances. Halfway through season five, we learn that Sophie was telling the truth: Castle's dad is CIA - and he is the reason why Castle met Sophie in the first place. The "Target"-"Hunt" arc consists of Castle and his father meeting in order to save Alexis, and Castle tries to hold it together when Hunt tells him that they likely won't be able to meet again for a while.
• Embarrassing Last Name: The surname Rodgers is normally harmless, but less so when combined with the first name Richard by his Broadway actress mother. Besides, "Richard Castle" looks better on a book cover.
• Five Temperament Ensemble: The charming, energetic, and talkative Sanguine of 12th Precinct Homicide.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: Inverted. While solving seemingly mysterious cases with mundane solutions on a somewhat regular basis, he still falls for cases with a touch of the supernatural on it. As he is gleefully quick to point out, there is often an edge of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane to several of the cases of this nature that they've worked.
• Good Feels Good: If Castle isn't doing something for his own personal entertainment, he's doing it to help someone else.
• Genre Savvy: Justified. He's a writer.
• Grammar Nazi: Again, he's a writer.
• Green-Eyed Monster: It's clear for most of the series that he doesn't like it when other men grab Beckett's attention, and unlike her, he is none too subtle about it.
• Guilt Complex: Averted in the first season where he's positively giddy to have a killer using his books for inspiration. But this trope comes into play in full force after his Character Development with his slowly increasing maturity consistently causing him to feel guilty for things he really has no control over.
  • He blames himself for Scott Dunn targeting Beckett in "Tick, Tick, Tick..." and "Boom!" because it was inspired by his fiction.
  • He also blames himself for Beckett getting shot and putting herself in danger chasing the truth behind her mother's death because he originally encouraged her to reopen the investigation.
  • He blames himself for 3XK's murders because of how close he was to catching him.
• Handsome Lech: In "Cloudy With A Chance Of Murder", Castle comments on what Beckett is wearing just so he can watch her change clothes.
• Heroes Want Redheads: Played with in that quite a few of the women in Castle's lives are redheads, including his first ex-wife, his mother, and his daughter, but the succession of love interests he's had since are not. Kyra Blaine, Ellie Monroe and of course Beckett are all brunettes, while his second ex-wife Gina is a blonde.
  • In order to play this up, Beckett's hair in the first season was seriously washed with red. Super auburn. In the second season, they let her go back to her natural coloring.
• Hidden Depths: He's usually a loving father who loves playing with his daughter and indulging her whenever possible, but it's occasionally shown that he's more than willing to lay down the law when it comes to enforcing discipline. Luckily, Alexis is usually well-behaved so he doesn't have to do it too often.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: Beckett is a fiercely independent woman. Rather than Castle trying to find a way to 'win' her, it's suggested that part of her appeal is in the fact that she can control him.
• Interdisciplinary Sleuth: He's a writer who's shadowing the NYPD, but only for a book.
• It's for a Book: It actually is; Nikki Heat books are available in a book store near you. Except it eventually isn't because he's truly there for his muse.
• I Will Wait for You: Long after their attraction to each other is clear, he's content to let Beckett work through her issues and support her until she's ready. In "47 Seconds", in spite of him finding out that Beckett actually remembered his confession of love after she was shot, he still chooses to continue working with her. In "Always", he finally gives up when he confesses again to her to keep her off her mother's case, but to no avail. This forces Beckett, after being barely rescued from falling off a building, to finally admit her feelings for him.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Castle often comes off as a typically self-centered, thoughtless and narcissistic playboy, but he loves his daughter and his mother deeply, and is revealed to have Hidden Depths of caring and loyalty. While he's not shy about flirting with Beckett, it's also made abundantly clear that he genuinely cares for and respects her rather than simply viewing her as a potential conquest.
• Keet: Usually happens when his dorky side gets over-the-top.
• Ladykiller in Love: Despite all his past trysts, he's truly interested in Beckett.
• The Lancer: To Beckett; he's goofy and laid-back to contrast her dangerous stoicism.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Whatever organization or conspiracy was behind his abduction somehow erased all his memories between getting run off the road by a black SUV and waking up in the hospital two months later. Apparently, he asked them to do this.
• Last-Name Basis: No regulars call him Richard but his mother. Although he is Rick or Richard to several ex-girlfriends, his ex-wives, and Beckett during significant moments or when she's emotionally fragile.
• Manchild: Will often spend time playing with toys. Sometimes his daughter's there but often she isn't. He bought property on the moon! Last month.
• Meaningful Name:
  • If you think about it in terms of him being a Stephen King expy, which he is according to Word of God, "Richard" is the first name from Stephen King's infamous pseudonym and a Castle is where a King lives.
  • There's also the fact that he's a Richard Castle. Rich Castle. Rich Asshole. (but not too much an asshole)
  • He inherited the latter from his father, even though his mother didn't remember the man's name (fake name). Jackson Hunt. Jack Hunt. Ack Hunt.
• Minored in Ass-Kicking: Castle, being a civilian, usually leaves the dirty work to his detective friends. But we are occasionally reminded that he is as good a shot as Beckett.
• Momma's Boy: Raised solely by his single mother, and it shows in, among other things, his complete lack of knowledge about baseball.

• Mr. Fanservice: Nathan Fillion. No shirt. Yum.
• Mystery Writer Detective: The premise of the series is Castle, a mystery writer, shadowing an NYPD homicide detective and eventually helping her solve mysteries. Later series have often had the detectives introduce Castle as a "consultant" suggesting he's been formally retained by the department.
• Named After Somebody Famous: Twice over. First with his birth name, Richard Rodgers, then, when he became a novelist, he changed it to Richard Edgar Castle.
• Nice Guy: Once you scratch away the Playboy Manchild exterior, Castle is friendly and loyal through and through.
• Noodle Incident: A sort of in-universe example in the events surrounding his disappearance. He was run off the road, dragged from his flaming car, and then hours later paid for the SUV that abducted him to be crushed. Then he disappears entirely, only to resurface two months later in a dinghy off the coast of Delaware. During those two months, he contracted dengue fever (which is only found in the tropics), got shot and recovered from it, and spent some time in Montreal for God alone knows what reason. Then, at his request, his abductors erase all his memories for those two months, and he gives them a Trust Password so they can prove to him that he asked to forget. What could possibly have happened?
• Old Shame: In-Universe example. Castle definitely thinks rather lowly of at least two of his early (pre-Storm) books, "Hell Hath No Fury" and "Flowers For Your Grave", calling them his "truly lesser works".^note The third title mentioned in the pilot, "Death of a Prom Queen", is presumably also one such shame, but it's not elaborated upon by that point. It's how he can tell Beckett is a Castle fan; she recognized the real-life murder from the same scene in "Hell Hath No Fury".
  "…Hell Hath No Fury? Angry Wiccans out for blood? C'mon, only hardcore Castle groupies read that one."
• One of the Kids: He's quite childish for a grown man, but this has been heavily played down in later seasons to the point where he's shown more as simply retaining the adventuring nature of youth rather than acting childish.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Alexis' friend gets drunk at a party, he becomes dead serious and tells Alexis she's going to be in serious trouble if she doesn't do exactly as she's told.
  • "Recoil" gives another example. While Castle is usually quite adept at noticing when things don't add up in a case, he outright tells Beckett that this one is an open and shut case. It's because he wants the plot to succeed and kill Bracken.
• Open-Minded Parent: Alexis is the one to set up and order her own punishment for jumping a turnstile, and demands he not let her go to the beach because she has to study. Sometimes, though, he can't quite be open-minded enough, like that one hippie boyfriend she had that drove him crazy.
• Overprotective Dad: Alexis usually shuts him down before it goes too far, but she wasn't around to stop him from torturing a guy, because that guy was involved in her kidnapping.
• Papa Wolf: Normally it's played for laughs, but in Season 5's Episode 15, "Target", when Alexis is involved in a kidnapping plot he gets scary. He tortured a man—an already injured man—for information.
• Playboy Has a Daughter: Zig-Zagged, though initially subverted since he begins the series a playboy and the single father to a teenage daughter by a previous marriage, so taking care of Alexis didn't make him give up his ways entirely. However, played straight with Alexis acting as his Morality Pet in early seasons - the fact that he is a good, responsible, sometimes overprotective father to his daughter shows his Hidden Depths to Kate Beckett and the audience, pre-Character Development.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Despite being the star, he still fulfills this role for Beckett with his jokes and teasing and odd theories.
• Punny Name: The Other Wiki states that Castle's name is a play on the words "Rich Asshole."
• Really Gets Around: Castle has a lot of female groupies.
• Rule of Cool: In Universe, this is how Castle approaches a lot of things in life. He makes up wild theories for cases and is always the first to jump on a supernatural explanation for something. Not because he firmly believes all of them, but because he thinks it would be awesome if they turned out to be true.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: A rare case of this trope being used for good; he has the mayor on speed dial, but never asks favours for pernicious reasons. The first time he does it, it's to get Beckett's team their fingerprint results in the hour instead of a week.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: "Guess who's got a date with a prostituuuute!" But as stated above, it's used for good, to help the police solve the murder of a politician.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Most often appears in a suit.
• Shown Their Work: In-Universe it's shown that Castle does tons of research for his novels. He once had Alexis duct-tape him to a chair so he could work out a realistic escape. And in one episode, Alexis claims Castle showed her how to pick a lock, a skill he undoubtedly learned for his novels.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: Castle is able to pull up incredibly esoteric knowledge to help nudge case progress forward, which is justified in that he's a bestselling author of dozens of books that he researched, and researched well, before throwing that research out the window and writing whatever the hell he wanted. He is also often demonstrated to have a wide range of eclectic interests.
• Supporting Protagonist: Despite being the focus of the show, Castle ticks about every other box on this list. He follows Beckett on her cases and provides help so she can solve them.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Stands 6'2, has dark brown hair and good looking.
• Teasing Parent: He has a playful, teasing relationship with his daughter, Alexis. After she tearfully admits that she lied to him about something, which, as it turns out was a Felony Misdemeanor (She jumped the turnstyle at the subway without paying because it was raining and she was about to miss the train), he suggests, teasingly, that her punishment is mandatory ice cream for breakfast for the next two weeks. Alexis grounds herself, but not until after a school trip. Castle smiles and says she's firm but fair. Of course, Alexis gives as good as she gets. For example, she once told him, with tongue firmly in cheek, "We were going to borrow your Ferrari and hook up with some boys that we met on Craigslist." Castle responds, "Not cool."
• They Do: Finally marries Beckett in Season 7.
• Uncle Pennybags: This has been downplayed but in earlier seasons he was happy to use his money and connections to help move a case along. It also appeared in other ways:
  • When he realized just how abysmal the precinct's coffee was, he gave them a new espresso maker as a gift.
  • When he realized what Beckett would do if she won a large lotto sum (help students who want to be lawyers if they follow her mother's path), he talks to a college about setting up the scholarship and donates personally to get it started.
  • All the times he's bribed Ryan and Esposito with court-side tickets to a basketball game.
  • He personally put up the hundred grand to pay for an assassination in the hopes of luring the murderer of Beckett's mother into the open.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Several times with Beckett such as when one of Castle's ex-wives shows up and Castle starts re-bonding with them.
• Urban Legend Love Life: Despite the claims of his The Casanova charms, Castle has only been shown to be having sex with four women, two of whom were ex-wives (and one of those ex-wives is also his editor.) While Castle may enjoy the flirting and the dating, he doesn't seem too interested in the sexing part unless it's with someone he connects with.
• UST: With Beckett. It became so obvious that Lanie joked that a corpse could see it.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The former with Alexis, the latter with Martha. Among the three of them, it's not clear at times who is raising whom.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: He's wrong far more often than he's right when it comes to his wild case theories, but he's also on the mark far more often than either he or Beckett would expect. Often it's clear that he's deliberately coming up with over-the-top or out there theories either because it would make a better story for him to write, because it would be really awesome if true, or because he wants to needle Beckett, rather than because he sincerely believes the theory is correct.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: This is why Beckett keeps him around. He has a habit of noticing when the story doesn't quite fit. It's why he solves the case in the pilot, and he only gets better from there.

