WMG / Castle (2009)

aka: Castle

Beckett's mother was having an affair with the senator played by Jack Coleman (Senator Bracken)

People 'very high up' are involved in the Johanna Beckett case. Marlowe recently said that Kate will learn something about her mother that she won't like. I can just imagine the scene now

Kate and Senator Bracken face off
Kate: Was it you? Did you kill her?!
Senator: I as good as killed her. She died because of what she meant to me. I was in love with her. She was going to leave your father.

(Cue dramatic music)dun dun dun

• Jossed; Bracken doesn't appear to have met Johanna Beckett at any point. But he's the man who ordered her death.

Mr. Smith will be the first victim of the week of season 5

Evidence will point to Cole Maddox (because the killer was Maddox). Maddox killed him when he refused to give up the Montgomery package, so he could go and kill Beckett. But, Smith saw this coming, and sent the package from Montgomery to Castle. Castle, after having finally gotten things started with Beckett, receives the package, and has to decide whether to show Beckett or not. Beckett is no longer a cop, but we're not sure if her new relationship with Castle has tempered her obsession with her mother's murder case. Since Maddox can't find the documents, he can't kill Beckett. There's your plot basis for season 5.

• After the 'secrets' plot of Season 4, if the writers did go this route I'd personally lean towards Castle breaking down and telling Beckett straight away, if only because the 'Castle keeps a secret about Beckett's mother's murder from her all season' is a bit too close to what happened in the previous season.
• As of episode s05e01, Smith does appear to be dead... Except we don't actually see the body and he was just minutes before talking about "disappearing". One of the best way to do just that is to fake your own death. Plus, Smith seems to have the chops to buy/coerce a couple of hospital personnel into helping with that scenario.
  • Yes, but the cop got a call from dispatch telling him to leave his post, that didn't come from Smith, that came from someone in Senator Bracken's reign of creepy power. AND we do see Smith's face just before they raised up the sheet with a lot of people in the room AND the cameras were disabled, plus he died of a heart attack, which is hard to fake when you're on heart monitors even if you have a body to switch out. The number of people he would have had to pay off plus the amount of planning that would take - that speaks of handling that Smith couldn't have done after a beating. He's probably really, really dead.
  • Somehow, he's alive.
  • Smith knows he's a dead man, so he fakes his death and disappears. Beckett has to blackmail Bracken herself to stay alive.

Christina Hendricks is Castle's ex-sister-in-law

Meredith is also a redhead. It's not much of a stretch.

• Bonus points if she turns out to be another double-crossing bitch.
• Jossed-ish. Hendricks never shows up on the show.

Demming will return, and he will be involved in a case involving Cole Maddox

And there will be evil robots...

• Jossed. Demming never returns.

Avery Brooks will show up in season 5 as an old flame of Captain Gates

Come on, I can't be the only one rooting for this to happen, can I? Victoria hasn't had much chance to shine as a character during her debut season; all she really did was be bitchy and obstructive and mean to Castle. It'd be nice to get a bit of background on her, and see a few other dimensions to her character, and a former love interest, perhaps someone she was madly in love with and about to marry, but who suddenly left at the last minute under mysterious circumstances and without a trace, only to contact her one last time and be all cryptic, before disappearing altogether, would give some much needed nuance to her character.

• While I could go either way on this, or even that it has to be Avery Brooks, they really need to do something more with Captain Gates. We got some pieces of character development with her and recognizing Castle's uses during a high-pressure situation, but I'd love to see something where she and Castle have to work side by side on something. Just about anything to make her seem like the kind of person Det. Ryan felt justified in trusting the group's secret with.
• Well the linked reference did happen, just not with Gates. :P
• Avery Brooks never showed up on the show, sadly.

Season 4 is taking place in Castle's head.

Something said by Beckett made me realize this: "Conspiracies are your thing, Castle." Considering that Castle has his own personal Deep Throat, and that the major arc of the season is keeping Beckett from finding out about the conspiracy surrounding her mother's death, it seems reasonable to think that this season is in Castle's head, possibly while he's waiting to find out if Beckett will recover from the sniper's bullet from the end of the 3rd season.

Castle's father is in some way tied to Beckett's mother's murder

Hell, maybe he IS the one behind her murder. Either way, it would perfectly tie up two of the shows biggest mysteries and cause maximum angst between the leading duo.

• Uh... Suddenly looking a whole lot more likely. Castle's father apparently has some deep connection to the CIA (able to influence his son following an agent) and we've also learned that Beckett's mother's murder apparently has ties much higher up in government than was first suspected (above the Mayor of New York at least.)
  • He was not involved at all in the murder.

Castle's father is Malcolm Reynolds.

Due to some insane Alliance experiment to get Serenity out of their hair, he gets sent back in time. Into the 60s or 70s.

• Seems unlikely in the context of Firefly. If FTL isn't even possible in that universe, what hope does time travel have?
  • Oh, I think only Time Will Tell.

The undercover FBI agent who was murdered wasn't so clean

I am always reminded when I look back on the facts of Beckett mothers murder, of the first castle episode I saw the second season finale. Anyways in that episode they got so focused on the game the victim was involved in, they forgot the most important part of the case, the victim. The murder of the FBI agent is what started the chain reaction. Maybe he was actually dirty but wasn't working for the mob, and when he died, that pissed someone off who was very powerful.

• Seems irrelevant in context. The importance of that particular murder was only that it exposed the corrupt cops. Then again, as of the episode "Recoil", there's clearly a bigger plot going on involving Senator Bracken, the "king-maker" he had arrested at the end, among others...

Alternately, Castle is a direct ancestor of Mal.

It makes more sense than time travel.

Castle's father is Caleb.

Caleb was quite the sick fuck. Serial killer, misogynist, and who knows what else. Perhaps something he did lead to Martha getting knocked up by him.

Castle's father is Buck.

In I Love Bees, a slipspace accident brought on by Forerunner tech sends a few things to 2004 Earth. This is Halo canon. So, Buck, riding on an experimental Forerunner/Human/Sangheili ship, has a similar accident. Cue him landing in the 60s or 70s. After angsting a bit, he ends up sleeping with Martha. The condom breaks and bam said the lady, she's pregnant.

Richard Castle/Malcolm Reynolds is an Immortal

Richard Castle (who or Whatever he is) has existed for centuries drifting from one exciting job to another. From crime solving mystery writer to UNSC Marine to Browncoat veteran, He witnessed and escaped the collapse of the Earth That Was.

