"Castle" Season Finale: "Watershed"

 Serena Hohenstein & Megan Miller ’17/ Emertainment Monthly Staff
The season finale of Castle on Monday May 13th took a turn from the emotionally- and action-heavy finales of years past, which featured plot-driven cases for author Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) and Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) to solve.  This year, however, harkened back to the season two finale, but with a much different ending.
The show began with what the detectives would probably refer to as a run-of-the-mill murder: what seemed to be a prostitute found dead in the septic tank of a seedy motel in the city.  Fortunately for the killer, Detective Beckett gets a late start to the case, allowing some time for a getaway.  The first time you see her, Kate is in Washington D.C., staring out at the Capitol building as she waits for a job interview, contemplating her future.  At the end of the penultimate episode of the season, a federal agent had offered her the chance to work for the Attorney General.
Castle, meanwhile, has no idea where she is, but he has other problems to deal with.  He is busy getting ready for another book release, Deadly Heat, the fourth novel in his series based on his partnership with her, and cheerfully ignoring his daughter’s (Molly Quinn) imminent departure to study abroad in Costa Rica (earlier in the season she was kidnapped and taken to Paris, which gives the single father even more reason to worry).
Alexis Castle: I don’t want to let fear win.
Even early into the episode the minor characters’ have more meaningful moments than they’ve had this season, often taking a backseat to the developing Castle/Beckett relationship.  Lanie (Tamala Jones) and Beckett have a heart-to-heart, and it is Castle’s mother (Susan Sullivan) and Beckett’s father (Scott Paulin) who provide clarification to their children in two different conversations about the future.
As soon as Beckett shows up to the crime scene, Castle seems to realize that something’s wrong.  Though he says nothing, until he finds out the truth you see through his looks that he knows she isn’t telling him something.  Kudos to Fillion and Katic for playing this out; though they say nothing to each other, it is possible to feel the tension between them as if you were standing between them.  There is no moment where they give up this tension; even to the moment Castle finds her plane ticket they tiptoe around each other without actually doing so.
On top of this tension, however, the episode provides humor in the form of Castle’s signature one-liners, and Lanie’s sassy retorts.  Detectives Ryan (Seamus Dever) and Esposito (Jon Huertas), in addition to playing mediator’s and relationship counselors, had their share of humor.
Problems arise in miscommunication; Castle is angry when he discovers that Beckett kept the job offer from him, and Beckett is confused and frustrated over the lack of discussion about where their relationship is headed.  Castle storms out of her apartment, insisting that he can’t be there, and they turn to their parents for the wisdom they need as they reach the end of the episode.
Having decided to take the job after talking to her dad, Beckett interrogates the killer alone with a mindset of this being the last time she will ever be in that room, telling the suspect that this is her home.  “Are you going to lie to me in my own home?” she asks, securing a confession for her last case before she calls Castle to talk to him.
We won’t give away the ending, but we will say that we didn’t expect it this episode.  Perhaps some people predicted it, but we don’t think anyone believed that the creators of the show would actually have the guts to carry it out, not yet.  The screams that echoed from the mouths of fangirls across America were probably heard in space.  This will be the longest summer hiatus ever.
Do not read beyond this point if you haven’t watched the episode!
Season 6 Predictions:
Serena:  Beckett will stutter for a bit before she can even get words out because Castle proposing was the last thing she expected. She’ll tell him she already took the job and he’ll say he doesn’t care, but now she’ll have doubts because she kind of already made up her mind about not having time to be in a relationship with the job in D.C. How can they continue an episode with just that to go on, you ask? ….Dare I utter the name, “Senator Bracken”?
Megan:  There is no way Beckett’s taking that job; it would change the entire dynamic of the show and cut out most of the secondary characters.  She has to say something right off the bat when the premiere begins in the fall, and if she says no they would be done.  Everyone knows that Castle and Beckett are meant to be, but I don’t think they want to rush their endgame.  Now that Beckett knows where they are headed, I doubt either of them will want to rush any sort of marriage.  Maybe she’ll say “Not yet”?  Then again, that was one gorgeous ring…
And there you have it, folks! We’ll see you in September!