History Recap / CastleS2E13SuckerPunch

The team investigates the death of Jack "Jackie" Coonan, an {{Irish Mob}}ster who worked for the Westies. Evidence points to the blademan of the Westies' rivals, the Latin Kings, but he was too short to deliver the stab wounds to kill him. And since no one in either mob is talking, Castle and Beckett need to find other avenues. They find one in Coonan's girlfriend, Molly, who gives them a key to a bus locker filled with self-help [=DVDs=] of one Johnny Vong. Except they're not filled with DVD's, but heroin. Questioning Vong, the team discovers his act is just that, and that he needed whoever Coonan was trying to bust to take his act national. But he's so scared of him that he'd rather clam up than be killed. Then Beckett discovers why, after Dr. Clark Murray, Castle's Dr. Death, makes a startling conclusion: The man who killed Coonan also killed Beckett's mother.

* IrishMob: The Westies, to which the BodyOfTheWeek belonged.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The victim was caught by surprise by his killer (his brother), but Beckett is the one hit extra hard by the fact that the killer also killed her mother back in the day.

* TenMinuteRetirement: Beckett gets a HeroicBSOD when she learns the victim of the week was killed by the man who killed her mother.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Inverse: The plan to catch Rathborne is spelled out and goes horribly awry.

* FingertipDrugAnalysis

* HeroicBSOD

* TenMinuteRetirement

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Beckett realizes Wrathborn doesn't exist and Dick Coonan was Johanna Beckett's killer because she never mentioned in Coonan's hearing ''which'' relative Wrathborn killed, but Coonan referred to said relative as a "her".

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: As befits his well-established {{Fiction 500}} status, Castle funds the sting to catch Wrathborn.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Inverse: The plan to catch Wrathborn is spelled out and goes horribly awry.

The shock sends Beckett into a [[HeroicBSOD deep contemplative state]], and it takes a long talk with her father and a short talk with Castle to get her back on the case. They get Vong to talk, and he gives them Jackie's brother Dick, who he says hired a professional named Wrathborn to kill Jackie. Dick, confident that they have no evidence, gets to the heart of why Beckett is chasing this case and makes her a deal: he gives up his assassin, and he gets immunity in his brother's murder. The deal goes down: Coonan contracts Rathborne to put a hit on Vong, with a $100,000 fee for the service. Beckett balks at that payment, but Castle ponys it up himself. However, the plan fails: Rathborne doesn't show, and Dick Coonan's a free man. Except that he specifically said ''her'' killer when Beckett never told her the gender of who she lost...and he's not covered for ''her'' murder. Coonan immediately grabs Castle and uses him as a hostage for safe passage out of the precinct. But Castle headbutts him in the nose, giving Beckett just enough time to shoot him. Unfortunately, the shot is fatal, meaning Beckett still doesn't know who hired him to kill her mother.

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Inverse: The plan to catch Rathborne is spelled out and goes horribly awry.

The shock sends Beckett into a [[HeroicBSOD deep contemplative state]], and it takes a long talk with her father and a short talk with Castle to get her back on the case. They get Vong to talk, and he gives them Jackie's brother Dick, who he says hired a professional named Rathborne to kill Jackie. Dick, confident that they have no evidence, gets to the heart of why Beckett is chasing this case and makes her a deal: he gives up his assassin, and he gets immunity in his brother's murder. The deal goes down: Coonan contracts Rathborne to put a hit on Vong, with a $100,000 fee for the service. Beckett balks at that payment, but Castle ponys it up himself. However, the plan fails: Rathborne doesn't show, and Dick Coonan's a free man. Except that he specifically said ''her'' killer when Beckett never told her the gender of who she lost...and he's not covered for ''her'' murder. Coonan immediately grabs Castle and uses him as a hostage for safe passage out of the precinct. But Castle headbutts him in the nose, giving Beckett just enough time to shoot him. Unfortunately, the shot is fatal, meaning Beckett still doesn't know who hired him to kill her mother.

* INeverSaidItWasPoison: Beckett realizes Rathborne doesn't exist and Dick Coonan was Johanna Beckett's killer because she never mentioned in Coonan's hearing ''which'' relative Rathborne killed, but Coonan referred to said relative as a "her".

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Johnny Vong breaks his faux Vietnamese accent once he hears Jackie Coonan's dead.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: As befits his well-established {{Fiction 500}} status, Castle funds the sting to catch Rathborne.

The team investigates the death of Jack "Jackie" Coonan, an Irish Mobster who worked for the Westies. Evidence points to the blademan of the Westie's rival, the Latin Kings, but he was too short to deliver the stab wounds to kill him. And since no one in either mob is talking, Castle and Beckett need to find other avenues. They find one in Coonan's girlfriend, Molly, who gives them a key to a bus locker filled with self-help [=DVDs=] of one Johnny Vong. Except they're not filled with DVD's, but heroin. Questioning Vong, the team discovers his act is just that, and that he needed whoever Coonan was trying to bust to take his act national. But he's so scared of him that he'd rather clam up than be killed. Then Beckett discovers why, after Dr. Clark Murray, Castle's Dr. Death, makes a startling conclusion: The man who killed Coonan also killed Beckett's mother.

* GallowsHumor: "We who are about to die salute you."

* [[INeverSaidItWasPoison I Never Said It Was My Mother]]

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Castle's proposed strategy for getting Vong to talk is "force him to watch Paris Hilton Videos". The actual punishment they use is simply letting him go, knowing there's a man out there who'd kill him if he knew he was talking to the cops.