• Would psychopathic priest fall under that category as well? And why does he look older in Castle if Firefly is further in the future?
  • Either Time Travel or his immortality is through some sort of Time Lord style regeneration (except it doesn't change his appearance).

The show takes place in an alternate universe.

It's supposed to be set in present-day NYC; but they've shown the mayor at least once, and it was clearly not Bloomberg.

• It's not just any alternate universe. It's the Buffyverse! Remember how Natalie Rhodes mentioned how the Nikki Heat screenplay was made by Spike Rosenberg? Also, all of Natalie's movies have been horror/slasher. Assuming that they were all written by Spike, it looks like our favorite vampire found a job in Hollywood as a screenwriter and director of horror movies.
  • Rosenburg?? God, I hope that's a pen name!
• This is confirmed; the fictional Hudson University shows up several times, meaning that Castle (may) take place in Law and Order and Without a Trace land. Which would make sense given the success rate shown by Becket, Castle, and the rest.
  • Does this mean Castle is in the same universe as Batman? Holy crossover, Batman!
    • Castle is Batman.
  • There is also the fact that there are mentions to Obama being the President, but then the Vice President is called Russell instead of Biden.

Vampires are real.

Porphyria does not work like that. People with it don't start smoking in the sunlight.

• Artistic license. If he had just started screaming in pain, then the natural audience reaction would be to assume that he was crazy, not that he was having a biological reaction to the light. Showing the disease's characteristic skin conditions forming would not go well and would likely break the mood.

This show is supposed to be an AU sequel to Firefly, specifically for Mal/Inara shippers.

Seriously. It's like a younger, happier Mal and Inara with short, reddish hair and a gun. But the chemistry and the Slap-Slap-Kiss is there!

• Inara seems a lot snarkier towards Mal than Beckett is with Castle. At least, in this troper's opinion. There's a shade of hostility whenever Inara talks to Mal, whereas with Beckett and Castle, her words notwithstanding, she seems to enjoy putting Castle in his place, knowing that he just takes it all in stride.

The mayor is the Big Bad of the series.

The man who commandeered the ransom money from the police kidnappings went and used the money to secure a position of power. When Montgomery said that he could have overridden the mayor's push to have Castle hang about, perhaps he was referring to more than just being the head of the precinct.

• Jossed as of "Dial M for Murder". The conspiracy has plans that involve him never rising above mayor.

Alternative to the above WMG, The Mayor is possessed by Richard Wilkins.

In one non-Season 8 Buffy comic, it's shown that his spirit out there still. So, wanting to have power again, and avoiding the Hellmouth this time, he possesses the mayor of New York. Now he's got an entire city's worth of cops he could use for whatever he wants.

The show is supposed to be an AU prequel to Firefly.

Since it is clearly set in Earth-That-Was.

The show is a CANON prequel to Firefly.

Mal is a descendant of Castle, and the show takes place prior to the collapse of Earth-That-Was.

• It would be great if it ended with Alexis marrying somebody with the last name "Reynolds".
  • For that matter, what exactly is Alexis's boyfriend's last name, anyways?
• Gundamnit You stole my WMG!! hehe Just Kidding, But to stretch this guess even further the ties to both shows could go even further.

Such as....

• Castle and Kate meeting a asian suspect named "Tam" with a adopted white daughter and/or son.
• Castle hires a high class escort named "Inara" who looks suspiciously similar to another future Inara (which would coincide with a previous Firefly WMG about her being INCREDIBLY OLD.)
• Castle meets a new New York DA portrayed by Gina Torres (it should noted that Mrs. Torres-Fishburne is as well known for her TV Lawyer roles as she is for her sci-fi roles)
• Later seasons referring to some large looming fictional global political or environmental crisis in mock news reports which may be the disaster that creates the Earth-That-Was.
• Alexis will join the marines at series end and her grandchildren in the future will follow her in a literal centuries long legacy of military service, which will include a grandson in the UNSC in 2557 and ending with Malcolm Reynolds in the 27th Century.
• Also links to both series could go in both ways there are still Firefly and Serenity comics still made (which Joss Whedon considers as canon) so a later issue could have Mal rummaging through a box of his old things and find a photo of his Great-Great-Grandfather next to a redheaded plainclothes policewoman.

• And Even if both series were produced by different networks they can easily say that all these are merely "shout outs" to another favorite series.
• For what it's worth, Jayne has already appeared on Castle as Detective Slaughter.

Kate's secret boyfriend is behind the events of the 2 part episode.

Jossed.

Kate survived by diving into the bathtub.

Confirmed.

Castle is Captain Hammer!

But not in the way you think.

Castle's friendship with the mayor is because he's been willing to offer his own genetic material for certain governmental experiments. Captain Hammer, Corporate Tool, is the result of one such experiment, and is an exact genetic replica of Castle, complete with womanizing, heromongering, and arrogance, with the addition of superpowers to compensate for lack of intelligence. But Hammer, as a clone, did not have the proper human upbringing that has allowed Castle to be decent under all his self-love.

To ice the cake, Captain Hammer works in Los Angeles, the major American city farthest away from New York City, just to make sure that never the twain shall meet.

Castle is Jessica Fletcher's luckiest nephew.

Most of Jessica's relations just end up being suspects for murders, or else victims of them. Castle got the creative writing genes and, well, at least half the brilliance at solving mysteries.

He has at least some of her persuasive abilities as well — not as obviously, but that bullet-proof vest with "WRITER" written on it spoke volumes.

Perhaps Angela Lansbury could be induced to reprise Jessica as one of the writers at the poker game?

• OMG, this has to happen!

Richard Castle has a personal reason for being fascinated with crime.

He likes to keep it a secret, but he has a brother whose family was murdered by the mob. That brother's name is Frank.

• No, the family got murdered by Hungarians. That also explains why Castle has such good connections.

Martha does know who Castle's father is.

Think about it. It's been stated that his father's identity is unknown, but if Martha's last name is Rodgers, why would her son have a different one?

• Second ep of Season Three- Castle states that he changed his middle and last names, so he's Richard Edgar (for Edgar Allen Poe) Castle. His birth name is Richard Alexander Rodgers.
  • Doesn't change the fact that she knows who his father is. Hopefully the reason why she never told him is closely linked to the WMG above.

Martha Rodgers is her stage name.

But, as often happens with stage names, she uses it all the time.

Martha's maiden name is Castle.

