As Castle and Beckett reel from the fallout of his investigating her mother's murder behind her back, they investigate a murder where the body is suddenly stolen from the morgue wagon.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: Three of the Russian mobsters Castle plays poker with while investigating the case.
- Analogy Backfire: When Castle compares their partnership to Starsky & Hutch, Tango & Cash and Turner and Hooch, Beckett agrees that he does remind her of Hooch.
- Bearer of Bad News: Beckett and Castle have to tell the victim's widow that her husband was murdered, and his body was stolen.
- The Bet: It's revealed that Ryan and Esposito had a wager on whether Beckett would forgive Castle and let him stay on the team.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: The murderer is the one Russian at the poker table who remained silent throughout Castle's probing them.
- Big Damn Heroes: Beckett arrives to save Castle from the killer in the casino.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Castle jokes that he wasn't at all scared during the body snatch, then says he needs to change his shorts.
- Bullying a Dragon: At the poker table, the Russians say (in Russian) that they're going to take Castle for everything he has, not realizing that he routinely plays poker with incredibly duplicitous people: mystery writers.
- Chekhov's Skill: Beckett's ability to fake a Russian accent gets her into the club to save Castle. Also Five-Second Foreshadowing, considering that she only demonstrated it a few minutes earlier.
- Everyone Can See It: Lanie is well aware of the romantic tension between Castle and Beckett and doesn't hesitate to bring it up (which causes Beckett to hurry out of the room).Lanie: Just cause you can't see it, doesn't mean everybody else can't see it.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed, but the body-jackers, a gang of large-scale drug dealers who prey on the desperate to be their mules, apparently negotiate a relatively lenient plea bargain in exchange for information leading to the killer.
- Lame Pun Reaction: The victim's body shows up with its organs missing. Castle's quip that "Someone hated his guts" gets nothing but dead stares from the rest of the team.
- The Mafiya: The killer is a Russian gangster who the victim had gambling debts with.
- The Magic Poker Equation: Castle wins his last hand, after provoking the killer, by drawing an inside straight, beating three queens.
- Morally Bankrupt Banker: The guy who vouched for the victim as a potential drug mule is a coked-up banker type. He's clearly tweaking during his interview with Castle and Beckett, high energy, twitchy, bouncing from topic to topic, and can't stop sniffing. It's overall downplayed because, though he's involved in some shady criminal shit (drugs, illegal gambling), he did try to help a friend who was down on his luck.
- Ms. Fanservice: In order to get into the poker game, Beckett strips off her clothes (showing off a bright red bra) and turns her sweater into a loose dress.
- Pun-Based Title: It's a reference to the fact that the victim was deep in debt.
- Rejected Apology: Beckett spends the episode refusing to accept Castle's apologies because he's not really apologizing to her for going behind her back and betraying her trust, he's trying to justify what he did. It's not until he finally delivers a full, unequivocal apology does she accept it and let him back on the team.
- Tattooed Crook: The victim was in debt to a tattooed Russian mobster, only for Castle to discover that there are multiple tattooed Russians at the game where he plays.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: The victim had accumulated some severe gambling debts while trying to provide for his family.
- The Unapologetic: Alexis's boyfriend missed their date due to playing video games and refused to apologize about it, causing them to break up. This gives Castle a mild Jerkass Realization on how he hadn't given Beckett an unqualified apology for looking into her mother's case and was trying to justify it rather than apologizing to her.
- Uncle Pennybags: Castle once again uses his cash to help with the case, walking into a no limit poker game and dropping twenty grand like it's nothing.
- Unconfessed Unemployment: The victim was fired from his job six months ago, but never told his wife, while trying to find a new job.
- Unusual Euphemism: The victim's former coworker refers to the day they were fired as "D-Day", with the D standing for "downsize".
