Nathan Fillion, who plays a mystery novelist shadowing an NYPD officer in Castle (2009), in this episode plays an actor in a crime show who acts like he is the cop.
Boyle says "Desperate times call for Desperate Housewives." Nathan Fillion, who appears in this episode, played Adam Mayfair in Desperate Housewives (2004).
Nathan Fillion plays an actor who is acting as cop. He went on to star in The Rookie (2018), in which he is a rookie LAPD officer.