We have not met her husband, but we might if the fella is still alive.

• Jossed.

Martha Castle is her stage name.

Castle is not Richard's original surname.

Wait, this isn't canon? It's implied.

• He named himself after a comic book character.
• His mother, a Broadway actress, got a kick out of naming her son Richard Rodgers, and he changed his name just to annoy her.
• Confirmed in "He's dead,She's dead" where he reveals his given name to be Richard Alexander Rodgers which he changed to Richard Edgar (after Poe) Castle

Lanie worked her way through med school as a dancer.

No evidence for this whatsoever, just that Tamala Jones played Crystal Diamonds in Wu-Tang Clan's Gravel Pit video. And it would be fun for Ryan, Esposito, and company to discover that Lanie has an Old Shame comparable to Beckett's teen modeling.

• Her performance in Swan Lake is to die for...
• Considering how freely she talked about fetishes in the respective episode (over a corpse no less), it'd hardly seems like she'd consider it an old shame. Just something she doesn't bring up because it's hardly something one brings up in normal conversation.
• In "A Dance With Death" she mentions she wanted to be a prima ballerina as a child but had to give it up because she, ah, developed.

Lanie and Castle will hook up

• There seems to be some chemistry between the two, and they can use this to further the Castle/Becket UST longer, with betrayal and all such things.
  • Well... it wasn't Castle (not yet anyway), but Esposito!

The show is set in an alternate universe,where bad judgment is the default setting.

This explains why law enforcement would jeopardize cases by bringing along a civilian to arrests and interrogations...why the city attorney and/comptroller would allow a civilian to continually be placed in harm's way thus increasing the city's liability to a lawsuit...why a writer would continually WANT to go out police investigations (wouldn't he have something better to do?)...and finally,why a very attractive police officer,who is obviously not a good investigator nor particularly intimidating would be working cases rather than be in an admin or PR job within the department.

Easiest explanation?Alternate universe!

• Lest you forget, in the very first episode, you see Castle signing a bunch of papers which are explained as waivers and such. Presumably, the department also signed stuff and otherwise invested some sort loophole lawyering to minimize the amount of damage that Castle can do. It's very similar to the situation with embedded reporters with the military or camera crews on shows like Cops. Or for the matter, Top Gun and America's Army (the video game). Castle gets access with the understanding that he's in dangerous situations and the police department gets good PR out of it. Also, Castle is shown to have a history of 'risky' behavior and thrill seeking - he's befriended (or what have you) thieves, mob bosses, and so forth for the sake of research. Beckett and co also do not allow Castle in any truly dangerous situations if they can help it - that's the whole reason for the "You stay!" running gag; they're not telling him to stay because it's funny, they're telling him to say because he's not trained and would be a liability. As for arrests and interrogations, outside expert - it's not like only officers can be there. As for Beckett... at what point does the show show her as being bad at her job? Castle may get the more notable eureka moments but that's only because his tend to come out of left field. As shown in the episode where the department is pissed at him, Beckett had already figured out much of the case well before Castle but allowed him to 'play along' for various reasons. In addition, the show tends to favor Castle as the protagonist - it tends to follow him around rather than Beckett. This tends to make it seem like Castle does all the work when in all likelihood, when Castle is having his family moments, Beckett is doing the more mundane aspects of an investigation that don't really need Castle's help.
• Also, the show tends to put Castle's Eureka Moments on bigger spotlight than Beckett's (they're probably funnier). In "Poof! You're Dead" they show Castle's and then immediately after when Castle's explaining it to the detectives, Beckett pre-empts him by saying that they'd already figured it out. This isn't the first time it's happened on screen either.
• And the OP has presumably missed all those moments where Beckett and Castle pretty much have a Eureka Moment at the exact same time and end up taking turns finishing each other's sentences, thus suggesting that they're about equal in the intelligence and figuring-things-out stakes. Beckett's clearly no slouch at her job.
• As far as intimidating, in "Knockdown", she's able to drag a heavily built man to his feet and throw him hard enough to shatter the interrogation mirror. Assuming someone isn't capable of being physically intimidating because they're attractive (or whatever) is ... silly.
• You also have to remember that Beckett became a detective way before meeting Castle, and the process of getting promoted to detective isn't easy. The first few episodes even have her pointing out how police investigation is different and that she's just not letting her suspects know what she knows. In one of the first episodes, she ribs Castle because he didn't realize immediately that the guy they had just talked to was lying about his alibi since he stated he was on business trips during two murders without prompting or verifying when they occurred. Castle is just more observant because of his natural curiosity. As one Fridge Brilliance points out, Beckett is by the book while Castle is outside the box. They just have a great synergy. The episodes where Beckett/Castle and Esposito/Ryan competed to solve different crimes and the one where Gates let the boys go to Atlantic City were probably written specifically to remind viewers that they weren't inept before Castle started helping.

The idea of a password/codeword as brought up in "Nikki Heat" will be used as a Brick Joke later on.

Or at least, brought up.

The Casting of the Nikki Heat Movie will be...

• Morena Baccarin is Nikki Heat!
  • Alas, Jossed. Natalie Rhodes will play Nikki.
  • Back on the table now that Natalie Rhodes is in rehab as of To Love and Die in LA!
• Adam Baldwin is Jameson Rook!
• Ron Glass is Captain Roy Montgomery!
• Gina Torres is Lanie Parish! (Lanie remarks: "I got a lot taller...")
• Alan Tudyk is Ochoa! (Javier remarks: "I got a lot whiter.")
• Sean Maher is Raley!
  • ::sigh:: To Love and Die in LA giveth, and it taketh away.
• Jewel Staite is Alexis Castle!
• Summer Glau is the first murder victim! (On the phone to her agent, she is heard to say "How come I'm always a victim in these things? Can't I just once get to beat someone up?"
  • No, no... Summer Glau is the Murderer.
  • And in a very meta-fictional way, Nathan Fillion is Rook. Have Nathan do a bit where he pays himself and Castle in a scene.

It'll never happen. Sigh. But it would unleash a global Squee of city-levelling power... right?

• Not to mention that Fillion has been trying to get Felicia Day a part for 4 seasons now.

Nikki Heat is a Expy of Castle's Ex-Wife and daughter

Think about it. Their both redheads and he began writing Nikki Heat novels way before he ever met Kate. Nikki is most likely a combination of the idealized attributes of Castle's ex and daughter but is mainly a hopeful idealization of what he wishes his real ex wife could be. Kate (as with many fangirls) just thinks that Nikki is just somewhat based on either her or her cases.

