A Deadly State of Mind - S4-E6
Trivia: Unusually enough for a television show devoted to a homicide detective and the way he unravels the plans of cunning murderers, the fact is that Columbo has nothing to do in this episode. Doctor Collier is seriously assaulted by Carl Donner who then goes on to violently attack his wife. Use of deadly force to prevent such an attack is allowed in the United States. Collier does not commit murder; he doesn't even commit a crime. You'd think such a hightly educated man would know enough to keep his head, call the police and explain what had happened. He wouldn't even be charged.
Trivia: The flight attendant Monk drives crazy in 1-13 is played by his real-life wife. She also plays Sheriff Butterfield in "Monk visits a farm"and the crazy cat lady in 8-14.
Trivia: Holly Marie Combs's real life pregnancy with her son Finley Arthur Donoho was mirrored by Piper's pregnancy with Chris in this season.
Trivia: Johnson's script originally featured an ending in which Jesse loses the game and yet finds himself still alive. Seeing this, Fats explains that he will die "as all second raters die: you'll be buried and forgotten without me touching you. If you'd beaten me, you'd have lived forever." This ending was eventually filmed when this episode was remade in 1989, during the first revival of The Twilight Zone.
Trivia: Throughout the show, the number 47 appears many times. There are multiple room 47's (where Syd found the Circumference in season 1 and the room in her memories from season 3, among others.), there are 47 Rambaldi artifacts, and Page 47 of the Rambaldi manuscript was the page that had Sydney's picture on it. Also the pagers flash 47911 when they get called into the office.
Trivia: The creators of the show, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, based the Stan Marsh and Kyle Brosfloski characters after themselves (Stan being Parker and Kyle being Stone.) The Eric Cartman character was partly based on Archie Bunker.
Trivia: Sharon Lawrence plays Sasha Alexander's mother in the series, even though in real life she's only 12 years older than Alexander.
Trivia: This episode contains another reference to Sherlock Holmes. Wilson tells the (fictional) story of who had sent House a present. Wilson says it was one of House's first patients called Irena Adler. He then explains that House had feelings for the patient, but did not take it any further and therefore regards her as the 'woman who got away'. Irene Adler was an adversary who bettered Sherlock Holmes - the woman who got away. As it happens, the fist patient House treats in the pilot episode is called Rebecca Adler.
Trivia: Spoiler; In this episode, for the first time the suspect (and eventual culprit) is not present for the ending confrontation, with a chance he'd get away with murder. The actor playing Samuel Palmer, Larrington Walker, died before the finale could be filmed.
Trivia: (POSSIBLE SPOILER) When Masuka brings up the list of doctors authorized to get the M99, Dexter removes his alias note that Dexter's fake alias (used to get the M99 tranquilizer) is Dr. Patrick Bateman. Patrick Bateman is the lead character of "American Psycho". This was most likely an intentional "easter egg" of sorts within the show.
Trivia: Dr. Spencer Reid is the son of an attorney, born in Las Vegas. In real life, Matthew Gray Gubler, the actor who plays Reid, is also the son of an attorney, born in Las Vegas.
Trivia: Sherlock's parents are played by Benedict Cumberbatch's real-life parents, Wanda Ventham and Timothy Carlton.
Trivia: The original ending of the episode would have Norma pressing the button and getting the money after Arthur dies in a train accident. When Norma asks the stranger why Arthur had to die, the stranger responded, "Did you really think you knew your husband?"
Trivia: At around 5 mins 11 seconds into the episode, Vincent Nigel-Murrey and Dr. Saroyan are discussing the bones on the forensic platform. In the background of a shot of Vincent, the x-ray on the screen is of Homer Simpson's head in the middle of the screen, instead of a real human skull.
Trivia: Castle's Halloween costume is of Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion in the short-lived TV show "Firefly." Alexis asks him: "Didn't you wear that like five years ago?" Serenity, the film based on Firefly, was released 5 years before this episode aired.
Trivia: Velma's famous line, "My glasses; I can't see without them!" was coined from her voice actress Nicole Jaffe when she lost her glasses during a recording session and then uttered of what became to be famous catchphrase of the bespectacled character. The writers liked the phrase so much that they decided to put the iconic scenes of Velma losing her glasses during the show.
