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Lisa Crandall
Professor Grant-Davie
ENGL 3460
5 December 2014
Fool Me Twice
Castle is a primetime procedural dramedy that follows the adventures of bestselling
mystery writer Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion) as he shadows homicide detective Kate Beckett
(Stana Katic) to get inspiration for his next novel. Castle analyzes situations from a rhetorician’s
point of view. This gives him and the other characters a certain awareness that lends itself to all
sorts of entertainment, with both the characters and writers giving presence to the rhetorical
situation and rhetorical tactics in humorous ways. Association and Dissociation are employed
frequently, and operate uniquely within the show in that they help to blur the line between fiction
and reality. The ability to create a more immersive experience for viewers is something that sets
Castle apart from the dozens of other primetime procedurals, and opens it up to such an
extensive fan base.
On television, Castle’s humor appeals to a very specific audience. ABC has a higherthan-average number of viewers in categories such as college graduates, professionals, and six
digit annual incomes (Carter). Many of the references appeal to a more literary-minded group of
people; writers especially can find humor in Castle’s antics and many of the pop-culture
references are slanted to “geekier” audience (Castle is an avid science-fiction and comic book
fan, and the writers love to sneakily reference Fillion’s role on Firefly).
To widen and further engage their audience, Castle’s creators have created a multi-media
“corporate synergy” (Truitt). In the last several years “Richard Castle” has published six Niki
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Heat Novels (two of which became New York Times Bestsellers), two Derrick Storm novels,
three Derrick Storm short stories, and two graphic novels (Amazon). While the real author is
unknown, Fillion, as Richard Castle, appears on the book jackets, and has even participated in
book signings (Campos). In most cases, audiences have to dissociate an actor from the character
they play on TV; in this instance, however, the creators and Fillion are keeping the line between
actor and character vague on purpose. The graphic novels also to help reach different audiences
that may not be as interested in the steamy Niki Heat novels.
Andrew Marlowe, creator of Castle says “he doesn’t want to do spinoffs for spinoffs'
sake. ‘We're looking to actually expand the Castle world and bring experiences to the audience
that they're really, really going to enjoy… The deeper and richer you can make the audience
experience for the show… the more loyal your audience is going to be’” (qtd. in Truitt).
However, the introduction of tie-ins can create cognitive dissonance for viewers, who don’t
expect to see a book that previously only existed in a fictional world sitting on the shelf in
Barnes and Noble. The creators are essentially taking reality, building a fictional world based on
it, and then bringing that fictional world back into the real world.
The show’s creators do this within the show as well. Real-life authors such as James
Patterson, Dennis Lehane, Michael Connelly, and Stephen J. Cannell, have made guest
appearances on Castle, and when Cannell passed away in 2010 the show’s characters honored
his passing (Strauss). The writers also add a level of realism by showing that the episodes are
occurring currently. Many shows take place in a “vague” present (Grant-Davie); the characters
have the same clothes, hairstyles, and slang as the audience, but nothing dates the episodes
specifically. Castle, on the other hand, clearly follows “real time.” The characters reference
movies that are in theater when the episodes air, and when the show goes on a summer hiatus, so
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do the characters. The seasons don’t usually pick up exactly where they left off, and the
characters acknowledge the time that’s passed. This is becoming increasingly popular among
primetime television, with the show’s time becoming closer to “real time.” It forces the viewers
to associate the fictional world of the show with the world around them, making the connection
stronger and the experience more immersive.
Confusion between reality and fiction is a common theme on the show, and while the
writers try to blur the line between reality and fiction for the audience, the characters in the
investigation have difficulty distinguishing it themselves. Castle and Beckett are first brought
together in the pilot episode when a serial killer starts recreating murder scenes from Castle’s
books and suddenly something “fictional” has become “real.” In another episode, actress Natalie
Rhodes is chosen to portray Niki Heat, a fictional character that Castle wrote based off of
Beckett. Even Castle acknowledges the weirdness of the situation: “a fictional character that I
wrote based on you, played by Natalie Rhodes? It’s just too meta” (“Castle”).
Castle’s character loves strange homicide cases, and often jumps to outrageous
conclusions. He uses association to connect the real world to fictional worlds he’s more familiar
with. Beckett on the other hand, is the opposite, and is better grounded in reality. Much of the
tension in the show comes from their differing worldview. Castle assumes time travelers,
zombies, aliens, Bigfoot, ghosts, vampires, and undercover CIA agents, to name a few, while
Beckett looks for the logical explanation. When the facts are uncovered in the end of each
episode there is usually some sort of compromise between Castle’s hypothesis and Becket’s. The
solution usually is something out of the ordinary, but not so far-fetched that it’s improbable. This
keeps the viewers guessing as well, because they cannot be sure whether “fiction” or “reality,”
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Castle or Beckett, will win out in the end. It’s nearly impossible for them to establish a baseline
on which to make associations.