• Nope. He met Beckett just after he finished his last book, killing off Storm. A few episodes later, Martha mentions that he's starting a new series...based off her. In fact, mentioned in the very first episode: Montgomery mentions that Castle has a new idea for a female detective at the end of the pilot. And if you've read any of the tie-in novels, it's pretty obvious that Nikki Heat is Beckett...except "kinda slutty," as Castle puts it.

All of Beckett's shoes were destroyed when her apartment exploded, except for her heels.

That explains why she only wears heels, which are extremely inappropriate for her job. She's living off of a cop salary and has to buy a new place, so she has no money for new shoes.

Generation Kill is Esposito's Backstory

Esposito spent four years in the Marines. He then used the GI bill to go to school and become a detective. His marriage fell through so he got as far from L.A. as he could. The NYPD was happy to get a guy with experience in First Recon, and it also explains why he always carries an M4 when they go kicking in doors, while everyone else carries Glock 19s.

The 3XK

will returnThis one speaks for itself. In the same way that Beckett's mother's murder is ongoing. This case is the only one not solved, and also very directly related to Castle, since he was at what should have been its conclusion. This one's coming back to bite them.

• Happens twice. The second time, he frames Castle for a murder and tries to kill both Castle and Beckett, but he falls down a bridge after being shot by Castle. This might be a plan to disappear and be able to kill again, though...

Castle's father will be revealed as...

• The one who took out the hit on Beckett's mother. It'd be the perfect story.
  • Erm, that one was Jossed in season 2. They did nab the killer then...

The Triple Killer will return...

• And a picture of pretty, blonde Jenny will appear on the board alongside all those other pictures of pretty blonde women that 3XK's targeted.
  • Since Jenny's actress is Seamus Dever (Ryan)'s wife, it seems unlikely. Very much possible, but unlikely.
    • I agree that it's unlikely that they'd kill her off (as well as the above, it seems a little too dark for this show) but I can certainly see a future storyline where 3XK gets it in his head to target Jenny; they'd certainly be able to get a lot of mileage out of a scenario where they save Jenny but at the cost of 3XK escaping again.
• Confirmed as of "Kick the Ballistics", though Jenny wasn't involved.

The reason Castle is so fascinated by the macabre will be plot relevant and unexpected.

• Castle goes out of his way to avoid answering the question whenever it is asked, even when the 3XK's holding him at gunpoint, to the point of outright lying to Beckett. Just Castle trying to mysterious...or something darker?
  • Probably because it is a macabre that, no matter how legitimate a reason he may have, would probably make most people look at him funny. Remember, he says himself that the only real difference between serial killers and crime fiction writers is that the latter get paid better.
  • Alternatively — and which, I believe, would a perfect subversion — is that Castle has no deep, dark and no doubt gloriously angsty back-story event 'explaining' his interest in the macabre — not everyone who enjoys reading murder mysteries and solving puzzles is completely fucked up. Some people do have these interests as a result of trauma or pain in their past — others just like weird things. The reason he goes out of his way to not explain it? Because "I'm just kinda interested in this stuff" isn't really a very creative or interesting thing for a creative writer to admit.
  • It could be that we already know what it was. The person that got Castle into writing had a tragic murder in his past. Castle was around for that. He probably thought of different scenarios and stories for the murder.

Beckett is pregnant.

• As of Setup, we have a very strained, hush-hush conversation between Beckett and her mainly off-screen boyfriend, with Beckett being very untalkative about it. In fact, she seems to go more out of her way than usual to avoid talking about him. TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life maybe, but an unexpected pregnancy does seem to make sense (with a handy in-story inadvertent abortion plot device, even)
  • Interesting — although one of the key points of contention Beckett seems to have with him is that Josh isn't around very much due to his various other commitments, which suggests among other things that they haven't recently had a lot of time to do the thing that makes babies. Plus, my own experience with life-ruining-due-to-TV-Tropes personally suggests we'd have seen more of the earlier Pregnancy Tropes than we currently have...
  • In "Knockout", Castle notes that Beckett intentionally enters into deadend relationships with guys she doesn't love in order to help bury herself in her work. So there may not be any more mystery other than straight forward incompatibility.

Castle's father is Sean Connery

• Thereby explaining his love of 007 and general badassery.
  • Possibly one of the most awesome episodes of a TV show ever. Find a way to work Michael Caine in there in some capacity, and you have the PERFECT episode.
    • Sadly unlikely though, too much awesome for one world to handle

Castle's father is Lance Hastings, Martha's ex-boyfriend actor from "One Life To Lose."

• Which makes Shawn Spencer his long-lost brother! That... actually makes a frightening amount of sense.
  • Jossed.

The writers (and Nathan Fillion) are trying to cram so much awesome into the series that they blow a hole in the space time continuum

• In order to go back in time and prevent Firefly from being cancelled.
  • But then Nathan wouldn't have been out of a job and wouldn't have done Dr. Horrible or Castle. So... what's your Take a Third Option?
    • Joshua Jackson as Richard Castle?
    • Hm... not seeing Pacey as Castle. Or Captain Hammer.
    • Nathan probably still could have played Captain Hammer. If Firefly had lasted into 2008, it probably would have been hit by the Writer's Strike just like everything else, giving Nathan time to appear in Doctor Horrible.
    • Whedon could be in on the scheme, and make a tape for past!Whedon telling him to end the show himself in order for Fillion to make Castle. The appearance of Fillion's Mal costume is part of the message.

Alexis is going to get kidnapped.

• I mean, come on, the pretty, spunky, yet largely innocent daughter of a volunteer homicide detective? It's just a matter of time.
  • Congratulations! Tv Tropes Has Ruined Your Life.
    • I like this one. Maybe on her way to college. Castle will be wondering why she hasn't called, Martha will tell him not to worry, but he will and then he'll find out she's missing... I really want to see this.
  • She's going to be taken by the Conspiracy behind Beckett's mother's murder, to make Castle back off. This, of course, will backfire spectacularly.
  • Yep.

The ex-husband who stole all of Martha's money (pre-season) is the one who ordered the hit on Beckett

Why not?

Gates was told about Castle by the Big Bad.