Kate Beckett

Katherine Houghton Beckett

Played by: Stana Katic

Brilliant police detective with an interest in and knack for solving left-field cases, and an overt exasperation for Castle's presence. She's a fan of Castle's novels and she does not want him to know this. He does.

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• The Ace: Youngest female detective in NYPD history, highest case closure rate, highly competent marksman and hand to hand combatant. Tremendously talented as an investigator and interrogator.
• Action Girl: Police detective that specializes in tracking murderers.
• Affectionate Pickpocket: In "The Limey", she lifts a golden case from a man's pocket while dancing with him. It had his prints on it.
• Agent Scully: Never ever accepts supernatural explanations. However, she does like having Castle around because his wacky explanations and unorthodox approach to cases push her to think outside the box.
• The Alleged Boss: Beckett is in charge of a team that loves her, but doesn't always obey her orders. Although she is the one giving the commands, the relationship between her, Ryan and Esposito is more that between friends and colleagues than that between a boss and her underlings. This is reinforced by the small age difference between them - while Beckett is clearly more senior, she still looks and acts as a young woman. Summed up when Ryan and Esposito pull a risky and illegal stunt and are surprised when she chews them out for not letting her help.
  Ryan: Wow, you actually sound like our boss.
  Beckett: Just tell me ahead of time next time so I can help!
• Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Beckett is tall, dark-haired, and attractive in an imposing way, and has a composed demeanor.
• Aroused by Their Voice: In "Cops and Robbers", Trapper John describes Beckett as having a "bedroom voice."
• Ascended Fangirl: Kate Beckett is secretly a big fan of Castle's work. In the very first episode she instantly recognizes a murder posed to copy a scene from one of his books and later her ex-boyfriend, Will Sorenson, describes a time she waited hours in line to get the latest copy of one of his books. She ascended into his fiction as Nikki Heat - the main character in his new book series - who is based on her. People even mistook her for a character actress when she showed up for a book premiere.
• Berserk Button:
  • Harming Castle. As she says to a mercenary threatening Castle during a hostage situation in a bank in "Cops and Robbers":
  Beckett: "If you pull that trigger, I will walk through those doors and personally put a bullet through your skull."
  • Bringing up her mother's murder. It took nearly a year for her to be able to open up about it to Castle.
• Broken Ace: She has a wide variety of psychological issues, she's incredibly emotionally closed off, obsessed with her mother's murder and overall was portrayed as a miserable and lonely person before Castle showed up, and then she got shot and suffered from PTSD.
• Brains and Bondage: As with Castle, not shown on-screen but heavily implied. It is unclear, however, whether she just implies this to mess with Castle, or if she really is into it.
• Brainy Brunette: Is portrayed as a serious, professional and highly intellectual person who can trade literary references with Castle and legalese with lawyers; justified by her being in pre-law before her mother's murder. Her hair changes to Stana Katic's blonde from Season 3 onward.
• Broken Bird: Ever since her mother's death, she's been a ball of pain and determination.
• By-the-Book Cop: She is obsessed with professionalism and doing the right thing. All the times she breaks the rules are major character moments for her.
• Character Development: She's lightened up considerably over the years since Castle came along. However, thanks to her mother's case being reopened, she's also acquired new emotional (and physical) scars. One good example comes in "Swan Song". Season 1 Beckett would be closed off and focused on work, but in the denouement of the episode, she locks the camera crew in the closet with a wink and a raspberry.
• The Chessmaster: She plays at this when it comes to her mother's case, but she never really has everything as planned out as she would like people to think. When two of the former cops involved in her mother's murder wind up dead:
  Beckett: Castle, he's not cutting [my leads] off. He's giving me new ones. I've been going to that prison every week for the last four months to have a staring contest with the Devil, and the Devil just blinked.
• Closet Fangirl: Of Castle. She would sooner die (or kill him) than have him find out. Too late. He already knows. Granted, she keeps letting it slip around him ("Nikki Heat cover art? But that's only available to… Oh my god, you subscribe to my website?!").
• Combat Stilettos: She has a propensity for four-inch heels. It is noted that she does this to give her a sense of dominance in interrogating people. A Running Gag is people asking her how she runs in those things.
• Control Freak: Beckett has been justifiably accused of being one of these, preferring to do things by the book (unlike Castle). It's pointed out by Esposito in the pilot, referring to Castle following Beckett:
  Esposito: A control freak like you, with something you can't control? No, no, that's gonna be more fun than Shark Week.
• Cool Bike: As revealed in "Under the Gun", Beckett owns a Harley softtail from her high-school days.
• Dark and Troubled Past: She barely had any joy in life after her mother died, until Castle came along.
• Death Glare: Usually directed at Castle during his more childish/perverted/Agent Mulder moments.
• Deadpan Snarker: Her response to Castle's oddball theories and goofy behavior is dry sarcasm.
• Determinator: Nothing stops her from investigating her mother's murder, not even a bullet to the chest.
• Failure Heroine: With regard to her mother's case she seems to be this, though she is slowly making progress. See Single-Issue Wonk below.
• Fair Cop: Lampshaded by Castle early on in the pilot, who comments that women with her looks and intelligence who are interested in fighting crime usually begin a career in law firms rather than pursuing police work. It starts to make sense once we learn that Beckett's mother was a lawyer interested in helping those whom justice had overlooked, and that Beckett herself was planning be a lawyer until her mother's murder.
• Fanservice:
  • At work, Beckett presents a professional image and avoids dressing provocatively. Even in her private life she rarely shows any skin, and thus the rare instances where we get to see some, it's that much more memorable. Even then, it's usually Castle fantasizing, which usually ends with Beckett snarking mercilessly at him.
  • When she wants to fit in at an underground club frequented by Russian mobsters, she ditches all her clothes but her red bra and panties, and then turns her jacket into an improvised dress that shows a lot of leg and cleavage.
  • In one scene, Beckett is trying on clothes in front of Castle. We see her in her bra as she changes shirts because the first one looks too sexy for work. Castle then suggests that the second shirt isn't good either, but she realizes that he just wants to see her shirtless again.
  • The scenes where she shows the scar after being shot in the chest by a sniper barely avoid being considered fanservice except maybe for the scene in "Always" where she finally admits her feelings for Castle and they kiss.
• Fashion Model: She used to be one for a very brief period of time, but thinks the world of high fashion is more corrupt than the world of criminals.

• Green-Eyed Monster: For most of the series, it's subtle but clear that Beckett does not like it when other women grab Castle's attention.
  • Then along comes "Eye of the Beholder", when UST sparks between Castle and the insurance investigator attached to the case, which prompts Beckett to act like a seething fifteen-year-old girl. She does a poor job concealing her obvious jealousy for much of the episode.
  • She gets into a bit of a snit in "Pandora" when she meets Sophia Turner of the CIA, and discovers that she's not the first woman Castle has been inspired by as a 'muse'.
• Heroic Second Wind: Subverted in the Season Four finale. After being outmatched the entire fight, she's told once more that she has no idea who she's up against. She gives a heroic one-liner and rushes her opponent, only to have him use her momentum against her and wind up hanging off the side of a building.
• The Heroine: She's the main detective and driven to putting bad guys behind bars For Great Justice. Despite the name, she's the focus of the show because she's Richard Castle's current inspiration for his new books.
• Hidden Depths: There's lots of layers to the "Beckett onion", which Castle is frequently surprised to uncover, and which suggests a more fun-loving, lighthearted and even somewhat wilder personality than the seemingly no-nonsense workaholic cop front she projects; among other things, she owns a motorbike, alludes to interests in comic books, magic tricks and soap operas, among claims to have piercings and tattoos. However, several of these may may also be intended specifically to mess with Castle's head or to tease his obvious attraction to her. Several of them are also implied to have been part of her personality before her mother's murder caused her to become a lot harder and more serious, some of which have gradually revived the more time she's spent with Castle.
• I Love You Because I Can't Control You: The inverse of Castle; for a Control Freak like her, he's very hard to control.
• The Lad-ette: She's more intellectual and composed than the average Ladette, but she plays it up when messing with Castle, mentioning how she has a tattoo, did nude modeling, rides a motorcycle and frequently implies a rather kinky sex life.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In "Rise", according to her, she remembers nothing following her shooting. Justified, because she was shot in the chest, narrowly missing her heart. It turns out she was lying, as is foreshadowed in a Freeze-Frame Bonus when her eyes open while she's in surgery. She remembers everything, including Castle's Anguished Declaration of Love. She kept it from him because, while it made have made her smile in the momenr, she also wasn't ready to hear it from him.
• Last-Name Basis: Like Castle, few people call her "Kate", even Castle himself.
• Laugh of Love: She tends to smile and laugh a lot when around her current boyfriend-of-the-week, and eventually with Castle himself.
• The Leader: She calls the shots in her little group at the 12th Precinct. She eventually calls the shots of the entire precinct when Beckett is promoted to Captain in Season 8.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Beckett's hair grows considerably over the course of the series. She also warms up and loosens up over the course of the series (barring the Single-Issue Wonk). Coincidence? You decide.
• Love at First Sight: Inverted. In "Still", she insists that she couldn't stand Castle when they first met.
  Do you have any idea what you were like in the beginning?
• Missing Mom: Johanna Beckett was murdered when Kate was studying pre-law at Stanford.
• The Muse: To Castle; his latest protagonist, Nikki Heat, is based on her.
• Old Shame: In-Universe, we have her brief career as a teenage model, revealed at the end of "Inventing the Girl". It was either that or waitressing.
• Only Sane Woman: Between Castle, Ryan and Esposito, she's the most grounded.
• Parental Substitute: Castle asks Beckett to be this to Alexis if anything should ever happen to him (he got paranoid about being under a Mayan curse) in "Wrapped Up in Death".
• Rank Up: By Season 8 she is the new Captain of the Precinct.
• Revenge:
  • Beckett is clearly driven by this to some degree with regards to the murder of her mother; her every single major action or life decision since (joining the police department, becoming a homicide detective, etc.) has been based on tracking down the person(s) responsible for the crime and bringing them down, to the point where any hint of her mother's case cropping up in an investigation is enough to drive her to the point of reckless single-minded obsession. The end of "Always" sees her have an epiphany which results in her decision to turn her back on this, instead realizing that all she really wants is a life with Castle.
  • However this pops up again in Season 8, when all of her acquaintances at the Attorney General's office have been killed by some mysterious CIA agent who was in league with Bracken and she's determined to find the guy, even though everybody points out she's throwing away the life she worked so hard to build and will probably get herself killed.
• Ring on a Necklace: She wears her mother's ring on a necklace, as a reminder to herself to solve her murder.
• Second Love: To Castle. His first real love was Kyra Blaine, introduced in "A Rose For Everafter." ^note Technically his fourth love, behind Kyra, Meredith, and Gina. Well, the second two are more Lust than Love, according to Martha (Castle's mother).
• Sexy Flaw: During her first love scene with Castle after they confess their feelings to each other, Castle is shown kissing the scar on her chest from where she was near-fatally shot in the season 3 finale (it happens to be in her cleavage).
• She Cleans Up Nicely: Every time Kate dresses up for undercover assignments, Castle squees.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: As of season four: per Word of God, she's suffering from PTSD. It's explored thoroughly during a case where the team try to find a killer who is a sniper.
• Single-Issue Wonk: Most of the time, Beckett is a thoroughly rational, capable and methodical detective — unless the case relates to her mother's murder (or, as of Season 4, her own shooting), at which point she becomes increasingly irrational and out-of-control.
• Statuesque Stunner: Not as obvious when she stands next to the 6'2" Nathan Fillion, but she's 5'9". She also likes to wear high heels which makes her look even taller.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: Mostly with her interactions with Castle, where she vacillates between extreme cold professionalism and a laid-back wiseass attitude that loves volleying nerd jokes and lighthearted insults.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted: it took a year of therapy for her in her backstory to stop obsessing over her mother's murder and to realize that she had a life of her own to live. As of season 4, she is also seeing a therapist on a regular basis to deal with the trauma of her near-fatal shooting. As well as to rant about her not-in-a-relationship problems with Castle.
• The Tease: Beckett takes great amusement in leading on Castle's obvious attraction to her, only to bluntly shoot him down. Season 4 reveals that Beckett knew about his Anguished Declaration of Love in the Season 3 finale but lied about it, Castle convinces himself that she's just been leading him on for her own amusement and gives her the cold shoulder... which, as she's genuinely fallen in love with him by this point, makes things awkward.
• They Do: Marries Castle in Season 7.
• To Be Lawful or Good: This is a recurring conflict in her life.
  • In an early case, she discovers a father was very much likely the murderer of his son-in-law after the later killed the man's daughter but only she and Castle knew it. She could have let him go but chose to be lawful. She could also have allowed an assassin to kill her mother's murderer but being Lawful won again.
  • In "Need To Know" when she learned the CIA was going to force a distraught woman into being their mole within her mafia family or risk the CIA leaking that her boyfriend was a spy, Beckett chose Good by ignoring orders and leaking her name to the press as having ties to a crime family. This causes the family to cut ties with her out of self-preservation and ruins the woman as an asset. However, her bosses realize it was her and fire her for it.
• Trickster Girlfriend: She loves teasing Castle and playing jokes on him. Special mention goes to her creepy alien suit in The Final Frontier and the episode The Lives of Others, in which it turns out that the whole murder mystery was staged by Beckett as a pretext for a surprise birthday party for Castle.
• Tsundere: Type A (tsun tsun); she's harsh and abrasive to many, but has a softer side that only Castle can bring out. When he shows interest in other women, she becomes intensely jealous, yet refuses to admit it.
• Undercover Model: In "Deep in Death", Beckett does this on the fly around Russian mobsters. More specifically: she ditches all clothing save for (bright red) lingerie and a cleavage-revealing jacket.
• Unrequited Love Switcheroo: Several times with Castle such as when one of his ex-wives shows up and starts reconnecting with him.
• UST: With Castle. It became so obvious that Lanie joked that a corpse could see it.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Once she and Castle become a couple, she becomes this. When 3xK tried to force their car into the river, she got out and returned fire with a Terminator-like expression.
• When She Smiles: Beckett's face could light up the world when she smiles. The effect is particularly noticeable during the early seasons when Beckett is a mostly serious and grim character, making the moments when she expresses genuine joy all the more noticeable. Invoked by Castle during his Anguished Declaration of Love for her:
  Castle: Every morning, I bring you a cup of coffee just so I can see a smile on your face.
  • The best example of this is arguably when Castle feigns ignorance of firearms to get some hands-on training from her. When he fires off a round that misses the target entirely, he makes a joke to the effect of "shot too soon," to which she responds, "well, we can always just cuddle, Castle," with a big, toothy grin, which he remarks on with shared happiness. It's the first time we see her actually smile, not just smirk, snark, or glare annoyed at him, and the difference is night and day.

