The Double Down

**Writer**: David Grae

**Director**: Rob Bowman

#### DUSTJACKETS BLURB

When the team catch two murders in the same night, a simple work arrangement turns into a bet as to who will catch their guy first -- Beckett and Castle, or Esposito and Ryan. With stakes as high as a shaved head, both pairs are working their cases hard, but it may turn out that they're not working separate cases at all.

*NB: This episode was shot fourth, although it aired as the second.*

### Guest cast

* Arye Gross - M.E. PERLMUTTER
* Brennan Elliot - JASON COSWAY
* Diana-Maria Riva - Det. ROSELYN KARPOWSKI
* Linara Washington - CHRISTINA MARX

### Music

* "Who Taught You To Live Like That?" - SLOAN (opening scene at the precinct)
* "We Are Not The Losers (Anymore)" - ACTIONSLACKS (NYPD busts small time drug dealers)

### Literary and other references

* "Nemo" is a clownfish and the title character of the movie *Finding Nemo*.
* *Crash* was a movie about random lives intersecting in LA. *Footloose* is a dance movie with Kevin Bacon.
* "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" comes from six degrees of separation, a theory which presumes that all people on the planet are connected by six steps to each other (it's also the title of a play by John Guare). Poor Kevin Bacon somehow wound up at the center of the game. Or the world, if you want to get literal about it. Bacon himself turned the game into a charitable website, Sixdegrees.org.
* *Strangers on a Train* is a Hitchcock film from 1951, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, whose plot follows a similar story (the connection being they met on a train, not a water taxi).
* Ryan spits on his palm before shaking hands on the bet; this is a typical Old World, possibly Irish, way of sealing a deal with bodily fluids other than blood.

### Memorable moments

* Lanie and her 'girls'.
* Beckett and Karpowski calmly greeting each other in the middle of chaos.
* Ryan spitting on his hand when Castle and the boys made the bet.
* The look Beckett gives Castle for correcting her grammar during an interview.
* Beckett figuring out the bet...and getting in on it.
* Martha 'beating' Alexis.
* Hitting the case out of the ballpark, complete with jazz hands.

### Quotable quotes

* ESPOSITO: A warm milk nightcap with your lady? That is sad, bro.
RYAN: It helps her sleep.
ESPOSITO: How about the sound of your voice? Works on me.
* MARTHA: Ah, young love. First there's banana splits, then there's splitting assets.
CASTLE: Mother, you're a hopeless romantic.
MARTHA: I know.
* BECKETT: You bet your britches the bet is back on.
* BECKETT: What's with the super cop?
CASTLE: I have no idea what you're talking about.

### Just the facts

Go here to discuss the spec

* Ryan's girlfriend is named Jenny and she likes a honey milk nightcap.
* Castle is the first to make Honeymilk Ryan's new nickname.
* Beckett can whistle...sort of.
* Alexis and Owen break up over a girl who pretends to have known him at summer camp when they were little.
* This is the second ep in which someone says 'What? The doc's dead?' (The first is 1x10.)
* Beckett was either a Girl Scout, or she's a Girl Scout cookie lover because she knows that they're sold in February.
* Ryan nicknames his partner Iceposito.

### Oops

* This ep was originally scheduled to air as 2x04. Also, in the casting call, Karpowski was male.
* Ryan and Esposito threaten "their" suspect with the death penalty. But New York hasn't executed anyone since 1976. (Unless they were hoping he didn't know that?)
* In Ashley Cosway's appointment book, it looks as though Evan Hinkle was the last patient on Fridays, when actually, the Rosses were supposed to be after him. Also, it is odd that Cosway would write Hinkle's contact information every week.