Or the Big Bad had someone tell Gates about Castle in a unflattering way. There are plenty of times when Castle got Beckett into trouble that is had to explain to someone on the outside and anyway Gates didn't seem to be disposed to writers anyway (bad experience?). My guess that Gates was picked party so if she isn't in on the conspiracy she is a person who would be the perfect one to get rid of Castle for them. And since she does seem to care for the officers under her this is a nasty move on their part in an attempt to isolate Beckett.

3XK, a.k.a. Jerry Tyson is Drew from Scrubs: Med School

They're both played by the same actor, Michael Mosley. Drew has a pretty disturbing past. He was in med school years before, but went nuts and dropped out. He spent time in prison, traveled the world, worked a bunch of odd jobs, and eventually went back to med school. After that he briefly went back to prison, only to escape and pin some of his crimes on his former cellmate.

Castle is Batman.

If you have to ask why, you're not ready to know.

Castle will become a (volunteer) police officer and Beckett will be promoted to captain.

But of course, Beckett - while accepting the promotion - will refuse to move up out of field work.

• Wouldn't a captain by definition have to step out of the field work? Doing detective's work on the side would lead to serious neglect of her real work in that point.
  • Not necessarily. She could have the rank but not the job of leading a station. Basically, they would be rewarding her for her work by giving her a higher rank and paygrade without increasing her paygrade out of the range proper for a lower rank.
  • Or, she could just get promoted in an alternate universe.
  • She gets the captain job in Season 8 after Gates is promoted to One Police Plaza.

Season 5 will be the final season.

Because Castle only has one more Nikki Heat book to write, as per his contract with his publishers.

• Although if Nikki Heat is still selling well (and the author's willing to keep going of course), it's possible for the contract to be extended.
• The show went on for 8 seasons.

Lanie will be kidnapped, probably to keep her mouth shut about an autopsy on Body of the Week

Admit it. It would be awesome and full of Esplanie-ness.

• Never happened in the whole series.

Beckett and Alexis have a bonding moment sometime in season 4.

After all the negative buffers with Alexis worried about her dad's safety and all, their relationship needs some positive reinforcement.

• Yay! Confirmed-ish. When Castle and Martha are being held hostage, Alexis starts panicking and requires some reassurance from Beckett. Then they all go home and share dinner. Aww.

Castle Season 4 is just another Vision from the Prophets to Benjamin Sisko

So far we have Worf and Kasidy's Equivalents. Its only a matter of time until the rest appears. The Season Finale will deal with Benny Russel as Murder Suspect.

The person behind Pandora also killed Kate's mother.

• Whoever it is needed money and had a grudge against the world. Maybe this person was even related to one of the criminals kidnapped by the dirty cops. They started demanding money out of the cops, then got more and more power from the money they'd taken.

Eventually, they found out about the professor and the plan. Using some of the money they had amassed, they set up the fake Think Tank, hired all those Mooks, and started to implement the plan. Don't ask me why, but it seemed to me like Pandora was the sort of thing that had to be done from a position of power. Who else do we know in the show who's powerful, mysterious, and evil?

Kate is not dead

. Rather, her death was faked to get shake 'Him'.

• The set up for that was a little too clear, and Montgomery was a little too confident earlier.
• Probably confirmed by the fact that there's another season on the way. Also, when inspecting Kate's "body", Castle has just the slightest smile on his face. Because he's just discovered her bulletproof vest. (However, as she was shot with a high-caliber sniper rifle, she is still badly wounded.)
• Confirmed in some ways, Jossed in others. Beckett didn't die, but she was seriously injured and the assassination attempt was apparently on the orders of 'Him'.

Kate IS dead

. Her death causes Castle to completely lose it.

• It has been alluded to that Castle has some similarities with murderers. He snaps, tracks down and kills Kate's killers and then is caught by the NYPD and spends the rest of his days in a mental institution where he starts imagining he's a space cowboy and Kate is a courtesan he can never truly confess his feelings too.
  • Within this further, the blues gloves represent Kate's Mum's Murder. They're the unsolved mystery that has everyone involved dying, just like the blues gloves kill all witnesses.
  • Montgomery's youth is represented by The Operative, with differing opinions on how to keep the peace.
    • Jossed.

Castle's father is a spy.

• That was way too fascinating to just be a red herring, and it would certainly give the writers some story arc to ride on, since Castle doesn't seem likely to be canceled anytime soon, knock wood.
  • He was the one behind Pandora.
    • No, he was just mentioned as someone Sophia worked with.
• Confirmed. He's a CIA asset, and he's quietly and secretly protective of his family.

The end of Season 4 will finally have Beckett and Castle hook up.

In the last chapter, Castle and Beckett will finally confront each other about their respective non-confessed feelings for each other and their issues, and, in the heat of the moment, they will end up having wild, kinky sex. The next scene will have Beckett waking up the next morning on Castle's bed.

• Confirmed!

Castle's father is Mr. Smith.

It's been hinted that Castle's father is a powerful man in the intelligence community. Smith is also apparently a powerful man.

Castle and Beckett will start a private investigation agency

. So Beckett has quit the NYPD. They probably can't make an entire season out of them searching for Beckett's mother's killer, which means they need some way to get the "regular" cases as well (as well as providing Beckett with some form of income). Solution: PI agency.

• Castle has enough funds to get such a venture off the ground.
• Jossed
• Or is it...?
• Castle does start up a PI agency in Season 7. Kate isn't really involved in it though.

At some point there will be a Musical Episode.

Because Musical Episodes are awesome, and we know that Nathan Fillion at least can sing. They'll be investigating the murder of someone on Broadway, and Castle will either keep imagining musical numbers (like in Blue Butterfly) or wake up at the end of the episode and realize it was all a dream.

• Nathan's not the only one who can sing, so can Tamala Jones (Blue Butterfly, der), Jon Huertas, Seamus Dever can sing (and play piano) and especially Stana Katic. That right there is the main (at least police station) cast. There must be a musical! Or at least more The Cast Showoff.
• There's already a music documentary episode as of season 5 ("Swan Song"), which is probably the next best thing if this WMG doesn't come to pass...

Betsy Sinclair (Lanie) and Mob!Epsosito from the Blue Butterfly

Were together, but had to break up because Dempsey doesn't like 'mixed laundry' which a Hispanic man and black woman would have been back in the 1940's. Unlike Mob!Ryan, who cooled off towards Joe after learning he was there for Betsy, Mob!Esposito disliked him more after seeing Betsy kiss him.