Castle & Beckett Family

Martha Rodgers

Played by: Susan Sullivan

Castle's flighty, emotional mother, who lives with him. A Broadway actress with a tendency towards the over-dramatic.

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• Actor Allusion: In the episode "One Life to Lose", which concerns a murder related to a soap opera, she is revealed to have had a brief but very eventful stint acting in another soap opera before her Broadway years. In the 80s, Susan Sullivan had a long-running role as Maggie Channing on Falcon Crest.

• December–December Romance: She's perfectly willing to sleep with a Silver Fox; her opening scene has her talking about her "gray-dar."
• Fiery Redhead: Is a redhead and is able to keep Castle in line through force of personality.
• Gold Digger: Martha is not one of these, despite her penchant for wealthy older men; she was, however, the victim of one, which forced her to move into her son and granddaughter's apartment. She's also not shy about charging vast amounts to her son's credit card, much to his exasperation, but it's made abundantly clear that she loves him for far more than his purchasing power. She also tries in "Lucky Stiff" to turn down the significant amount of money left to her by a deceased boyfriend.

• Loon with a Heart of Gold: She seems a bit crazy, but is really quite a nice lady.
• Mama Bear: In "Cops and Robbers" Martha has to be held back when it looks like one of the robbers is going to shoot Castle. In "Knockdown", she also gives Castle a smackdown when she thinks he's getting too cavalier about the danger he's in, telling him quite firmly that "...you can't charm your way out of a bullet!"
• Ms. Vice Girl: Vanity and self-centeredness seem to be her main faults.
• Out of Focus: Effectively becomes a Fake Series Regular after Season 2, with appearing in fewer than a dozen episodes each season thereafter and often for a few minutes at a time.
• Pretty in Mink: She has a penchant for animal-print and fur-lined clothing, and in "Lucky Stiff" goes on a shopping spree including buying a faux fur coat. She decides to return what she bought, except for the coat.
  Castle: Is it safe to say there aren't any animal prints left in the city?
  Martha: Very funny. Also true.
• Really Gets Around: In the pilot, she says that her son "never had a father figure" as an excuse for his misbehavior. His reply is that he had dozens of them.
• Silver Vixen: Despite her age, and thanks to her good looks and great personal charm, Martha is still attractive to much younger men. An example is Alexis' young, handsome violin teacher. Once he's met Martha, he is much more interested in teaching her than Alexis — to the disappointment of Alexis and the relief of Castle.
• Teasing Parent: She has this kind of relationship with Castle, just like he does with his daughter. For instance, when Castle points out that the local news has listed him as #7 on the Most Eligible Bachelor list for the year, she reminds him that he was #3 the year before, then states that it's her job to keep him humble. On another occasion, she finds out that the murder took place at a studio where she once worked for a soap opera, and begs to come along. Castle says that a murder scene is only for trained professionals. Her reply? "Richard Castle, you are neither trained nor a professional."
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Castle is of course not a child anymore, and would normally be considered quite wacky himself, but compared to his mother's wackiness he is quite serious indeed.
• White-Dwarf Starlet: Not completely burned out but she definitely doesn't get the roles she used to.

Alexis Castle

Played by: Molly C. Quinn

Castle's teenage daughter who, against all odds, is grounded, sensible, mature, and very close to her father.

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• Bratty Teenage Daughter: Averted. She's one of the most likable teenage characters on television, a fact of which Castle is very much aware and thanks his lucky stars for.
• Commuting on a Bus: Once she goes to college, she's in and out of episodes.
• The Cutie: She's got her fair share of charm and cuteness.
• Daddy's Girl: Not spoiled, but loved.
• Damsel in Distress: In the fifth season episode "Target", Alexis is a victim in a kidnapping plot. She and her fellow victim actively try to manage the situation and escape.

• Dating What Daddy Hates: Castle doesn't particularly appreciate Alexis dating anyone, but he's willing to play along so she can have those charming childhood moments. However, when she meets a hippie in Costa Rica and moves in with him in the sixth season... They eventually break up.
• Extracurricular Enthusiast: Alexis is involved in a huge number of school clubs.
• Fanservice Pack: As seen in the season 5 episode "The Final Frontier", when she wears a very revealing alien costume to a Galaxy 5 convention, much to the mutual shock of Castle and Alexis when the former sees what she's wearing when he and Beckett run into her while they are investigating the murder of one of the (fictional) sci-fi show's actors there.

• Genre Savvy: She's Castle's daughter, so of course she knows all about the mystery genre.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Alexis has a highly developed sense of responsibility and guilt.
  • In an episode about teenage drug abuse, Castle confronts Alexis while she wakes up, telling her that she can tell him if she ever did anything wrong. She lies and tells him she's fine, but the next day she's so bothered by the lie that she wakes him up, crying... because once, she jumped the turnstile at the subway without paying. (Even then, she only did it because her card wasn't working and she wanted out of the rain.) She went the next day and paid twice without riding and still felt guilty about it.
  • She's gone back to a store and secretly paid after some of her friends used a Five-Finger Discount, despite the fact that she hadn't stolen anything herself.
• The Intern: Starting in the episode "Pandora", she helps Lanie in the morgue.
• Ivy League for Everyone
  • Subverted in season 4, when she has applied for early admission to Stanford and everyone, including her, thinks she will be accepted. She isn't. She takes this quite hard; her attitude is basically "Stanford or nothing" (justified because her boyfriend has been accepted).
  • She later gets acceptance letters from quite a few Ivy League universities, as well as Stanford. She chooses Columbia, and is studying there in season 5. Though this is rather justified by the fact that she went to an elite prep school and was the valedictorian.
• Like Parent, Like Child: Not in personality, but in experience and skills. Though it's generally not shown off, Castle's many interests seem to have leaked into his daughter. She's shown interest and skill in everything from magic tricks to detective work, and it's been established since the earlier episodes that most of Castle's epiphanies are discovered thanks to his habit of bouncing off his ideas on her. On the other hand, she's a lot more level headed and serious than her dad. She gets that from her grandfather.
  • Gets into Meta-levels in a Season 6 episode where Alexis and Castle work together to solve a case for her criminal justice class. The episode was literally titled "Like Father, like Daughter".
  • At the start of the eighth season, it turns out that she co-opted Castle's PI business, more or less on a whim. And she's taken on and closed multiple cases. They still need to talk about profit-sharing.
• Missing Mom: Her mother is Castle's first ex-wife, Meredith, a rather flighty B-list actress. As much as they care about her, Castle and Alexis are kind of glad that Meredith isn't permanently around, as seen in "Always Buy Retail".
• Morality Pet: For Castle, pre-Character Development at least; in the early seasons (especially the first season), notice how Castle is a lot less of a douchey, arrogant playboy asshole whenever Alexis is around.
• Ms. Fanservice: In "PhDead," Alexis attends a masquerade party wearing a very revealing angel costume for no big reason, as there was others at the party wearing less revealing costumes. It was part of what seemed to be a Dumb Blonde act, as she was wearing a blonde wig, as part of a plot by Castle to use her as a plant for his investigation into the murder of a male Hudson University student in order to pry information from a male student who knew the deceased student. Esposito and Ryan point out the problem with Castle letting Alexis wear such a sexy costume to a party where drunk frat boys are present, leading Castle to realize he didn't think this plan through and barge into the party, much to Alexis' chagrin.
• Nice Girl: Is possibly the nicest person on the show, and way more mature than her father and grandmother.
• Out of Focus: Alexis appeared in almost all of the episodes during the first season, but began to appear in fewer episodes starting with Season 2, coinciding with the shift in episode storylines to focus almost entirely on Castle and Beckett's investigations and deemphasize the initial secondary focus on Castle's family life. By Season 5, she appears in only one or two brief scenes in a limited number of episodes. Although the Season 5 two-parter "Target"/"Hunt" served as a Day in the Limelight story for her, she became more involved in the show's stories in the first half of Season 6, with the storyline that resulted in Castle and Alexis' relationship becoming strained due to his disapproval of her boyfriend Pi, which was resolved after the two teamed up to exonerate a Wrongly Accused death row inmate in "Like Father, Like Daughter" (a precursor to the events of Season 8, in which she co-opted Castle's PI business and began helping him in some of his cases).
• Raised by Dudes: Averted. There's little doubt that Alexis is a healthy, normal, intelligent, and well-rounded individual with much of the credit due to her father. Noted by Castle himself in "Lucky Stiff" that after getting over the 'just became extremely rich' phase of his career, he realized he only wanted two things in life: freedom to write and time to spend with Alexis.
• She Is All Grown Up: Most evident/called out in "The Final Frontier", if only because she happens to appear in far more... revealing clothing than her usual modest fare.
• Spoiled Sweet: Despite being raised in a very wealthy home, she is very down-to-Earth and kindhearted, a trait likely inherited from the happy-go-lucky Rick.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: When she finds herself locked in a room, she takes advantage of the fact that her father taught her how to pick locks. Was he showing off research for a book?
• Tagalong Kid: She's smart and mature and all that, but still unquestionably a kid. On those occasions when she shows up at the precinct, everyone's on their best behavior. In the latter half of Season 4, starting with "Pandora", she interns for Lanie, and participates at times whenever the cops require Lanie's expertise.
• Wacky Parent, Serious Child: The latter with Castle. As seen in the You Are Grounded! trope and others on this list, it can seem like she's already grown up and her father is not.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: One sometimes wonders if she is the one raising Castle...
  Alexis: Dad, don't! You'll spoil your dinner!
  Castle: [around mouthful of whipped cream] This is my...
  Alexis: No!
• Women Are Wiser: She's wiser than either her father or her grandmother, and a lot more than her mother.
• You Are Grounded!: Played with when she confesses to jumping a subway turnstile. (See Incorruptible Pure Pureness above). She grounds herself for a week.

