Castle, while dropping playful hints to Beckett about the plot of his first book based on her, investigate the murder of a con man posing as an Arctic explorer for school children. The case takes several interesting turns, fascinating Castle and infuriating Beckett, when they suspect that the victim was actually a CIA operative and may have faked his own death. But when an old CIA contact of Castle's disputes that the victim was ever a spy, everyone wonders just who is being fooled.
Tropes:
- Becoming the Mask: The con man started out milking a donation by students to send him to the Arctic, but once he fell in love with his girlfriend and decided to make an honest living, he stuck around to give them a legitimate experience. His partner, though, realized she would never get the money if he didn't finish the con, so she killed him and kept it going.
- Call-Back: Beckett's "date" in this episode pretty much falls in line with Castle's description of what Nikki Heat would do after a rough day in the previous episode.
- Character Development: Although Beckett has a point that it's not wise to glorify con-artists or paint them as heroes, she does come to see that in the victim's case, he's not as black and white as she thought he was.
- Foreshadowing: Castle's connection with the CIA will be revealed in later seasons.
- Helicopter Parents: The rich girl's father hired a private investigator to learn about his daughter's fiancé. He wasn't happy when he learned that his future son-in-law isn't what he thought he was. That is until he cooled down after learning how genuine the man's feeling towards his daughter were.
- In Love with the Mark: Fletcher was running a con on a rich heiress, Elise, looking for a payday as they built toward their wedding. Instead, he genuinely fell in love with her and was going to leave that life behind.
- Love Redeems: The con man changed his ways after falling in love with the rich girl he planned to steal from.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Castle's CIA contact disappears while standing right in front of Castle and Beckett.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: When Elise questions if Fletcher's love for her was just a facade to get her money, Beckett realizes how badly this could scar her trust. So she offers an idealistic (and pretty true) interpretation that Elise's love for him changed him for the better.
- Was It All a Lie?: Elise wondered this once the case was solved, if perhaps her fiancé loved her only for the money. Beckett has something to say about it (see Rebuilt Pedestal).
