Kill Shot

**Writer**: Alexi Hawley

**Director**: Dave Barrett

#### DUSTJACKETS BLURB

There's a sniper on the loose, Beckett is spinning out of control, and for once Castle is helpless. Enter Esposito to give her the tools she needs to pry herself out from under the weight of her past, her whole past, maybe once and for all.

### Guest cast

* Michael Dorn - DR CARTER BURKE
* Troy Winbush - MARCUS FORD
* Christina Ferraro - SARAH VASQUEZ
* Alexis Carra - JULIE
* Tony Elias - CHRIS NUNEZ

### Music

* "B-Bang - Unreleased" - B.ET.A AND THE NEON PANTHERS (Placement)

### Literary and other references

* Josh Groban is a popular American singer-songwriter known for his deep voice. He's often thought of as older than he actually is.
* Franz Goebel popularized porcelain figurines created from drawings by Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel. These are now known simply as Hummel figurines and are popular collector's items.
* There have been reports of bullets shot straight into the air falling back to Earth and injuring and/or killing people. The exact number is unknown, but there are still warnings about firing a bullet straight overhead.
* In October 2002, a sniper terrorized Maryland and Virginia, mostly in the DC area. In all 11 people were killed and another 6 were injured during the three weeks of attacks. In the end, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo were caught and sentenced for the attacks.
* Peterzano and Caravaggio were master painters from the Renaissance and are often credited with influencing the Baroque style of painting. *Chiaroscuro* as a term means a great contrast between light and dark and is also used to refer to the same effect in photographs or film.

### Memorable moments

* Beckett's scar.
* Beckett breaking down at the crime scene...and in her apartment...and in the hallway...
* Esposito helping Beckett get a hold on her PTSD.
* Beckett aiming the rifle that shot her.
* The end.

### Quotable quotes

* ESPOSITO: Just like every other bad guy, he's damaged goods.
BECKETT: So am I.
* ESPOSITO: You think it's a weakness? Make it a strength.
* CASTLE: I'm looking for my partner. She's a pretty girl who thinks she can leap tall buildings in a single bound, carries the world on her shoulders, but still manages to laugh at some of my jokes.
* CASTLE: If you see her, tell her she owes me a hundred coffees.
* CASTLE: Always.
* BECKETT: Now I want to be more than who I am, but I don't know if I know how to do that without letting my mom down.
* DR. CARTER BURKE: Are you ready?
BECKETT: Yeah, I think I am.

### Just the facts

* Beckett is still seeing a physical therapist. His name is Roger.
* We see Beckett looking at her scars in the mirror. The entry wound is quite visible between her breasts, just at the bottom of her sternum. Her surgical scar is not as clearly shown, but it appears to be under her left arm, at the edge of her rib cage. This is actually correct for chest trauma surgery. Bravo. However, see below.
* She appears to have some limitations on her movements from the surgical scar as she's not able to reach above her head to climb a ladder without pain.
* Esposito was a sniper in the military (and is still a damn good shot) and has been through PTSD himself, although he was never shot.

### Oops

* Beckett's entry wound is about a centimeter left of center, near the bottom of her sternum. In other words, directly through her heart, making her dead before she hits the ground. Good thing TV bullets never kill the good guys. Likewise, the sniper's first victim is shot in the same place from half a mile away yet that bullet goes straight through her chest and embeds itself deep in the building behind her, whereas Beckett seems to have had no exit wound.
* She cuts the underside of her forearm on broken glass, but when we see it bleeding through the bandage it's now on the top of her arm. Not to mention that her flashbacks during this scene are all events she could not possibly remember, let alone have seen from an external point of view.
* The screen of Esposito's phone is still visible when he answers his cell phone about uniforms finding the place from where the sniper shot Henry Wyatt, but the it's actually locked and there's no active call.
* Also, unless the bus driver had "NYPD 12th Precinct" in his phone, it shouldn't have shown up on his phone as such. It should have shown up as just a number, and the best Ryan could have hoped for is that the driver either recognized it as a police line (doubtful) or that he answers calls from unknown numbers.
* I think most of us pointed out that creating a disco on a school bus would probably have made the driver pull over and threaten to go absolutely nowhere until we sat down and shut up, not bop along indulgently. Health and safety much?
* Although the thigh holster looks hella cool, there's absolutely no reason for it since she's only carrying her usual gun.

### Branch libraries

* News
	+ TVLine - Castle's Stana Katic: A Traumatic Case Will Bring Beckett a 'Huge Step Closer' to Being With Rick (20 Nov 11)
	+ TVGuide - Castle's Stana Katic: Sniper Case Brings Castle and Beckett a Step Closer to a Relationship (20 Nov 11)
* Reviews
	+ TVOvermind - Castle: 6 Things You Need To Know About 4.09 "Kill Shot" (17 Nov 11)