Johanna Beckett

Johanna Beckett

Kate Beckett's mother and a case of Death by Origin Story. She was murdered and her killer was not found due to incompetent police work (which turned out to be not so much incompetent as downright dirty). Eventually Beckett finds him and shoots him, but the wider conspiracy involving Senator Bracken while solved is unprovable, leaving Kate in a Mexican Standoff with the senator. This is itself resolved in season six, when a convenient recording is found that implicates the Senator in the whole conspiracy. Kate wears her mother's wedding ring on a necklace.

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• Crusading Lawyer: Johanna worked for a lot of causes during her life, including attempting to clean up Washington Heights and working with the Justice Initiative to re-open closed cases and exonerate the wrongly convicted.
• Death by Origin Story: Kate Beckett decided to pursue law enforcement rather than pursuing her supreme court dreams due to her mother's murder. Kate even lampshades this when she tells Castle what happened, saying Nikki Heat has a backstory now.
• Posthumous Character: She died years before the first season, so anything about her is told through other characters.

Jim Beckett

Jim Beckett

Played by: Scott Paulin

Kate Beckett's father. Fell into alcoholism after the death of his wife but recovered thanks to the help of his daughter. Kate now wears his watch to remember the life she saved. The watch is damaged when Beckett's apartment is blown up in "Boom!" but Castle has it repaired for her as a surprise. When Beckett begins investigating her mother's death again, in "Knockout", he tries to get her to stop and enlists Castle's help.

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• The Alcoholic: 5 years sober as of the beginning of the series.
• From Bad to Worse: First his wife is murdered which goes unsolved. Then his daughter and only child joins the police driven by an obsession with the case while working a inherently dangerous job. He outright tells Kate that he didn't sleep soundly for a year after his graduated the academy and thought of her "in the dark" every time he heard sirens.
• Good Parents: He and Kate have a good relationship, with him understanding and supporitive of her career choice and her drive to solve her mother's murder.

Jackson Hunt

Jackson Hunt

Played by: James Brolin

The alias of Castle's father, a spy. He'd planned to settle down with Martha but circumstances forced him to leave the country and cut off all contact with her. Aids Castle in rescuing his daughter (and Hunt's granddaughter) from the clutches of Hunt's archenemy, Gregor Volkov.

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• Disappeared Dad: Martha knew nothing of him and never saw Jackson after that night, not even knowing his name. Unlike most cases, Castle isn't bothered by this due to being a grown man and his not knowing anything allows Rick to imagine his father to be anything or anyone. Under normal circumstances he'd be thrilled to learn his old man is a legit spy master.
• Old Master: A long-time spy with much experience who's pulled the Big Damn Heroes act at least twice to rescue his son Richard.
• Papa Wolf: Exploiting this trait toward his son Richard and granddaughter Alexis is how his archenemy Gregor Volkov got him to come out of hiding.

12th Precinct

Javier Esposito

Played by: Jon Huertas

A detective on Beckett's unit with a military background. He's greatly amused by the tension between Castle and Beckett.

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• Agent Scully: Within the Ryan/Esposito partnership, Espo is the one to refute Ryan's crazy, Castle-inspired theories.
• Beta Couple: He and Lanie date for a while in season three and four while Castle and Beckett are still dancing around each other, but panic and break up when they double-date with Ryan and his then-fiancee Jenny and she asks them when they're getting hitched. (Though Lanie admits they still occasionally get together for a booty call even after they've broken up.)
• Beware the Silly Ones: Usually, he's pretty offbeat, laid back, and generally irreverent, but when his friends, kids, or innocents are threatened, he turns into a pretty terrifying badass.
• The Big Guy: Calls himself the 'testicle' of the group because he used to be a Green Beret. It may be a reference to Generation Kill.
• Cowboy Cop: He's more willing than Beckett or Ryan to bend the rules in a pinch, such as pretending to hear somebody calling for help in an apartment when Castle is taken hostage in a bank heist so he can break in (Ryan goes along with it but it was Espo's idea). Espo also once threatens to kill a man taking advantage of troubled youth, saying he'll use his backup piece to make it look like the man drew on him.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He suffered Parental Abandonment and has a long juvie record, but one of his teachers took an interest and got him straightened out. In "Under the Influence" he pays it forward by mentoring a similar kid who was a person of interest in the case of the week.
• Dashing Hispanic: Esposito is a little vain, and is often shown asking good-looking women out (with a decent success rate).
• Dead Partner: In "Den of Thieves," it is revealed that Esposito's partner before Ryan was Ike Thornton, killed by one of Victor Racine's men. It turns out that Ike was working undercover to take down Racine.
• Former Teen Rebel: See Reformed Criminal below. The kid causing trouble is now an adult catching trouble makers.

• Friendly Sniper: In "Kill Shot" he uses his past as a Special Forces marksman to break Beckett out of a case-induced Heroic BSoD, and later kills the Monster of the Week with an assault rifle shot from a rooftop across the street after Beckett can't talk the villain down. It's also how he kills Jerry Tyson.
• Friend to All Children: Especially troubled kids (as below). Esposito didn't have an easy childhood himself, and was a pretty serious juvenile delinquent. Naturally, he sees a lot of himself in some of the kids his work brings him into contact with, and usually takes an interest in them. He can also be terrifying when threatening the criminals that exploit those troubled kids.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Ryan and him parallel the Beckett/Castle partnership in a lot of ways, including the jealousy they show when someone else is spending time with their partner.
• Hidden Depths: At first he appears to be just another wisecracking cop, but it is shown that he is very skilled and is very aware of Beckett and Castle's feelings for each other. He also appears to have numerous interests that conflict a bit with the stereotypically macho 'alpha-male' front he presents — he's surprisingly knowledgeable on Top 40 bubblegum pop music, for example. He also seems to have a particular fondness for time-travel related science fiction; in "Time Will Tell", he namechecks 12 Monkeys and The Terminator and — much to his embarrassment — accidentally reveals himself to be a fan of Doctor Who, and in "Punked" he is able to immediately identify a mock up of the flux capacitor inside a steampunk enthusiast's recreation of Doc Brown's DeLorean.
• In-Series Nickname: Esposito is a mouthful, so Beckett shortens his name to "Espo". Castle does the same but also goes for the other half, "Sito", a couple times. He's also called "Javi" in more friendly, intimate or sensitive situations.
• Last-Name Basis: His In-Series Nickname is short for his surname; he is rarely called by his given name or nickname.
• Latin Lover: While he and Lanie are dating he's occasionally shown hitting on her with Latino slang. ¡Hola, chica! ¿Como estás?
• Parental Abandonment: His father left when he was a kid and his mother worked two jobs to keep them fed and in their house, which led to Esposito becoming a juvenile delinquent until one of his teachers took an interest and started mentoring him.

• Reformed Criminal: In "Under the Influence", Esposito reveals he committed a few crimes in his youth.
• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Esposito is the first to make fun of Ryan for his Sickening Sweethearts interactions with Jenny, and is the simplest dressed of any of the main characters, usually wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. Compared to Ryan, he's also more aggressive and stereotypically macho.
• Spear Counterpart: Of the Esposito/Ryan relationship, he's the Beckett of the two.

• Those Two Guys: With Ryan. You will rarely see them apart.
• The Worf Effect: "Knockout" and "Always", though justified. In "Always", Beckett does better than he does because the special forces trained assassin targeted Esposito first, as he was the greater threat. In "Knockout", even Castle does better than him, though justified as he and Ryan were taken out with a flashbang.
• Token Minority Couple: With Lanie, who is black.
• Two First Names: Javier and Esposito can either be a first or last name for people with Latino heritage.
• Verbal Tic: He regularly introduces himself with "yo" and finishes a lot of sentences with "bro".
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Ryan. They're constantly volleying good-natured barbs at each other (Javi more so than Kevin), but both would take a bullet for the other without hesitation.

Kevin Ryan

Played by: Seamus Dever

Esposito's partner who also takes great pleasure in winding Beckett up. In later seasons, he's more likely to side with Castle's wacky theories than any self-respecting officer of the law should.

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• Action Dad: By the end of the series, he's a father of two.

• Badass Boast: In "Knockdown".
  Ryan: (while being tortured in ice water) "Listen, assclown. I went to Catholic school for twelve years. Hell, they used to do this to me for talking in class."
• Berserk Button: As shown in "Kick the Ballistics", do not take Kevin Ryan's service weapon, and especially do not use said weapon to kill an innocent young woman. He will find you and end you.
• Beta Couple: With Jenny; their relationship is more stable than Beckett and Castle.
• Butt-Monkey: Mildly; Ryan seems to be the character who gets everything dumped on him. To his credit, he accepts it with good grace and a little snark.
  • S4 finale; after he told Gates about the case and how Beckett and Espo were investigating behind her back, leading them to disciplinary action, he's the only one left on the force, with Espo on administrative leave and Beckett resigned... and he and Esposito are no longer on speaking terms. Fortunately, this all ends up resolved after the first two episodes of S5.
• Character Development: It's in the background, but there — in the first season, he was generally a bit scruffier and more slovenly in his personal dress and habits, but began dressing a lot smarter and getting more In Touch with His Feminine Side after getting seriously involved with Jenny. It probably helped that Castle entered the picture at the time, and it's clear Castle is someone Ryan looks up to for direction (at least in this regard).
• Ensign Newbie:
  • Ryan has his shield and has demonstrated many times that he deserves it, but he's repeatedly the excuse for exposition (again, "King of All Media") which, along with his Butt-Monkey status, implies that he's the least experienced member of the team. When his service weapon is stolen, and another cop calls him out on it, he later admits that the other cop did have a point, even telling a story of what he previously thought was his stupidest mistake as a cop.
  • Of the main four, he tends to dress much more formally as expected of a detective, going with a jacket and tie versus the more general professional look of Esposito and Beckett.
  • "The Wild Rover" establishes that he's been on homicide for 7 years (so 2 years at the start of the series) and an unspecified number working what amounts to major crimes, a lot of which is suggested to have been undercover and in tandem with the local FBI's organized crime unit. So while he may or may not be the least experienced, it's certainly relative.

