Beckett and Castle are called to investigate the murder of a magician, found suspended upside down in a tank of water. The trail leads back to a money laundering scheme and an investigation into a questionable billionaire whose plane exploded over the Atlantic. Meanwhile, Lanie and Esposito try to keep a secret from the rest of the 12th Precinct and Castle struggles with his feelings for his ex-wife Gina.
- Affectionate Pickpocket: Beckett lifts Castle's phone.Castle: You had your hand in my pocket and I didn't even feel it? Do it again.
- Always Identical Twins: The Drake brothers.
- Attending Your Own Funeral: After faking his death, Dahl attends his memorial service while wearing a fake beard to listen to what people say about him and experience how thrilling it is. The team catches him because it's the kind of thing Castle would do and he thinks that Dahl is a bigger Attention Whore than he is.
- Authentication by Newspaper: Beckett notices that a set of wheelchair tracks at the victim's workshop ran over a newspaper dated the day he died, implying that whoever was in the wheelchair must have something to do with the murder.
- Bad Liar: Esposito turns into this to conceal his relationship with Lanie. Which everyone knew about anyway.Esposito: Saw him perform a couple of weeks ago. Awesome, awesome show. We loved it.
Castle: "We"?
Esposito: [cornered] Yeah... me and my buddy... Ray.
Ryan: You have a buddy named "Ray" who you went with to a magic show?
Esposito: Yeah. What about it? - Bedmate Reveal: In the Cold Open, Lanie and Esposito.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Dahl stole money to support his rich lifestyle.
- Demolitions Expert: Chuck Russell is both this and a high-functioning Mad Bomber. He is a former arsonist who uses smoke bombs and heavier explosives in his magic act and got kicked out of the American Magician's Guild for using more pyrotechnics than it was safe to and injuring his assistant. He was also the first person the late Zelman Drake thought of when he wanted to buy black market explosives.
- Everyone Can See It: Everyone in the precinct knows that Esposito and Lanie are a couple.
- Genius Cripple: Thaddeus Magnus is a paraplegic Gadgeteer Genius who builds things like mechanical arms for magic acts.
- He Knows Too Much: Dahl kills Zalman to ensure his survival is kept secret.
- Revealing Cover Up: Dahl murdering Zalman and staging it to look like a suicide leads to his continued survival being discovered in the course of the investigation. If he'd just paid the man and left it at that he'd likely have gotten clean away.
- Shoot the Builder: Zelman built a robotic dummy to control the take off of Dahl's plane and make it look like Dahl was onboard so the SEC wouldn't pursue him. Dahl killed him to keep the plot secret, which became a Revealing Cover Up.
- Shout-Out: To The Prestige. The magician has an identical twin, but they only used that in their act when they were boys.
- Smoke Out: Chuck Russell, a street magician (played by Chadwick Boseman), does this. Castle is amazed, while Beckett just rolls her eyes and pulls Russell out of the small stage he had ducked into.Beckett: Alakazam, jackass.
- Weaker Twin Saves the Day: Edmund Drake avenges the death of his brother, Zalman by helping the detectives and Tobias to get Christian Dahl arrested.