The episode “Fool Me Once” is a good example of an episode that keeps the audience
guessing, and uses association and dissociation to make it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s
not. The episode centers around the murder of Steven Fletcher, a skilled conman. Fletcher was
killed during a video-call with a class of elementary-school students, while pretending to be an
artic explorer. The story moves in circles until it leaves the audience and characters wondering,
as Castle puts it, “Who's conning whom here?” With every new revelation (or red herring),
Castle becomes more enthralled and Beckett become more frustrated.
Castle broadens his understanding of the case by associating it to fictional works that are
familiar to him. When Castle and Beckett arrive at the apartment Fletcher was killed in, Castle
says, “This reminds me of that movie Capricorn One, but with, like, a winterland twist.” Castle
has associated the odd situation to something familiar, in this case a 70’s sci-fi thriller about a
faked Mars landing (“Capricorn”). Castle continues to make associations throughout the episode,
until he starts to identify with Fletcher on a professional level, “one storyteller to another.” He
begins to dissociate the criminal form the mastermind.
Meanwhile, Beckett is analyzing the situation from experience has a detective. As a
homicide investigator, Beckett’s job is essentially to speak for the dead, and the only way she
can do that is through association. From the very beginning, between Castle’s many quips, she is
busy creating a profile for the shooter based on the evidence: “Face shots usually indicate a deep
anger in the shooter. Literally trying to erase what makes the victim a person… Multiple IDs
usually indicated multiple cons. I'd say our killer is someone who Fletcher duped.” There are
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things that don’t add up about Fletcher’s motives, but Beckett writes them off because she cannot
see Fletcher as anything other than a criminal.
These conflicting perspectives come to head when Castle, Beckett, and detectives Ryan
and Esposito are sitting around a table, eating pizza and reviewing Fletcher’s case files. Captain
Montgomery walks by to see if they’ve made any progress, and Beckett says no, calling Fletcher
“a criminal over-achiever.”
Ryan bursts out laughing at the file he’s reading, and tells the group that someone tried to
pull an email scam on Fletcher, but Fletcher turned around and “conned the guy out of ten
grand.” Esposito whistles and says, “Man our boy was good.” “Damn good,” agrees Castle.
“Don't be so impressed,” Beckett interjects. “The guy was a criminal.”
“I don’t know,” Castle says. “There's something about a-- a well-played con that just
makes you want to tip your hat, though.
“Oh, I love a good con movie,” Montgomery says, and everyone except Beckett begins
discussing their favorite con movies. Beckett rolls her eyes as titles are thrown around: House of
Games, Catch Me If You Can, Oceans Eleven, The Sting. The guys’ impressions of Fletcher
change as they associate him with characters in the movies they love.
The group is incredulous when Ryan asks Beckett what her favorite con movie is and she
replies, “I hate con movies… the only people that get conned in a con movie are the audience
members. You can't invest in anything because nothing is real.”
Although this isn’t a true meta-move, Beckett’s remark introduces a certain amount of
meta-thinking into the episode. “Fool Me Once” explores the rhetorical strategies of a “con”
story, and shows how cons are designed to create an illusion for an audience. Slowly, throughout
the investigation Beckett and her team find the truth behind the illusions.
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One of Fletcher’s aliases was engaged to Elise Finnegan, a wealthy socialite. Beckett
assumes that Fletcher was targeting her for her wealth but Elise denies it. She refuses to accept
Fletcher was a conman, despite the evidence, and the audience just assumes she’s in denial; from
a rhetorician’s standpoint, it appears that she’s creating an associative defense. However, Elise
later reveals that Fletcher told her he was an undercover CIA agent, after which Castle turns to
Beckett and whispers, “This is the best case ever.” When Castle’s guy in the CIA confirms that
Fletcher was not an agent, Castle seems deflated. “I can’t believe Fletcher conned me,” in a way
relating back to Beckett’s earlier statement. Elise’s revelation, as well as subsequent ones, causes
the audience to doubt their own association. In a way, the episode itself is a con, and, just as
Beckett said, the audience is the one being fooled.
Castle and Beckett return to talk to Elise again, and this time they get an even bigger
shock. After a minutes of tense conversation, Elise’s friend Sue says, “Elise, tell them the good
news.” Elise hesitates, and Sue blurts out, “Fletcher’s alive.” After a moment of stunned silence,
Castle smiles, turns to Beckett, and says again, “Best case ever.”
Elise plays a voicemail for them she received from Fletcher. “That's not possible,”
Beckett tells Castle.
“And yet...”
“But if Fletcher's alive, then who's the dead guy in our morgue?”
Back in the morgue, they realize they don’t have a way to positively ID the body. They
had assumed that the body was Fletcher, but there were no fingerprints or dental records to check
it against.
“But we saw him die,” Beckett protests.
“Or did we?”
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There’s a pause, as Beckett looks between Castle and the body. “I hate this case,” she
says through gritted teach.
Castle grins. “I know. Isn't it great?”