• Happily Married: To Jenny, whom he began dating in season 1. They get married in the season 4 episode "Till Death Do Us Part" and now have a kid.
• The Heart: He seems to be the most outwardly sensitive of the detectives.
• Hero-Worshipper: He's the most likely of the detectives to consider Rick's wild musings.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Esposito. They parallel the Beckett/Castle partnership in a lot of ways, including the jealousy they show when someone else is spending time with their partner.
• Hidden Depths: He's the wackier, dandier member of the Esposito/Ryan partnership, but when he went back undercover with the Irish mob for an episode, he became scary.

• In Touch with His Feminine Side:
  • Much to Esposito's amusement, he's increasingly become this since Jenny entered his life.
  • Ryan feels no shame in making comments like "[Castle] really is ruggedly handsome..." when he sees a cardboard cutout of the former and notes that he "feels like he's being cheated on" while Castle works with Slaughter.
• Last-Name Basis: Usually called Ryan.

• No Social Skills: Compared to both Castle and his partner Esposito, Ryan's a bit nerdy and socially awkward.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: When asked why he wouldn't want to go to Mars, he says he doesn't need to because he experiences the same combination of hostile environment, lethal cold and noxious atmosphere every time he's forced to share a room with his mother-in-law.

• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Esposito's manly man, being more In Touch with His Feminine Side and all.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: Like Castle, he's mostly in a suit.
• The Smart Guy: Calls himself the 'nerve center' of the group in "Swan Song". Consider the extra characterization that you get in the Heat novels. His character Raley is the "King of All Media" and is very good at finding/spotting/generally using surveillance as a tool. As Castle has noticed, he might not be as action-y as the rest of the cast, but he has his skills. He's usually the one to find the information that the entire team acts on, he just doesn't get as much credit.
• Spear Counterpart: Sorta. Of the Esposito/Ryan relationship, he's the Castle of the two.
  • Taken to another level in Season 7. When Castle is barred from working with the NYPD, Ryan begins spouting outlandish theories about the cases. Esposito calls him out on this.
• Two First Names: Ryan is also widely used as a given name.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He's not nearly as mean to Javi as Javi can be to him, but he still gives as good as he gets in a more refined manner. It's also clear that he deeply cares for his partner.

Lanie Parrish

Played by: Tamala Jones

The medical examiner and Beckett's best friend, who has an inkling that there's more to Castle and Beckett's relationship than meets the eye.

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• The Coroner: She opens the dead guys looking for clues.
• D-Cup Distress: Yes and no. She mentioned in one episode how she always wanted to be a ballerina as a child, but had to stop when she turned 13 and "the girls" made her too top-heavy to continue. Since then, she decided they have their perks.
• Fanservice: In "That '70s Show" she wears a Pam Grier-esque knock-'em-dead red dress.
• I Call Him "Mister Happy": Her breasts are "the girls."
• Sassy Black Woman: Most of the time, she's a little too calm and soft-spoken to really be classified as "sassy," but she's sharp-tongued and has a low tolerance for bullshit.
• Shipper on Deck: Of the main cast, she's the most obvious supporter of Beckett and Castle being a couple.
• The Smart Guy: When Castle and Beckett find a body, their first recourse is to ask her "what happened?"
• The Social Expert: She's more into relationships than Beckett and tries to put her in one with Castle.
• Token Minority Couple: With Esposito, who is Latino.

Roy Montgomery

Played by: Ruben Santiago-Hudson (seasons 1-3)

The captain of the 12th Precinct devoted to protecting his people regardless of political fallout. Roy allows Castle to shadow Beckett on cases partly because of pressure from the mayor but primarily because he sees Castle as a good man and healthy for Beckett.

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• The Atoner: As revealed in the season 3 finale "Knockout", he was a part of the conspiracy that led to Beckett's mother's death. He met her in the records room going over the case's evidence, and took her under his wing, guiding her to be the head detective of the 12th Precinct. He finally earns his redemption by taking out Hal Lockwood, the man who works for the man who ordered Beckett's mother's death, at the cost of his own life.
• Benevolent Boss: While he does have his scary moments, overall Roy is pretty laid back about rules and deeply cares for the personal well-being of his cops. He also has no problem responding to the goofy questions Castle asks. This is especially noticeable when you compare him to his replacement, Captain Gates.
• Big Good: He's Beckett's boss which makes him the head good guy.
• Deadpan Snarker: "Sir, can I talk to you for a second?" "Nope."

• Dying Moment of Awesome Kills five bad guys who were going to kill Beckett, including Hal Lockwood.
• A Father to His Men: Treats his detectives, and especially Beckett as kids. He always tries to protect them from political fallout.
• Foreshadowing: At the climax of the episode Law & Murder, when Castle says of a District Attorney involved in trying to cover up a murder and railroading an innocent man for it, "it's unfortunate that despite all of that good, he's only going to be remembered for that one bad thing", Montgomery can be seen to give him a very pointed look. A couple of episodes later, it turns out that Montgomery was himself involved in covering up a murder and having another man sent down for it, with the victim being Beckett's mother no less, long before he became an accomplished and by-the-book captain.

• Last Stand: Died kicking ass despite being outnumbered.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Heck, even in "Knockdown" after (rightfully) pulling Beckett off the case, he's willing to listen to her and is more concerned with her safety when it's apparent she's in danger and not going to quit.

• Retirony: Played with - spectacularly - in a throwaway gag. The Captain promises his wife that he'll retire the following year. When Castle shows concern, Beckett explains that Montgomery retires "all the time. Just give it a week or two. He's like the Brett Favre of the NYPD. Trust me - he's not going anywhere." He dies the next week.
• Revolvers Are Just Better: Doesn't use guns very often, but when he does, he uses revolvers.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Roy actually has very little interest in playing politics and following his superiors orders if it gets in the way of what he deems justice.
  • In "Law and Murder" Roy is ordered by the District Attorney to keep his cops away from his office when Beckett brings in one of his secretaries for questioning. Roy responds by telling Beckett and Castle to push the lead harder because it's now obvious the D.A. is trying to hide something.
  • In fact this attitude could be considered a Fatal Flaw, since in his youth this led to him trying to dispense vigilante justice with a group of dirty cops, leading to the accidental death of undercover FBI agent Bob Armen. Johanna Beckett - Kate's mother - would investigate the death which led to her own murder. This attitude also caused him to lure Hal Lockwood and his associates to a hangar so he could go out in a Last Stand instead of facing imprisonment and letting Lockwood kill Beckett.
• Walking Spoiler: Look at all those blanked out lines. Don't uncover them if you haven't watched through the third season.

Victoria "Iron" Gates

Played by: Penny Johnson Jerald (seasons 4-7)

The precinct's new captain after the death of Captain Montgomery. Unlike her predecessor, she is not happy about having Castle tag along with her cops but puts up with him due to his connections with the mayor. Also contrasting to Roy is their attitude towards their superiors. Gates tends to want to cultivate a positive image of her people and seems partially motivated by the fact that she's a woman in a traditionally man's profession and rank. Because of this she often tends to be more pressured by the department's PR or her superiors than Montgomery was - which also means that her initial tolerance of Castle was only because she was told she had to. Therefore, how likable she finds Castle depends on how much he's goofing around.

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• Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: Played with; she's no Roy Montgomery, but she seems to be softening towards Castle somewhat and is a dedicated officer who is very good at her job.
• Big Good: After replacing Montgomery, she becomes the head good guy.
• Black Boss Lady: The stern type.
• By-the-Book Cop: Has no intention of letting her cops get away with playing fast and loose with the rules.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Montgomery, in regards to their relationship with Castle. Montgomery kept Castle around because he wanted to and thought he would be a good influence on Beckett. Gates is forced to keep Castle around by the mayor, and thinks (at first anyway) that Kate would be a better detective without him.
• Da Chief: At the end of the Season 4 finale, enraged that Beckett and Esposito went behind her back, she puts them on administrative leave, then has them turn in their badges and firearms.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Towards Castle. At first, she thought him a liability, but by mid-season 4 she already regarded him as one of her people. She even aids him in "Probable Cause", as even she doesn't believe all the evidence pointing to him. Castle seems to be returning the favor, for his part, addressing her as Sir, as per her request. There are moments where she starts genuinely liking Castle, but he always manages to screw those up and leave her hating him even more than before.
  • She warms up to him considerably when he manages to finally put Jerry Tyson down for good, and bring Beckett back safely, to the point that she happily accepts a hug! The season 7 finale also shows she's now part of the show's True Companions there for Castle as he accepts a writing award.

• Hidden Depths: Season 5's Secret's Safe With Me has the big reveal. She collects dolls! She also has a weakness for reality shows.
• Insistent Terminology: You will call her "Sir" or "Captain". Never "Ma'am".
• Internal Affairs: She used work in IA, a fact that at first does not endear her to the cops when she takes over the precinct. In the end, she is actually shown quite respectfully in this role, as she points out to Beckett that part of their job is catching criminals that happen to wear badges or happen to be authority figures in general.
• Iron Lady: Which is appropriate. She will not take shit from any of her cops.
• Mama Bear: She is extremely protective of her detectives, and though she doesn't hesitate to make them play politics, she will also step in and take the heat for them without hesitation if she believes that they are right and the higher-ups are wrong.
• Plausible Deniability:
  • She, much like the rest of the main cast, could see Castle and Beckett were in an intimate relationship for much of Season 5. She just never chose to address it as she had this and she still will as long as the two don't act out at or slack off at work.
  • She stops Beckett short of saying that Montgomery had done some wrong things in the past.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: Her new subordinates view her like this initially. While she's not incompetent, it is justified in some respects — in particular, she tends to let her dislike of Castle distort her perception of how useful he is, and tends to dismiss his contributions simply because he's the one giving them. She's eventually recognized as a Reasonable Authority Figure.
• Put on a Bus: To 1 Police Plaza as assistant police chief in Season 8.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: She is stern, cold, and strongly dislikes Castle but an all-out competent boss who is willing to listen to Castle when his plans make sense and is someone who will not let her people slack off in the moral sector. She also tries to keep Beckett from being too reliant on Castle. She also takes umbrage with the Feds taking over her place using only the phrase "Need to know" as explaining why, knowing that they care about the big picture and not the little guy.
• Shipping Torpedo: Subverted. When everyone assumes Gates would flip out if she discovered Rick and Kate's relationship it turns out she's as big a Shipper on Deck as the rest of the cast, as long as they maintain professional behavior on the job.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: In comparison to Montgomery, Victoria "Iron" Gates fits this trope to a T.
  • As an example of her more straight laced approach, where as Montgomery made no fuss about people calling him Roy in the workplace, Gates asks that everyone - even Castle who technically doesn't have to - call her Sir.
  • In the first few episodes of Season 4, she questioned the compentecy of her detectives when investigations didn't quite go as she was hoping, like the viligante super-hero episode.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: "Best buds" may be stretching it (a lot), but as season 5—particularly the finale—shows, Gates has come to at least tolerate if not like Castle. She still won't pass up a chance to troll him or chew him out whenever she can—and that's probably more due to his goofiness compared to her more straitlaced personality than real dislike.

