Beckett and Castle investigate a murder of a young executive involving antique guns, a 200-year-old bullet, and New York's steampunk subculture. In the meantime, Castle is disquieted by the revelation that Alexis is experiencing first love and hasn't told him.
The episode ended with a tribute to late author Stephen J. Cannell, a guest star throughout Seasons 1 and 2 who passed away on September 30th, 2010.
Tropes that appear in this episode:
- Accidental Murder: The duel with antique dueling pistols was never meant to lead to anyone dying, with Goldstein himself having worked out that at 40 paces from one another, he and Adam Murphy would have no chance of killing each other. Yet Goldstein was fatally struck by Murphy's lead ball, much to the latter's horror.
- Beckett has to figure out if Murphy's fatal shooting of Goldstein with the antique firearm counts as murder or manslaughter" which will decide whether Murphy's prison sentence will be for life or for a couple of years. Castle's answer to solving this question is to take the antique guns down to the shooting range and try to hit the targets in the 10 ring. Several minutes of shooting later, and neither Beckett nor Castle (plus one helpful officer) manage to land a body hit.Castle: "Manslaughter it is."
Beckett: "Yep." - Subverted: Murphy's shot didn't hit Goldstein at all, but it did hit a squirrel. A third person, meanwhile, shot at Goldstein while he and Murphy drew their guns at midnight.
- Beckett has to figure out if Murphy's fatal shooting of Goldstein with the antique firearm counts as murder or manslaughter" which will decide whether Murphy's prison sentence will be for life or for a couple of years. Castle's answer to solving this question is to take the antique guns down to the shooting range and try to hit the targets in the 10 ring. Several minutes of shooting later, and neither Beckett nor Castle (plus one helpful officer) manage to land a body hit.
- Artistic License – History: Montgomery and Esposito appreciate an antique pistol made in 1875, with Esposito calling them individual works of art. By that point, machine manufacturing was decades old and the norm for gun manufacture. Modifications could have been done after the fact, but the guns were by no means the handcrafted items they would have been at the start of the century.
- Butt-Monkey: Not Esposito's episode at all. Starting by a suspect attempting to put him through a wall and him needing a neck brace, he spent the whole episode getting knocked around and people patting him while he is still injured.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The episode opens with Castle making a smorlette, an omelette with chocolate, marshmallows, and a graham cracker.
- Failure Montage: Castle's attempts to fire the antique gun lead to nothing but misses. Even with the gun stabilized by sandbags and with a laser sight taped to it.
- Gender-Blender Name: Alexis's new boyfriend is named Ashley. She neglects to tell Castle that the Ashley she's meeting for a study date is a boy.
- Not So Above It All: The cop in the next lane at the firing range is initially upset with Castle for his smoothbore pistol firing so poorly that it fires into his lane. However, he quickly gets drawn in to trying to get the gun to fire accurately.
- Punny Name: The NYPD call in an antique guns expert named Abe Sandrich for help. Upon hearing that name, Castle mentions that he's hungry.
- Revenge: Subverted Trope. Two suspects were connected to Goldstein via the latter's failed "lower tide fund". Both have enough motive to commit the crime, but the first suspect had an alibi and the second (the son of a lower tide fund investor who killed himself) was helped by Goldstein, who got him a stable job at The Gaslamp League. Castle and Beckett do briefly entertain the idea that the duel that Goldstein died in was for revenge; tragically, the purpose of the duel was something more light-hearted than that.
- Double Subverted: The duel was never about revenge, but the real killer (the second suspect metioned) took advantage of it to kill Goldstein and make it look like Murphy had shot him.
- Romantic False Lead: We meet Beckett's new boyfriend, Josh, a stunningly handsome man.
- Running Gag: Esposito being forced to wear a neckbrace after their first suspect in Goldstein's murder "[tried] to put [him] through a wall". He continually insists that he's fine, even where he really has to take temporary leave. Also, people patting him on the shoulder, which hurts.
- Shout-Out:
- The huge guy whose fingerprints are on Goldstein's wallet is named Andre. Castle calls him André the Giant.
- To Castle's disbelief, Goldstein's car is a DeLorean. Indeed, when Esposito and Ryan find it, it's decorated similarly to the DeLorean that appears in the film.
- Steampunk: The investigation finally leads Castle and Beckett to a steampunk club called The Gaslamp Leaguenote , where they find the murder weapon and the perpetrator. It also includes more references to Time Travel (see below), such as the time machine from the movie Time And Away.
- Time Travel: Invoked as Castle's hare-brained theory for this episode, stemming from the bullet inside of the Body of the Week being a 200-year-old lead ball. The actual theme of the episode, however, turns out to be Steampunk, which isn't that far off.
- Twerp Sweating: Castle accidentally walks in on Alexis kissing Ashley, her new boyfriend. Because it's Castle, he walks in waving an antique gun yelling "Who dares besmirch my honor?", terrifying the boy. Castle is at first apologetic, then upset because he realizes that Alexis let him think Ashley was a girl. That's when the Twerp Sweating goes from accidental to deliberate.Castle: I have a very good reason for holding a gun, which you would know if you checked in. ... I'm not the one of us who had something to hide.
- You Killed My Father: The killer's motive: he was the son of a tide fund investor who lost everything and killed himself. Despite Goldstein trying to make amends, he couldn't forgive him.
