It is now 3 days before the date of Castle and Beckett's long-awaited wedding. Unfortunately, the couple runs into a bit of a snag when it turns out that Beckett is still technically married to an ex-boyfriend with a checkered history. While Castle continues to make last-minute preparations for the wedding, Beckett heads upstate to get him to sign divorce papers.
Beckett's "husband," Rogan O'Leary, agrees to sign the papers only if she agrees to steal a garage door opener from his ex-girlfriend Tildy, who kicked him out over an unpaid debt. Unfortunately, on her way back she witnesses Rogan getting abducted by masked men in an old pickup truck. With the local police not of any help, she calls Castle for assistance, with him leaving Martha and Alexis to move the wedding to the Hamptons after the original venue burned down.
Castle and Beckett begin by interviewing Tildy, who lets them borrow the laptop that Rogan wanted. When they go back to Rogan's apartment to investigate, they're confronted by a biker gang who demands $5,000 Rogan owed to them for stealing a stripper's cellphone. Castle buys them some time to investigate with a $500 up-front payment, but the stripper, Sapphire, became uncooperative after they asked about her phone. At that moment, Lanie calls with more horrible news: a pipe burst above Beckett's apartment and ruined her wedding dress.
A distraught Beckett breaks down to Castle over their wedding being ruined by their recent string of bad luck, but he comforts her by choosing to see them as challenges that can be overcome through The Power of Love. Some good luck soon comes their way though: the precinct has managed to extract some files from Tildy's laptop, which include an incriminating photo of Sapphire giving the local pastor, Bob, a lap dance.
After reassuring Bob that they're not there to blackmail him, Castle and Beckett learn from him that Sapphire had been blackmailing him with the photos, until Rogan found out about them and demanded $25,000 to delete them. Realizing that this would give motive to Sapphire due to the loss of her blackmail income stream, they head back to the stripclub, only to discover that Sapphire had fled to her boyfriend Jimmy Lutz's farm.
At the farm, Castle and Beckett spot the pickup truck used in the abduction and a couple of armed men who soon leave in the truck. Breaking into the barn, they spot a tied-up figure, which turns out to be a scarecrow when its head falls off (causing Castle to scream like a little girl). They discover Rogan by the sound of his laughter at Castle's scream. Beckett unties one of his hands, but only offers to untie his other hand if he signs the divorce papers. In the course of their argument, Rogan reveals that he discovered photos relating to Sapphire's boyfriend, who's actually an infamous fugitive mobster named Mickey Barbozza. Beckett and Castle hurriedly untie him at this revelation, but Barbozza captures them instead.
Barbozza threatens to kill Beckett if Rogan doesn't hand over his pictures. Castle offers to deliver him to the pictures, which he claims are in Rogan's apartment. As expected, the biker gang is there to collect their money. A tense standoff ensues, at which point Beckett points out the $100,000 reward from the FBI for Barbozza's capture, more than sufficient to settle the debt.
Afterwards, Castle, Beckett, and Rogan meet up at Tildy's bar, where Rogan finally signs the divorce papers. Beckett encourages Rogan to get back with Tildy, which he does after paying off her debt with Pastor Bob's blackmail proceeds. With the final obstacle to their marriage removed, Castle and Beckett are more than eager to finally have their dream wedding.
At the Hamptons house, Beckett tries on her new wedding dress, which was once her mother's. Martha contributes a pair of sapphire earrings handed down from her own mother. Castle soon calls to let them know he's on his way, but soon after he hangs up, he notices a tinted black SUV following and then pulling up alongside him.
About an hour after Castle was supposed to show up, Beckett gets a call. She's then driven some distance away to a crash site with a flaming car, which to her horror she recognizes as Castle's car, with her husband-to-be nowhere to be found...
This episode provides examples of:
- Back for the Dead: Inanimate object variant. The wedding dress that Beckett was gifted earlier in the season is ruined by a burst pipe.