Hayley Vargas

Played by: Toks Olagundoye (season 8)

A quick-witted, free-spirited, former Scotland Yard police officer who works as a security specialist and is not afraid to cross lines to get things done. She will be introduced in season 8.

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• Action Girl: She manages to hold her own in combat with a professional hitwoman. Though she isn't quite as skilled as Beckett, who kills said hitwoman.
• The Mentor: She seems to play this role to Alexis a bit, teaching her some of the tricks of the trade in terms of being a PI operating without help from the police. She also attempts to teach Castle that lesson, though it doesn't entirely stick.
• Only in It for the Money: She initially claims this, as she only gets paid if she delivers for her clients. Though she does seem to enjoy working with Castle and develops a genuine bond with Alexis. Though Castle does still pay her for her services.
• Playful Hacker: Fitting her background as a security specialist, she is rather skilled here. At one point, she sends a collection of cat videos to her opponent to slow him down while she breaks into his system.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Averted. While she will be taking Gates' place in the opening credits, she does not have the same position or demeanor as Gates.

M.E. Sidney Perlmutter

Played by: Arye Gross

A second coroner introduced in season two. Grumpy and snarky. Where as Lanie will snark at Castle in a friendly manner, Perlmutter will simply snark at Castle in general.

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• The Coroner: Like Lanie, he also opens up dead people to look for clues.
• Deadpan Snarker: Has shown being able to snark back at most everyone.
• Jerkass: While the other characters snark at Castle in a good-humored fashion, Perlmutter is more mean-spirited.
• No Social Skills: He doesn't make a lot of effort to make friends, either.
• Pet the Dog: In one early episode, Perlmutter did offer Castle some of his homemade cooking. Castle declined, being Squicked out at the prospect of eating anything in the mortuary.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite his antipathy with Castle, he will admit when Castle has a point, such as in Season 5's "Final Frontier" when he stated that Castle was largely correct when he surmised that the victim of the week was killed by "a phaser.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: His interactions with Castle have this vibe. He seems to outright hate Castle far beyond what could be considered reasonable, seizes every chance he gets to badmouth him whether Castle is present or not, expresses pure glee whenever Beckett shows up at a crime scene without Castle, and generally does his best to be as caustic and offensive to Castle as he can. Castle himself doesn't have much of a problem with Perlmutter. In fact, he seems to find the one-sided animosity amusing, to the point that he actively stokes the fire by being particularly goofy when Perlmutter is in earshot.

Tory Ellis

Played by: Maya Stojan

An NYPD computer tech whose appearances are limited to explaining whatever tech is involved in the case of the week. She is good friends with Lanie.

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• Ascended Extra: Originally she was just an unnamed video tech who popped up once in a while but is now a named character who appears in most episodes and has become a respected member of The Team.

• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She's gone as of Season 8, with nary a mention of what happened to her.
• A Day in the Limelight: The episode 'Kill Switch' is the first one to give emphasis on her friendship with Lanie as well as being the first episode she appears for the entirety of.

• Fake Guest Star: She is the only member of the main group NOT in the opening credits.

• Spicy Latina: She's fairly witty and not afraid to speak her mind.

Family, Friends, & Significant Others

Meredith

Meredith

Played By: Darby Stanchfield)

Castle's first ex-wife and Alexis' mother, introduced in "Always Buy Retail". Though they love her, they find her impulsive, irresponsible personality annoying. She works as an actress and while she shares many similarities with Martha, the two of them dislike each other. Castle describes her as a "deep-fried Twinkie" because though he knows she is bad for him, he still wants to enjoy one occasionally.

• Fiery Redhead: A disposition that her daughter partly inherited.
• Pretty in Mink: Wears a lynx fur jacket, to look her most glamorous when she arrives at Richard's apartment after traveling from Paris.
• Sex with the Ex: At least until Richard and Kate start dating and even before that it was more an occasional liaison. The thought of her returning to New York actually freaked him out due to her insane personality.

Gina Cowell

Gina Cowell

Played By: Monet Mazur

Castle's second ex-wife and publisher. They are generally on good terms so long as they don't try to restart their relationship.

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• Amicable Exes: Is still his agent despite being divorced and gets played straight again after their second failed relationship.
• Good Stepmother: She actually got along well with Alexis if their interaction during her and Castle's second romance is any indication.
• Sex with the Ex: She and Castle start up their relationship again at the end of Season 2 but break it off after several fights later in Season 3.
• Shipper on Deck: Like everyone else, she can tell that, at the least, Castle is into Beckett and encourages him to sleep with her...mainly because she sees his "consulting" as distracting him from doing his job and wants him to get to work.

Kyra Blaine

Kyra Blaine

Played By: Alyssa Milano)

One of Castle's ex-girlfriends (and his first love, to boot) who is reunited with him when a guest at her wedding is murdered in "A Rose For Everafter". Believes, like so many others, that Beckett and Castle are a couple, is a total Shipper on Deck and out-loud gives Beckett her blessing.

Josh Davidson

Josh Davidson

Played By: Creator Victor Webster)

Beckett's boyfriend, first introduced at the end of "Punked." They break up after Beckett is shot.

Jenny O'Malley

Jenny O'Malley-Ryan

Played By: Juliana Dever

Detective Ryan's Love Interest. Frequently mentioned but appears onscreen only rarely, played by Seamus Dever's real-life wife Juliana. Becomes his fiancée in the episode "Nikki Heat" and marries him immediately after "Till Death Do Us Part."

Madison Queller

Madison Queller

Played By: Julie Gonzalo

An old friend of Beckett who briefly dates Castle, stirring some jealousy in Beckett. She is the owner of a restaurant where a chef is murdered, as shown in "Food to Die For".

Natalie Rhodes

Natalie Rhodes

Played By: Laura Prepon

The actress who is cast to play Nikki Heat in the upcoming Heat Wave movie, as seen in the episode "Nikki Heat". Castle initially has doubts about her due to her resume of low-brow action and horror movies but soon warms up to her. A method actress, she shadows Beckett and imitates her mannerisms and appearance, which she is unnervingly good at. As character research, she insists on doing everything that Nikki does. Everything.

Damian Westlake

Damian Westlake

Played By: Jason Wiles

An old friend of Castle's from boarding school, shown in "The Final Nail". He was the editor of the literary magazine, where he became Castle's first mentor. He was accused of his father's murder but the evidence was inconclusive and he inherited his father's wealth. Damian's father was murdered by one of Damian's classmates but, in a last-minute twist, it's revealed that Damian hired the classmate to kill him.

Alex Conrad

Alex Conrad

Played By: Brendan Hines

A young mystery writer who just published his first novel with help from Castle, seen in "The Dead Pool". He begins shadowing Beckett, which makes Castle jealous. Castle invites Conrad to one of his poker games, where his fellow writers engage in some "friendly hazing." Afterwards, Conrad begins hanging out with Ryan and Esposito. It is implied they become his new "muses."

Evelyn Montgomery

Evelyn Montgomery

Played By: Judith Scott)

Roy Montgomery's wife, introduced in "Pretty Dead". They have two daughters named Mary (LaNiesha Irvin) and Rebecca (Daniele Watts).

Ashley

Ashley

Played By: Ken Baumann

Alexis' boyfriend, first introduced in "Punked". She makes use of his Gender-Blender Name to trick her father into letting him come over, which led to a rather...awkward first meeting between father and suitor. After he graduates at the end of Season 3, he goes to Stanford, and while Alexis wants to maintain a long-distance relationship until she can graduate early and move out with him, there seem to be a few... snags... in Season 4, until ultimately the stresses of a long-distance relationship proved too much and Alexis broke up with him.

Robert Weldon

Robert Weldon

Played By: Creator:Joseph C Phillips)

The mayor of New York City and a close friend of Richard Castle. He is the one who initially gets Castle the chance to shadow Beckett. He is investigated for embezzling money from a charity. While blame ultimately falls to one of his staffers, the scandal keeps him from running for governor as he originally planned.

Pi

Pi

Played By: Myko Olivier

Another of Alexis' boyfriends, who she meets in college. Castle disapproves of his New-Age Retro Hippie tendencies as when the guy was staying at his home, rarely cleaned up after himself, would walk in on Castle and Beckett without warning, and they leave him with few job prospects.

Law Enforcement, Government Agencies, & Other Associates

NYPD

Det. Tom Demming

Det. Tom Demming

Played By: Michael Trucco

An NYPD robbery detective, first seen in "Den of Thieves", who becomes Beckett's boyfriend until their breakup at the end of the second season.

Dr. Burke

Dr. Carter Burke

Played By: Michael Dorn

Beckett's psychiatrist in Season 4.

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Ike Thorton

Ike Thornton

Played By: Aaron Spears

Esposito's old partner, as seen in "Den of Thieves", who turned to a life of crime and left his family behind. It turns out that Thornton was infiltrating a crime ring and helping bring down a powerful mob boss.

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Mike Royce

Mike Royce

Played By: Jason Beghe

A cop turned bounty hunter and Beckett's old mentor, introduced in "Under the Gun". He then betrays his old ideals and tries to steal a hidden hoard of jewels, resulting in a Broken Pedestal. He comes Back for the Dead in "To Love and Die in L.A.", prompting Beckett to chase his killer to Hollywood.

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Detective Slaughter

Detective Ethan Slaughter

Played By: Adam Baldwin

Featured in "Headhunters", a Cowboy Cop that Castle works with when he is falling out of touch with Beckett. Surprisingly they avoid any Firefly references (except maybe the brown jacket).

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• Boisterous Bruiser: He's a loud, rude, and hard-drinking brawler.
• Casanova Wannabe: Hits on Beckett, an unnamed female ME, and perves off-screen on Alexis. He has zero on-screen success with any woman.
• Cowboy Cop: He's violent, reckless and basically the exact opposite of Beckett.
• Dirty Cop: Threatens a gangster by proxy into turning on his boss and leads him during the interrogation into saying what he needs to hear.
• Drives Like Crazy: Off-screen, but he apparently drives on the sidewalk.
• Hidden Depths: He majored in musical theater before becoming a cop and is an excellent cook.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He runs into some Mexican gangsters' HQ with only Castle for back-up...and proceeds to threaten 10+ armed thugs at the same time.
• Slobs vs. Snobs: Compared to Beckett and company, he's the slob, he drinks on the job, and dresses like the people he arrests.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though he is a brutal, dirty cop, his efforts are to get brutal gangsters off the street.

Ann Hastings

Ann Hastings

Played By: Valerie Azlynn

NYPD officer in the 12th Precinct. Revealed to be the vigilante "superhero" Lone Justice. Fangirl of Beckett, and allows Beckett access to Senator Bracken while working his security detail.

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LT

LT

Played By: LT Tolliver

An otherwise unnamed officer who rarely speaks in the series. But he's shown up multiple times helping on the case of the week or guarding crime scenes. Castle interacts with him the most. He finally speaks in Veritas, and he trusts the group consisting of Castle, Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan enough to cover them in a tight spot.

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• The Danza: He's only ever referred to as LT with his credits given as Lt Tolliver his actor's name.

FBI

Will Sorenson

Agent Will Sorenson

Played By: Bailey Chase

An FBI agent specializing in missing children and Beckett's ex-boyfriend, as revealed in "Little Girl Lost".