Season 5 will be the final season

With Castle and Beckett officially hooked up and at least a partial resolution as to Beckett's Mother's murder the meta-plot is starting to run a bit thin. Ending it after this season would let the show go out strong as opposed to trying to drag things on without any real resolution.

• Seems unfair that the Big Bad was built up off-screen for four seasons only to be taken down after just a few appearances. And as of "Recoil", there's clearly a lot more going on.
• The show went on for another 3 seasons.

Gates was/is part of the conspiracy.

There was very very little to connect Smith and Gates. Certainly she could have guessed based on circumstantial evidence, but it seems like a really long shot.

The files destroyed in the explosion in "After The Storm" still have a role to play.

As the season advances, Beckett, Castle, Esposito and Ryan will slowly reform the puzzle of paper pieces, and in both the middle season finale and the season finale they will have completed a part of it and discovered important clues.

• My money is on Season 5 dealing with finding enough proof about Senator Bracken's involvement in the entire shebang of Johanna Beckett's murder and all the whole "kidnap mafia people to show them they are not safe and above the law", and Season 6 about the plans to arrest Bracken in an airtight way.
• There will also be an attack against Castle's house. Kate's house has already been destroyed, there is no way that the writers will not attempt to try to see what happens when the shoe is in the other foot.
• Averted.

The last episode of the series will be...

Castle and Beckett's wedding. It would be a great mix of the hijinxes related to preparing a wedding with the problems of Beckett's work. Perhaps it could even be mixed with the investigation on Beckett's mother's murder: either Castle or Beckett could be kidnapped by the bad guys, and it falls upon the other to lead the investigation and rescue efforts, trying to do that before the wedding begins.

• And the last scene of the series will show Beckett and Castle with a baby in their arms.

Season 5 finale's non-crime plot will be...

Castle proposing to Beckett. They may have been actually together for a few months, but they have known each other for 4 years before they got together, and they know each other very, very well.It also ties perfectly with the above WMG.

• Confirmed! We still have to wait for Beckett's answer though.

The 3XK will kidnap Alexis

There's no way he's dead. He's a very accomplished stalker with a grudge against Castle, and anyone who's at all intelligent would quickly realize that Alexis is the most important thing in his life. The only sensible (from a crazy, vengeful, homicidal perspective) is to kidnap her.

• Then he would have done it during the whole 'frame Castle' thing. The whole point was to drop off the grid, and there's few things he could do to get himself noticed more than kidnapping Alexis.
  • Drop off the grid, but the real question is "Why he dropped off the grid?". 3XK can't be dead. He is far too good, not to take into account everything. And disappearing means he has something big in mind. Kidnapping Alexis, while in some ways boneheaded would be a brilliant move that would torture everyone he hates from the main cast simultaneously. He has demonstrated 3 times now that he is skilled enough to outwit them and make them chase their tales, even if they know it's him! The writers would be sort of stupid to ignore such an opportunity for such a suspense and dark episode!
    • This one, sadly, also has a more prosaic solution — he dropped off the grid to enable himself to begin serial killing again with impunity. Before, he was a fugitive from justice and the police were on the lookout for him. Now they think he's dead, they aren't going to be looking for him, so he can kill without anyone suspecting it's him. I'm certainly not saying we've seen or heard the last of him, but I suspect his next scheme is going to be something a lot more subtle and intricate than kidnapping Alexis (initially, at least), which as mentioned above is a fairly flamboyant and dramatic thing to do.
    • Alexis has studied fencing for years; this has been mentioned several times. What if she's an Immortal? And so is Tyson. The reason she's so different from both her parents is that she's adopted. Her first 'death' was during the Paris abduction. She takes his head.

Castle's father will make an appearance SOON

We (at long last) closed the loop on Beckett's case. So, they'll start a new arc soon, and what better way to have it that involving a family and a missing father. Castle sees this and decides that with so much having changed, he's finally at a place where he can stand to find out the REAL story with his dad. Numerous WMG's above involve this already, so for me:

• Castle's father will be played by Bobby Orr. Because seriously, the dude looks like Castle. Look up pictures of Bobby Orr, and you will find several where you could swear he's related.
• He will have a connection to either the senator, or to the NCS, NSA, or another, unspecified, DDT (Departement of Dirty Tricks - slang for a service of that type)
  • Said connection, when uncovered, will have some kind of consequence leading Castle to once again sever all contact. Whether this be putting the country above the lives of innocents, or some kind of action towards Kate (on orders from high up ofc). Rick will either have to kill him, resulting in a few weeks worth of angst and relationship derailment, or he will have to cut off all contact, and by doing so he will reaffirm his love for Kate (the relationship will have been shaken by the events of the episode).
• The episode he appears in will be a two parter, he will save Castle and Beckett from almost certain death at the end of the first part.
  • When asked who he is, his response (and first proper line in the episode) will be "Rick, I am your father."
• Confirmed

Alan Tudyk will play a relative of Ryan.

Maybe it's just this troper's opinion, but Alan Tudyk and Seamus Dever seem to have a slight resemblance. Adam Baldwin has already appeared on the show; why not have Alan Tudyk play Ryan's brother or something?

• Ryan's talked about his sisters a lot, but has never mentioned a brother; if he had one, he would have been his Best Man. I think we can say that he doesn't have one. (Which would explain his bonding with both Esposito and Castle—he doesn't have one and very much wants one.) But Tudyk could be a cousin, or a very young uncle; if he's a brother, there has to be a good explanation as to why he wasn't in the wedding party. Estrangement? Away in the service? In PRISON?

Castle is The Punisher.

The woman murdered to cover up the plot against Bracken was the intended victim.

He actually was having an affair, or maybe she found out something about his notorious past, or his even more notorious present, and he had to have her killed. Knowing there was no way to do it without the investigation coming back to him, he turned it into a double-cover up with not one but two fall guys. Caskett will figure this out and the ensuing investigation will give them enough to pull on so they can link him to ALL his murders. And that's the end of season five.

Beckett's new job with the Attorney General's office...

...was secretly engineered by Senator Bracken in order to lure her to DC, away from the NYPD and Castle, so he can either keep her under his thumb, or make her murder look like an accident. Castle will fly out to DC to save Beckett when he figures out the truth in the sixth season premiere.

• Given that they've painted the series in a corner with this; either Beckett follows her career and passion and goes to DC and leaves the series; or Beckett and Castle go to DC together and we drop Gates/Esposito/Ryan; or Beckett stays in NYC with Castle - which would be a betrayal of who she is... this is the first idea I've heard that works.

