At the precinct, Castle arrives to tell Beckett some news about his novel: a Nikki Heat movie is in the works! As Castle, Esposito and Ryan all discuss potential casting choices, Beckett suddenly gets a call from a man who reports a murder. A murder that he committed. The call trace that Ryan handles points them to a phone booth in Grand Central Station. When the team arrives, they find the murder victim in an adjacent booth: a personal injury attorney named Alex Peterman, shot to death with five bullets. Beckett is troubled by the circumstances revolving around this, especially the perp who called to report his own crime.
The next day, Lanie calls Castle and Beckett in for an interesting discovery. The five bullets that Peterman was killed with were each etched with a letter. Beckett realizes that the letters spell a name: "NIKKI", as in Nikki Heat. The killer has dedicated this murder to Castle's fictional character, and by extension Beckett herself. But no sooner do they inform Captain Montgomery of this than the killer calls again, this time pointing "Nikki" to the Central Park carousel. There, they find the body of a dog walker on the ride, this time dead of four bullets. Lanie informs Castle and Beckett that this time, the bullets spell the word "WILL"; the message so far reads as an ominous "NIKKI WILL ...". The thought of a psychotic serial killer killing over Nikki Heat leaves Castle rather troubled; Beckett, despite her misgivings with the character, assures Castle that the killer's choice of subject is not Castle's fault.
[more to be added]
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Action Mom: Agent Shaw is one, much to Beckett's surprise.
- Character Development: This is the second time that crimes based on Richard Castle's books have taken place, and Castle himself is visibly more troubled by it around Beckett than he was in their first case together in "Flowers For Your Grave", mainly because he's inadvertently put Beckett in danger.
- Everyone Can See It: No one believes Castle and Beckett didn't sleep together.
- Insistent Terminology: The killer always refers to Beckett as "Nikki Heat", very likely a result of him seeing them as the same person.
- Layout of a Season: Each of its three full seasons has a major two-parter with a big guest star representing a federal agency right about this time. In this season, we have "Tick, Tick, Tick..." & "Boom!", guest-starring Dana Delaney, playing a specialist from the FBI.
- Shower Scene: After they think the killer is dead, Beckett goes home and takes a shower. We're treated to her blurred outline through the curtain and some shots of her soaping her legs.