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Jordan Shaw

Agent Jordan Shaw

Played By: Dana Delany

An FBI profiler who helps capture a crazed killer targeting "Nikki Heat" in the season 2 two-parter "Tick, Tick, Tick..."/"Boom!" Her skills and fancy equipment impress Castle, stirring feelings of jealousy in Beckett. However, she too comes to respect Agent Shaw.

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Agent Harris

Agent Harris

Played By: Dylan Walsh)

FBI agent brought in to oversee the safe return of Sara El-Masri to her parents (and, eventually, Alexis to Castle.)

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Department of Justice

Rachel McCord

Rachel McCord

Played By: Lisa Edelstein

Beckett's partner in DC. She is much more cynical and accepting of the moral compromises that being a special agent for the DOJ requires than Beckett is. Killed offscreen in the Season 8 opener.

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Carl Villante

Carl Villante

Played By: Yancey Arias

Da Chief for Beckett and McCord in D.C., who is deeply impressed by their work, and recognizes the benefits of Beckett's tactics, but does warn her to keep in line on occasion.

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Richmond

Richmond

Played By: Peter James Smith

A computer expert at the DOJ who works on Rachel's team, checking up on lines of inquiry, and having a good working relationship with Beckett and Castle.

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Matt Hendricks

Matt Hendricks

Played By: Jocko Simms

A DOJ agent on Rachel's team alongside, who plays a major role in welcoming Castle onto the team. He is mentioned as having died alongside of Rachel, and it is implied that Richmond and Villante did well, although this is slightly ambiguous.

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Others

Mark Fallon

Mark Fallon

Played By: Adrian Pasdar

Seen in the season 3 two-parter "Setup"/"Countdown", a Homeland Security agent who has been compared to Jack Bauer. His harsh interrogation methods and use of racial profiling put him at odds with the main characters. He's a bit of a Jerkass Woobie when you find out his backstory. His wife's death on 9/11 is the primary reason for his cold tactics and harsh attitude in the interrogation room. To make it worse, he and his wife were on the phone when the towers collapsed.

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Sophia Turner

Sophia Turner

Played By: Jennifer Beals

A CIA agent who appears in "Pandora"/"Linchpin". She inspired the character of 'Clara Strike' in Richard Castle's 'Derrick Storm' series of novels, and they also shared more than a bit of romantic chemistry, much to Beckett's annoyance. She turns out to be The Mole. She also hints that she knew Castle's father but she is killed before she can say more.

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Henry Jenkins

Henry Jenkins

Played By: Matt Letscher

Heavily involved in Castle's 2-month disappearance. First appears under an assumed name and tries to be helpful, but later, when Castle tracks clues to Montreal, he holds him at gunpoint and tells him to stop digging into this, then tells Castle a secret that only he would know, as proof that Castle himself asked for his memory of the 2 months to be erased.

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Serena Kaye

Serena Kaye

Played by: Kristan Lehman

An insurance investigator who attached herself to a murder investigation connected to an art theft, irritating Beckett both for intervention in her case and her flirtations with Castle.

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• Classy Cat-Burglar: Her background was this, specializing in "taking back" stolen or wrongfully seized artwork and returning it to their rightful owners. She still uses her equipment but now as her job as a retrieval specialist for an insurance company.
• Expy: Of Catherine Bannin/Vicki Anderson being an insurance investigator who works with the local cops with her sole job to retrieve stolen artwork back. Though she has some elements of Thomas Crown thrown in with a background as a thief.
• Reformed Criminal: A look into her past reveals that she's a former highly-skill thief who committed several thefts but never caught. She then made a career change to an insurance investigator, using her reputation as a bargaining chip to make use of retrieving stolen artwork. It should be noted that when asked about, not only does Serena admits to it but reveals everything she had stolen was already stolen artwork and was simply returned to its rightful owners.

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Suspects

Johanna Beckett Conspiracy

Dick Coonan

Dick Coonan

Played By: Jay R. Ferguson

A corrupt, drug-trafficking philanthropist who appears in "Sucker Punch." He is also the man who was hired to kill Beckett's mother. He is killed by Beckett while taking Castle hostage, the identity of his employer apparently dying with him.

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• Actually, I Am Him: When he realises Beckett is prioritizing her mother's killer, he claims that he hired a hit man called "Rathborne" to commit the murder for him. This allows him to cut a deal for immunity in exchange for setting up another contract to lure Rathborne out. He has them wire $100,000 to his own offshore account but Rathborne never shows up to the location. However, as Dick is walking out with his immunity he mentions Beckett's mother being the victim "Rathborne" supposedly killed. That's when Castle and Beckett realize that Coonan never hired a hit man; he was his own hit man.
• Cain and Abel: His brother, Jack, found out he was smuggling drugs in the territory of The Irish Mob and was ordered to kill him. Jack couldn't bring himself to murder his own brother... but Dick could.
• Calling Card: His favored method of murder is killing his victims with a precise thrust to the kidneys. However, he tries to mask this by stabbing the victim is several other places across the abdomen and torso to camouflage the skill of the initial killing strike. Particularly observant coroners still notice it and are able to use it to attribute kills to him though.
• Hostage Situation: In a desperate final bid to escape the 12th Precinct, he takes Castle hostage at gunpoint and tries to make it to the exit.
• Professional Killer: He was a special operations soldier in the First Gulf War and became a contract killer sometime afterwards. He eventually graduated into a drug kingpin but when he needed somebody dead he still did the job himself rather than pay for a hit man.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Dick seems to be an altruistic philatrophist who was secretly a contract killer and running a drug smuggling operation. Meanwhile, his brother, Jack Coonan, was openly known as a top enforcer for The Irish Mob but simultaneously detested drug dealers and was a notorious Bully Hunter.
• Villain with Good Publicity: He is a philatrophist who builds schools in Afghanistan. In reality, he secretly smuggles heroin out of Afghanistan into the United States via Hong Kong.

Hal Lockwood

Hal Lockwood

Played By: Max Martini

The alias used by the hit man, introduced in "Knockdown", who shot Detective Raglan, who led the investigation of Johanna Beckett's murder. He was imprisoned but refused to give any information on his employer. Beckett vowed to visit him every week until he decided to tell her what she wants to know. Used dirty cop connections to get himself into General Population, where he killed the other detective who was on that case, leading to an arraignment where his associates busted him free. This led to a series of events that ended with him being killed by Captain Montgomery in his final act.

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• Affably Evil: Quite polite and professional in the execution of his work, even assassinations and torture.
• Cold Sniper: His introduction is shooting a dirty cop trying to go clean mid confession, from a building across the street.
• Consummate Professional: Maintains a military discipline and methodology to his work. He speaks in code, covers his tracks and never shows an ounce of emotion.
• Guttural Growler: Not angry enough for a growl, but Hal has a smokey quality to his voice.
• Hero Killer: Kills Captain Montgomery.
• Icy Blue Eyes: He's always giving the same emotionless stare.
• Knight of Cerebus: While the Beckett's Mom Arc has always been a darker one, Hal's appearances cause massive emotional trauma to the main characters. He's also the first sign that there is a massive conspiracy and cover-up around Beckett's Mom, and he kills Captain Montgomery.
• The Men in Black: An unconventional one, but he doesn't express emotion, is an agent of a mysterious conspiracy involving the government, is dedicated to covering up any evidence of that conspiracy and silencing any that are seeking its secrets and wears clothing from a dark color palette.
• Perma-Stubble: Lockwood has a few's days growth on his face in all of his appearances, in fact it appears to be at exactly the same length, which considering that one of those appearances was in prison is a pretty impressive feat. Also, considering that Lockwood's scruff makes him more distinctive, a handicap for a pro killer, the only reason for the beard seems to be adding to his Obviously Evil nature.
• Professional Killer: While it's never explicitly stated, he doesn't appear to have any hatred towards his victims, nor does he express a loyalty to a cause greater than himself, so by process of elimination he's one of these.
• The Stoic: Doesn't raise his voice above a medium rasp.
• Torture Technician: He performs literal Cold-Blooded Torture on Esposito and Ryan to get them to reveal what the cops know about him, it doesn't work but it got damn close.

Beckett's Sniper

Cole Maddox

Played By: Tahmoh Penikett

Assumed name of a killer who, in "Always", is later revealed to be the sniper who shot Beckett. When Esposito and Beckett catch up to him, he proceeds to take the both of them down with ease, knocking Esposito out cold and leaving Beckett hanging off the edge of a building. His mission is to find Montgomery's contact who received information damaging to his employer. At the end of season 4, he has found Montgomery's contact (Mr. Smith), and tells him that he still has every intention of killing Beckett. After destroying the original file, he tails Castle and Beckett to the location of a hidden backup file, then cuffs them both (not to each other this time) to kill later...after he got the backup. He did. Unfortunately for him, the file was booby-trapped. Kablooey.

Vulcan Simmons

Vulcan Simmons

Played By: Jonathan Adams

A dealer that lived in the area that Beckett's mother had been visiting and reaching out to. Though not actually involved in the murder itself, he thought that it was deserved, prompting Beckett to try to put him through the observation glass at the precinct. While not a initially a direct threat, he graduates into full villain territory in Season 6, when he is revealed to be working to build the financial aspects of Senator Bracken's operations before he runs for president, and nearly kills Beckett during an interrogation as payback for their initial encounter. He's killed in "Veritas" by someone who plants the killing on Beckett.

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• Badass Baritone: Has a rich, smooth, deep voice.
• Scary Black Man: He cuts a very intimidating figure.

The Dragon

Senator William Bracken

Played By: Jack Coleman

Protected New York Senator with aspirations of much higher office. He was NYC's district attorney in the late 80s, which put him directly in the front row of the mob ransom scenario. He couldn't get the mob guys to testify against the cops or stop the mob because the system was so corrupt, so he decided he'd get a piece of the pie and blackmailed the corrupt police officers into giving him their ill-gotten gains. He uses this to fund his first campaign, but needs to cover up where the funds came from as he's looking to go much much farther in politics. When Johanna Beckett starts investigating the original crime that stopped the corrupt cops, she pulls on a very long and tenuous thread and thus, he is the man that is most responsible for Beckett's mother's murder, despite not pulling the trigger. And all the ensuing cover up murders that followed. Also, he could have had more help, as it is mentioned, quite frequently that he is untouchable. Beckett finally manages to arrest him in "Veritas", when she finds proof where the man admits to several crimes.

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• Affably Evil: Has polite small talk with Beckett and the crew, even though they've both planned on killing each other.
• Arch-Enemy: To Beckett, since he's the one who had her mother killed.
• Big Bad: Serves as this for the entire 'Beckett's Mother Conspiracy Arc', having been the politician who ordered her murder.
• Consummate Liar: How he's managed to evade justice for decades.
• Corrupt Politician: His entire MO, he has an entire crew of elite assassins that cover up corruption scandals. He got his start in politics using the money Montgomery's crew had gotten by kidnapping criminals. He parlayed that not only into political power but into an ongoing international criminal organization.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Beckett gave him one on the cheekbone.
• Killed Off for Real: Early in season eight, when Beckett uncovers more of his past with LOKSAT.
• Villainous Rescue: Sends a contract killer to save Beckett from being executed as repayment for her saving his life in an earlier episode.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Comes from being a United States Senator.

Others

The Copycat

Harrison Tisdale

Played By: Brian Avers

Son of a self-made millionaire, Harrison murdered his sister Allison along with two others as part of a scheme to hide his motive by posing as a Serial Killer emulating the books of Richard Castle.