The audience cannot tell what is real and what is fake within the episode. In general,
Castle is high in both probability and fidelity; however, the audience can never be sure how far
that will stretch. It’s not until Castle and Beckett realize that Sue was Fletcher’s partner and that
she still was trying to con Elise out of her money, do the individual components begin to make
sense. When the case is eventually solved and all is revealed, there is another meta moment. The
team discovers a computer used to make it appear that Fletcher was still alive, and Castle
remarks, “When you see how it's done, it really takes the magic out of it.” This allows for the
resolution of cognitive dissonance as the audience and characters dissociate the con into its
individual components.
Before the episode can be totally resolved, there is one more dissociation that must be
made.
After Beckett criticizes con movies for being fake, Castle says, “That’s what makes it
fun.”
“Well, it wasn't fun to these kids. The ones from Wheeler's class who wrote to Fletcher…
he scammed them. You guys still impressed by this dirtbag?” By pointing out the children hurt in
Fletcher’s scheme, Beckett is increasing the offensiveness of his.
Still, Castle isn’t sold. “If you were just scamming these kids, why would you write the
back?”
“'Cause it's all a part of the con.”
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“Yeah. I'm not sure. I mean, if you were just a greedy monster, would you really bother
writing back to all of them?”
“He’s got a point,” says Montgomery, to which Beckett replies, “Now who's the sucker?”
Awkward glances are exchange and Becket, realizing her mistake, hastily adds “sir.”
Montgomery gives her a look and says, “Sucker or no sucker, clearly there's more to this
guy than meets the eye.”
And there is. Beckett misses it because she still cannot see Fletcher as anything other than
a criminal. In a later scene Castle and Beckett confront Elise’s father, Gerry, about Fletcher.
Gerry tells them that he discovered Fletcher was a conman and confronted him about it, but that
Fletcher, begged him not to: “He said he was head over heels in love with Elise. Wanted to spend
the rest of his life with her. I told him I wasn’t buying it, but he promised that he was done with
cons.”
Beckett coldly replies, “He was a professional liar, Mr. Finnegan.”
“Yes, I know that. But what ultimately convinced me was the pre-nup. He said I could
draw up any document, cut him out of our fortune entirely if I wanted, and he would sign it.
After a lifetime of greed, he said he’d finally found something more important than money.
Love.”
Afterwards, Castle asks Beckett, “You think it's possible that Fletcher was telling Gerry
the truth?”
“That he's suddenly a con man with a heart of gold? No. That's just another con.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. You don't think people can change?”
“No. I've seen too many repeat offenders to believe for one second that a guy who
promises never to beat his wife again actually won't.”
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“That's a pretty bleak attitude.”
“Not bleak. Realistic.”
Beckett is still making associations against her experiences as a cop. In the end, Beckett’s
opinions seem to change only because there was no other explanation. She had to exhaust ever
option, until Fletcher’s only understandable motives for giving up everything and risking getting
caught were his love for Elise. When Elise finally admits to herself that her relationship with
Fletcher was a lie, Beckett tells her, “No, Elise. You need to know that Steven loved you very
much. He changed his ways because you made him want to be a better man.”
Beckett finally reverses her associate attack on Fletcher, resolving the last piece of
cognitive dissonance, and although the audience doesn’t get to see a lot of the why behind
Beckett’s change of heart, they can imply that Beckett has had part of her belief system
challenged and has grown as a character.
In “Fool Me Once,” the creators of Castle cleverly manipulate Association and
Disassociation to create a more immersive experience for their viewers. Throughout the episode,
this rhetorical tactic is evident in many different forms and on many different levels. The writers
artfully give presence to barrier between reality and fiction, in ways that force their audience to
acknowledge and contemplate it. Just like Castle and Beckett were faced with a con in “Fool Me
Once,” the audience’s entire relationship with the show is a con. The creators are playing games
with them, and they love it; after all, most people do love a good con movie.
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Works Cited
Amazon.com. Amazon.com, Inc. 2014. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.
Campos, Nicole. “Up Close with Richard Castle: Nathan Fillion and The Book He Didn't Write.”
LA Weekly. LA Weekly, LP, 20 Oct. 2009. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.
“Capricorn One.” IMDB. IMDb.com, Inc, 2014. Web.
Carter, Bill. “ABC Viewers Tilt Female for a Network Light on Sports.” The New York Times.
17 Dec. 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2014
“Castle: Episode 3x11 Nikki Heat.” Script Line: Transcribed Film and TV Scripts. 13. March
2011. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
“Fool Me Once.” Castle. Dir. Bryan Spicer. ABC, 2010. Amazon Instant Video. Web. 26 Oct.
2014.
Hoorn, Johan F., and Elly A. Konijn. "Perceiving And Experiencing Fictional Characters: An
Integrative Account." Japanese Psychological Research 45.4 (2003): 250-268. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
Strauss, Erica. “Who Are Richard Castle's Poker Buddies on Castle?” Wet Paint. 31 Jan. 2012.
Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Truitt, Brain. "'Castle' enters the realm of graphic novels." USA Today, 28 Sept. 2011: Academic
Search Premier. Web. 8 Nov. 2014.
Weinman, Jaime J. "Serial Storytelling." Maclean's 125.50 (2012): 1. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 8 Nov. 2014.