Beckett will not accept Castle's proposal...

...at least, not in the season premiere. February sweeps 2014 maybe.

• Jossed. And the season 6 premier fast-forwards to two months later and so far, so good. But then Castle's patience runs dry, he pays Beckett an impromptu visit and unintentionally involves himself in her classified case, culminating in getting poisoned by a biochemical agent the military deemed too dangerous for use, leaving him less than a day to live. Jury's still out on whether that will factor into their engagement.

Detective Slaughter secretly answers to Castle

If Castle asked Slaughter to leave work in the middle of an interrogation and join him while he met a friend for coffee he would do it, no questions asked.

• Because Mal must have a rutting good reason to break cover like that gorramit! And the friend would turn out to be Jessica Pearson. And River, who would have finally made a way for them to get back home

Doyle was from the future.

• He's from an alternate world line where World War III began from energy problems instead of foreign attempts to sabotage Russia's time machine.

Either Pi or Alexis (or both) are going to be involved in a future murder case.

An obvious plot-twist, but still, it'd be good to see. It might give some Hidden Depths to Pi and make Castle like him more. Or give an insight into the Pi/Alexis ship. Because I need that angle to root for them. Otherwise, I'm still rooting for Ashley to come back.

Castle and Beckett are going to solve a murder in the middle of their wedding.

Oh come on, be honest, everyone wants this to happen. Maybe some guy will burst in yelling 'I object!' and die of some mysterious poison; the wedding officiator might be some stubborn hardhead who refuses to continue the ceremony without hearing the reason. It would be so awesome. I mean, not the death but- You know what I mean.

• Jossed. But in compensation, they get to solve one on their honeymoon.

Alexis is Pregnant

Honestly, Alexis is so out of character so far this season, and the only explanation I can give for the fact that she suddenly brings a freeloader home from Costa Rica is that he knocked her up and now she feels that she needs to take responsibility and grow up for the sake of her child. Or it's just bad writing.

Castle Will Cut Alexis Off

As she continues to assert that she wants to be independent and on her own, Castle will oblige her by no longer paying for her college or living expenses, reasoning that if she’s angrily cut him out of her life in favor of her freeloader boyfriend, then there’s no reason he should continue to finance her lifestyle.

• Jossed, thankfully, as that would be too far out of character for Castle. He might not agree with her choices, but he still trusts her enough to do what's right.

Pi is a Spy

Pi was actually sent to protect Alexis while she was in Costa Rica by her grandfather, but ended up falling for her and later this season, he will show his true colors and save her from the bad guy of the week.

• Oh, that would be so awesome if it happened. Unlikely, but awesome and I would forgive everything that's gone wrong with the Pi-Alexis-Castle dynamic. If any of Castle's writers are lurking around...Please? Pretty please???

Castle has just as many demons as Beckett does

And he is a (benign version of a) Stepford Smiler.

• Consider Meredith's explanation to Beckett as to why their relationship didn't work: he knew everything about her, and she wasn't ever able to extract a drop of water from the stone. He deflects personal questions with charm or snark. Sophia Turner more or less hints at the same trait, though who knows whether that was one of her many lies/an attempt to screw with Beckett's head, or whether it was a genuine observation.
• Other little details add up over time too... he's been married twice and in many relationships, but does not seem to harbor much if any heartbreak over their ends. He is on good terms with all his ex's that we've seen so far, indicating a clean, detached break and that the relationships may have been rather shallow in the first place.
• He is a gifted, if somewhat unrefined profiler of the behavior of others, yet he shows a stunning lack of insight into his own behavior or motivations until prompted by someone else.
• In the beginning of the series, he is portrayed as shallow and having only shallow relationships (except with Alexis), and seeking entertainment rather than meaning. As much as this is played for laughs or the play up the womanizer angle, it's also indicative of a person for whom emotional intimacy and deeper relationships are difficult, frightening, or painful.

Castle is not quite the lothario he portrays himself as

In line with the above WMG, Castle's womanizing is looking more and more like an Urban Legend Love Life than anything else.

• He's a terrible flirt and certainly goes out with many women, but it rarely seems to go further than that, and scenes quite often cut from a potential date to Castle spending a quiet evening at home later on, or being interrupted mid-date to go see a dead body.
• The only time we see him engage in casual sex with someone he hasn't been married to is way back in S2, and it's heavily implied that it's largely to try to get over Beckett. Other than that, when exactly have we seen him racking up those notches in his bedpost?
• Beckett has had more on-screen relationships than Castle.

Beckett and Castle's grandparents knew each other.

No justification for this one, except that in the psychic episode, Martha and Castle mention that his grandparents had an act, and then in the magician episode, Beckett mentions her grandfather was an amateur magician. Given that they both have expressly stated that they come from several generations of New York and specifically Manhattan, and that magicians, psychics, palm readers, and other live entertainers tend to run in the same tight social circles (or at least they used to), it's entirely plausible that they crossed paths at some point. Especially since it's implied Castle is only 6-10 years older than Beckett and their remaining parents are roughly the same age, meaning their grandparents would have been of the same generation too.

• They turn out to be cousins—but *just* beyond the prohibited degrees.
• Going just beyond the prohibited degrees may not be far enough. There is at least one real life instance of a couple not finding out they were second cousins (sharing a set of great-grandparents) until after they'd had two mentally incapacitated children.
  • In New York State it is perfectly legal for cousins to marry. The reason behind consanguinity laws is property inheritance, not genetic inheritance. There is no overwhelming evidence that the offspring of two cousins are any more prone to genetic diseases than anyone else. Some studies have shown that parents even more closely related than cousins are no more likely to produce genetically defective children than parents who are over 40. The psychological harm in such couplings is much more of an issue than the genetic inheritance of their children.

What if Martha and Beckett's dad get together. That would make Beckett and Castle stepsiblings.

Doyle's time beacon is the key to time-travel.

• If you pay close attention, you'll notice that at the end of Time Will Tell, Doyle has left his temporal tracer behind. I predict that the secret to building the time-travel machines will be discovered by reverse-engineering that beacon, meaning that time-travel is unlocked by a Stable Time Loop. In other words, nobody discovers time travel for the first time, it's unlocked by copying from someone who will have already designed it.

Kate Beckett is the secret to time travel.

• She'll become a Senator 20 Minutes into the Future, and remembering the coffee stain on de Childe's letter, will push toward founding (and funding) a time travel agency. Thus Doyle's job wasn't only to save De Childe, but also to build decades in advance the political clout necessary to start the time travel agency.

