Beckett and Castle look for a killer of a famous psychic while debating whether extrasensory abilities are real or fake. But, when a letter arrives from the victim predicting her death, they must determine who actually wrote the letter, the victim or the killer.
This episode shows examples of...
- A Deadly Affair: What ultimately set everything off. Emilio Casillas had an affair with one of his employees. When his wife Paula found out, she poisoned him to death. Vivien looked into the matter when Paula's daughter convinced her to hire Vivien to communicate with Emilio. When Paula realized Vivien was going to figure her out, she killed her.
- He Knows Too Much: The motive for the murder.
- Continuity Nod: The first Red Herring is a mobster, a former enforcer for the Spelano crime family. The Spelanos first showed up in the first season finale, as the people responsible for the death of the victim of the week, hunting a man in witness protection.
- Internal Reveal: Castle reveals that his birth name was "Richard Alexander Rodgers", but he changed it to "Richard Edgar Castle" (after Edgar Allan Poe) when he started writing.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Whether or not Vivien Marchand was really a psychic is left up in the air as there was times where she at least potentially displayed information she couldn't have known otherwise.
- Phony Psychic: The Victim of the Week. Maybe.
- Red Herring: An early suspect in the case is a member of a crime family who Vivian gave bad investment advice to, but when Castle and Beckett go to talk to him they find out that the man is actually happy as by sheer coincidence the realtor selling his house after he went bankrupt is the childhood sweetheart he never got over and they have started dating again.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: Paula killed her husband by putting selenium into his coffee bit by bit.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Martha spends most of the episode feeling guilty after her boyfriend, Chet Palburn, died before she could properly turn down his marriage proposal and the rest of his family spend the next few days telling her how happy Chet was that they were back together. Castle assures her that Chet knew and loved her for all her faults, by not rejecting his proposal immediately Martha gave him one last day of hope, and he's sure Chet would understand her reasons for planning to turn him down.