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• Crazy-Prepared: Deconstructed as this is what definitively makes him as a suspect: he had an airtight alibi for all the murders and even knew off the top of his head when they happened. Beckett points out that innocent people don't need alibis.
• Frame-Up: His plan was to frame one of his sister Allison's cases as a social worker as the killer to throw off the scent off him.
• Inheritance Murder: Harrison's business is failing, and with his sister out of the way, he inherits all of his father's money. Of course, given that his motive for these killings is revenge as stated below, the money is really more of a happy bonus.
• Serial Killings, Specific Target: Harrison killed two other people alongside his sister. Castle explains to Alexis that when the body count in these kinds of cases gets to three, police tend to stop looking for some connection to the victims and look for a crazy person like Kyle, who doesn't really need a motive to kill people.
• Shown Their Work: Subverted as this is the first thread which begins unraveling his scheme. While Harrison replicated the crimes from Castle's books enough the police realize the connection; he fails to get every detail right which an obsessive fanatic Serial Killer would never do.
• Starter Villain: He's the first murderer arrested as of the result of Castle and Beckett's fledging partnership, setting the events of the series in motion.
• The Unfavorite: The real reason Harrison killed his sister aside from the money; she was apparently the favorite for their father Johnathan, and so he killed her to deprive their father of the only thing he loved.

Nikki's Fan

Scott Dunn

Played By: Dameon Clarke)

A serial killer who appears in "Tick Tick Tick..." and "Boom!" He commits several murders in New York "dedicated" to Kate Beckett, who he thinks of as Nikki Heat, and tries to frame a man named Ben Conrad. He commemorates his murders by writing novels based on them, including his Nikki Heat fanfic "Dead Heat." It is implied he committed another series of murders against prostitutes in Seattle.

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• Arch-Nemesis: Views himself as one to "Nikki Heat" who is the fictional character from Castle's new book series. His obsession leads to him targeting Beckett, since she was the inspiration for the character, making her his perfect counterpart as a representation of a detective who was part-reality and part-fiction.
• Calling Card: He writes letters on the bullets he fires into his victims to send messages to taunt the NYPD.
• Frame-Up: Kills victims connected to the innocent Ben Conrad to make him look guilty and then makes Ben's death look like a suicide to fake his death.
  • Did this previously in Seattle. To write his latest manuscript he killed several prostitutes for inspiration then hung a prime suspect and made it look like a suicide to escape.
• The Killer Was Left-Handed: Inverted. The man Dunn framed as the killer was left-handed but Dunn posed his body in his supposed suicide with the gun in his right hand.
• Mad Bomber: Blows up Beckett's apartment in an attempt to kill "Nikki" and later attempts to blow up a building with the FBI team inside.
• Serial Killer: An obsessive aspiring writer with psychosis who turned to serial killing and domestic terrorism to inspire his fiction.
• Victim-Blaming: Blames his murders on "Nikki" for being unable to catch him and uses this to taunt Beckett and make her feel guilty. When she survives his bombing attempt he takes out his rage by killing a random woman and telling Beckett she wouldn't be dead if "Nikki" had just died like she was supposed to.

3XK

The Triple Killer aka 3XK aka Jerry Tyson

Played By: Michael Moseley

A serial killer who targets women, killing three within the same week. The name has a double meaning as there are, in fact, three people involved in the killings. The original killer, Jerry Tyson, pays two friends to help him. Because one of the two friends needs an operation, they agree. He became the only killer in the series to escape. He was revisited in the season 4 episode "Kick the Ballistics", where the gun he stole from Ryan reappears in a recent murder case, which turns out to have been committed by a man 3XK befriended during his incarceration. Reappears in the Season 5 in "Probable Cause", where he frames Castle for a murder that has been built to look like a first draft for one of his novels, and it turns out he has been stalking Castle for quite some time. He apparently dies after being shot and falling off a bridge when he was confronted Castle and Beckett, but it is implied by Castle that he may have done this to disappear again and keep killing. And he was right: Tyson resurfaces again thanks to the efforts of his other "friend", Dr. Kelly Nieman, who uses her plastic surgery skills to make off with all of the NYPD's records on Tyson, allowing him to pretend to be someone else and the NYPD unable to keep him for more than a few hours. Uses this as a ploy to kidnap Beckett and lure Castle into a setup where he would watch Beckett die before being killed himself. Fortunately for Castle, he runs a counter-setup, playing on Tyson's need for exposition to get him into the right position for a hidden Esposito to snipe him dead.

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• Arch-Enemy: To Castle because of the obession with proving himself smarter, for escaping, and also the Beckett kidnapping.
• Character Death: In "Reckoning", Tyson is killed with a sniper rifle by Esposito. He's not walking that one off.
• The Chessmaster: Proves to be highly intelligent and a master schemer, capable of developing elaborate plans to escape prison, frame Castle for murder, and erase his identity from the NYPD's system. There is a good reason why he's the only villain in the show's run to escape justice at the end of an episode.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In a roundabout way, his addiction to complex murders that put him in the line of fire and his love of manipulating others ends up killing him. While Tyson finds it easy to get into people's heads to make them do what he wants, it never occurs to him that Castle could get inside his head and turn his own plan to lure Castle out against him. After seasons of playing other people, he gets played himself when Castle uses his need to have the last word in a complicated crime against him.
• Impersonating an Officer: In "Probable Cause" Serial Killer 3XK, dressed as a cop, visits Castle in the precinct's holding area to reveal that he's the one who framed the writer for the Murder of the Week.
• It's Personal: In "Kick The Ballistics", it's discovered that the gun used in the murder of a college student was the same gun that the 3XK Killer stole from Ryan in the previous season. When he learns this, Ryan takes it hard.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: His stint as a Karma Houdini finally comes to end when he is shot and killed in "Reckoning" by Esposito.
• Myth Arc: The center of one of these in the show, the other being the murder of Beckett's mother.
• Never Found the Body: His body is never found in "Probable Cause" so Castle is immediately convinced that the death was faked, but Beckett is convinced that would only happen in fiction. The trope is finally confirmed (i.e. 3XK is still alive) as of "Disciple".
• Out-Gambitted: Tyson could have walked away after faking his death and disposing of all evidence of his past crimes and never been caught, but his obsession with proving he was smarter than Castle proved to be his undoing. He kidnapped Beckett, knowing he could set things up to draw Castle out alone and kill him after making him watch Beckett die. Castle knew he knew that, which is why he "came alone"...and had Esposito and Ryan backing him up, and kept Tyson gloating long enough for Esposito to set up a shot and snipe Tyson.

Gregor Volkov

Gregor Volkov

Played By: Nestor Serrano

Internationally-known crime boss, known enough for Richard Castle to fictionalize him in his Derrick Storm series of novels. Archenemy of Jackson Hunt, Castle's father. Kidnaps Alexis after he learns she's his granddaughter, and kidnaps her friend, an Egyptian heiress, along with her to get his attention. He's killed by Hunt through Castle's stolen radio-bomb in their rescue attempt and assault on his compound.

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Kelly Niemen

Dr. Kelly Nieman

Played By: Annie Wersching

Plastic surgeon and former prison doctor who fell in love with Jerry Tyson while she was in prison. She performed Magic Plastic Surgery on two people to look like Lainie and Esposito so she could access the NYPD archives and medical records to remove all traces of 3XK from the system in order to prevent DNA identification upon capture of Jerry Tyson in the future, allowing him reasonable doubt as to his identity by simply insisting to be someone who had plastic surgery to resemble him. Gets gutted with a scalpel by Beckett in "Reckoning", thwarting her plan to steal Beckett's face and escape justice.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: She is completely obsessed with Beckett's face.

LOKSAT

LOKSAT aka Mason Wood

Played By: Gerald Mcraney)]]

A mysterious figure who partnered with Senator William Bracken and Vulcan Simmons to assist them in overseeing drug operations in the United States and the final hidden villain in the conspiracy surrounding the death of Beckett's mother. He is secretly Mason Wood, a CIA Analyst and head of the G.D.S (Greatest Detective Society).

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• Arc Villain: He serves as this for the entirety of Season 8, having had no mention in previous seasons despite being the shadowy backer behind the Beckett Conspiracy.
• Hidden Villain: He is first mentioned in the first episode of Season 8 and is referenced to and behind the actions of many of the cases throughout the final season before making an actual physical appearance.
  • In a meta-sense he's been this since the beginning since it was Retcon that he was The Man Behind the Man of previous villains in past seasons such as Senator Bracken and Vulcan Simmons.
• The Man Behind the Man: When they mention his name to former Big Bad, Senator William Bracken, the man is terrified and is killed on LOKSAT's orders in prison shortly afterwards.

Others

Clark Murray

Clark Murray

Robert Picardo

Known to Castle as "Dr. Death", he aids Castle by showing him the physics of dead bodies so he can get them right in his novels. Castle asks him to look into Beckett's mother's murder behind her back; later, he ties the Victim of the Week in "Sucker Punch" to her mother's killer, Dick Coonan.

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Mr. Smith

Michael Smith

Played by: Geoff Pierson

The recipient of Montgomery's letter designed to stop the attacks on Beckett. In "Rise", he contacts Castle and advises him to get Beckett to back off her investigation into her mother's murder, as they will try to kill her again if she presses. In "Dial M for Mayor", he is assumed to have resolved the case in such a way that the Mayor's involvement is kept secret, because they need the Mayor in place to keep Gates from removing Castle from the 12th precinct... a move that would have disastrous consequences for Beckett. In "Always", he is discovered by Cole Maddox, a killer hired by the person behind Beckett's mother's murder. He's tortured (but not killed) by Maddox in an attempt to destroy the evidence against his employer. He gives Castle and Beckett clues to the location of a secret backup of the file, allowing Maddox to get his hands on it (and get himself blown to smithereens by the trap set by Smith). Smith decides to quit himself of Beckett and "disappear" after this, but he's killed by (presumably) an associate of the Big Bad. However, late in season 6 he turns out, with the help of his doctor, to have been Faking the Dead and informs Beckett of a crucial piece of evidence that can bring down Bracken before going back into hiding. Beckett finds him again early in Season 8 to press him for more information about Bracken's mysterious CIA partner. Smith tells her another clue but makes it clear he won't help her anymore as he has a new life he wants to live.

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Vikram Singh

Vikram Singh

Played by: Sunkrish Bala

A former low-level analyst for the Attorney General's Office. He found information relating to a search Beckett did on Senator Bracken two years before and forwarded it to Beckett's AG partner Rachel McCord. When she and her team were killed under mysterious circumstances, Singh got to New York to contact Beckett as soon as possible and inform her about LOKSAT, the mysterious program that is doing everything they can to cover themselves up...including killing AG agents and disgraced politicians in prison. He assists Beckett with information leading to LOKSAT's takedown. He doesn't trust Castle enough to truly let him in on their plans, and even warns Beckett off from letting him into the investigation (she does anyway, but the pair keep up the façade of separation.)

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Cameos

Real Life Mystery Novelists at Castle's Poker Games

• Stephen J. Cannell: Wrote the Shane Scully series. Passed away on Sept. 30, 2010 and was given an In Memoriam at the end of "Punked." His Vanity Plate also appears. His poker buddies still leave a seat out for him at their games in his honor.
• James Patterson: Famous for the Alex Cross series, which is mentioned in the show.
• Michael Connelly: Most famous for the Harry Bosch series, which is mentioned in the show.
• Dennis Lehane: Wrote the Kenzie and Gennaro Series.

Other Famous Cameos

• Joe Torre in "Suicide Squeeze"
• Rocco Dispirito in "Food to Die For"
• Gene Simmons in "To Love and Die in L.A."
• Wes Craven in "Scared to Death"

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