Tick, Tick, Tick

**Writer**: Moira Kirland

**Director**: Bryan Spicer

#### DUSTJACKETS BLURB

A serial killer wants to challenge Nikki Heat. Unfortunately, that means Kate Beckett. Meanwhile, Martha toys with the idea of moving in with her boyfriend, Chet.

### Guest cast

* Dana Delany - FEDERAL AGENT JORDAN SHAW
* Leonard Roberts - JASON AVERY
* Dameon Clarke - THE KILLER
* Andrew Rothenberg - DONALD SALT
* Jim Hoffmaster - CLERK

### Music

* "7 Stars" - THE APPLES IN STEREO (Placement)

### Literary and other references

* The fingerprint iPhone app Jordan Shaw uses is real.
* Cliff Notes are booklets summarising the plots of famous works. They're widely used by American students to avoid having to actually read the plays and novels they're assigned at school.
* *Nim's Island* was a 2008 film with Jodie Foster.
* Susan Sullivan really did do an *Incredible Hulk* pilot. (aired November 4, 1977)
* The scene at the carousel "with the smoke and the flashlights and the weirdly cheerful music" was a deliberate shout-out to *The X-Files*. Rob Bowman, who produced/directed many *X-Files* episodes, is an executive producer on *Castle* (Moira Kirkland commentary).
* The line about the Recapitator serial killer in Phoenix is a shout-out to *Medium*, where Moira Kirkland used to work (commentary).
* 'Helter Skelter' was a song by The Beatles, which cult leader and murderer Charles Manson interpreted as a coded prophecy about racial war.
* John Hinckley attempted to assassinate President Reagan in 1981 in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster.
* *Jaws* is a 1975 movie about a killer shark. Actor Robert Shaw played Sam Quint, a hunter who goes after the shark.
* Captain America is a Marvel Comics superhero.
* Norman Bates is the central character in the Robert Bloch book, and Alfred Hitchcock film, *Psycho*.

### Memorable moments

* The gang casting themselves in the film version of *Heat Wave*.
* Avery's Cliff Notes version of the plot of the book.
* Castle fanboying Shaw with every case she's ever solved.
* The 'how long have you been sleeping together' scene.
* Castle's girly scream.
* The scene in Beckett's apartment
* Ryan interviewing Beckett about the body left at her door.
* Shaw mentoring Beckett.

### Quotable quotes

* CASTLE: Either a U.F.O. just landed on the other side of the park…
BECKETT: Or else the FBI is here to claim jurisdiction over this case.
CASTLE: Maybe they just want to ride on the carousel before the line gets too long.
* SHAW: I admire him the way Robert Shaw admired the shark in *Jaws*. The better I know him, the easier it’ll be to catch him.
* SHAW: Put. The taser. Down.
* CASTLE: Oh, no. I’m not leaving. I’m here to protect you.
BECKETT: What, with your vast arsenal of rapier wit?
* RYAN: Dude, you made her pancakes?
CASTLE: It’s just breakfast.
ESPOSITO: Pancakes is not just breakfast. It’s an edible way of saying, “Thank you so much for last night.”
* CASTLE/BECKETT: *(Together)* She’s a taxidermist.
LANIE: It’s so cute, the way you two do that.
* CASTLE: Listen. It’s a fact of life. People we love leave us. Unless you chain ‘em to a radiator, which for some reason is illegal.

### Just the facts

* Ryan wants James McAvoy to play Raley, Espo wants Javier Bardem, Lanie wants Halle Berry and Castle wants Kate Beckinsale to play Nikki Heat.
* Jordan Shaw broke the Hudson Valley Strangler case in 1991, when she was 25, by profiling that the perp drove a Yugo. She also worked on a case in Phoenix where the killer switched his victims' heads. And she plays a mean game of Scrabble.
* Kate lived in apartment 203.
* And she probably really does sleep with a gun. Also, she rarely cooks.
* The *Heat Wave* code is actually real (Moira Kirkland commentary).
* Castle's marriage to Gina apparently didn't involve much sex.
* Apparently there really are over a thousand mortuaries in New York City (Moira Kirkland commentary).
* Martha decides to move in with her boyfriend, Chet.

### Oops

* There are only two carousels in L.A., and one is on Santa Monica pier, right next to the Pacific ocean. The one featured in this episode is in Griffith Park, and since it's the only one with a suitably woods-y background, it has been featured in many other shows as well, including *Bones* (set in DC) and *CSI:NY.*
* Castle figures out that the code is from *Heat Wave* because the left-hand column is less than 300 and *Heat Wave* is 'less than 300 pages', but the book is actually only 198 pages. (Though the numbers we can see in the left-hand column only go up to 145, so the code does work.) Also, the books they're using for *Heat Wave* are, again, too thick to be the real book. Also, they find the correct words on the page much too quickly; they definitely didn't have time to count that fast.
* When the code says 'by midnight' they comment that that's eight hours away, and then in the next scene it's suddenly 9pm, and they don't have any more leads. One wonders what they have been doing for the last five hours.
* Beckett says that she sent her security detail home, but if they were ordered by Captain Montgomery to protect her it is highly unlikely that they'd leave at her say-so. (It is, however, nicely parallel to a similar scene in *Heat Wave*.)
* When Agent Avery is giving the "Cliff Notes" for *Heat Wave*, he says that Heat and Rook have sex in Chapter 11. Actually, their sex scene (page 105) is the beginning of Chapter 10.

### Branch libraries

News

Reviews

* CliqueClack - Castle--Nikki will burn (23 Mar 10)

Promos