- Blackmail: The pastor, Bob, is being blackmailed after having compromising photos taken of him, first by the stripper who gave him the lap dance in the photo, then by Rogan after he stumbled upon the photo.
- Broken Tears: Twice from Beckett:
- Hearing the news about her ruined dress was the last straw for her, and she starts crying to Castle about how their wedding has been ruined. Castle comforts her by reframing their misfortunes as challenges to overcome.
- Again at the end of the episode, when she sees the burning wreck of Castle's car and thinks she's been Widowed at the Wedding.
- Dirty Old Monk: A stripper had a picture taken of herself giving a lap dance to the local pastor, which she (and later Rogan) used to blackmail him.
- Embarrassing Nickname:
- Rogan still calls Beckett "Kit-Kat".
- Beckett is not pleased to be referred to as "Mrs. O'Leary".
- Evil Versus Evil: Castle offers to lead the handful of heavily armed mobsters holding him, Beckett, and Rogan hostage to Rogan's apartment to retrieve the incriminating pictures. Of course, he neglected to mention that said apartment was currently occupied by a large heavily armed biker gang.
- Finagle's Law: To say that this applies is an understatement. You can read all about it under Worst Wedding Ever.
- Foot-Dragging Divorcee: Rogan refuses to sign his divorce papers until Kate goes through an increasingly absurd quest.
- The Ghost: Beckett's father Jim doesn't appear but is mentioned to be at her wedding, have procured her late mother's dress for her to wear.
- Hereditary Wedding Dress: Beckett's original wedding dress is ruined by a pipe bursting in her apartment, so they dig up her late mother's wedding dress as a short-notice replacement. Unfortunately, the wedding never happens, courtesy of Castle vanishing on the way to the ceremony with his car found wrecked.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Castle saves them from mobsters by leading them back to Rogan's place where a group of angry bikers are waiting for them.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Barbozza gives up once it's clear the bikers have gotten the drop on him.
- Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: While she doesn't have any new or borrowed items on her, Beckett is wearing her mother's old wedding dress and Martha invokes the trope while giving her a pair of sapphire earrings to be her "something blue."
- Oops! I Forgot I Was Married: While in college 15 years before, Beckett and her ex Rogan drunkenly went through a drive-in chapel during a trip to Vegas and accidentally got into a legally binding marriage. Beckett only realized this when she and Castle went to register their marriage and the clerk asked her for divorce papers that she didn't have.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Bob once scammed Rogan out of money he borrowed from Tildy to pay for his blackmail, so the way Rogan sees it, blackmailing Bob is his way of getting his money back.
- Tempting Fate: "By the way, it's not like things can get any crazier."
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Initially just wanting a quick buck and to get his money back by blackmailing the local pastor, Rogan gets a lot more than he bargained for when he stumbles upon pictures of a fugitive mobster along with the compromising images he actually wanted.
- Wedding Finale: The episode is centered around Castle and Beckett's wedding, complete with the traditional last-minute complications and misfortunes.
- Worst Wedding Ever: Castle and Beckett's dream wedding is derailed by a number of circumstances:
- It turns out that Beckett is still legally married to her ex Rogan, whom she accidentally married on a trip to Vegas while in college.
- Rogan wants her to steal his ex's garage door opener, but he gets kidnapped right before she can hand it over.
- Shortly after Beckett asks for his assistance, Castle gets the news that their venue burned down thanks to some circus fire performers, but Martha and Alexis quickly come up with a backup plan to move the wedding to their vacation home in the Hamptons.
- Lanie sadly calls Beckett to tell her that her dress was ruined after it was soaked by a burst pipe above her apartment.
- Castle, Beckett, and Rogan get captured by a fugitive mobster who wants the pictures of him that Rogan accidentally got his hands on while trying to blackmail the local pastor.
- Finally, when it seems like there is nothing standing in the way of the wedding, Castle's car gets run off the road by a mysterious pursuer while on the way to the wedding. Beckett discovers the burning wreckage, but Castle is nowhere to be found.
