Kill Shot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Season 4, Episode 9 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Air date | November 21, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Written by | Alexi Hawley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Directed by | Dave Barrett | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Episode guide | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Kill Shot is the ninth episode of the fourth season of Castle.
Summary[]
The team searches for a sniper who is terrorizing New York; Beckett tries to hide her worsening PTSD from Castle and the guys.
Recap[]
Promo[]
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
- Nathan Fillion as Richard Castle
- Stana Katic as Detective Kate Beckett
- Jon Huertas as Detective Javier Esposito
- Seamus Dever as Detective Kevin Ryan
- Tamala Jones as Dr. Lanie Parish
- Penny Johnson Jerald as Captain Victoria Gates
- Molly Quinn as Alexis Castle
- Susan Sullivan as Martha Rodgers
Guest Cast[]
- Michael Dorn as Dr. Carver Burke
- Scott Michael Campbell as Lee Travis
- Troy Winbush as Marcus Ford
- Mandy June Turpin as Caire Travis
- Tony Elias as Chris Nunez
- Karissa Vacker as Emily Reese
- Christina Ferraro as Sarah Vasquez
- Alexis Carra as Julie
- Joy Regullano as Anna
- Natalie Lander as Marie
- Marc Istook as Newscaster #1
- Diane Mizota as Newscaster #2
- Adam Pilver as Manager
- Marcus Choi as EMT
- Mark Nelson as Hot Shot
Quotes[]
- Castle: Who was that?
- Beckett: Personal business, Castle.
- Castle: Really? Who was it, inquiring minds want to know.
- Beckett: Well if you must know, his name is Roger.
- Castle: Roger?
- Beckett: Don't make fun. Do you know what he has that few men have?
- Castle: A Josh Groban CD? Hummel figurines?
- Beckett: No, not even close. Roger has the most incredible... resistance band.
- Castle: A resistance band? What is that, is that what I think it is?
- Beckett: For strength training. He's my physical therapist.
- Beckett: You guys, you don’t have to avoid the word on my account.
- Esposito: What word?
- Beckett: Sniper?
- Castle: Even I noticed.
- Castle: We’re gonna catch this guy.
- Beckett: Yeah, like we caught the guy that shot me.
- Dr. Burke: What you're describing, hypervigliance, it's a classic symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
- Beckett: I don't have PTSD.
- Dr. Burke: You were shot, by a sniper. I think it's fair to say this case is going to bring up issues. Issues you still haven't dealt with.
- Beckett: Okay, then fine, I'll deal with them. Right now, I need to figure out how to make this stop.
- Dr. Burke: It's not going to stop. Not without time and treatment. The psychological trauma is every bit as real as the physical trauma.
- Dr. Burke: I think you should consider stepping away from the case.
- Beckett: You don't think I can handle this?
- Dr. Burke: I'm saying you don't have to. You're not the only cop in the city, Kate.
- Beckett: What is that?
- Esposito: The rifle that shot you.
- Beckett: You are way out of line.
- Esposito: Just look at it.
- Beckett: What the hell are you doing?
- Esposito: I've been where you are, I know what you're going through.
- Beckett: Javi, I'm fine.
- Esposito: You're not fine. You're just trying to act like you are. This is just a tool. It's a hunk of steel. It has no magical powers, and the person that fired it not some all-powerful God. Just a guy with a gun. Just like the guy we're hunting now. And like every other bad guy, he's damaged goods.
- Beckett: So am I.
- Esposito: That's right. And that's okay. You think it's a weakness? Make it a strength. It's a part of you. So use it.
Featured Music[]
- "B-Bang - Unreleased" - B.et.a and the Neon Panthers
Trivia[]
- Castle mentioned the crimes of "The D.C. Sniper", which really consisted of two snipers, John Allen Muhammed and Lee Boyd Malvo. The man and teenage boy went on a shooting and killing spree of random pedestrians that terrorized people in and near a large expanse of the capital area, most notably a closed beltway surrounding the urban vicinity where the shootings were committed. Muhammad was executed and Malvo is reportedly up for parole. The shootings in the episode bear some hallmark details like the real crimes, such as leaving historically artistic items behind at the vantage points where the shots were taken. Instead of paper dolls cut from Metropolitan artworks, Muhammad left at one vantage point the tarot card for Death with a message to the police.
- The episode shows many similarities to the movie Dirty Harry. A detective on review tracks a sniper terrorizing the city he operates in to get a ransom to stop, even attacking a bus, just like the sniper in the episode attempted to. The movie ends with a standoff between the killer and the detective, with the killer being shot dead by police. The movie is ironically inspired by the real life Zodiac Killer, a real-life serial killer responsible for shooting and stabbing men and women in San Francisco and sending letters with signature symbols to the police before going dormant. The Zodiac even threatened to attack a bus in one communication, but no such siege happened.
- This was the second to the last episode to air in 2011.
- Early in the story, Beckett accuses a decorated war veteran of being evil and denies that snipers have any capacity to do good. The story ends when Esposito, himself a marksman, saves Beckett using these very techniques.
- Beckett's final confession to her therapist essentially acknowledges Castle's critique of her in "Knockout". Namely, that she let herself be defined by her mother's murder, was hiding from having real relationships because of it and was afraid to find out who she'd be if she ever caught her mother's murderer.
- This episode also further shows the extent of Beckett's PTSD, which Castle first notices in the opening episode of this season when a suspect points a gun at Beckett.
- Continuity error: It is illegal for a bus driver to use his phone while driving a bus, so he probably wouldn't have answered anyways, and probably wouldn't have had it up on the console. Also, buses have radios so the driver and dispatch can communicate. Even with events as loud as they were on the bus, the driver should still have heard dispatch trying to get a hold of him.
- In this episode, Beckett tries to climb the top of a building and cannot due to pain. In the "Always" opening scene, she keeps hanging on a building edge unable to climb up to safety for the same reason.
- Esposito mentions to have suffered from PTSD himself, something he previously revealed to Castle in "Kick the Ballistics".