Senator Bracken will be assassinated by Jim Beckett.

And Kate will be implicated because it would be her investigation that leads Jim to do it.

The weapons that Doyle mentioned the fascists having in the future are the Thorian Blasters from The Final Frontier.

• What else would require de Childe to create an energy shield? And surely, some military weapons developer took notice when a laser blaster was used in a homicide.

Bracken will be arrested for his crimes... during his inauguration.

That way, it will be one of the most cathartic things for Bennett, taking him down at his time of triumph... and exposing his crimes to the entire country on live TV.

• Very close, she arrested him personally while he was holding a live television interview regarding his run for presidency.

Former NYPD detective-turned-writer Ron Harris will be involved in an investigation at some point.

This would be a cool meta-episode for several reasons:

• Castle takes place at the 12th Precinct. Harris was a detective at the original 12th precinct, before it was closed in the finale as a money-saving measure.
• This would allow another former Firefly co-star, Ron Glass, to work opposite Nathan Fillion.
• A subplot could be introduced involving Gates and Harris not liking each other at first. Harris would chafe at Gates because she's a former Internal Affairs officer, whom he equated with Inspector Scanlon. Gates would dislike Harris because she saw him as a sell-out who quit the NYPD to pursue his writing career. She could even comment that one of the reasons she didn't like Castle is that he reminded her too much of Harris; just a writer pretending to be a cop.

Regarding the Sixth season finale(spoilers ahead)

Castle's car crash en route to the wedding was staged by Jerry Tyson, aka 3XK or the Triple Killer. He ran Castle off the road, dragged him from his car, placed a dead body in the driver's seat, doused the front of the car with lighter fluid and torched it, to make it look like he died in the car crash. Once Castle is discovered, injured but alive, he and Beckett will get married in the hospital while he recovers.

• Tyson is implied to be truly dead, but his doctor girlfriend escaped last season. It might be her doing.

Jossed on most of it, as Castle wasn't found in the car at all, instead being discovered alive months later in a boat. However, it is still not known whether or not Tyson, if he is still alive, had anything to do with it.

Beckett wasn't actually married

.

• The reason nobody remembered that Beckett had married O'Leary was that she actually hadn't. Somebody (most probably one of Bracken's allies out for revenge) hacked the registry and entered a false record of Kate marrying O'Leary, either as an attempt to permanently ruin the wedding or just to buy time for the second team (the one in the black car) to get in place. They picked O'Leary because they knew that choosing a time when Beckett could have gotten married would make the trick harder to spot.

In S5315 Beckett was lying about them not finding any evidence of special effects

• Why? Because Castle really wanted it to be supernatural and Beckett likes making him happy. And beyond it being reasonable for Beckett to lie about that, there is actual proof that he was just a master at special effects, not an actual psychic. You see the guy in the real video setting up the fake psychic assault against the victim of the week. So the whole "Oh, we didn't find any wires" line to feel pretty suspect.
• Or, because Beckett just likes messing with Castle's head.

A case in season 6 will trigger Castle's memory

The case will be connected to an individual who was present during Castle's two month disappearance. Castle will remember and, desperate for answers (though afraid to get Beckett too involved), he'll personally interrogate the individual and might even make a rough show of it, as a way to show just how unhinged Castle became during his two month absence.

• Averted; this doesn't start happening until season 7.

"Jerry Tyson" is not Jerry Tyson.

Which is why his DNA didn't match the tooth. 3XK came across the real Jerry Tyson somewhere in foster care, when both of them were children, and killed him. (In bad enough systems, this is a possibility) He took on Jerry Tyson's name, and assumed his life, obtaining identifications like drivers' license to continue living as Jerry Tyson. The only person who would be able to confirm this would be the mother, but she hadn't seen him since he was 9, and he presumably returned at least 10 years later for his stuff, which would make it possible for him to fool her.

Kate Beckett is a descendant of Cutler Beckett from Pirates of the Carribean

Beckett is going to get killed during Series 8

Beckett gets killed when she gets too close to Bracken's partner. Either during the mid-season finale (and the remainder of the season is Castle and Alexis hunting down her killer)or in the Season Eight finale (and Season nine is Castle and Alexis hunting down her killer). Whichever way its done, the show gets retooled so that it becomes a father/daughter PI team solving cases. It's rumored Stana Katic wants out of the show, believing her character has run its course and the format of the show in its present incarnation is falling apart. This would also explain why Castle's PI office is now a big, flashy and expensive set and also why Alexis is spending more and more time working with him.

• The show just had its first episode without Beckett... it looks like they may be testing the waters to see how the show can go on without her.
• Long way towards being confirmed. ABC announced that Stana Katic will not be returning for Series 9 if Castle is renewed.
• Really odd case of both Jossed and Confirmed. The makers filmed two endings, one of which (for use if Castle was renewed for S9) showed Beckett being killed, the other (for use if the show was cancelled at the end of S8) had them surviving and living happily ever after. Castle cancelled so Beckett lived.

Locksat is the same man who Castle dealt with when he disappeared

Given the somewhat flat outcome of that story arc, it would be interesting if they were resolved in a fashion that involved Arc Welding between those two stories. It would explain why the outcome of Castle's story was somewhat anti-climactic as well as the fact that the logic of it was somewhat odd.

• This theory is confirmed, at least obliquely. S8 E14 has revealed that after Castle's mission in Thailand, he went rogue and somehow, some way, he found out about Locksat and began tracking him, but Locksat caught on and shot Castle.
• The series finale reveals that Locksat is Mason, the guy from the Great Detective Society episode. Yes, really.

Locksat has something to do with Psychic Powers

• The big clue is that either Locksat or someone connected to it was able to erase Castle's memories of the two months he spent off the grid. That's something that would be borderline impossible to do with real science, but when we get into the realm of telepathy it becomes a lot more plausible. It would also explain Locksat's minions being willing to do anything to keep information from getting out, they're being mind-controlled. And "Smells Like Teen Spirit" implies the use of real psionic powers in this setting.
• Averted. The closest thing we get to this is that Locksat's right-hand man is very skilled with drugs and truth serums.

Castle and Beckett are killed

at the end of the Season 8 finale "Crossfire"

• Castle and Beckett really were murdered by Caleb, and that last scene showing the two having breakfast with their three children was a scene set in heaven, or some kind of afterlife.

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